Gadget Venue

The Google Latitude app for iPhone and other iOS devices is now available in the app store. The app first appeared last week but was quickly removed. This time it’s here to stay from what we understand.

What the Google Latitude app does is lets you track where your friends are on a map. When logged in to the system and when it’s enabled, your position on the globe is made available to your friends so that you can see who is where. [Read more…]

Back in November, a picture of the HTC EVO Shift 4G was spotted. That time, it was just the device front with the screen and 4 buttons below the screen.

We now see a picture of the same device but with the QWERTY keyboard out. The Shift 4G does have a case, so we don’t see exactly what it looks like, but we get a good idea of what’s new and different about this model. [Read more…]

Google [GOOG] has posted a video demo of Google Maps 5.0 running on the Android 2.3 Nexus S smartphone.

The new version of Maps brings a few new features to Android devices which includes the ability to navigate in 3D around various cities around the world. The video embedded below shows how that works and what kind of frame rate is achieve which I have to say is quite impressive. [Read more…]

Apple [AAPL] has quietly dropped an API in iOS that is used to detect if the iPhone has been jailbroken.

The iOS jailbreak detection API was first added when iOS 4.0 was launched in June of this year. In the latest version that was released a couple of weeks back, iOS 4.2.1, the API is either now disabled or completely removed. [Read more…]

The Google Nexus S release date is almost here for the US and UK. For those of us here in the UK, we can now pre-order the Nexus S.

Pre-orders are now being taken at Carphone Warehouse where both contract and PAYG options are available. As for pricing, the Nexus S off-contract (PAYG) is £549.95. On contract, pricing is free for the phone on all plans £35/month or more and at the moment, £35/month is the cheapest plan. [Read more…]

Google [GOOG] has launched version 2.1 of the YouTube app for Android based smartphones. This new version takes YouTube out of the Android build allowing the app to be updated when needed rather than updated each time Android increases a version.

The new app also brings a number of new features such as in-page playback, posting comments, subscription updates as well as a full screen UI.

The aim of YouTube 2.1 for Android is to mirror the desktop version on smartphones. [Read more…]

Google [GOOG] has announced that Google Instant for Mobile has now been rolled out to 40 countries and that the service now works in 28 different languages.

Google Instant was launched just over a month ago and allows users to type and see changing results being built as they type a keyword. Google indicate that this improves user experience by making it quicker to search. Originally the service was available to users logged in to the desktop. Recently the desktop version moved to all users who are logged in or not, and now has begun arriving on smartphones. [Read more…]