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Microsoft BUILD 2013: 'If you're going to San Francisco...'

Publié: mars 26, 2013, 8:47pm CET par Joe Wilcox

Suddenly San Francisco is the hot developer ticket of the year. Say, can I just rent a room in your house for May and June? Today, Microsoft announced that BUILD 2013 will take place from June 26-28 at the Moscone Center in the city on the bay. Google will be there, same city and venue, with I/O from May 15-17. Apple usually holds its developer conference there in early June but hasn't announced. Big Three trio would be a helluva travel schedule for anyone flying in from anywhere else, particularly outside North America. Choose your event(s) wisely.

I just have to ask: Did Microsoft bump Google? Last year, I/O moved from its more typical May schedule to late June -- 27th-29th. Did Steve Ballmer and Company book early and lock in the dates? I don't really care, and it's not news, but speculation is delicious given the rivalry between these two companies.

As for BUILD 2013, there is little doubt now that Windows Blue is coming really soon. The question is this year or next? Microsoft generally aligns its developer conference with new platform releases, and we all know about the weekend's Blue leak. The OS is out of the bag, all over the Internet and presumably humming on millions of PCs. My colleagues Alan Buckingham, Mihaita Bamburic and Wayne Williams all are true Blue.

End-of-June BUILD doesn't bode well for Windows Blue this year, but Microsoft is picking up the pace with regards to updates. So throw out any past measure. We all could still be BUILD and Blue in 2013.

Steve Guggenheimer, Microsoft chief platform evangelist, offers some context: "We saw more than 100 million downloads from the Windows Store in the first two months after GA, we crossed the 1 billion downloads mark in the Windows Phone Store, we saw a doubling of Windows Azure compute usage in just the last six months and much more".

Registration opens April 2 at Noon EDT. The first 500 people pay $1,595 and everyone else $2,095. Microsoft could really show up Google by handling the load. I/O registration crapped out for the majority of people trying to register 13 days ago.

By the way, Google charges less ($900 for developers, $300 students) and gives away more (media streaming device, smartphone and tablet last year). Microsoft doesn't generally share developer swag with news media attendees, unlike Google. Following BUILD 2011, I really wanted to test Windows 8 Developer Preview, which Microsoft only provided on Samsung tablets. I'm not asking for handouts, just opportunity to use the stuff before writing about it. I strongly suspect Blue will be available to download, which, if so, makes the whole issue moot.

BUILD is much bigger than Windows, which Microsoft teases on the site home page: Azure, Internet Explorer, Office 365, Visual Studio, Windows Phone, Windows Server and Xbox. New game console arrives this year (or so we all believe), and there Microsoft looks to increase development synergy with PC, smartphone and tablet operating systems. But Windows Blue and Windows Phone 9 (hey, even 8.5) will be top of many peoples' minds.

What I'm thinking about: Apple, Google and Microsoft possibly all converging on the same venue within weeks of each other. The old Mamas and the Papas lyric "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair" needs some kind of gadgety update for this generation. Wear smartphone on your belt? Carry laptop in your sack? Bring Surface Pro in your bag? Or Chromebook Pixel? Or MacBook Air?

I wasn't serious about that room rental, but do offer someone coming from out of town.
Windows Blue brings better SkyDrive integration

Publié: mars 26, 2013, 7:41pm CET par Alan Buckingham

Over weekend Microsoft's next version of Windows, known by code name "Blue" leaked out to the world via BiTorrent. Over the past two days we dissected the operating system in every way possible from first look to screenshot images to ways to install the still buggy operating system.

Now that the initial euphoria has passed, we can settle down and get a good look at what exactly will change in the operating system later this year when Windows Blue is rumored to be released.

One of the big changes is SkyDrive integration. Yes, the cloud app was part of Windows 8 from the release back in October of 2012, but Blue brings even tighter combination between the cloud and desktop by adding the app to the Modern UI version of the Control Panel, which is actually the "Personalize" feature of the Windows 8 Start screen. Yes, Microsoft, this is confusing.

