While Google+ is still in its early stages of life, many of its users have been waiting for a native OS X app, and to this day no such app exists. However, an unofficial Google+ app for OS X has come into existence, appearing to simply be a stripped-down version of Google Chrome at only 16.5 MB compared to the actual browser’s 239 MB. This Google+ isn’t anything special, as it is simply the web-based version that users will be familiar with.

Safari users running OS X Lion have a new alternative to installing Flash (which isn’t installed with Apple’s newest operating system); download Joris Vervuut’s new FlashtoHTML5 extension which attempts to replace Adobe’s Flash Player with an HTML5 player whenever possible. The FlashtoHTML5 Safari extension is a free 9KB download.

oday is a good day for Mac owners who use Google Chrome as their browser of choice; Chrome Canary is now available for OS X. Formerly, only Windows users were able to download the experimental builds of Chrome, and Mac users were forced to either stick with the stable builds or possibly look elsewhere to alternatives such as the open-source Chromium.

According to a blog post by Google Product Manager Jeff Chang, and Product Marketing Manager Min Li Chan, in the spirit of the lunar new year, Google is kicking off the Year of the Rabbit with a slew of enhancements in the Chrome beta channel, including a substantial improvement in JavaScript speed, new password sync features, and entirely revamped browser settings.

Just 11 days after releasing a fairly substantial update of its Chrome browser, Google has posted an update that brings a new PDF views, security patches, bug fixes, and a few not so welcome interface tweaks. I really like Chrome, but I’m just a bit annoyed at losing the navigation buttons, and the Mac version innovation still tends to lag behind the Windows version a bit.

Back in October when Mac users first saw Google’s Chrome browser on their platform, there was plenty of excitement. However, not long after, it sunk in that Chrome for Mac was missing many of the features that the Windows users loved about it. In the most recent update from Google for the beta version of the browser, many of these features are now available.

Just as Apple announces their iPad, Google quietly begins posting images and videos on the Chromium Project’s site visualizing what a possible Chrome OS tablet could look like. While the interface they show looks nothing like the Chrome OS interface we saw a few months ago, it does have a lot of resemblance to the iPad in my opinion (moreso in terms of design rather than functionality).

This week, Google announced an official version of Google Chrome, a result of the Chromium project, at the Web 2.0 Summit in California. What that means is that outside of nightly developer builds, this version—build 4.0.223.8—is the first official release build of the software. While the Windows version has been official and crushing it for quite some time now, Google certainly took their time on the Mac side.

It’s been a slow summer since the launch of iPhone OS 3.0, so this edition of the Appletellcast looks outside of Apple towards Google, where Bill explains why Google Chrome will not have as big an impact as we first thought. Also, Kirk laments the loss of the Genius Bar’s usefulness, both commentators discuss some helpful apps, and a Storyist 2 competition is announced.

It’s official (even across the pond); Google is expanding the Chrome brand beyond a browser and creating the Chrome OS. According to the Google Blog, the OS is founded on a three S strategy: speed, simplicity and security. In an era of operating systems whose roots stretch all the way back to time shared mainframes, it is refreshing to see someone building an OS based on current needs rather than supporting legacy applications.