Apple announced several exciting developments at its special event held in San Francisco today.

Among the announcements, the next generation iPad, new Apple TV, iOS 5.1 update, and several new and updated apps for iPad were top highlights. Several apps and games developed with the new iPad specifically in mind were also demoed at the event.

Here’s a round-up of some of Apple's big announcements.

Google has today rebranded the Android Market as Google Play. A single service that provides Android users with access to apps, video, music, books and games, Google Play is clearly intended to provide better competition to Apple's one-stop-shop, iTunes.

Everything in one store

Until now, Google had a pretty confusing approach to providing content for Android devices. Apps and movies were in the Android Market but books and music were available from separate, seemingly unconnected websites. Combining everything into a single marketplace clearly makes sense both from a user standpoint and strategically for Google.

The fifth version of Apple's popular operating system for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad became available on Wednesday. Just last week, Chris expressed disappointment that many of the features rolling out with this new iOS release were already available to users via third party apps. While it's certainly true that many app savvy users have already managed to create the effect of integration by installing third party apps, now this integrated experience is available to anyone who wants it through the free install of iOS 5.

Installation and set-up

Installation itself requires users to have iTunes 10.5. If you have an older version of iTunes, you'll be prompted to install that update before you can install iOS 5 on any of your devices.

Once the iTunes update is installed, you can begin the process of updating your device to iOS 5. It's never a bad idea to back-up your iTunes library and the other files on your device before moving forward. While there are messages assuring you that a back-up will be performed automatically, it's better to be on the safe side in case an unexpected error occurs (which I actually experienced the first time I tried to install the new operating system on my iPad).

Once properly installed, iOS 5 set-up is a snap. You'll be guided through a series of prompts as to whether you'd like to use iCloud, sign in with an Apple ID and even activate the Find My iPad service that helps locate your iPad in the event that you misplace it. After you answer those basic questions, you're done and iOS 5 is yours to explore.

There's good news for Tumblr lovers who like to make audio posts. SoundCloud, the popular audio recording site, recently announced its collaboration with everyone's favorite microblogging website. This allows users to directly upload SoundCloud audio file URLs to Tumblr.

While SoundCloud is geared toward music, the service can clearly be used for so much more. What makes this such a great new feature for Tumblr users is that it's not just limited to music - users can easily record audio diary entries and upload them to Tumblr. Interviews, commentary about current events, covers of your favorite band: virtually anything is fair game, as long as it's your own original content.

What's more, SoundCloud also works great if you're not logged into Tumblr. In addition to being able to share your audio files on Facebook, Twitter and by email, there's now a Tumblr button integrated into the SoundCloud user interface. This allows you to publish to Tumblr directly without having to copy the file to your computer first.

So there you have it. The time is ripe to introduce yourself to your Tumblr followers in a fun, new way!

Today at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, there was a lot of buzz about new features for Android tablets and phones alike. Perhaps one of the biggest announcements was about the launch of Music Beta by Google.

Music Beta by Google allows you to upload your personal music collection to cloud-based storage, where it can be streamed to your computer, Android phone or tablet. This is reminiscent of MP3Tunes, which also offers storage in the cloud and is compatible with both iPhone and Android devices.

Syncing occurs automatically with Music Beta by Google, so every time you add new music or create a playlist, all of your devices will be updated simultaneously. There's even a feature called Instant Mix that will create a playlist for you based on songs that go well together. This is similar to the Genius feature in iTunes, except Instant Mix sorts music you already have, as opposed to suggesting new music you'd need to purchase. Even cooler, all of your recently played songs are automatically stored, allowing you to listen to music even when you're offline.

Currently, Music Beta by Google is available by invitation only to users in the U.S. and works on both PCs and Macs.  If you have a Gmail account, you can request a beta invite here.

Google Docs - for some, the best Google tool out there - has made it to Android with the release of Google Docs for Android.

As you can see from our enthusiastic review, this app is an all-round winner. In fact, I was so taken with it, I'd be tempted to claim that there's nothing it can't do - as long as you stay within the realm of viewing, editing and creating online documents, of course.