At any rate, confusion aside, the new SkyDrive feature makes things a bit simpler for customers. It is accessed from the Charms menu, which you can get to by clicking the Windows-C buttons or moving your finger or mouse pointer to the top or bottom right of the screen. To get to the Metro-style Control Panel, click Settings and then "Change PC Settings".

There are three simple options in the left column -- Storage Use, Device Backups and Files. Like all things in Windows Blue, do not get your hopes up just yet. The "B" is not just for Blue, but also for Buggy. Storage use has not worked for me, despite numerous tries.

Device Backup is not much better -- it only provides a message that states "Sorry, we couldn\x2019t connect to SkyDrive. Please try again later or try visiting SkyDrive on the internet". For the record, the link provided also does not work.

Files are better -- it provides options for automatic photo and video uploads and the options seem to work well. I tested it with a picture and everything went as it should. You can change the settings based on image quality as well.

Windows Blue is a leaked build and clearly not ready for public consumption, but it is fun to play around with in a virtual environment and it gives a sense of where the operating system is headed, both later this year, and into the future with Windows 9.

Photo Credit: T. L. Furrer/Shutterstock
How to install Windows Blue on VMware Player and Workstation

Publié: mars 26, 2013, 7:27pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic
New versions of Windows do not come out often, so when Windows Blue leaked onto the Interwebs during the weekend -- as an early preview build -- it grabbed our immediate attention. There are new and updated apps, new features and a slightly tweaked user interface among the most noticeable changes, some of which my colleague Alan Buckingham has already gone through. But how can you taste the goodies by yourself?

Surely, looking at a slideshow is simply not good enough. As a result, you have two options. First, you can dual-boot Windows Blue alongside your operating system of choice (or install it as the sole option). Second, you can spare yourself any potential issues and headaches in dealing with an early preview build and install Windows Blue on VMware Player or VMware Workstation -- two of the most popular software virtualization products.

But which one should you choose? VMware Player is free and features a straighfoward wizard that makes it easy to use, while VMware Workstation is designed for more advanced and demanding users that wish to have more control over the virtualization environment. Unlike VMware Player, VMware Workstation is not free and requires users to pay for a license after the 30-day trial runs out.

There are two prerequisites to install Windows Blue using either product:
- VMware Player or VMware Workstation, that can be downloaded from FileForum
- Windows Blue ISO, that can be downloaded from BitTorrent
Please be aware that if you plan on downloading the leaked Windows Blue ISO file from BitTorrent you do so at your own risk, so choose wisely.

Before diving into the actual process, you must have VMware Player or VMware Workstation downloaded and installed on your computer and the Windows Blue ISO downloaded and, ideally, stored in an easily-accessible location.

Both VMware Player and VMware Workstation will suggest installing VMware Tools, which brings extra features and performance, so press "Install Tools" after the Windows Blue setup is complete and run the setup.

VMware Player Instructions

Let's kick off with VMware Player first. Follow the next steps to install Windows Blue:
1. Open VMware Player and select "Create a New Virtual Machine".
2. Select "Installer disc image file (iso)" and click "Browse" then navigate to the location where the Windows Blue ISO file is located, select it and click "Open".
3. Click Next, select Microsoft Windows under "Guest operating system" and Windows 8 under "Version" for the 32-bit variant. If the 64-bit Windows Blue will be available and wish to use it instead select Windows 8 x64. Then click "Next".
4. Type a new name for "Virtual machine name" -- preferably Windows Blue.
5. Select the location of the virtual machine and make sure you have at least 16GB for the 32-bit Windows Blue and 20GB for the 64-bit Windows Blue (again, if it will be available) free space in the selected location -- 30GB is better to avoid running out of free space.
6. Select "Store virtual disk as a single file" to keep the virtual HDD in a single file and optimize performance, then click "Next".
7. At the next screen click on "Customize Hardware...", go to "Memory" and select a minimum of 1GB for 32-bit Windows Blue and 2GB for 64-bit Windows Blue. But, you should double the amount for better results.
8. At the "Processors" dialog box select the "Number of processor cores" available for your CPU. For a single core CPU it is one, for a dual-core CPU it is two, for a quad-core CPU it is four and so on -- this is to ensure the virtual machine is running at optimum parameters.
9. Click "Close" then "Finish" to complete the virtual machine creation process and press "Play virtual machine" to install Windows Blue.
VMware Workstation Instructions

