Google’s long-rumoured new social project finallyarrivedthis week and there’s little doubt that it’s off to a good start. Consisting of Facebook-style sharing and discussion; group video chat; mobile group messaging and automated content discovery,Google+has been met with the general approval of early adopters lucky enough to get in. Demand for access is high, with invites even beingsold on eBay. However Google+ has one huge challenge ahead – relevance – both in terms of finding a place in people’s everyday lives and making sure it serves users with exactly what they want....

Google has todayupdatedits Google+ app for iOS to support the iPad and iPod touch, two devices that the app would previously not install on. The new update does not bring an iPad optimized interface, but it does deliver additional settings for Huddle, aggregated circle add notifications and performance and stability improvements. The Google+ interface looks decent, but predictably pixellated when run in 2x mode on the iPad. It’s definitely usable but significantly worse looking than the same app running on the iPhone....

The Google+ app for iOS has been submitted to the App Store and is now awaiting approval, according to Google’s own Erica Joy. The news, reported byRalf Rotmann of 24100.net, came from a posting on Joy’s Google+ account. In the posting, Joy says that the “Google+ iPhone app has been submitted to the App Store (no not today, sometime prior to today) and is awaiting approval.” She then went on to clarify that the app was likely to be universal saying, “Sorry, even though I have an iPad and not an iPhone, I always call iOS apps “iPhone apps”....

The Google+ team reports two changes today with its service, including the ability to download full size photos, and adding your own comments to personalize games to go along with an improved Games stream. We’ve written about theGames updatetoday. Regarding photos, the team had this to say: We’ve been listening to your feedback and, as of today, you can download full size photos! When viewing a photo in the lightbox photo viewer, click Actions....

Forbes’Bruce Upbin posteda few interesting calculations that add up the cost of the work put into Google’s new social network to a whopping $585 million dollar bill. Upbin points out that number is eerily close to what News Corp paid forMySpaceall those years ago, which was $580 million in 2005. The estimated calculations were put downby his friend Phil Terry, the cofounder ofCreative Good, a user experience business. They are as follows:...