The latest update from GoDocs appears to have resolved this issue in a few keys areas, it’s not perfect but it provides a valid way to manage your Google Docs on the go.

The interface is clear and concise, once you’ve added your Google account your docs will be displayed in the left hand panel and you can click any of them to download locally and another to open and view it. The files are color coded to so that you can tell at a glance if the file is local, online or is currently downloading.

All Google Doc file types are supported and are easy to read when displayed on the right side of the screen. You can also collapse the left hand panel to take the document into full screen mode. It even has a built in multimedia player for any audio or video files that you have stored in your Google Docs or Google Drive if you’ve converted over, something that not all mobile apps can claim at present.

The weakest part of the GoDocs experience is the editing, which you could argue is a pretty significant part of the application. The applications uses the standard Google mobile and Desktop interfaces for editing which while functional aren’t the easiest to use but for basic editing the interface does suffice.

Where GoDocs does excel though, at least for me, is in the sharing, push notifications and multiple accounts handling.

I frequently find myself having to share files when I’m not at my desk and sharing them with GoDocs is very easy, as is revoking or editing sharing rights. With any file open you can simply click the ‘information’ icon to access the sharing screen and anyone that you share the doc with will be emailed as you would expect.

The ‘information’ page will also provide you with access to opening the file in another application, downloading the file, moving it, emailing, printing, viewing revisions and more all and the touch of the screen. You can also mass edit files to move, download, mail and delete them.

Push Notifications will alert you to changes to files that you share which can be a nice alternative to a bucket load of emails, however, it didn’t always work 100% of the time so may not be something you can rely on if it’s important to you.

You can’t view docs from multiple accounts at the same time but switching between them is really easy, once you’ve enabled them you can switch accounts at the touch of a button which is both quick and easy.

If you are a heavy Google Docs user and need to access them on the go then GoDocs is a great app for you, editing is basic but it works and sharing and notifications sets this apart from other similar apps in the App Store. It’s not the cheapest app in the App Store but still at $4.99 it’s not going to break the bank.

What we like

• Share your docs on the go
• Mass manage your docs
• Color coded document status
• Push Notifications

What to know

• Editing uses the built in Google Mobile and Desktop options

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}

Google points out that mobile and tablet browsers are still not as powerful as their desktop counterparts, and therefore the mobile-optimized version of Google Docs should still be your first choice. However, for those times when you need to do some advanced editing, such as changing fonts or aligning paragraphs in your report, or inserting formulas in to your spreadsheet, you can now use the desktop link to enjoy the complete Google Docs on your iPad.

Google are rolling this service out over the next few days, initially for English-language users with Android Froyo 2.2, and iOS 3.0+ devices, including the iPad.

To get started, simply navigate to docs.google.com in your mobile browser, and then select the document you wish to edit. Your document will then be displayed on your device, and you can tap the ‘Edit’ button in the top, right-hand corner to start working on it. Alternatively, you can create a new document from the homepage.

Edits you make to your documents appear in near realtime for other people viewing the same document, and if someone else makes a change within their browser, the document will update on your mobile device as well.

Check out the video below to see mobile editing in action:

Here is the text from their post related to these new features…

We’re launching new cloud-powered capabilities: two-step verification to help enhance security and soon, mobile editing in Google Docs on Android and the iPad™. ..today we demonstrated new mobile editing capabilities for Google Docs on the Android platform and the iPad. In the next few weeks, co-workers around the world will soon be able to co-edit files simultaneously from an even wider array of devices. Only cloud computing is able to deliver the whole package of productivity-enhancing collaboration, superior reliability and virtually unlimited scale at a price that’s affordable for any size organization. Our Atmosphere event is a nice opportunity to step back and fully appreciate the power of the cloud with customers and future customers alike.

If you use Google Docs, either in the office, or as a team management tool for small projects or a home business you’ll be psyched about this.

