Earlier today, Google announced and released Google Chrome for iPhone and iPad, leaving many of us screaming "finally!" Google Chrome is a very popular web browser for Mac and PC that lets you keep bookmarks, tabs, logins and more synced between computers. With Google Chrome for iOS, you can now bring that same personalized experience to your iPhone and iPad.

I really like the look of Google Chrome on the iPhone and iPad. It's very clean and well designed. You are allowed an infinite number of tabs that you can easily scroll through. On the iPad, the tabs will just start piling up on one end of the tool bar and scrolling through the tab bar will reveal more tabs, moving the pile to the other end. On the iPhone, You have to tap on the windows button which will show all your tabs like stacks of folders on top of each other that you can scroll up and down through.

While viewing a webpage, you can also switch between tabs by swiping left or right to the next/previous one.

If you select a tab that needs to be refreshed, it will first be displayed in black and white before quickly being automatically refreshed by Google Chrome.

Just like with Google Chrome for desktop, the search and web address field are the same. You can either type in a term that you want to search and watch suggestions appear as you type, or you can enter a full web address before hitting Go. Google Chrome is smart enough to figure out when you want to go to specific website or perform a search.

Overall, I'm very impressed with Google Chrome for iPhone and iPad. It's fast, pretty, and functional. My only complaint is that with data heavy websites, scrolling isn't buttery smooth like with Safari.

The other advantage that Safari has over Chrome is that is that it's the default browser for iPhone and iPad. Unfortunately, Apple does not allow users to change their default browser to something other than Safari which means if you click on a link in Mail, Twitter, or anywhere, your iPhone or iPad will automatically launch Safari even if you would rather use Chrome. This isn't Chrome's fault, but is still something to consider when deciding if you're going to switch to using Chrome.

The good

• Nice design
• Fast
• Syncs with Google Chrome for desktop
• Infinite number of tabs allowed
• Scroll though tabs
• Incognito mode

The bad

• Scrolling isn't buttery smooth

The conclusion

If you use Google Chrome on your Mac or PC, you definitely want to start using Google Chrome on your iPad and iPhone. It's an awesome browser and the synced personalizations is priceless. If you don't use Google Chrome, you may want to start.

Free - Download Now

The man responsible for producing all the hardware that powers all of Apple's designs and software, Senior Vice President Bob Mansfield, is retiring. There's not much more to the story at this point, but he's obviously got Apple money, and like Jon Rubinstein, Tony Fadell, and Bertrand Serlet before him, he's done what he set out to accomplish, and is ready for the next chapter.

"Bob has been an instrumental part of our executive team, leading the hardware engineering organization and overseeing the team that has delivered dozens of breakthrough products over the years," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "We are very sad to have him leave and hope he enjoys every day of his retirement."

Unless and until there's more to report, we're simply thank him for all the work he put in and all the tremendous products he helped bring to market, and wish him health, happiness, peace, and joy in whatever comes next.

Mansfield's replacement will be Dan Riccio, who previously worked for Mansfield in the hardware division as VP of iPad hardware.

"Dan has been one of Bob's key lieutenants for a very long time and is very well respected within Apple and by the industry," added Cook. "Our hardware engineering team is the best engineering team on earth and will not miss a beat during the transition."

Here's the full press release from Apple.

Bob Mansfield, Apple's Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, to Retire

Dan Riccio to Take Over Role When Transition is Complete

CUPERTINO, California—June 28, 2012—Apple® today announced that Bob Mansfield, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will retire and the role will be transitioned to Dan Riccio, Apple's vice president of iPad Hardware Engineering, over several months. The entire hardware engineering team will continue to report to Mansfield until his departure.

"Bob has been an instrumental part of our executive team, leading the hardware engineering organization and overseeing the team that has delivered dozens of breakthrough products over the years," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "We are very sad to have him leave and hope he enjoys every day of his retirement."

"Dan has been one of Bob's key lieutenants for a very long time and is very well respected within Apple and by the industry," added Cook. "Our hardware engineering team is the best engineering team on earth and will not miss a beat during the transition."

As senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, Mansfield has led Mac® hardware engineering since 2005, iPhone® and iPod® hardware engineering since 2010, and iPad® hardware engineering since its inception. Mansfield joined Apple in 1999 when Apple acquired Raycer Graphics, where he was vice president of Engineering. Mansfield earned a BSEE degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1982.