What about VMware Workstation? It provides two wizard options -- "Typical (recommended)" and "Custom (advanced)". The former is simpler to use while the latter provides more control but is a bit too complex for inexperienced users. Using "Typical (recommended) in VMware Workstation is identical to using the wizard provided by VMware Player (which I detailed above), so I will explain how to install Windows Blue with the "Custom (advanced)" option.

To install Windows Blue in VMware Workstation by using "Custom (advanced)" follow the next steps:
1. Open VMware Workstation and select "Create a New Virtual Machine" -- or press CTRL + N in VMware Workstation.
2. Select "Custom (advanced)" and click "Next".
3. Click "Next", select "Installer disc image (iso)" and click "Browse" then navigate to the location where the Windows Blue ISO file is located, select it and click "Open".
4. Click Next, select Microsoft Windows under "Guest operating system" and Windows 8 under "Version" for the 32-bit variant. If the 64-bit Windows Blue will be available and prefer it instead select Windows 8 x64. Then click "Next".
5. Type a new name for "Virtual machine name" -- preferably Windows Blue.
6. Select the location of the virtual machine and make sure you have at least 16GB for the 32-bit Windows Blue and 20GB for the 64-bit Windows Blue (again, if it will be available) free space in the selected location -- 30GB is better to avoid running out of free space. Then click "Next".
7. You have to select "Number of processors" to match the ones installed (typical for a desktop computer to have just one) and "Number of cores per processor" -- for a single core CPU it is one, for a dual-core CPU it is two, for a quad-core CPU it is four and so on. This is to ensure the virtual machine is operating at optimum parameters.
8. Click "Next" and select the RAM memory size that you want to allocate to the virtual machine -- select a minimum of 1GB for 32-bit Windows Blue and 2GB for 64-bit Windows Blue, but you should double the amount for a smoother operation. Then click "Next".
9. Click "Next", "Next" and then select "Create a new virtual disk" to set up from scratch -- the other two options should be left alone for inexperienced users.
10. Click "Next", "Next" and allocate at least the minimum recommended space from step No. 6 under Maximum disk size, then select "Store virtual disk as a single file" for optimum performance.
11. Click "Next" and type a name for the disk file -- preferably "Windows Blue.vmdk".
12. Click "Next" then "Finish" and click on "Power on this virtual machine" for the Windows Blue install process to start.
If you fancy Oracle's VirtualBox, my colleague Wayne Williams already wrote a how-to guide highlighting the necessary steps, from loading the leaked ISO file to running Windows Blue for the first time in safe, and virtualized, environment.

Photo Credit: Liv friis-larsen/Shutterstock
When your laptop is lost or stolen, try IPFetcher

Publié: mars 26, 2013, 6:33pm CET par Mike Williams

There are plenty of web services around which can try to help you find a stolen computer. Usually this involves equipping your system with a small agent of some kind, which then uses the system IP address, wifi connections and more to determine its current location, before communicating this to a central server.

If you’d like something more lightweight, though, there are a few simple free tools around which you might like to try. IPFetcher, for instance, won’t grab images from your webcam, and can’t lock down your system remotely. But it can retrieve a system’s IP address, then email or upload it to an FTP server, and that’s more than enough to be useful.

The program arrives as a compact (1.2MB) download. Unzip this, install the two components included (IPFetcher.msi and IMFetcherBackend.msi) and reboot your PC.