Is Google Docs coming to an iPad near you a big deal, or just a meh moment? Have your say in the comments…

Office² (pronounced “Office Squared”) allows you to view and edit Word 97-2003 (.doc) and Excel 97-2003 (.xls) documents on your iPhone and iPod Touch. You can also view PDFs, and the app provides integration with Google Docs, iDisc and WebDav. Admittedly editing any document more ambitious than email on devices of this size can be painful at times, despite Apple’s great GUI. But “Office Squared” makes the process relatively painless.

Office2 fires up with a fairly sterile and business like front page with a settings and info icon, and an empty “Local Files” storage area.

The info icon takes you to a surprisingly verbose Help section with a massive array of instructional documents arranged in a kind of hypertext index. Sections are in there on everything from “Getting started” to “Creating a workbook” for Excel, to “Error codes” and “Product support”. If you can’t find the info you need there then you probably don’t need it! Each page takes a second or so to load, which is confusing at first because you think your touch has not been registered. But once loaded these scrollable pages are packed with info. Another small niggle is that the Back button doesn’t work on the index page of the help section to exit. Rather, you are supposed to use the Done button. The Back button only works when in an actual help document to get back to the help menu. However, it’s always visible. This is something the developers could, and should polish by simply turning that button off when it doesn’t do anything. Like I said, a small niggle, but there are a few things like this in Office2 that make it feel, well.. very like Microsoft Office!

In the settings screen are the options to enable sharing documents to and from your desktop computer, with Google Docs, your iDisk or a WebDAV server. All the web based options are as simple to use as plugging in your username and password and then returning to the main screen where an option is added to view your files online. From there you can choose to simply view them, or “move” or “save” them onto your device locally. Nice. However, here again certain options such as cancelling a transfer without choosing a destination are ignored. It would be far better if the buttons to do that were not there at all in the places the app chooses to ignore them. Sharing documents to and from your computer is done by typing the URL the application provides you with into any browser on a machine on your network, and then either clicking to download files onto your computer, or selecting files to upload to your iPod Touch or iPhone with a file selector. Simple.

Viewing and editing documents is great. You can touch them. Pinch zoom. Edit text. And a small subsection of the Office functions you would expect in each type of document are available on a scrolling menu bar at the bottom of the screen. You can do all of this in landscape or portrait mode simply by turning the device to the orientation you prefer as you work. It should be noted that you can’t edit PDF documents, but you can view them and pinch zoom them etc. With regards to my UI niggles I have to say I found the user interface trouble free when editing stuff.

You can also create new Word documents, or Excel spreadsheets in any of your document spaces. So that includes not only on your iPod or iPhone, but also on Google Docs online for example. There are also a wealth of options for what you can do with Excel spreadsheets, such as multiple worksheets with unlimited rows and columns, searching and sorting of cells, cell formatting, cell types, and pane freezing among other spreadsheet necessities. The iPhone’s touch screen is used effectively throughout, letting you tap and drag to change row heights and column widths, zoom, and tap cells to compose formulas. Really nice.

I herald from days in ancient computer history when getting any kind of Office document or PDF to view on even a Mac was a tortuous task. So it still seems neat to me to be able to work with these kinds of documents so easily. I certainly wouldn’t write a book, or manage my company accounts using “Office Squared”. But having documents I can make minor edits on with me on my iPhone feels great. Being able to plug into web based copies so easily is also cool.

Although the app costs the princely sum of $4.99. A small fortune in terms of iPhone software these days!! It’s well worth it, and I wish other developers would price their apps sensibly like this. Now all Byte Squared need to do is tidy up those UI niggles for me and this would be perfect.

If they ever get adventurous and add PDF editing as an option I’d pay considerably more for this app.

The Good

• Google Docs, WebDav & iDisc integration.
• Easy transfer of file to and from desktop computer.
• Ability to organise files into folders.
• Landscape and Portrait views with no fuss.

The Not So Good

• Some UI niggles that need polish.
• Help pages take a while to load.

Price: $4.99 (iTunes Store Preview)
Updated Feb 05, 2010
Reviewed Version: 3.0.1
Size: 2.6 MB
Languages: English, Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish
Seller: Byte Squared
© Byte Squared Limited
Rated 4+
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone and iPod touch. Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.