Riccio currently serves as vice president of iPad Hardware Engineering and has been instrumental in all of Apple's iPad products since the first generation iPad. Riccio joined Apple in 1998 as vice president of Product Design and has been a key contributor to most of Apple's hardware over his career. Dan earned a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1986.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

Apple has released their own Podcasts app into the App Store. It allows you to listen or watch, stream, download, and subscribe to your favorite audio and video podcasts right from your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Before now, you had to sync subscribed podcasts from iTunes desktop on Mac or PC, stream or download single episodes from the iTunes app and play them in the Music or Video app, or use one of the third party podcast app. We recently took a look at Instacast, Downcast, and Pocket Casts. Let's see how Podcasts stacks up against them.

Navigation and interface

Podcasts starts you off with your podcast library. Here you'll see all the podcasts you are currently subscribed. You can toggle between tile and list view with just a tap at the top. You can also tap edit and rearrange or delete subscriptions.

Along the bottom you can choose to view your podcast library or top stations. The top stations feature will allow you to tab through different categories of podcasts on a dial at the top. From there you can select podcasts, subscribe to them, or download individual episodes. To play an episode just tap on the episode title and your podcasts with being playing.

Listening to or watching podcasts and viewing show notes

Once you've started listening to or watching a podcast, you will be presented with some controls along the bottom. You can skip through different episodes, pause, rewind in 10 second increments, fast forward in 30 second increments, or adjust volume. If you want to scrub through the podcast you can do so on the timed slider. Other playback features include setting a sleep time or sharing that particular episode via e-mail, twitter, or text message.

When it comes to show notes, you'll only be able to view them from your podcasts library which is disappointing. Several other podcatcher apps allow you to view show notes directly from your now playing screen so you can follow along when show notes are provided. I've also found this to be a nice feature for skipping through sections of a podcast you aren't interested in. The Podcasts app doesn't make this an easy task.

The most infuriating thing I've found about the Podcasts app is that it marks episodes as played immediately. If you play an episode for even a few seconds the app will frequently mark the episode as completely played. This does not make much sense to me. Even the Videos app for iOS will mark episodes as partially played. I would think this is even more important for podcasts. Some episodes seem to show a partially played icon while others will not. It's just not a very consistent experience.

Streaming and downloading

You can listen to podcasts by either streaming them or downloading them directly to your iPhone or iPad. If you plan on being somewhere that has no service, you can tap the download button on any episode to physically download it to your device. If you are on Wi-Fi or have a high data plan you can save space by just streaming episodes.

When you initially subscribe to a podcast it won't actually download anything for you. All the episodes will show up in your library but if you tap on them to play them you'll be given the streaming version. So be careful about that if you've got a capped data plan. You can tap the gear on any podcast subscription to have the app download any newly added content automatically.

There's also no notification support, so you won't know when new episodes are available until you open the Podcasts app. And because Apple put Podcasts in the App Store instead of building it into iOS, it doesn't get any special background privileges, so new episodes won't download until you go to the app either.

That makes it fair for other podcast app developers, but it's not as convenient for users. Having a way for content apps to "wake up" and download fresh material, like Newsstand apps, would be a great feature for iOS 6 or future versions of iOS...

iCloud sync

The most disappointing part of the Podcasts app to me is that there is very little iCloud sync. Apple says it will sync your play state between iOS devices, but I couldn't get it to work. Also, leaving out Apple TV and iTunes desktop makes it less useful anyway.

It's also less than ideal that I can't sync subscriptions between devices. It means I have to subscribe (or unsubscribe over time) to each show, on each device, over and over again. For a lot of podcasts on a lot of devices, that's not user friendly.

Considering iCloud is Apple's own in-house cloud syncing solution, I am baffled at the fact that the Podcasts app doesn't better integrate with it. Hopefully that's near the top of the coming features list.

Conclusion

Whether you are a casual podcast listener or a hardcore subscriber that needs all the other bells and whistles, there are much better options than Apple's own Podcasts app.

If you want a good podcatcher app, Instacast is a much better solution that will actually sync all your subscriptions between your iPhone and iPad. Instacast will even send you push notifications when new episodes are available. While independent apps may not be able to compete with the free price tag, they definitely offer better functionality and are a lot more customizable than Podcasts.

Unless and until Apple updates and rounds out the feature set, when it comes to podcast apps, you really will get what you pay for.

Free - Download Now

Additional resources:

• Instacast vs. Downcast vs. Pocket Casts: iPhone podcast app shootout!
• Pandora vs. Slacker vs. Spotify: iPhone streaming music app showdown!
• Even more app reviews

Today at I/O 2012 Google announced that they're extending their cloud storage service to iOS devices, allowing iPhone and iPad owners to remotely access their documents, music, photos, and other files. It has some cool tricks baked in, such as optical character recognition, so you can search through documents that have been scanned or photographed. There's also Goggles-style image recognition, so you can discover more about pictures in your files. There's local file syncing, as well as collaborative features to allow teams to work together on the same documents.

