On Thursday, Google announced that they are bringing their popular Chrome browser as well as their Cloud service, Google Drive to iOS. Following the announcement, Google released an iOS app, condensing a number of features from the full sized browser and packing them into the app. Some of the main features brought over include incognito mode and tab syncing across devices.

The browser, although being entirely developed by Google still relies on Apple’s WebKit-based engine, which is required by Apple’s SDK. Google Chrome for iOS seems like the perfect addition to Apple’s successful iPhone, however, according to a report from NextWeb, the one setback of the app is that users cannot use Google Chrome as the default browser on the iPhone.

The biggest hurdle that Chrome features, of course, is that it cannot be set to be the default browser on iOS devices, a capability that Apple also reserves for Safari. So, while you can use the browser to your heart’s content, it will not be the default handler for any URLs clicked. That’s a huge hurdle to overcome.

Google’s Chrome Browser is great for users that also use the Chrome browser on their computer and want an easy way to transfer their bookmarks or want to be able to access their computer settings on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. Alongside the Chrome browser, Google also released a Google Drive app, the cloud service the company introduced several months ago. Both the Chrome browser and the Google Drive app are currently available in the App Store.

{via MacRumors}

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has been leading the market for quite some time with web based services, including search, email and documents. On Tuesday, Google Inc. released a more streamlined cloud experience for its users, the long-awaited Google Drive. The service provides users with 5GB of free storage, which is also integrated with Google Docs and many of Google’s other online services.

This initial 5GB offering is similar to Apple’s iCloud which also gives users a free 5GB of storage. Following the initial 5GB, users can then upgrade to a higher tier of storage, and for GOOG, that means up to as much as 16TB of storage which is far more than the amount of storage on any computer hard drive.

Today, we’re introducing Google Drive—a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.

The storage can be accessed directly through Google Docs, or through clients on PC, Mac, Android and very soon, iOS devices. Google promised that the iOS app would be available “very soon”, with it being very likely that the search giant is still waiting for approval from Apple. Google Drive operates very differently than other cloud solutions, including a feature that allows users to open up as many as 30 different file types directly in the browser.

This allows users of the service to open up and view files such as images and documents, regardless of its format. Google Drive has the potential to be one of the next reliable cloud solutions available online. With its availability on numerous platforms, including iOS, it brings into question, whether this service will compete with iCloud.

{via MacRumors}

While we are still awaiting the release of iOS 5.1, it seems that Apple has already begun testing iOS 6 internally. According to a report published by Ars Technica browser agent strings showing up as iPads running iOS 6.0 have appeared on their server logs.

It’s worth noting that user agent strings can easily be faked however, in order to make sure that these iPads could indeed be running iOS 6 Ars Technica filtered their logs to show only those entries coming from IPs assigned to Apple’s headquarter.

[W]e began looking at iPad user agents coming from Apple’s corporate IP block in Cupertino and discovered that Apple appears to be surfing the Web using iPads running what looks like iOS 6.0. The whole listing shows iPads running iOS 5, iOS 5.0.1 (the current public release), iOS 5.1 (the upcoming release currently available to developers), and iOS 6. The iPads that appear to be running iOS 6 are also using a slightly newer build of WebKit—the older OSes all show WebKit 534.46, while the ones claiming to be iOS 6 show WebKit build 535.8.

It’s no surprise that Apple could already be working on the next major software update for iOS devices. Apple introduced iOS 5 during WWDC last year and could be looking at announcing iOS 6 during this years developers conference. Since, iOS now accounts for a major part of Apple’s revenue stream introducing iOS 6 in front of over 5,000 Apple developers feels like the right choice for the Cupertino, Calif. based company.

The report further goes onto mention that the server logs also referenced a 2048×1536 screen resolution device however, it couldn’t be verified if the device in question was iPad 3. MacRumors points out that even if iPad 3 has retina display it should have still shown as 1024×768 as the “higher pixel density [is] intended to increase sharpness rather than screen real estate”.

iOS 6 is expected to be made available to users around fall this year just like iOS 5 was first introduced during WWDC and then released during fall.

{via MacRumors}

Android and Apple’s iOS browser market share are both growing far faster than BlackBerry as we enter the new year. Blackberry is almost standing still to be honest. Overall iOS browser share is still well over double that of Android, and towards the end of 2010 it started to accelerate and grow much faster than Android.

Currently iOS browser market share is almost at 2%, with Android somewhere below 0.5%, and Blackberry barely registering in data at 0.13%. All these figures are puny when compared to traditional desktop browser market share. But this is clearly set to change as mobile internet usage continues to grow at an increasing rate around the world.

The interesting thing to note about all these figures is that even with a considerable number of Android devices out there in the wild, their users simply don’t seem to be using them to browse the web much. Which also tends to suggest they perhaps are not downloading apps that much either.

Overall the mobile OS to go with is still iOS, in our opinion.

Is mobile Safari simply much nicer to use than Android’s browser? Or is there something else to this? Have your say in the comments…

{via NETMARKETSHARE}