If you can't get enough of Google+ at the moment then you'll be pleased to hear one young developer has already developed a desktop app for Macs - well kind of. Google+ for Mac is an unofficial app for Macs that allows you to access Google+ directly from your Dock. Google+ for Mac requires Google Chrome and uses the web interface of Google+ to allow faster and easier access of Google+ from your Mac.

The developer emphasizes that Google+ for Mac is a temporary solution until he can create a native desktop app. Note it is not based on a Google+ API - it is just a ported browser.

Google+ for Mac doesn't therefore do anything revolutionary. It merely puts an icon in your Dock that when clicked, opens your Google+ profile in Chrome.

It is a bit restrictive  - navigating to external sites outside of Google+ doesn't seem to work for example but it's fine just for using Google+.

You can of course achieve much of the same effect as Google+ for Mac with Fluid.app but the developer promises Google+ for Mac will go far beyond what you can achieve with Fluid in the near future. It's likely that Google will eventually release their own desktop app (or at least the API for developers to do so) but until then, Google+ for Mac is a good stop-gap.

Download Google+ for Mac

A new version of the official YouTube app for Android has been released today, adding a new user interface for uploading videos to the site.

The redesigned uploading tool lets you edit the title, description and privacy of uploaded videos, and makes the process much quicker than in the previous version. The new version of the YouTube Android app also allows you to create, edit and delete playlists from your phone. Of course, customary bug fixes and performance tweaks have also been included.

Check out our review of YouTube for Android for a run-down on what the app is capable of.

A new interesting feature has made it to Gmail Labs: Preview Pane. If you've used desktop email clients like Microsoft Outlook on Windows or Mail on Mac, you already know what we're talking about: a sidebar pane where the content of the selected message is displayed for faster email checking. With the new Preview Pane feature you can now have that functionality in Gmail too. Here's how:

1. Log in to your Gmail account and select Labs from the drop-down menu on the top right corner.

2. Browse down to Preview Pane and click on Enable. Go all the way up or down and press the Save Changes button.

Slow internet connections can be a real drag. This is particularly true when it comes to loading web pages. Wouldn’t it be nice to have search results pre-loaded, so when you click on one the website just comes up instantly?

Google’s doing just that with Instant Pages, an add-on that comes included with the latest stable version of the Chrome web browser. Using the Google Instant feature that shows suggested search results as you type them, the Instant Pages plug-in will automatically pre-render the top search result that appears. If you click on it, the page should load instantaneously, as opposed to taking the typical two to five seconds.

This can really speed up your browsing. Of course it all depends on just how accurate Google Instant Search happens to be for you, as well as the likelihood of you choosing the top search option on a consistent basis. Unlike Google Instant Search – which some users have admittedly found annoying at times – Instant Pages shouldn’t cause any irritation whatsoever. Either you click on the top search result and get an instantaneous page load time or you choose another option and have to “suffer” through the normal wait time of a few paltry seconds. In the end, it’s a win-win situation for Chrome users all-around.

Google+ has only been around for  a couple of months and it's already reached 25 million users. More and more people are thinking about ditching Facebook and adopting Google+ as their main social network - and maybe you're among them! Moving to a new social website can be as much a pain as moving to a new flat, so if you're considering switching to Google+, here are a few tips that can help you with the migration.

Security

First things first. Before starting the process, you need to download all the information on Facebook to your computer, account just in case. If you don't know how to do it, check out my post on how to backup your Facebook account.

Importing photos

There are two ways to import your photos into Google+. One is using the Google Chrome extension Move your Photos, which accesses your Facebook account (after you authorize it, of course) and displays all your Facebook photo albums on a web page. You can then select the ones you want to import to Google+ and let the extension do the hard work for you.

The other way to import your photos to Google+ is using Picasa in combination with the backup copy you created before. Import the Facebook photo albums included in the backup into Picasa, and then enable the Sync to Web feature to upload and sync those images with your Picasa Web Album.

As soon as the images are on Picasa, they'll be available on Google+.

