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If you have logged on to your Google+ account recently, you probably noticed a couple of changes. Google has redesigned its networking site to feature a more streamlined look with maximised screen space for a user’s feed in an effort to battle with Facebook and Twitter.

Google has ditched the sidebar and positioned all navigational tools at the top of the screen, in addition to launching several enhancements.

The site now has multi-column view choices reminiscent of Pinterest. Users can view a single column, two columns or three columns, depending on their screen size. Google has also added the ability to switch back to the old design.

Another noticeable new feature is called “Related hashtags”, which allows users to flip through related photos with a simple click on the current photo to find related hashtags. Users can also enjoy “Intelligent hashtags”. This feature analyses the photo and automatically places a hashtag on your post. The hashtag can be removed manually and users can also opt out of the feature altogether.

Photo editing has been made easier as Google+ now offers the new “Highlight” tool, which picks out a user’s best shots to display in photo streams while leaving out the blurry ones. The “Auto Enhance” tool can be used to remove red eye, improve skin tone, correct white balance and more. The “Awesome” tool strings photos together in an animated sequence.

Google also backs up all pictures taken from a user’s mobile device as soon as the photos are taken and is also providing accounts with up to 15 gigabytes of storage to accommodate full-resolution photos.

If you use Google Hangouts, then you undoubtedly know that they are a great, easy way to quickly connect with friends and family via video and voice.  Until now, however, it’s been difficult to use them for serious business meetings and webinar-style get togethers because there has been no good way to pause, rewind, or record live On Air broadcasts except with clunky third-party apps.

That’s changed.

Now you can use TiVo-like controls over a live broadcast you’re watching so you can jump up for that potty break or to grab an important call.

In addition to this great feature, On Air videos can now be published immediately instead of waiting during the “processing..” dialogue.  On Air videos are now processed as they air, in near-real-time.

This means that it takes a few moments longer to get your Hangout started, but otherwise, things are perfect.  For those of us who often use our mobile devices to participate in Hangouts and do On Air shows.. Google has also improved how connectivity is handled so that slow connections or connections that periodically drop for a moment or two don’t mean a closed Hangout.  For viewers, live broadcasts now begin without a page refresh.

With Hangouts now on many of the Google services we use daily, like Android and the new Glass, this is a big step forward towards making it an integrated part of how we communicate.

Sometimes, words are not enough to tell someone how you really feel, especially when talking via mobile or through social media. Emoticons can help users express feelings that normally would be conveyed via facial gestures.

Although these images are seemingly simple, trivial or even quirky, they have been a hit with savvy social media users. Now they are set to invade Facebook Messenger to help users communicate things that words alone might not convey. On Monday, the biggest social network upgraded its Messenger app with a few cute and colourful stickers.

These stickers are emoticons that show various feelings in the same way as facial expressions. The update has already been made available for the Facebook Messenger on Android and will be introduced in the iOS Messenger applications in the coming weeks.

Facebook’s stickers are currently still free, but there is a possibility that they might start charging a small fee for some stickers in the future. The social networking app Path also unveiled stickers recently, offering the first two packs for free but charging for additional packs. On Monday, Path also introduced new packs of stickers that included Peanuts characters.

Facebook first introduced its stickers in the general iOS app last month. Afterwards, new images crafted by illustrator Matt Jones were launched, including 16 facial expressions that show sympathy, surprise, cheerfulness and sadness.

In addition to this update, Facebook also resurrected the feature enabling users to delete conversations from their inboxes with just the swipe of a finger.

Google has released the Glass API for developers to use in making apps for the soon-to-release eye wear along with technical specifications on the Glass Explorer editions.

Notably, the API requires devs to build apps for free without ads or compensation.  While this is going to be a reason for some to ignore the API, most will probably get in on it anyway in hopes of being seen as part of the latest-and-greatest from Google.  Google itself is very likely planning to bill the free apps as part of its selling point for the Glass sets themselves.

Technical specifications are also interesting.  Glass Explorer editions will have a 5 megapixel camera capable of 720P video with 16 gigabytes of storage (12GB usable) on board.

Wireless connectivity will be via  802.11B/G WiFi (eschewing the common 802.11N). Since b/g are backwards compatible with N and use less energy to transmit, this is likely a big contributor to the Glass Explorer’s full day of battery usage claim.  It will connect to your phone via Bluetooth.

The display will be akin to a 25-inch HD screen from about eight feet away.  So about the size of your notebook computer’s screen from two or three feet away.  Not shabby and it leaves enough that you can see “around” the virtual screen while using it.

Audio from the Glass is a bone conduction transducer (this works like headphones without the ear plugs).  The Glass experience will be available on any Bluetooth-compatible phone and a companion app for added usefulness is available for Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or better.

no price tag has been released yet.

Apple’s mobile store has blacklisted an application that lets people find other apps at no cost, indicating that the company will ban other content it dislikes, reported CNN.

AppGratis, which serves as a clearinghouse for other apps with the help of other software developers, was axed from Apple’s App Store last Sunday, said Simon Dawlat, Chief Executive Officer of the company behind the app.

According to Apple, the app was canned for violating two developer guidelines: the prohibition against push notifications that feature advertising or “marketing of any kind,” and the ban on content that offers apps for sale “in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store.”

AppGratis’s iPad variant had about 12 million users during the week before it was banned, noted Dawlat, adding that the ban is unfair as other similar apps weren’t blacklisted.

However, a report suggests that other bans may be forthcoming.

According to The Wall Street Journal, scrapping AppGratis is Apple’s first move in a new round of crackdowns against apps that let people discover other applications.

Citing people “familiar with Apple’s thinking”, the report revealed that the company believes that these types of content “threaten the legitimacy of the App Store” as they recommend apps made by companies who have paid big bucks for their ranking.

Apple has a tight reign over the App Store and disallows applications without its prior approval. Comparatively, search giant Google’s Play Store for Android devices has more liberal rules.

UK app developer Ustwo has unveiled an experimental photo exchange platform that randomly shares your pictures with strangers, and in return, you also receive random snapshots.

Dubbed as Rando, the new app allows each picture you share to be framed within circles to provide it with a peephole effect and to differentiate the application from other mainstream photo sharing platforms.

Photo sharing applications usually vary from hyper-social platforms such as Instagram, where you can share and comment as much as you want, to secretive apps such Snapchat, where shared photos delete themselves based on the timer you’ve set.

In this realm, Rando belongs to the latter as the identity of both the recipient and the sender is a mystery. Apart from that, Ustwo’s app is considered anti-social because you can’t like or comment on the pictures.

Rando is not about creating a community or gathering credentials for your pictures. Instead, this application intends to take away the “social” aspect of “social media” and gauge user reaction.

The app is somewhat of an experiment designed to find out what people do when they cannot talk to each other in social media. Will they still flock to Rando and actively share their photos even if there are no likes or comments? What will happen if there is no control over the intended recipients?”

To prevent the proliferation of obscene photos in Rando that occurred in some of its counterparts, users can also report inappropriate pictures. Users also have to send out a photo before they can receive one.

At present, Rando can be downloaded for free from the iTunes store, but an Android version is not yet available.