Google also announced that Chrome is landing on iOS today, if you're interested in flirting with a new browser. 

You can grab Google Drive from the App Store now. (And no, you're not crazy, Google seems to have decided not to add any upload functionality. Senses made: zero.)

Free - Download now

Source: AndroidCentral

At Google I/O 2012 today, Google announced they'll be bringing their Chrome web browser to the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Today. Now in fact.

Free - Download now

Before anyone gets too excited, however, it's important to remember that alternate local web browsers on iOS all have to use UIWebView to render HTML content, and don't get access to Nitro Apple's less secure, but faster just-in-time JavaScript engine. That means Google Chrome on iOS will be slower for JavaScript intensive sites than Safari.

So no Chrome-specific WebKit implementation. No V8 JavaScript engine. No ability to open pages in Chrome instead of Safari. Nothing beyond what any other browser in the App Store gets.

But this isn't a rendering play by Google -- this is an interface and services play.

Google Chrome on iOS will bring with it the Chrome aesthetic, and more importantly, all the sync features Chrome desktop and Chrome for Android users enjoy. If you have a PC, an Android phone, and an iPad, you now have a seamless, synced experience between all your device. For Chrome lovers, that's huge.

Speaking of which, Google also used I/O 2012 to announce Chrome as the world's most popular browser.

We'll be back later with a full review -- including a look at how Chrome on iPhone and iPad stacks up to Safari and Chrome for Android. So stay tuned. And for more from Google I/O 2012, keep it locked to our Mobile Nations sibling site, Android Central.

Atari's 40th anniversary is this week, and to celebrate they're offering their catalog of classic games on iOS for free. Normally the 100-strong collection goes for $9.99, and even then, most of the titles still required in-app purchases. The version available now offers all of 'em for free, so long as you keep the arcade app installed, but it will be reverting back to its original pricing sometime tonight, so old-school gamers will want to hop on this deal soon. The list of included games include all of the big name titles:

• Asteroids
• Centipede
• Pong
• Missile Command
• Warlords
• Tempest

For the next 4 days, Atari will also be giving away some sweet swag on their Facebook page. If you're looking for something a little more modern, Atari recently released a cutesy remake of Centipede for iOS.

Hey, Steve Jobs worked at Atari for a spell, y'know. Someone, for some reason, actually paid $27,500 for an original memo from Jobs in 1974 on how to fix a bug in an arcade game called World Cup.

Free (normally $9.99) - Download Now

Rene, Georgia, and Seth briefly look back at 300 episodes of Phone different, iPhone Live, TiPb Live, iPad Live, TiPb TV, and iPhone & iPad Live, then discuss the past and future of iOS, and how iOS 6 stacks up to the competition. This is the iMore show!

• Subscribe via iTunes: Audio | Video
• Subscribe via RSS: Audio | Video
• Download directly: Audio | Video

iOS 6

• iOS 6

iOS dream device give-away

iOS 6 is coming this fall and iMore wants to make sure you have the absolute latest, greatest iOS device(s) to enjoy it on, and experience every feature Apple makes available. We want to give you your iOS dream device.

We've got you covered.

The Prize: A $600 Apple gift certificate to put towards the iOS device -- or devices -- of your dreams. A new iPhone 4S? A shiny new iPad? A couple of iPod touches or a handful of Apple TV? Or maybe even an iPhone 5 or mythical iPad mini if and when they're released? -- Whatever you choose!

How to enter: Simply head on over to our YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/imorevideo and subscribe, then leave a comment on the video for the iMore show 300. Make it something sassy, something sweet, something funny, something insightful, something daring, something delightful -- make it something uniquely you.

The giveaway starts now and the winner will be announced live on the iMore show on July 11, 2012.

So what are you waiting for? Enter already!

Hosts

• Georgia (GeorgiaTiPb
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford)
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter @iMore, or you can email us at podcast@imore.com

For all our podcasts -- audio and video -- including iPhone and iPad Live, ZEN and TECH, Iterate, and more, see MobileNations.com/shows

If you haven't already please subscribe to all our shows in iTunes and leave a rating. It helps people find the show and means a lot to us!

Thanks to the iMore Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

For today only the iMore iPhone Accessory Store has the Krusell Luna Large Leather Pouch for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 on sale for only $14.95! That's a huge 50%! Get yours before they're gone!

The Krusell Luna Large Leather Pouch is a slim pouch which blends well with a sleek minimalistic look. An everyday, nice designed pouch to keep in your pocket, in your bag or around your neck.

