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Apple and Google haven’t exactly been been on the best of terms in recent years. The stock YouTube iOS app disappearing is a more recent example of the bad blood between the two companies. Google tried its best to sherlock Apple’s 3D technology in the iOS 6 Maps app, and many moves Apple and Google make can be seen as direct outcomes of the bad blood Steve Jobs spoke of when he vowed to wage thermonuclear war on Android.

Apple and Google may hate each other, but that doesn’t mean they still don’t compete in the same markets. Today Google lifted the curtain on a major update that’s coming to its iOS Search app. The new version of the app will feature smart, contextual voice recognition that clearly mimics Apple’s own digital assistant, Siri.

Ever since Back to the Future II came out back in 1989, everyone’s been wondering: “Where are the damn Hoverboards!?” Thankfully, Google’s got you covered. Thanks to a newly released concept video, we now know that Hoverboards are next on Google’s X Labs project list, followed by talking dogs and real life Wolverine claws!

You didn’t really think Google was going to stop at Augmented Reality glasses and self driving cars, did you?

Yesterday, we reported on Apple’s response to Mat Honan’s “epic” AppleID, Amazon, and Twitter account hack. Basically, the company released a statement to Wired saying that the company would investigate the issue fully, as well as noting that its “own internal policies were not followed completely.”

Today, according to Wired, Apple ordered support staff to stop processing AppleID password changes over the phone. Wired claims that an Apple worker with knowledge of the situation, who required anonymity, told them that the freeze was planned for at least 24 hours. This same worker speculated that Apple put the hold in place to give Apple time to figure out what to change and how to do so.

Yesterday, Apple officially announced that the YouTube app will no longer be a default staple of iOS. While Google is working on a standalone app, Apple has informed developers that they will need to change their embedded YouTube URLs if they want them to continue to work.

In the changelog for iOS 6 beta 4, Apple explained the changes by linking to a video for one of the internet’s oldest memes – Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up video.

Kodak is on the verge of bankruptcy, but in a final bid to raise some cash, the company is selling off its entire patent portfolio. The company believes it could fetch upwards of $2.6 billion, and Apple and Google are going head to head for them. However, neither company has submitted a bid anywhere near Kodak’s estimate.

Apple just released iOS 6 beta 4 to developers. So far it looks like there are a few small bug fixes and performance enhancements except for one unexpected surprise – Apple has removed the YouTube app from the iPhone and iPad.

It’s no secret that Apple has been trying to remove Google’s app from iOS and replace them with better alternatives. Some might think YouTube’s removal isan act of war, but we think it’s just as likely that Apple removed YouTube as a default app just because of plain obsolescence.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) released preliminary data yesterday from its Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet Tracker. The study shows that total worldwide tablet shipments for the second quarter of 2012 are estimated at 25 million units, which is up from 18.7 last quarter. That’s a quarter-over-quarter increase of 33.6 percent, says the data analysis company, reflecting the total year-over-year growth rate of 66.2 percent of retail tablets in the US.

Guess which tablet is the largest part of those numbers?

Google’s official Gmail app has had a sordid history. It launched so broken it had to be pulled from the App Store, and when it relaunched, it came without push notifications… a pretty big oversight in an iOS email client. Gmail finally got push notifications, but the app overall still felt a little clunky.

Enter version 1.3. Google says the latest update to their official Gmail app for iOS makes a bunch of under the hood changes to improve animation, scrolling and responsiveness.

It appears the Gmail video chat and its peer-to-peer technology has run its course. It served many of us well, but with the introduction of the more modern and featured packed Google+ Hangouts, it’s time to move forward. Google today announced they would be upgrading Gmail video chat to utilize the power of Google’s network and deliver higher reliability and enhanced quality with the new Hangouts system.

Want to hear something silly? Today Google introduced this odd beta feature called Handwrite that’s supposed to change the way you interact with search on your iPad, iPhone or other mobile devices.

The way it works is that instead of pulling up the Google homepage on your iPhone and typing in your search query, you just draw the words instead. It’s suppose to be a “fun and easy new way to search,” but it’s probably one of Google’s worst concepts and here’s why.

With iOS 6, Apple is looking to replace Google Maps with their own Cupertino solution that also provides 3-D maps of cities across the globe. Google isn’t going down without a fight though, so they just updated their Google Earth app for iOS to include 3-D maps before people get comfy with Apple’s Flyover solution in iOS 6.

As you’ve likely heard, Google recently acquired Sparrow, the popular email app for both the Mac and iPhone. Along with the acquisition, Google made it clear that no further updates or changes would be pushed to the Mac and iPhone, and that the Sparrow team will be merging with the Gmail team.