Launch IPFetcher from the Softraven section of the Start menu, and click either “Set FTP” or “Set Mail”, depending on which method you’d like to use. In both cases you’ll need to complete a form with your server names, account details and so on.

Setting up the program is awkward - but you only have to do it once

The “Set Mail” page includes a “Test Mail” button, which in theory should send a test message to confirm your settings are correct. But in practice this didn’t work for us. If we tried it, the program interface would first stop responding for a while, before displaying a horribly technical .NET error message (even though we’d entered the right information).

There are other setup problems, too. Once you’ve completed the form you’ll probably click “Save”, but this just displays a less than clear error message. You’ll have to click “Set interval and log” and set both the “Reset log count” and “Repeat hours” (how often the location will be sent) values; “200″ and “24 hours” will be fine for now. We would manually start the service, too, just in case (click Service Settings > “Click to manually start Service”).

Finally, enter a password in the box, click Save and reboot your PC.

If this sounds all a little irritating, then it certainly was. But if you’re interested in the idea, don’t let it put you off. Once we were past the clumsy setup process we found IPFetcher worked very well, correctly retrieving our external IP address and emailing or uploading it as we’d specified. And there’s no further maintenance required, unless you change your email account or FTP server, anyway -- it just works.

Photo Credit: Matt Antonino/Shutterstock
T-Mobile USA gets iPhone!

Publié: mars 26, 2013, 5:03pm CET par Joe Wilcox

America's fourth-largest carrier finally goes Apple, and you've got to wonder what that means for all the Androids on shelf. T-Mobile USA broke the long-anticipated news this morning, a day after announcing new, unlimited rate plans that ditch subsidies. iPhone comes with 4G LTE roll out in select cities and expanded HSPA+ coverage to the 1900MHz band. Subsidy-free plans, network expansion, iPhone availability and MetroPCS merger are all part of a bold "bet the company" strategy.

T-Mobile will start selling iPhone 5 on April 12, for the lowest upfront-price among major carriers: $99.99. The rest is paid off in monthly payments and for full price of the handset and no contract. Rivals charge $199.99 up front with 24-month contractual commitment and hefty subsidy should customers change carriers before the term expires.

iPhone 5 for Less

"This is an important day for people who love their iPhone but can’t stand the pain other carriers put them through to own one", John Legere, T-Mobile CEO, says. "We feel their pain. I’ve felt the pain. So we’re rewriting the rules of wireless to provide a radically simple, affordable iPhone 5 experience -- on an extremely powerful network".

Ross Rubin, Reticle Research analyst, says the price "seems too good to be true". That's T-Mobile's big carrot, perhaps more than the new data plans. Customers walk out the door spending upfront for iPhone 5 what competitors sell the 4S for. One C-note.

To support iPhone and other smartphones, T-Mobile is expanding its 4G network beyond HSPA+. LTE launch cities are: Baltimore, District of Columbia, Houston, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Phoenix and San Jose. (Damnit, not San Diego). The carrier promises nationwide coverage by end of year. HSPA+ supporting iPhone 5 is available in 229 metro areas, according to T-Mobile.

iPhone is U.S. market share leader, according to Strategy Analytics. While Android rules the world, iPhone rules the roost. T-Mobile has good reasons for coveting the iconic handset, which could unlock lots of customer upgrades while stemming some customer losses to competing carriers. That certainly was the case for Verizon, but less so Sprint. During fourth quarter, AT&T sold 10.2 million smartphones and activated 8.6 million iPhones. Surely T-Mobile would love even a small percentage of such sales success.

Un-carrier Plans

The above chart is T-Mobile's comparison of its no-contract plans to options available from competitors. Does this jive with your real-world experience?