Apple today announced the release of iCloud, the online storage service that replaces MobileMe. iCloud has a number of competitors to deal with but biggest of all is Dropbox for Windows and Mac. While iCloud may certainly be a wake up call to Dropbox which hasn't seen much innovation in recent years, it's unlikely to replace it anytime soon. Here are some reasons why:

• Dropbox is truly cross platform

Dropbox will remain by far the easiest way to share files across platforms whether you're on Windows, Mac, Android or Linux. The only mobile platform it doesn't work with is Symbian and there's even a client to fix that.  iCloud meanwhile is restricted to mainly Apple devices such as Macs, iPhones and iPads. PCs are supported (although Windows XP isn't). Basically, if you don't have an Apple ID , then iCloud will be inaccessible to you.

• Dropbox is more flexible

Dropbox can store anything you throw at it. iCloud on the other hand is much more application based and backups/syncing will rely on developers adding support for it in their apps. This is great for Mac users that use official Apple products such as  iTunes and iPhoto etc but not no good for those that rely on third party apps that don't add iCloud support. Even though the free version of iCloud offers 5GB of free space compared to 2GB on Dropbox, you can't do as much with it.

• iCloud isn't a backup solution

iCloud is fine for syncing but not for backups - at least not for photos. At the moment, iCloud only allows photos to be stored for up to 30 days. Dropbox allows you to store your files for as long as you want or maintain your account. Apple may change this if they realize it's  a deal breaker for many users but until then, iCloud will be seen more as a syncing tool than a backup one.

Like MobileMe, it goes without saying that iCloud is likely to be a big hit with those who rely only on Apple products. It may also be popular with iTunes users that want to sync their music, calendar and address book with the cloud but nothing else. Dropbox may lose users of its professional version as people opt to use iCloud for music, and use the free version of Dropbox for general storage.

Whatever happens, iCloud should at least motivate Dropbox to improve its product and that can only be good news for its users.

Download Dropbox for Windows and Mac.

Is this the beginning of the end for Flash? Adobe has launched a preview version of Edge - their new web motion and interaction design tool for animated content creation using HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3.

However, Adobe has stated that it is not a direct replacement for Flash although it offers most of the design features available in Adobe Flash Professional. Edge is based on the WebKit rendering engine and takes full advantage of the latest web development standards as Adobe seek to find a solution to Flash related issues across platforms and manufacturers such as the banning of Flash by Apple on iPhones.

Adobe Edge allows you to add animations to HTML documents and add CSS styles to SVG, PNG, JPG and GIF files. The preview version is free to download and use on both Mac and Windows and is continually being updated with new tools and features. You can follow the latest developments and news on Facebook and Twitter.

Download Adobe Edge here for Mac and Windows.

Most of us carry a smartphone or laptop everywhere we go: the office, the coffee shop, the library. And more often than not, we don't pay enough attention to our valuable gadgets - or we just leave them unattended for a moment. While keeping an eye on your belongings at all times is the best way to prevent anyone from stealing them, having an extra layer of security is not a bad idea either. There are apps to track stolen laptops and mobile phones with which you can find your missing gadgets, and also erase their content if necessary. Here are some of the most popular ones:

Track stolen laptops.

The most popular tracking app for stolen or misplaced computers is Prey. Prey is an open-source utility that uses WiFi spots and geolocation to find your laptop. All you need to use it is install the client on the computer and create a user account on the Prey website. If your computer disappears, log in to your Prey user account and mark it as "missing". The program will start sending highly detailed reports with loads of information: active apps, network connections and desktop snapshots - you may even catch the burglar's face with the laptop's built-in camera!

After a little wait, iPhone users can now enjoy Google+ with a native app. Having spent the last two weeks using the mobile browser version, this is great news!

Just as on the web app, you can share with your circles and check out your stream, photos and profile. Now iPhone users can join Android owners in using Huddle. This is the Google+ group chat app, and it's pretty cool, allowing you to easily set up group chats from your phone among whoever you want in your circles. Download the app and  check out our full review here.

uTorrent has long been one of the best free cross-platform P2P tools around. Now the app's developers have announced they are launching a premium version of uTorrent that will deliver "extra convenience and powerful new features".

