Google+ Update Makes Managing Circles Easier

by Jennifer Van Grove

Power Google+ users — those with lots of Circles — are intimately aware of how frustrating it can be to manage them. Your most-used Circles can get hidden at the bottom of a long list. But Google+engineer Brett van Zuiden now comes to the rescue with some welcome Friday afternoon news: You can now reorder your circles.

“We’ve been hearing that you want a way to reorder your circles — so when you add people, view your stream, or share, that list of circles is in the order that works for you,” van Zuiden writes on Google’s thriving social network. “We thought it was a great idea, and today, we’re launching this on Google+.”

In the Circles tab, simply drag-and-drop your Circles to reorder them. Your Circles will now appear elsewhere in the social network in the order you’ve determined.

And that’s not all. “When in the circles tab, you can drag a circle up into the space where all your people are to view all the people for that circle,” van Zuiden adds. “For those in-the-know, it’s called ‘Circle in Tab.’”

The feature release is a relatively minor addition — it probably should have made the first private beta build. Still, it’s an update that could ease a little pain for Google+’s most Circle-happy users.

Google Optimizes Search Page for Tablets

 by Christina Warren

Google has optimized its search experience to better serve iPad andAndroid tablet users.

The new interface refinements align with some of the other changes Google has been making to its products like Gmail and Google+.

The redesign is minimal, but the focus is clearly on making content more accessible for touch-based users. The search button is larger, and content has more white space as well as a more visual look and feel.

On the Google Mobile blog, Google says the rollout will be headed to the iPad and Android 3.1+ tablets in 36 languages. On our iPad 2 running iOS 5 beta 4, we didn’t see the update initially, but it appeared on our device a few minutes into testing.

To access to the new look, just access Google.com in your web browser.

What do you think of the new tablet look for Google search? Let us know.

IE Users Have Lower IQ Than Users of Other Web Browsers [STUDY]

A recent study links intelligence test results with browser usage — and the results don’t look good for users of Microsoft’sInternet Explorer, especially its older versions.

The study, titled “Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Browser Usage” by Canadian company AptiQuant, compiled IQ test scores of 101,326 individuals over the age of 16 and divided them into groups according to the browser they use.

The results are fascinating. Users of Internet Explorer 6 have an average IQ score barely over 80; Firefox and Chrome users fare much better, with average IQ scores of around 110, while Opera and Camino users have an average IQ score over 120.

It’s also interesting to note that average IQ scores of IE6 users were significantly higher in 2006, and that the IQ scores get better with newer versions of IE.

Internet Explorer 6 has long been a thorn in the side of developers who hated it for its non-compliance with web standards, while users struggled with its many security flaws. This new study will probably induce more mockery of the ancient (but still sometimes found on older computers) browser and its users, but it’s probably not telling us that much about the browser itself — it’s about unwillingness to upgrade to a new version of any software.

The study concludes that “individuals on the lower side of the IQ scale tend to resist a change/upgrade of their browsers.” It’s only logical that users with a higher IQ are more likely to experiment, choose a different software version or variant (notice that users of IE with Chrome frame score very high on IQ tests) or listen to upgrade suggestions and security advice.

In March, Microsoft started a campaign to get users to stop using Internet Explorer 6. But did it take into account the fact that many IE6 users tend to have lower than average IQ scores? Maybe that’s the key to finally getting rid of the world’s most hated web browser.

“Individuals on the lower side of the IQ scale tend to resist a change/upgrade of their browsers … Now that we have a statistical pattern on the continuous usage of incompatible browsers, better steps can be taken to eradicate this nuisance,” the study concludes.

Apple Now World’s Top Smartphone Vendor, Has More Cash than U.S. Government

by Stan Schroeder

It must feel good to be a part of Apple today: The company was proclaimed the world’s top smartphone vendor by Strategy Analytics, and its cash reserves are now bigger than the U.S. government’s balance.

Apple is now the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume with 18 percent market share, according to Strategy Analytics‘ report. Nokia is now number three with 15%, behind Samsung, which grew an amazing 520% annually to grab a 17% share of the global smartphone market.

Also, with a $75.9 billion balance, Apple is obviously doing really well in the “cash reserves” department, but it sounds even better when you hear the U.S. Treasury Department say that the government now has a total operating balance of $73.8 billion.

Apple’s stock price recently surged passed $400, and its total market capitalization is more than $363 billion, which makes it the second largest company in the world, behind Exxon Mobil. The Cupertino giant is already on top of the world, and the only question right now seems to be: How much higher can it go?

Rumors: Is This The New iPhone 5 & iPhone 4S? [PICS]

 by Charlie White

With the rumor mill heating up about the iPhone 5 becoming available in September, we’re now beginning to see alleged images of the new phone, along with clear shots of what’s being called a cheaper iPhone 4S.

That grainy shot of someone clutching an “iPhone 5″ while riding on a train was given to 9 to 5 mac.com by a tipster who observed a man holding it in public.