Supporting Simple Choice plans offering unlimited text, talk and data and no contractual commitment, T-Mobile assumes label "The Un-carrier", by placing emphasis on choice and freeing customers from forced lock-in. The new rate plans are a huge risk that, if successful, could fundamentally change how Americans buy cell phones -- particularly if any of the Big Three offer something similar.

Typically, carriers pay Apple huge amounts up front -- say $649 for 16GB iPhone 5 -- and sell the mobiles subsidized for much less, while locking customers into two-year contracts. Under T-Mobile's new plan, there are no subsidies, but customers pay full price, either upfront or by monthly payments over X number of months, usually 24. There also is option for people to bring their own phones. I haven't done a first-plush comparison but looks like the savings are more for people buying cheaper handsets with little data. For costlier smartphones and data plans, savings are iffy -- or so I say after only cursory comparison, without really number crunching.

During a press event, Legere tried to explain the new Simple Choice plans to dimwits like me. He makes a good case for greater transparency and simplicity about billing and customer costs. I have to agree -- then there is the whole subsidy model, which favors Apple and a few other manufacturers reaping big margins by invisibly keeping device prices high. That $199 you pay masks the $649 the carrier dishes out.

Broken Business Models

Legere claims that the wireless industry is broken, and he gets no dispute from me -- and judging from the live Twitter responses today -- nor from many other cell phone users. But complexity and hidden costs cut different ways. T-Mobile's iPhone 5 pricing looks like less than other carriers, but there is still monthly commitment to pay off the phone. That works out to $20 over 24 months, or about $580 when adding the initial money down.

Reporter Brian Chen asks my question (via Twitter), too, when looking over the new plans. "Despite T-Mobile's campaign to be a transparent 'un-carrier', I'm confused about the two-year device fees and the restrictions on phones. The phone can't be unlocked until the two-year device fee is paid off. How is this different?"

Difference is choice. Still, I'm on AT&T (for now) and the early termination fee decreases month by month during the contract period, so walking away and paying the ETF isn't so different from leaving T-Mobile and paying off the rest owed on the phone.

Jason Snell, Macworld editorial director, answers Chen (and indirectly me): "Different because when you’re done paying (after 2 years), your bill actually goes down. And you can BYOP and not pay fee".
CCleaner 4.00 adds two new features but limits one to Pro version

Publié: mars 26, 2013, 4:39pm CET par Nick Peers

Piriform has released CCleaner 4.00 and CCleaner Portable 4.00, major new release of its popular free cleaning tool for Windows users. Version 4.0 includes two new tools, but for the first time restricts one of these to paid-for users with Pro licenses only.

Version 4.0 also debuts a new program icon and tweaked user interface, added support for cleaning additional programs and the usual raft of performance and stability tweaks, including unspecified improvements to the program’s internal architecture for better performance.

CCleaner 4.0 adds two new tools to its armory, only one of which is available to those running the free version. This is a Duplicate File Finder, accessible from the Tools section of the program. Users select what criteria to match by – including name, size and last modified date – what to ignore and which drives, folders and wildcards to both include and exclude from the search. Users then click the Search button to review and manually select which copy or copies of each duplicate file to delete.

The second new feature is a browser and system monitoring tool, but this is restricted to Pro users only.

The Registry Cleaning tool has been optimized and improved, while Drive Wiper should also now benefit from improved performance. The Startup item detection algorithm has been improved, as has the 64-bit CCleaner build for Windows 7 and 8.

Cleaning support has been extended to Samsung Kies along with the latest versions of Avast! Antivirus (v8), Adobe Photoshop (CS6) and Real Player (v16). The update is rounded off with the usual mix of unspecified performance improvements and bug fixes.

CCleaner 4.00.4064 and CCleaner Portable 4.00.4064 are both available as free-for-personal-use downloads for Windows PCs running XP or later.