This soft and durable case will form like a glove around your phone. The backside metal ring and removable O-carabiner is included for convenient carrying in your beltloop or a neckstrap.

Features:

• Inner Dimensions: 116x62x12 mm
• Genuine Leather Pouch
• Soft Interior for extra protection
• Metal ring on backside of case
• Carry in purse, pocket, or on belts

Shop Krusell Luna Large Leather Pouch for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 now!

The LUMOback has just hit Kickstarter and looks to solve your back problems by alerting you when you have bad posture. Kickstarter members are cranking out some really interestig ventures these days and this one is no different. The LUMOback has two parts to it, a hardware part and an iPhone app. The hardware part consists of a sensor and vibration motor, it senses when you are sittting or standing in a bad way and alerts you with a gentle vibration. You wear the sensor on your lower back like a belt and it has been designed so you barely feel that you are wearing it.

The app connects to the sensor wirelessly via your iPhone 4S or new iPad (we assume it is using low energy Bluetooth 4.0). It then monitors all of your movements and displays them back using its innovative stickman avatar called LUMO. It monitors you when you sit, stand, walk, run, lie down and more.

Our story begins with one of our co-founders, Andrew, and his quest to find a solution for his bad back. His back troubles made him feel frustrated and less productive. Andrew tried everything but nothing worked, until he took posture classes that taught him how to sit, stand, and sleep properly. Learning better posture has transformed his life. Not only does he feel better, he looks great too. Posture is scientifically linked to back problems (which affects 80% of people sometime in their lives) and is also important for confidence, physical fitness, and general wellness. Using the latest sensor and mobile technologies, we can bring good posture and movement back into our daily lives. In doing so, we hope to positively transform the lives of millions of other people too.

As this is a Kickstarter project, funding for the project is critical to its success. As it stands, it has managed to reach just under half of its $100,000 target; it does still have 33 days to go. If you suffer from bad posture or spend way too much time in from of a computer screen and want to do something about your posture you can get an early piece of the action. Pledges start from $99 including the LUMOback with various other options upwards from that.

Source: Kickstarter 

A conman is ripping off unsuspecting members of the public who are looking to pick up an iPhone, iPad or other Apple products. The conman is operating in the East Yorkshire area of the United Kingdom and claims to be selling Apple's latest products at much reduced prices. The fraudster is approaching potential victims in the street and in exchange for an undisclosed amount of cash, the victim receives a sealed iPhone 4S or iPad package. Only after the conman has fled do they open the box to discover the most expensive potato or water bottle they have ever bought.

Detective Sergeant Darren Rose, of the Priority Crime Team in Hull, said: "If a deal appears to be too good to be true, the chances are it is. "Our advice is simple – if you want to purchase high-value property, such as laptops and high specification mobile telephones, go to a legitimate dealer and do not enter into deals with strangers on the street." Humberside Police say the man approaches members of the public at random in the street, offering to sell them iPhones.

Common sense should prevail in situations like this however the idea of picking up an iPhone or iPad for a bargain price is hard for some people to resist. Unfortunately this is exactly why these scams become successful. With any purchases of products outside of a retail environment it always makes sense to at least see the actual product you are buying and see it in operation before parting with any money. Even then there is still a huge risk as you have no warranty and no idea of the origin of the products.

Source: Hull and East Riding

One of the big features of the upcoming iOS 6 is the ability to send a Tweet directly from Notification Center, but if you don't want to wait until Fall (probably October) for it's release (or are planning not to upgrade), iQuick Tweet for iPhone is here! iQuick Tweet allows you to swipe down Notification Center, tap the notification, and send a tweet!

Once you open up iQuick Tweet for the first time and exit, you will instantly be sent a notification after closing the app. This notification will say "Send a Tweet" and will appear in your Notification Center. Tapping the notification will launch iQuick Tweet with the compose screen open and ready to go. After you send the Tweet and exit (or cancel and exit) you will immediately be sent another notification ensuring that you always have a notification ready to go to quickly send a tweet.

Another little, yet convenient, feature of iQuick Tweet is that if you regularly use a specific hashtag in your tweets, you can save it in iQuick Tweet so that every time you start a tweet, the hashtag is added to your tweet automatically.

To keep your iQuick Tweet notification at the top of Notification Center, go to Settings, then Notifications, and choose to sort apps manually. Then tap Edit and drag iQuick Tweet up to the top (perhaps below your widgets).

The good

• Access iQuick Tweet from Notification Center
• A new notification will be sent to Notification Center automatically upon exiting iQuick Tweet
• Save hashtags to be automatically be added to new tweets

The bad

• No complaints

The conclusion

I'll admit that I'm actually surprised to see that Apple allowed iQuick Tweet into the App Store with this feature. In fact, I told the developer this when he told me this version of iQuick Tweet was up for review. I'm glad to be proven wrong as this is a fantastic app. I wish I had it a long time ago!

