Status update on Google

Google has been busy lately in the App Store. In the past 2 days, Google Drive has been updated with some awesome new features, and the successor to Apple's stock YouTube app has been released.

First was Google Drive. In the new version 1.1.0 update, document editing finally came to iOS in a decent fashion. The online editor wasn't ever very good. The app, however, works great.

Not only can you edit documents, you can see when others are editing the same document as well. I believe there's also a chat built in for collaborators too. Along with the new editor, presentation files are now displayed more smoothly now, and you can create documents and folders, as well as upload photos from the Camera Roll.

Next is Google's own YouTube app. In a blog awhile ago, I mentioned that the stock YouTube app no longer exists as of iOS 6. Google has responded by releasing an official (iPhone and iPod Touch only) YouTube app in the App Store. To say it's an improvement from Apple's stock one is a no-brainer, even the webapp was better than that.

The UI is certainly different from Apple's. It actually looks like a Google product instead of a stillborn Apple one. It incorporates the side slide-out bar UI that Google and Facebook have been focusing on recently. The new player UI is interesting, although I think it's too cramped and not as usable as Apple's default video player. All things considered, a good couple of apps from Google recently.