The tipster told 9-to-5 Mac that the person holding the phone “was likely an Apple employee hunched over the device on the way home from work in San Francisco earlier this week.” The tipster said he got a good look at the device but added that the pictures he snapped “didn’t do it justice.” He said when he saw pictures of those two alleged iPhone 5 cases on Mashable showed readers Thursday, he knew he had seen the new iPhone.

At this stage in the iPhone 4′s product cycle in May 2010, Apple placed its new phones inside cases that concealed their true shape. So even if this is the next iPhone in this picture, it might not indicate the precise appearance of the final version.

Our next possibility is shown in a couple of clearer shots of what Vietnamese website Tinhte.vn says is the new iPhone 4S. The site claims this is a lower-cost model of the iPhone 4. As the story goes, this phone will be released along with the flagship iPhone in September.

This white “iPhone 4S” looks a lot like the current iPhone 4, but the rumored cheaper model won’t have the current iPhone’s glass front and back. Rather, it will allegedly have a plastic back that will make the phone significantly lighter than the current iPhone 4.

Google+ Traffic Falls As Users Spend Less Time on Site

by Todd Wasserman

After a running start, Google+‘s growth may be slowing down a bit. A report from Experian Hitwise found both traffic and users’ average time on the social network fell last week in the U.S.

Total visits to Google+ declined about 3% to 1.79 million in the U.S. for the week ending July 23 compared to the previous seven days, according to the research company. The site received 1.86 million visits the prior week. Average time on the site was down 10%, from 5 minutes, 50 seconds to 5 minutes, 15 seconds.

Matt Tatham, a rep for Experian Hitwise, was careful not to overplay the findings. “This is not a huge drop,” he says. The company extrapolates its figures from a sample of 10 million US Internet users by partnering with ISPs and from an opt-in panel of about 2.5 million users.

The report comes after Google+’s traffic enjoyed a steady climb since its June 28 debut. Last week, comScore reported that the network hit 20 million unique visitors. Some were so enamored with Google+ that they closed out their Facebook accounts and moved all their activity to the new network.

What do you think? Has the novelty of Google+ worn off or is this just a blip on the road to world domination? Let us know in the comments.

Google Triples the Speed of the +1 Button

by Ben Parr

The +1 button is about to get a whole lot faster, thanks to an update Google rolled out on Tuesday.

“We’ve begun to roll out out a set of changes that will make the button render up to 3x faster on your site,” software engineer David Byttow said in a blog post. “No action is required on your part, so just sit back, relax, and watch as the button loads more quickly than before.”

In addition to the speed boost, Google also introduced new code that speeds up the +1 button via an asynchronous code snippet. The code allows a web page to load with the +1 JavaScript code in parallel. The result is another improvement in page load time. The code is available on the +1 configuration page.

The +1 button is Google’s answer to Facebook’s Like Button. Since its launch, it has quickly gained adoption, and one report even claims its more widespread than the Twitter Tweet Button.

iPad To Dominate Tablet Market Until 2015 [STUDY]

by Lauren Indvik

The iPad will continue to dominate the growing tablet market until Android tablets take over in 2015, according to forecasts from Informa Telecoms & Media.

The study estimates that Apple currently owns about 75% of the tablet market, which is expected to expand from less than 20 million units in 2010 to more than 230 million in 2015. By that time, Apple’s share of the market will drop to just 38%, due largely to the proliferation of cheaper and more advanced Android tablets. Still, it will take another year — until 2016 — for Android tablets to outsell Apple ones.

RIM’s prospects for market expansion are less optimistic, the study finds. Once the PlayBook begins supporting Android apps and 4G connectivity — HSPA+ and LTE versions are expected before the end of 2011 — sales are expected to improve.

Other analysts are more bullish on Apple’s market dominance. A study released by Gartner in April predicted the iPad will maintain a 47% share of the tablet by 2015, with Android hovering just above 38%.

Who will win the tablet wars, and how long will it take? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Android Now Owns 39% of Smartphone Market [STATS]

 by Christina Warren

Android retains its crown as the top smartphone operating system in the U.S., while RIM continues to falter, according to the most recent data from Nielsen.

In assessing the latest data from June, Nielsen found that 39% of the smartphone market belongs to Google’s Android operating system. Apple has 28% of the market, while RIM and the BlackBerry OS are down to 20%.

When we compare those figures with the data Nielsen released for February through May, Android is up 3%, Apple is up 2% and RIM is down 3%.

When it comes to top phone manufacturers, however, Apple is the clear winner. Like RIM, Apple has the advantage of controlling the software and the hardware for its smartphone platform. Unlike RIM, Apple sells only three smartphones in the U.S.: the iPhone 4 (AT&T), the iPhone 4 (Verizon) and the iPhone 3GS (AT&T).

HTC is the biggest Android manufacturer, according to Nielsen, with 14% of the Android market. Motorola and Samsung have 11% and 8% respectively.