The What’s Hot stream is accessible by swiping to the right of the Circles stream. It brings the web app’s carousel of streams at the top into play. To see who +1′d a post, simply tap on the +1 count as you might expect and up pops the list.

These are just some very minor updates to the social network, but Google’s attention to the little details is much appreciated by this reporter.

It’s a tad curious that Google chose to update the mobile web app with these features before making the changes in the native Android or iOS app. Since power Google+ users (if there are any) are probably going to favor the native app over a web app, one might think Google would make an effort to push out the features on the Android and iOS first. To Google’s credit, it’s working on the respective updates to the individual apps.

Meanwhile, the What’s Hot stream and +1 enhancements are live on the web app so go ahead and check it out in your mobile browser today.

[via Google+]

Shaker is a different kind of social networking experiences that brings your friends together in a virtual environment (think Habbo Hotel or IMVU but in a bar setting) to chat with friends and meet new friends of friends. It won the award for best startup at TechCrunch Disrupt for 2011, although I like to think that oh-so-clever “Where Things Happen” slogan is contributing greatly to its success.

Just as TechCrunch clearly saw potential in Shaker, so does Motorola Mobility. In a press release, the company is calling Shaker’s functionality “innovative” and “groundbreaking.” Shaker hints that Motorola’s investment will likely go toward expanding the social service onto more platforms and devices — possibly mobile apps? “As more people start using social media sites on their smart phones, Motorola Mobility offers us exciting support and expertise to expand on all platforms,” CEO of Shaker Yonatan Maor said in a prepared statement.

Shaker is going to be one of those startups that either flies or dies; people are either going to love or hate the concept of entering a virtual bar to mingle with friends. So far, with numerous funds backing it, things are looking positive for Shaker.

Motorola Mobility did not disclose the amount of money it invested. What do you think? Is Shaker the type of app or service that you’d like to use on your Motorola phone in the future?

[via Motorola]

Discussing the reason why it created Stiktu, Layar on its blog said:

From the very start we always wanted to give this powerful technology to people so they could use it to their own benefit. With Stiktu we created an app that does exactly that. Now everybody can publish augmented reality content on anything they care about.

Stiktu reminds me a lot of the app I use on my Android device called PicSay Pro, a photo editor for Android that allows users to manipulate pictures with all kinds of fun stuff (special effects, paint, word balloons, stickers and etc). The only difference between the two is the social aspect, with PicSay you can scan items and share them around the world.

Stiktu can be downloaded in the iTunes App Store and Android Market, while the rest of the world will be able to download the app “very soon”. Checkout the way Stiktu works in the embedded video below.

[via, pic]

We can understand why Google would choose to integrate Google + contact sync instead of Facebook into Ice Cream Sandwich, let’s face it, Facebook makes more sense for the consumer. Luckily, this is a pretty easy feat to gain access to, as long as you don’t mind rooting and flashing a custom ROM on your shiny Galaxy Nexus. Once the ROM is flashed, when setting up the Facebook application you’ll be presented with the contact sync screen and you’re good to go. From what I’ve seen so far with the ROM, updates won’t show up within the people application but I could be wrong.

The MoDaCo ROMs are based on the official Ice Cream Sandwich builds but with under the hood tweaks. Even CyanogenMod looks heavily customized compared to these MoDaCo ROMs, so you don’t need to worry about getting accustom to new ways of interacting with the phone. We have our doubts that Google and Facebook will come to some sort of data sharing agreement anytime soon, so this seems to be the only way to go at the moment.

The only one catch is that it seems that the feature is currently only in MoDaCo’s kitchen. The kitchen is only available for paid users, which will allow you to choose what goes into the ROM you’re going to flash and leave certain applications you don’t want out. If you think you’ll be flashing a lot of ROMs on your Galaxy Nexus, the money is well spent.

Hopefully Google and Facebook will lighten up at some point so we can get the official Facebook contact sync back but this is good enough for us right now.

[Via: MoDaCo Forums, SlashGear]