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Posts tagged with "google"

Latest Chrome Stable Gets Native Lion Scrollbars and Full-Screen

Back in early August we reported the bleeding-edge version of Google Chrome, Chrome Canary, had been updated to include native full-screen mode and scrollbars on OS X Lion, which was released on July 20th on the Mac App Store. The Chrome team rushed to have a version of Canary fully compatible with the new OS, and we noted their implementation of full-screen was different from the average OS X app: Chrome allowed for two different toolbar / no toolbar modes triggered by a “curtain” icon at the top. With such implementation, the Chrome team made sure developers could test “real” full-screen mode with only the actual content of a webpage displayed, and a second option to see content + toolbars (tabs, bookmarks, etc).

The latest stable version of Chrome, released today, brings these Lion changes (and other bug fixes) to regular users, alongside other new features detailed on Google’s official blog. Most notably, Chrome stable has now access to the Native Client, a way for Chrome to execute C and C++ code inside the browser. The Native Client only supports applications from the Chrome Web Store for now, but Google is looking into supporting more platforms. Another technical change in this new stable release is the Web Audio API, which “enables developers to add fancy audio effects such as room simulation and spatialization”.

You can get the latest Chrome stable release here, and check out a brief explanation of the Native Client after the break. Read more

Google Releases Blogger for iPhone

Earlier today Google announced the release of Blogger for iOS, an iPhone app aimed at Blogger users who have been looking for a way to edit or write new blog posts directly from their mobile devices. The app is free, and available on both iOS and Android. Blogger retains the service’s typical orange schemes; Blogger itself recently went under a major redesign for its entire platform. The app allows you to create a new blog post with tags, pictures and plain text, or edit an existing one or draft that you might want to finish on an iPhone.

You can also open a blog post you’ve been working on from your computer and continue editing it while you’re on-the-go. Your blog posts are automatically synced across devices, so you’ll always have access to the latest version. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and the Blogger app makes it easy to add photos either by choosing from the gallery or taking a new photo right within the app. You can also add labels and location to provide more details about the post.

This first version of Blogger runs on the iPhone and iPod touch – there’s no native iPad client yet. You can download Blogger for iPhone here.

Google+ iOS App Adds “Reshare” Option and Fixes

Ever since the official Google+ app for iPhone came out in July, we’ve followed the development as Google’s new social experiment added more features, and seemingly dropped in traffic as the novelty effect wore off for many. I was pretty satisfied with the 1.0 release, albeit the custom UI and lack of functionalities turned an highly anticipated launch into a discussion as to whether Google should be focusing on making its iOS apps more native to iOS and less Android-ish. An update in August brought support for iPod touch and iPad in compatibility mode – two options that were mysteriously absent in the first release.

A new version of Google+, as noted by The Next Web, was pushed to the App Store a few minutes ago, adding support for “reshares”, as well as bug fixes and performances improvements. From my first tests, I’m happy to see the app doesn’t crash on iOS 5 beta 7 and everything seems to be quite snappy and responsive while navigating between sections, the stream, and comments. As for resharing others’ posts, it works just like on the Google+ website – once you’ve selected a post, you can hit the “arrow button” at the bottom to bring up a menu to reshare, mute, or report a post. Reshare will open a new window populated with the original post and author, and a text field to add your own thoughts, set location and circles. Reshared posts will be nicely formatted both for the web and iOS app.

From the release notes:

  • Reshare support
  • Set your profile photo
  • Improved autocomplete in Huddle
  • Properly refresh notifications when returning to the app
  • Create new circle from Circles destination
  • Fixed 2-step verification issues

You can download Google+ for iOS for free on the App Store.

Steve Jobs, Google’s Vic Gundotra, And “Icon Ambulance” On A Sunday→

Steve Jobs, Google’s Vic Gundotra, And “Icon Ambulance” On A Sunday

Amidst all the speculation and conjectures surrounding Steve Jobs’ resignation as Apple CEO last night, Google’s Vic Gundotra has shared a great little anecdote about the former CEO’s proverbial attention to detail and willingness to get even the smallest wrong piece of interface fixed in order to provide users with a great experience when using Apple devices.

Gundotra recalls an episode from 2008, when he got a phone call from Steve Jobs – Gundotra was head of mobile applications at Google at the time – but he didn’t pick up. Vic was attending religious services when “Caller ID unknown” called, so he chose to ignore the call. The call was from Steve Jobs, who left a message asking to be called back because it was urgent.

The problem Steve Jobs needed to get fixed was a wrong shade of yellow in Google’s webclip icon for the iPhone:

So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I’ve already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow” said Steve.

“I’ve been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I’m not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn’t have the right yellow gradient. It’s just wrong and I’m going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?”

Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject “Icon Ambulance”. The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon.

You can find Gundotra’s full post over at Google+ – Gundotra eventually became Google’s public face in the iOS/Android clash for the mobile space, but he says that episode taught him a lesson about how CEOs should always care about details. Even shades of yellow, on a Sunday. That’s symbolic of Jobs’ career as a CEO, and a message that will live on as Apple continues down its road with a different chief executive officer.

[2008 Macworld keynote image via Arnold Kim]

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Google’s Photovine App Now Open for All

Back in July we covered the release of Photovine for iPhone, an image sharing app developed by Google’s internal Slide team that, among other things, is also responsible for Disco, a group messaging app, and Pool Party. Powered by a slick design and attention to detail, the Photovine app that was released last month didn’t allow everyone to sign up and start sharing photos as the system was invite-only without an open sign-up. With an update pushed last night on the App Store, Photovine has revamped Facebook and Twitter integration from within the app and finally opened registrations without the need of a beta invite.

