Google’s social network Google+ as promised is now available optimized for the iPad. It was first announced during Google I/O at the end of June.
It looks a bit like Flipboard. Each post features an image if it includes one with the content right below it. Posts are tiled across pages with different sizes depending on the content and you can flip through pages to see additional posts. There’s a lot of multi-touch gestures incorporated throughout the app as well that can be used as handy shortcuts. You can pinch or expand individual posts to add a comment or use two fingers to drag a post from the stream and share it with your Google+ circles.
Google+ users can start a hangout from within the iPad app as well. It acts as a fantastic multi-party video conferencing solution on the iPad and if you’re going to download Google+ for a single feature alone, it’s this. You can start a hangout from anywhere and include up to nine people streaming their live video. You can turn on ring notifications in the settings to accept or deny the video calls.
Events, which were also unveiled at Google I/O, are included in the Google+ app too. You can start a new event, manage current events, relive moments from past events, view the guest lists, and of course post comments or photos to an event from the app.
You can download the Google+ app for iPad in the App Store for free.