People never like change, though, and the Google-Sparrow acquisition is no exception. Within just days of the announcement, a petition to keep Sparrow alive has popped up on the web.

An interesting report comes from All Things D today, detailing a argument from Google against Apple. Unsurprisingly, the discussion revolves around patents, particularly standard essential patents (SEP). Basically, Google is suggesting that when technologies become popular enough, even if they are proprietary, they should become public standards, available to everyone.

All public companies are required to file congressional lobbying disclosure reports, which were released today for the second quarter of 2012. Interestingly enough, Google has once again outspent Apple by a margin of nearly 10 to 1.

As revealed by the reports, Google spent just shy of $4 million, coming in at $3,920,000, while Apple spent only $470,000 in Q2.

Tongue firmly in cheek, my buddy Rob Beschizza over at Boing Boing explains the best way for fans of Sparrow to prepare their Macs for all future enhancements and developments that may result from today’s announcement of a Google acquisition.

You might want to wait on actually following these instructions until Sparrow Google Plus integration comes down the pipeline.

Source: BoingBoing

Popular third-party email client Sparrow has announced that it has been acquired by Google. The iPhone and Mac app will remain unchanged, but all development of new features has been discontinued.  Sparrow has promised to continue supporting its user base as it transitions into becoming part of the Google family.

Google will merge the talented team at Sparrow with the Gmail team.

If you have a tendency to drop your expensive gadgets, and you’re looking for something a little more robust than the iPad, you should probably check out Google’s new Nexus 7. According to this drop test from warranty provider SquareTrade, Google’s $199 slate handles drops and water damage better than the new iPad.

Apple has been granted what has been described as “the mother of all software patents,” which covers a whole host of features that Apple pioneered with the iPhone. Not only is this huge for Apple in its fight against copycats, but it could have a significant affect on almost every single device that rivals the iPhone or the iPad.

If you’ve recently typed “weather” into Google search on your mobile phone, you may have noticed Google’s neat little interactive weather visualizations. The new weather visualizations give you a look at the current forecast, precipitation, wind direction/speeds, as well as an hourly and ten-day forecast. And now, these same cool visualizations are available in search on tablets.

Did you know that people on the internet still make unboxing videos? I didn’t. I thought that fad came to a halt back in 2009, but apparently I was wrong. YouTube was hit with a tidal wave of new unboxing videos as people finally got their hands on Google’s new iPad competitor, the Nexus 7. Not only is it not as good as the iPad, but it’s a super huge pain in the ass open. Just check out the video and chuckle as poor Android fans have to result to using collar stays and butcher knives to get at their precious new tablet.

Source: YouTube

Thanks: Vincent

We’re nearly halfway through July, and while the vast majority of us are enjoying the summer weather (unless you live in the U.K. where it continues to rain), retailers are already preparing for Christmas. U.K. retailer Currys and PC World just published its of predictions for the top ten gifts this holiday, and at number four it lists an “Apple mystery device” with pricing to be confirmed.

Could this mystery device be the upcoming iPad mini?

Google has released a major update to its Google+ iOS app that brings full support to the iPad’s Retina display. Borrowing from the Android version, Google+ on the iPad relies heavily on images and sports a very clean, minimal interface. The iPhone version of Google+ was updated weeks ago with a similarly clean UI, probably due to the fact that Google acquired Kevin Rose’s talent at the app development firm Milk.

In today’s update, the location-based Google+ Events feature has been integrated into the universal app. You can attach photos directly from your device’s Camera Roll and add them to your posts. You can also start and join hangouts in-app and stream them to your TV using AirPlay.

Back in February it was discovered that Google was bypassing Apple’s privacy settings in Mobile Safari on iOS. The search giant was making ad revenue from Safari users’ web activity by ‘tricking’ the default iOS browser to allow multiple tracking cookies.

6 months later, and Google is about to pay the “largest penalty ever levied on a single company” by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Google will pay $22.5 million to settle the charges issued by the FTC, and the code in question has already been disabled by Google in Safari on iOS.

Despite months of speculation, many doubted Google would ever bring its terrific Chrome browser to iOS. But the search giant has put an end to the rumors by finally releasing it, and it’s kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup. We also have a new weather app for those who like to keep it simple, arguably the best Google Analytics client for iOS, and more.

Following yesterday’s report from Bloomberg that revealed Apple plans to release the long-awaited iPad mini this September, a new report from The Wall Street Journal has this morning added even further credence to those claims.

According to “people familiar with the matter,” Apple’s suppliers are preparing for mass production of a new iPad with a display smaller than 8 inches, which is expected to begin in September.