Unlike the popular photo sharing app and iPhone-based social network Instagram, Photovine doesn’t revolve around the simple concept of photos uploaded to a user stream and shared with followers. Rather, Photovine is based on “vines” – photos connected by a caption and contributed by you, your friends, and other people using Photovine. So, for example, say you’d like to share a photo about your newly acquired MacBook Air, you can start a vine called “My new MacBook” and your friends will be able to let the vine “grow” with new photos related to the caption, and the photo you originally posted. This is best explained by Photovine’s promo video, which we’ve embedded after the break.

Photos in a vine can obviously be liked and commented on, each user has its own dedicated page with a profile picture and followers/following/likes counts, and an Inbox tab in the bottom toolbar allows you to check on messages you’ve received from other users, or notifications such as new followers, comments, and likes. This is not too dissimilar from Instagram’s implementation of “activity”. Users can add new photos to an existing vine (or even “watch” a vine if they’re interested in it) or create a new one from scratch – Photovine comes with a beautiful custom camera interface that lets you snap your own photo, or pick one from the Camera roll. Indeed the whole app sports a gorgeous and clean design that makes it easy to jump through vines, user profiles, and comment on photos shared by others.

Photovine for iPhone is an interesting concept with a good-looking interface and additional social functionalities to forward photos to Twitter and Facebook, and find friends on those social networks as well. You can download Photovine for free on the App Store. Read more

Google Launches Catalogs App for iPad

In an effort to make shopping “more engaging, social and creative” and, at the same time, connected and interactive in the digital era, Google is launching Google Catalogs for iPad today, a brand new (and free) app to browse and interact with shopping catalogs from popular brand directly on the iPad’s screen. Said to be coming to Android tablets as well, Google Catalogs is now exclusive to the iPad and it offers access to hundreds of different catalogs slightly reworked to take advantage of the iPad with tags, photo albums and videos, as well as the possibility of zooming on product shots, and a button to see whether an item is available in a nearby shop.

Users can organize items they find interesting in Favorites, or create a “collage” with custom themes and resizable photographs to share with fellow Google Catalogs users. Google is touting this feature as a way to shop digitally using the iPad’s intuitive gesture-based system, and be creative.

For the launch of the Catalogs app, Google has partnered with the following brands:

  • Anthropologie
  • Bare Escentuals
  • Bergdorf Goodman
  • Crate and Barrel
  • L.L. Bean
  • Lands’ End
  • Macy’s
  • Neiman Marcus
  • Nordstrom
  • Pottery Barn
  • Saks Fifth Avenue
  • Sephora
  • Sundance
  • Tea Collection
  • Urban Outfitters
  • Williams-Sonoma

Google says more brands will be added soon, and merchants with a shopping catalog can contact the Google Catalogs team right away to apply for inclusion in the app. From the promo video embedded below, you can see how Google Catalogs seems to heavily rely on sliding animations, pop-ups and links placed directly on a product’s photo or description – rather than forcing users to navigate to a specific page like printed catalogs often do, the app enables them to have more information quickly available in a new window.

Google Catalogs for iPad is available for free on the App Store.

Read more

FlashtoHTML5 Turns YouTube In To A Flash-Free Zone On Safari

No-one really likes when their Mac’s fan decides to emulate a jet engine after you’ve been watching YouTube for a while because Flash has been running. It is particularly frustrating when you know that YouTube has been rolling out an experimental HTML5 video player that could work perfectly in Safari. Thankfully a new Safari plug-in, FlashtoHTML5, forces Safari to use that HTML5 YouTube whenever available (which is most of the time).

The plug-in from Juris Vervuurt will automatically choose the maximum video resolution available, up to 4K, although this can be manually changed. There are three minor caveats with FlashtoHTML5: this plug-in only works for Safari,  not all YouTube videos yet support the HTML5 version and subtitles and captions do not work in the HTML5 version. You can download FlashtoHTML5 for free.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

Google+ for iOS: Now Available For iPad and iPod touch

Looking to use the official Google+ app on your iPad or iPod touch? There’s a Google+ update in the App Store waiting for your geeky fingers to download the app on your tablet or smart-mp3 player. While Google+ doesn’t have an iPad specific version (you’re looking forward to 2x mode), you can now use it on devices outside of the iPhone (or your Android smartphone).

Google is also giving you additional control for their huddle feature via the app, as well as aggregated circle add notifications, stability improvements, and bug fixes.

You can download the latest Google+ update here.

[via The Next Web]

Gmail: Now Pull to Refresh and Retina Display Ready

Use Gmail on your iPhone? There’s an update waiting for you when you log in, including sharper graphics that shine on the iPhone 4’s Retina display. The  new graphics were a highly requested feature by Gmail users, and now Google’s gone and made everything prettier so their web interface doesn’t look as fuzzy or pixelated on our high resolution phones. And hey - now it feels like it belongs!

Want to refresh your inbox or a conversation? Simply pull down to refresh. Gmail now lets you refresh your inbox naturally, and you keep the conversation going if you’re rapid replying to a friend’s or coworkers email.

Finally, there’s some new transitions you can check out. As you navigate across Gmail, sliding transitions help create flow while generally looking pretty — it’s that final polish that iOS users come to expect on all apps (native or web).

There you go kids. A better Gmail for iOS.

[via The Official Gmail Blog]