Beta

Apple iOS 6 (Beta 4) Kills Built-In YouTube App

Apple on Monday released iOS 6 beta 4 to developers, and one of the most notable changes is the removal of the built-in YouTube app.

According to users in the MacRumors forum, the YouTube app is not included in the list of apps on the iOS home screen, where it has resided since the iPhone launch in 2007. Apple said the license with Google to include the YouTube app on the home screen has expired and Google is now working on a standalone app for the Apple App Store.

The updated iOS app will not be available until the fall, when Apple rolls out iOS 6 (presumably with its next-gen iPhone). But when it arrives, the Maps app will replace the Google Maps app that currently comes pre-installed on all iOS devices.

The good news is i think Google (YouTube) will be able to pull this one off, if they add a YouTube app to the App Store rather than built in as it will be updated more often. I myself hardly use the YouTube app due to lack of features and design is a little out-dated.

According to iLounge, meanwhile, iOS 6 beta 4 also includes Bluetooth sharing. Last month, there were reports that users will not be required to enter a password when downloading free apps in iOS 6.

check out 92 New Features in Apple’s iOS 6 by pcmag.com.

Google+ Social Networking Now Open to Everyone, New Features Added

Google opened the gates to its social network, Google+, to everyone today and rolled out more than a dozen new features to the service, many of them aimed at mobile phone users.

For 12 weeks, Google+ has been in “field trials,” Google Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra explained in a company blog. “We’re nowhere near done,” he wrote, “but with the improvements we’ve made so far we’re ready to move from field trial to beta.” Now anyone can go to the Google+ site and sign up for the service.

With the new "Hangouts on Air" feature, you can open up a hangout session and as many as nine people can join in.

In addition to open enrollment, Google introduced a number of improvements to the hangout feature of Google+. Hangouts allow people to chat face to face through video. With today’s improvements, users of Android phones will be able to use hangouts on their mobiles.

Google is also expanding the online version of hangouts. Now, through “Hangouts on Air,” you can open up a hangout session and as many as nine people can join it. An unlimited number can watch the hangout session.

Hangouts is getting some extras, too. They allow you to share what’s on your computer in a hangout, scribble with friends on an online sketchpad, share Google docs, and create or join public hangouts about a topic, like the collapse of your favorite sports team or raising alpacas.

Searching, Now Made Easy
A welcome improvement for many Google+ users will be the introduction of a search feature into the social network. Now you can type words into a Google+ search box and find content you’re interested in and as well as people to connect to.

Some mobile phone improvements were announced today, too. Better text messaging (SMS) support is now available in the United States and India. Now, from your cell phone, you can post to Google+, receive notifications, and respond to group messages through SMS.

You can also +mention people in posts or comments viewed on your phone. When you do that, the person will be notified that they’re mentioned in the post or comment. And you can +1 comments, too, but only from iOS devices.

You can take care of more housekeeping of Google+ from your phone now, too. You can edit your profile photo and customize the notifications you receive on your cell, since you may not want your phone flooded with notifications while you’re on the go.

If you have an Android phone, you can now move the Google+ app to a SD card to free up the mobile’s internal storage.

Google+ Vocabulary Changes
..read more at www.pcworld.com

Apple Launches iCloud Beta [+PHOTOS]

Apple Launches iCloud!

Apple has unveiled the beta for , the company’s new suite of media streaming and cloud-based services.

The new beta, which is available to all users with an Apple ID, features web-based version of Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Find my IPhone and iWork. They are accessible if you visit www.iCloud.com while using iOS 5 (available to Apple developers) or Mac OS X Lion. It does not include Apple’s cloud music services, including iTunes Match.

Apple also unveiled the pricing structure for iCloud. The first 5GB of storage on the service are free. An addition 10GB will cost $20, 20GB will cost $40 and 50GB will retail for $100. It’s a good deal more expensive than Amazon Cloud Drive, which gives 20GB of space for $20 and lets users store an unlimited amount of music for free.

We’re playing around with the iCloud beta now, and while we’ll have more to report, our initial conclusion is that the iCloud beta is a modified version of MobileMe. It includes similar interfaces, which isn’t a surprise. The addition of iWork support is a welcomed addition though, as is the simplistic and universal interface for all of Apple’s cloud services.

We’ve taken some screenshots of the beta and embedded them below. Check them out, and let us know what you think of the iCloud beta in the comments.

[source: Mashable – Credit: Ben Parr]

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