What makes Google Docs for Android special is the fact that everything's just so easy - the search function is near perfect (it even found a word inside a PDF) while editing, even on your tiny little touchscreen, is really straightforward. Even better, it has the beginnings of OCR - take a picture of text with your phone's camera, and Google Docs for Android will turn it into an editable document! This function currently works best with plain text in English - it's not ready for handwritten Spanish quite yet, unfortunately.

If you use Google Docs - even occasionally - you really need to download Google Docs for Android now. It takes the basic premise of cloud computing - portability and accessibility - and takes it to a new level, ensuring that your documents are always ready for editing and viewing, no matter where you are.

Well done Google, you've done it again!

Unless you have been asleep under a tree for the last week, you can't have failed to notice that Amazon has done something pretty impressive - it has stolen Google's thunder by launching Cloud Drive.

Even though the name is a little clichéd, it does give you a pretty good idea of what to expect. Cloud Drive is a cloud-based file storage service provided by Amazon. You upload the files you want to store and access - music, videos, photos, etc - and are then free to access them whenever you want using the Cloud Player - an internet based service for Macs and PCs, but currently only available in the US.

Cloud Drive is free for up to 5 GB of media - after that, you have to pay. Interestingly, Amazon are providing mobile access, but only for Android, Blackberry and Palm. Thinking back to last week and the release of Amazon Appstore for Android, it seems that the internet giant is intent on targeting the vast market that the iPhone hasn't yet managed to tap.

It's never a good idea to bet against Google, though they've certainly made mistakes in the past, but the more I hear about Chrome OS the less I think it will be a success. Here are my three big problems with Chrome OS:

1: Over reliance on Cloud Computing

Firstly, while the growth of cloud computing is undeniable, I think Chrome OS takes it too far. As the Wikileaks controversy has shown us, putting your faith in the cloud can be dangerous if you ever find yourself on the wrong side of government.  Keeping your digital life synced with Chrome OS and Google's cloud services means you have to trust that they will continue not to be evil.

Cloud computing also requires almost constant connectivity. It seems to me that instead of just relying on your computer, you also then have to rely on your connection and the remote cloud services you use. That's more stuff to go wrong, which is bad odds. Will users really want to put so much trust in online services?

Can Chrome's alleged speed and ease really be enough to sell the idea of living totally in the cloud? Current portable devices aren't seriously hampered by local storage, especially as flash drives are becoming more widespread. Apple's latest MacBook Airs have shown you can get plenty of local storage in a very light and very sexy package, running a proven full OS. Can Chrome OS really hope to beat that?

2: Antitrust

Currently, getting started with Chrome is a breeze, simply sign in to your Google account and you're good to go. But as Microsoft found with Internet Explorer; too much integration can lead to charges of being anti-competitive. The European Union is already investigating the search giant for allegedly promoting its own services unfairly. Were Google forced to offer other online services as part of the Chrome OS experience, it would be much messier and perhaps lose much of its simplistic allure.

3: Android

This is the big one: With Android being the chosen OS for lots of tablet computers, is there really much space for this netbook OS? Android is better developed and already popular with consumers. It's also well integrated into Google's services, and the gap between using them from a mobile browser and a desktop is rapidly diminishing. What's the big advantage of Chrome OS over Android? Even some ex-Googlers are predicting Android will kill Chrome OS before it really gets off the ground.

One of the most anticipated releases of the year is Google Chrome OS and Google have provided a few more tantalizing details of what to expect.

The Google Chrome Press Conference in San Francisco last week revealed some interesting features including a Chrome OS Web Store where users will be able to download software and applications.

Netbooks running Chrome OS will also be available early next year from manufacturers Acer and Samsung.

Larry Magid of Mercury News saw the OS in action at the conference and reports that users can expect super quick installation times based on your Google account info that will put Windows and even OS X to shame:

When you first get the machine, you enter your Google account information, which is all the operating system needs to configure your machine. And if you change machines or use someone else's, you can log on with your credentials and have immediate access to your data, which is stored in the "cloud" on Google servers.

The other good news is that some applications, including Google Docs and Spreadsheets and even some games, will also run when the machine is not connected to the net and then sync data when you reconnect.

Best of all, Google Chrome OS will be completely free. All we need now is an official release date but judging by the increasing amount of information Google are teasing us with, it looks imminent with early 2011 a good bet. Until then, don't forget to check out our video review of the source code version of Google OS.