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Google has had a rough time with its iOS software over the past few weeks, but immediately pulled it due to problems with push notifications. The app was resurrected in the App Store recently, but many of its problems were not resolved.

Today, Google has redeemed itself a bit with an update to its Search application, as it brings several welcome changes to the iPad version…

The new UI in the iPad edition of Google’s Search app is actually a joy to use. The main screen features a large search field, and four grey icons. One takes you to your search history, one enables a voice search, one launches Google Goggles, and the other opens the app menu.

The search function works well, as expected, and uses Google Instant to show you live results as you type. The Voice Search feature also works well. The app menu can either mean the world to you, or nothing to you, depending on how many of Google’s services you use.

Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and other Google apps are built right into Google Search. You can login to and use the services without needing to switch out of the application — very handy. Google+, Google Maps, and Google Offers are also integrated.

The bottom line is that the new Google Search update makes a good app great, especially for iPad users. If you want to check it out for yourself, you can download the new software [for the iPad] from the App Store.

What do you think of the new Google Search for iPad?

[Source]

Last Sunday, Google purposely pulled its Google Voice app from the App Store due to some bug that caused the app to crash at sign in.

Almost a week later, Google Voice is now back in the App Store, with some stability improvement and also a new feature…

According to the Google Voice Twitter account, the app now “improves calling through GV when there is no data: no data required for all numbers previously called.”

Google sure took its time to fix that app!

You might not see it right away in the App Store, but you can access directly from here.

Time for another string of Android malware, this time using the popularity of Google+ to fool unsuspecting Android users. The malicious code dubbed “Nickispy.C” was discovered by Trend Micro today and although it uses many of the same services as its previous versions, it learned a few new tricks this time around. Now, Nickispy.C goes incognito my calling itself Google++ using the same icon as the legit Google+ app for all of its services.

If given free reign over your phone, the app steals the usual text messages, GPS positions, call logs, and even goes as far as answering your calls allowing for the malware’s creator to listen in or record your most intimate conversations. Still unknown is if this malware made it into users’ devices through the Android Market or 3rd party app store or via the word wide web.

The good news? Well, the malware only effects Android 2.2 users thanks to the exploit being patched up in 2.3 that allows for an app to change the phone state without a user’s consent. The bad news? Android 2.2 is still found on around 74% of all Android devices. Damn. Even more reason to look forward to Android 2.3, right?

[Via Electronista]

For those of you with iPads or Playbooks, Google has recently spruced up the mobile version of Gmail on the web. The new interface looks a lot more similar to the Honeycomb version of Gmail feature window panes and email previews. One of the newer features is the addition of the “pull down to refresh” way of refreshing your inbox. Also added were sharper icons and new screen transitions when opening emails. Maybe these new features of the web and Honeycomb versions of Gmail will give us a preview of what to expect from a future update to the Gmail app on Android.

[Source]

As Google promised in May, Google TV is about to get a taste of some sweet Honeycomb. According to some reports, users are already seeing their Google TV devices appear under “My Devices” on the Market’s web app. This is most likely Google’s handiwork as they put the final touches before rolling out the update.

Further proving Google TV 2.0 is upon us, some Android enthusiasts over at GTVhacker have managed to update their Logitech Revue to Android 3.1. How did they do this? We’re asking ourselves the same question. However, they did post a photo as proof and promised to shed more light on how they did it over the next few days. We can’t wait.

Looking at the photo from GTVhacker, you can see not a lot has changed since Google first showed Google TV 2.0 to us back in May. That blue bar along the bottom is back once again. I’m guessing this will appear by pressing the “Home” button on your Google TV remote. As you might remember, we recently saw this bar thanks to a leak via Geek.com. Although, this time some of the icons seem to have gotten a bit of polish by Duarte and co. Always a good thing.

The space above that blue bar will supposedly house widgets, as demonstrated at Google I/O. It’s still unknown whether or not users will have access to various home screens like we have on phones and tablets. While that might seem like an obvious thing to do, I’m not so sure Google will do it for Google TV. But I could be wrong.

In summary, here’s everything we know Google TV 2.0 will have for sure:
* Access to the Android Market
* Widgets
* Notifications
* Improved Media Player
* Overhauled user interface
* Google TV emulator for developers
* ADB support
* Support for USB devices like game controllers and keyboards
* Honeycomb’s graphics engine
* Improved performance and stability
* ARM support

That should be just about enough to turn those Google TV doubters into believers. Now we just need to sit and wait for Google to roll this out. Hopefully that’ll happen some time next week.