Photo Credit: Goydenko Tatiana/Shutterstock
Run for cover! Amazon has Zombies

Publié: mars 26, 2013, 3:15pm CET par Alan Buckingham

Zombieland, the 2009 cult classic movie, about four unlikely people who come together to fight their way across an undead-filled America, is making a comeback of sorts -- rising from the dead, as it were. Amazon Studios has picked up on the surprisingly popular movie and the not so surprising Zombie fetish we have and announced its latest offering.

Zombieland the series will be produced as a pilot and make its way into your living room via Amazon Prime. It is the seventh comedy pilot announced by the online TV studio and it joins six children's show pilots also under production.

"Zombieland is a fan favorite and we can’t wait to see where this story line goes in a serialized format", Roy Price, Amazon Studios director, says. "We’ve been announcing a lot of exciting exclusive content for Prime Instant Video, like Downton Abbey, Under the Dome, and Justified, and we think adding original shows to that lineup is going to make Prime even more enticing for customers".

Creator Paul Wernick says "Zombieland will strive to break the rules—action, adventure, thrills, chills and laughs and all packed into a half hour format". These are lofty expectations here, so the show had better deliver now.

Production has not yet started, so there is no release date yet announced, but in the meantime Prime customers have a quickly growing number of choices from the movie and TV show library. Amazon is in a race with Netflix, which is also now producing original content.
Try Windows Blue for yourself using VirtualBox

Publié: mars 26, 2013, 11:50am CET par Wayne Williams

Windows Blue, the next Windows release, leaked onto the internet at the weekend. It has some interesting new features and tweaks, but because it’s such an early and buggy build it wouldn’t be advisable to replace your existing OS with it. You could of course dual boot from it, but it’s just as easy to run it in a virtual environment where any crashes or issues won’t lead to you having to reboot your PC.

For this guide I’ll use Oracle VM VirtualBox because it’s a great free program and setting up Windows Blue is incredibly straightforward with it.

To start you’ll obviously need a copy of the leaked image file -- build 9364. It’s available on all the usual torrent sites, so just do a quick search. The file you want is 2.63GB in size. There’s only a 32-bit version available, but because we’ll be running it in a virtualized environment, it will run fine on 64-bit systems.

Launch VirtualBox and click New in the Manager. In the Create Virtual Machine dialog box enter "Windows 8" as the name of the OS. VirtualBox will fill in the rest of the details for you.

Next set the Memory Size. Accepting the recommended memory amount will likely be fine. On the next screen choose to "Create a virtual hard drive now" and click Create. Accept VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) as the hard drive file type.

You’ll now be asked if you want the new virtual hard drive to be dynamic (it will grow as required) or a fixed size. I always select the latter option. It takes a while to create a fixed size drive, but the operating system runs faster afterwards.

Type in a name for the new virtual drive and choose a size for it. Again, accepting the default will likely be fine. Click Create and VirtualBox will begin building the drive. It will probably take around 10 minutes or so to do this (maybe more if like me you choose to convert some large videos at the same time).

The "Select start-up disk" window will open. If you’ve burnt the downloaded ISO file to disc you can select your drive in the drop down menu (if it’s not already selected). If you just have the file residing on your hard disk, click the folder icon and navigate to it instead.

Once selected, click Start and Windows 8 (which is what the OS is referred to throughout) will start to load. The language screen will appear first. You’ll have to accept English (United States) as this is the only option in the leaked build. On the next screen, click the "Install now" button.

Choose the "Custom: Install windows only (advanced)" option. It will show you the drive it’s going to be installed on. Click Next, and it will begin the installation process, rebooting when required. When that’s done, personalize the OS by picking a color and entering a PC name, and then choosing to use the express settings (which I do) or customizing things further.

Set up a Microsoft Account if required, and then that’s it. Windows Blue will be up and running and you can begin trying it out for yourself.
ISO Workshop makes it easy to manage, convert and burn disc images

Publié: mars 26, 2013, 11:47am CET par Nick Peers

Glorylogic Software has released ISO Workshop 4.0, a major update of its disc image management, conversion and burning tool. Version 4.0 broadens the tool’s ISO format support to cover six different disc types: CD, DVD, Blu-ray, Bridge, DVD video and bootable.