The giveaway!

Developer Jason Cipriani has been kind enough to give us 5 promo codes to giveaway to our awesome readers! For a chance to win, just leave a comment below!

$0.99 - Download Now

Since Siri is meant to be your personal assistant, it only makes sense to have it schedule and manage your meetings and events. Asking Siri to create a Calendar event only takes a few seconds and is much faster than creating them manually and entering all the data yourself. Whether you need Siri to schedule a meeting, tell you what's on the agenda for the, or move an existing meeting to another time to make room for a conference call or a power nap, Siri will help make sure your schedule is set.

• How to create a calendar event with Siri
• How to update a calendar event with Siri
• How to cancel a calendar event with Siri
• How to view and check your Calendar with Siri

How to create a calendar event with Siri

If you're on the go or just want an easier way to add events to your Calendar app, Siri will happily get the job done for you. Creating an event is super simple and only takes a few seconds.

1. Hold down the Home button to activate Siri.

2. Tell Siri what you'd like her to schedule. For example: "Schedule a conference call with Phil tomorrow at 9AM."
3. Wait for Siri to show you the Calendar widget and ask for confirmation.

If there's any ambiguity about what you said, or Siri is uncertain, it will ask you to clarify. For example, if you ask to set up an appointment "tomorrow", and it's near midnight, Siri will ask you to specify the date to make sure the appointment is set up properly.

How to update a calendar event with Siri

There may be times where you'll need to make changes to existing meetings, events, or appointments. Siri can do that for you too.

1. Hold down the Home button to activate Siri.

2. If you know what meeting you need to change you can just tell Siri to move or cancel it. For example: "Move my meeting with Rene to 5PM."
3. Wait for Siri to show you the updated Calendar widget and ask for confirmation.

How to cancel a calendar event with Siri

You can also use Siri to completely cancel a meeting or appointment.

1. Hold down the Home button to activate Siri.

2. Ask Siri to cancel the appointment or meeting. For example: "Cancel my meeting with Leanna on Monday."
3. Wait for Siri to ask for confirmation.

If you've got multiple meetings with someone and don't specify a specific one, Siri will ask you to confirm which meeting you'd like to cancel.

How to view and check your Calendar with Siri

1. Hold down the Home button to activate Siri.

2. To find out what calendar events you have scheduled, simply ask. For example: "What's on my calendar for today?", "What meetings do I have scheduled this Tuesday?"
3. View the meetings or any info about them you'd like and then simply tap your Home button again to exit out of Siri.

How to get more help with Siri

If you still need help with setting up or using Siri with your iPhone Contacts, or any other Siri feature, head on over to our Siri Forum and ask away!

• How to set up, configure, secure, and start using Siri
• How to establish relationships and call, message, email, and find your contacts using Siri
• How to set alarms and timers using Siri
• How to set reminders and update task and to-do lists with Siri

Adding fuel to the iTunes 11 make-over fire, new rumors are making the rounds that suggest Apple's do-over will include much better iCloud integration. Which, of course, makes the kind of sense that does. Bloomberg teases:

Apple will unveil the changes by year's end, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren't public. The company will more closely integrate its iCloud file- storage service with iTunes so users can more seamlessly access and manage their music, videos and downloaded software apps across different Apple gadgets, the people said. Apple also plans new features for sharing music, the people said.

Sources all tell Bloomberg that Apple is working to improve file management, given the huge amount of content now available in the various iTunes, iBook, and App Stores.

That includes changes to how users find new material and how they access what they already own on different Apple devices

Part of this is said to include sharing, and they claim Apple is trying to negotiate more photos and pictures to accompany music, as well as the rights for a user to listen to a song sent to them by another user. (Would that require a return of DRM for single-use song promos?) The existing Twitter integrated, and new fangled Facebook integration would be included as well.

On the oft-rumored Apple subscription music service, Bloomberg's sources disagree. Apple's oft-stated belief is that people prefer to own their music, but as competition increases and generations change, it's inevitable they'd investigate all options.

What remains to be seen is whether or not Apple takes any new iTunes version as an opportunity to de-bloat the aging, saggy app. On iOS they've pulled music and video and iBooks apart, separated iTunes Store, App Store, and iBook, and now added distinct iTunes U and Podcasts apps.

Since Apple still maintains cross-compatibility with Windows in iTunes, it's no doubt easier for them to simply port one big app, but at some point doing everything becomes doing nothing, at least not well.

Source: Bloomberg