According to the devlopers:

µTorrent Plus is designed for people who are looking for a single solution to find, get and play content anywhere, on any device. Hassles with codec and conversion issues, struggles with device shifting, and more will be a thing of the past.

But are there really enough users out there willing to pay for a premium version of uTorrent? The free version is already an excellent application and it's hard to see how it could be improved.

Let us know what it would take to convince you to pay for uTorrent.

File sharing and collaborative tools are all the rage lately. From cloud-based Box.net to Microsoft SharePoint and beyond, being able to access your important documents immediately and from virtually anywhere is of utmost importance to users today.

Dropbox is arguably the best known cloud-based file sharing service. It’s available for Windows PCs, Macs, iPhones and Android smartphones. It’s Android that received this newest Dropbox update, and although it’s a small one, it should please Android users who value simplicity and ease of use.

Beyond vaguely described bug fixes, security updates and performance improvements, Dropbox for Android has added two new features that make using the app from your phone even easier. The first involves the ability to delete folders in your account directly from your phone. This will help users cut down on clutter wherever they go. The second update has added photo thumbnails to the file browser. This should help users quickly identify the files they’re searching for.

Making file uploads and organization both quicker and simpler seems to be Dropbox’s main points of focus and it’s hard to find anything to complain about when this newest update gives users just that.

Google is on fire: in just a few days they've launched their own social network Google+, announced the rebranding of Picasa and Blogger to Google Photos and Google Blogs respectively, and slightly redesigned a few of of their online services (such as search and calendar). The new design will presumably be slowly rolled out to all Google services in the near future, but you can have a sneak peek - at least in Gmail:

To preview Gmail's new look you have to click the gear icon on the top right corner and select the Mail settings option.

Then click the Themes tab and browse down to the bottom of the page. You'll see two Preview themes: standard and dense.  The first one uses the same space between text lines that Gmail has been using up to now, while the second one leaves more space between lines and makes it all cleaner.

Whatever theme you pick, Gmail will immediately apply the new design. This is how my inbox looked with the standard Preview theme:

Google+ may be more than "just" a social network, but it can be used in in a similar way to Facebook, and many people want to join precisely because they want a change. Facebook has suffered a number of privacy scares as it has grown, so how does it compare with new kid Google+? Let's take a look at the  privacy options of both social apps.

Privacy Settings:

Facebook's privacy dashboard has a neat table that shows you who can see what. Click Customize and you can edit these settings. You can choose to share things with just you, friends, friends of friends or specific people. You can also opt to hide certain categories from specific people. Here you can also preview your profile as it appears to any of your friends.

The Google+ privacy settings page is much longer, but every segment is clearly explained. Editing your settings takes you to your profile, letting you see exactly which part of your profile you are altering. Google+'s Circles means you choose who can see your posts and updates as you make them, giving you much greater control.

While their approaches are different, I think both are good attempts at making privacy and sharing settings accessible and user friendly.

It's the end of an era for NASA - this weekend they will finally launch their final space shuttle mission Atlantis before the next generation of space craft come into service. Having made its maiden voyage in 1985, Atlantis will make made its last ever lift-off in the next few hours (weather permitting) after over 25 years of service. If you don't want to miss history in the making, here are a few ways to follow the lift-off online:

NASA TV

You can watch every second of the action live on NASA TV from 08:00 EDT and also stream it your iPhone or Android Phone.

If you can't watch it then follow it on twitter either with @NASA:

or @NASAKennedy:

Enjoy the launch and let's hope the weather doesn't delay it!

I switched to Chrome only a few weeks ago. I didn't consider switching before because Firefox was working fine for me, and I wasn't suffering from any of the speed, stability of memory issues everyone around me was complaining about. But when Firefox 4 launched everything changed, and that was the turning point for me. I downloaded Chrome and I'm not going back. Here's my simple guide to switching without a hitch:

Switching to a new browser makes you anxious. Will it be easy to use? Will I be able to adapt? What about extensions? You spend the very first hours exploring menus and options, learning the new location of options and settings, testing if your old keyboard shortcuts are still working. Luckily, moving from Firefox to Chrome is not that difficult - there are just a few things you need to take into account.