The program also tweaks the existing user interface, adding new buttons to facilitate creating folders and editing files within ISO images. Other buttons have been added for loading and extracting files from ISO images.

ISO Workshop 4.0 also comes with an updated disc-burning SDK and promises resolutions for problems opening certain image formats as well as compatibility issues with other, non-specified burning tools.

ISO Workshop’s big selling point is its simple, unfussy interface. There are five options available -- users can both create new image files from scratch and burn existing image files to disc. ISO Workshop supports all common image file formats, including ISO, BIN, NRG and MDF, and there’s an option for converting images to ISO or BIN format.

Users can also extract individual files and folders from image files without having to burn them to disc or mount them using Windows 8’s native tool or a third-party utility such as Virtual CloneDrive. A fifth option -- Backup -- allows users to create image files from physical discs.

The program promises to work with most major optical disc formats, including Blu-ray and most writable DVD formats, and claims to support all types of recordable drives. ISO Workshop 4.0 is a freeware download for PCs running Windows NT or later, including Windows 8.

Photo Credit: AISPIX by Image Source/Shutterstock
Google+ gives big Android and iOS updates

Publié: mars 26, 2013, 1:35am CET par Joe Wilcox
Google updates just keep on coming. Earlier today new versions of Google+ for Android and iOS pushed out, and I've been too busy to handle the goods (Later! Promise!). Two key areas of focus: Sharing and sharing -- as in primping photos and being better part of Communities. The updates are somewhat different for both platforms.

In an unsurprising move, the iOS app picks up some features from Snapseed, which Google acquired last autumn. So now, when you’re sharing a photo, you can: "Do basic edits like rotate and crop, as well as select filters like Drama and Retrolux; adjust saturation, contrast, brightness and lots more by sliding your fingers up-and-down, then left-and-right; single tap at any time to compare your creation with the original", Amar Gandhi, Google+ director of product management, says.

Snapseed remains a separate app for iOS, and that's where the real Instagram-like photo-editing capabilities can be found.

What about the Android app? He highlights some new features:
- Posts include more text up front -- from the original message, and from comments
- Tapping video, photo or link attachments takes you directly to a watch page, lightbox or website
- Image previews are rarely cropped, so you’ll see portrait photos (for instance) in all their glory
- Key actions like +1, reshare and comment are displayed more prominently in each post
- You can swipe through photo albums inline
The Communities component is updated on both platforms. Enhancements include:
- The ability to adjust the volume of community posts in your Home stream
- The option to invite people to a community, or reshare items with a community
- Member search, content moderation, and report-remove-ban support for community managers
Reviews are generally positive on both platforms. Average rating for the new version is 4.5 stars at Apple's App Store. Overall average is 4.2 stars for all versions on Google Play, where Bryan Lambert writes: "Excellent!! This such a great app, easy to navigate, very smooth and detailed. With the new update looks fabulous, great job Google!"

Amir Abdullah would "take this over facebook twitter and instagram. That's just my opinion but it just looks better and is the easiest to use. It's better than I thought it would be. Thinking bout switching. This is the place to go if you do. Shoud've done it a long time ago. Stunned. Keep it up".

But other reviewers see things differently. "Every single release this app gets worse as Google panders to the techTards", Shane Monroe opines. "Why does EVERYTHING have to look and act like magazine flow? How is it that I can see shifting comments under posts -- but I can't do something simple like LONG PRESS->MUTE a post in my stream? Sigh".

Similarly, Frank Chagas is "disappointed. Used to use Google+ regularly for news and jokes etc., but latest update killed it for me. Looks better but these Facebook-esque suggestions are a hindrance".

Google+ for Android 3.6 requires version 2.2 or higher of the operating system. Google+ for iOS 4.2 requires version 5.1 or greater of the operating system.