San Francisco - Google announced an enhanced version of its popular mapping and e-mail software for the iPhone on Monday as the Macworld conference and expo drew thousands of Apple fans to San Francisco. The annual gathering gets in to high gear on Tuesday with the keynote address of Apple founder and chief executive Steve Jobs. The mercurial tech leader usually uses the speech to spring major product news on the Apple faithful.
Last year, he used the speech to unveil the iPhone, which went on to become arguably the most important new tech product of the year. This year, speculation is rife that he will announce a new line of mini-Mac notebooks. There are also reports of an iPhone update and an improved AppleTV device that allows consumers to watch content from their computers on their televisions.
For now however, the only new products at Macworld are the Google interfaces that include the addition of auto-complete to hasten e- mail composition and the ability to access iGoogle widgets while browsing the Web with an iPhone.
The new look also allows users to customize their Google menu bar so that their favorite applications can be more immediately accessible. The speed of Gmail and Calendar has also been improved.
"These new features provide iPhone users with a desktop-like Google web application experience in terms of ease-of-use, speed and feature richness but optimized for the iPhone," Google said in press release. "This experience is made possible by the iPhone's general usability and the capabilities of its web browser, combined with Google's innovative mobile web applications."
