circles

Google Hangouts launches as a standalone app

Google Hangouts (iOS|Android) brings the group video chat features you have in Google+ to your home screen with a standalone app, but it might be one too many ways to do the same thing.

Having the app on your home screen gives you immediate access to one-on-one and group video calls formerly found by going through a couple of menus in Google+. With Hangouts, you can have a video call with up to 10 people and you can choose who will be in the hangout through a list of your contacts or by using a search field. During your … Read more

Google Maps explores the faraway Arctic with Street View

Far beyond the Arctic Circle -- nearing the North Pole, where tundra, snow, and glaciers are commonplace year-round -- is an area called Cambridge Bay in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut. It sits in the Canadian Arctic and is only accessible by plane or boat.

This is the newest location to hit Google Maps Street View.

"Today, we've set out on a mission to build the most comprehensive map of Canada's Arctic region to date," Google Earth Outreach team member Karin Tuxen-Bettman wrote in a blog post today. "This is our first trip to the … Read more

Google+ debuts 'sliders' to help users de-clog their streams

Google Plus launched a new feature today called "sliders" that lets users decide how and when they want to tone down information from their Circles that may be clogging up their stream.

The idea is to give users more control on what they see, learn, and share on Google's social network. It's similar to Facebook's "hide stories" feature where users can decide if they want to see all, most, most important, or no status updates from their friends.

Google+ launched volume "sliders" last year, extending it across the entire social network. … Read more

Migrate Google+ circles from one account to another

Sometimes you have to make a transition from one Google account to another. In times like these, you'll want to be able to pack up your personalized settings and migrate them to your new spot. Google+ circles can be quite large in size if you only keep a few of them, and reorganizing all of those people can be time consuming. For instance, you might have 40 colleagues, 30 local friends, and 150 celebrities you're following; no one wants to hunt down all of those people and organize them yet again.

This is where Google Takeout comes to … Read more

Google+ gives users a tool to merge multiple accounts

Google has come up with a way to merge users' Google Plus accounts, so that all circles and circle information can now be in just one account. The Web giant announced today the launch of the "Google+ circles transfer tool" via Google Takeout.

The tool works by moving users' Google+ circles and connections from what it calls a "source" account to a "destination" account. Once users' accounts are merged with this tool, people in their circles will only see the "destination" profiles.

This is most likely welcome news to those users that … Read more

Booyah for Ouya gaming console

The world is out for your wallet, but we'll never raise our prices. That's a Wednesday Update promise!

It's been a year since Netflix got itself in a mess with a bungled price-hike announcement, followed by the Qwikster embarrassment. I sat down with colleague Greg Sandoval to discuss his report on what went wrong at the once-beloved tech company. You can read his story and catch our full interview here: The inside story of Netflix's price-hike train wreck.

Games on Amazon's Kindle Fire will be adding achievements, leaderboards and the ability to save game progress … Read more

Amazon targets Apple's Game Center with GameCircle

Amazon has announced GameCircle, a platform that comes with some of the features found in Apple's Game Center.

Designed for the Amazon Kindle Fire, GameCircle will attempt to engage players by tracking their achievements and delivering a leaderboard to see how they stack up against other folks. In addition, Amazon says GameCircle supports a syncing function that lets users save in-game progress to the cloud and pick up where they left off after restoring their tablet or switching to a different device.

Apple's Game Center, which is available on the company's mobile devices, takes the social element … Read more

Google+ for iOS

Google+ for iOS is a clean and intuitive mobile app that has all of the powers of its desktop counterpart, save for the games and a few other minor features. The latest version brings Events and Hangouts to the iPhone, while the iPad gets Hangouts as well as a stunning, tiled Home screen that's optimized for the larger screen.

Home What used to be called Stream is now simply your Google+ Home screen. This is the lifeblood of Google+. With the little drop-down at the top, you can choose to show feeds from All Circles, Nearby, What's Hot (… Read more

Google+ is sleeker, optimized for tablets

Gone is the dashboard of icons that once greeted you upon opening Google+ for Android. Now, you can zip around the app with a sliding navigation ribbon on the left of the screen. This gives you easier access to your Stream, Profile, Messenger, Hangout, Photos, and Circles. As a whole, the app is easy to use and just as intuitive as its desktop counterpart.

Home What used to be called Stream is now simply your Google+ Home screen. This is the lifeblood of Google+. With the little drop-down at the top, you can choose to show feeds from All Circles, … Read more