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Many news stories inspire vibrant discussions on Google+, and today we’re starting to add this content to both the News homepage, and the realtime coverage pages. This way you can see what your circles, journalists covering the story and notables like politicians or others who are the subjects of stories have to say about breaking news, and even contribute to the discussion directly from Google News.

Note that these Google+ discussions will only appear for those of you reading the US edition who have signed in and upgraded to Google+.

If you’d like to try these new Google+ features in News, it’s easy to upgrade here.  That said, if you prefer your Google News to contain just news stories and no Google+ posts, you can either log out of Google or turn off the display of Google+ posts via the Google News settings page.  

We’re rolling out all of these features over the next week, so don’t worry if you don’t see them immediately. Today’s updates are the latest examples of how we’re working to provide users with a beautiful, consistent experience across Google. So we hope you enjoy them.

iPhone 4S still has roaring sales and to make most of the sales and give the legendary phone a little more time to capitalize on the success, Apple might postpone the release of iPhone 5 to the fall. Also, strategically Apple would want its shareholders to make maximum profit out of the device. The perfect time for the launch of the new phone will be when sales of 4S face a significant drop.

Japanese blog Macotakara, which cited a scoop from an “Asian reliable source,” reported that Apple will unveil its next iPhone in September or October and that the company will maintain the same launch cycle in the coming years, offering each new iPhone at least one-year life.

Also, with the launch of iPad 3, Apple would want their loyalists to get enough leeway to be able to afford the next device. Also, according to market reviews, smartphones that get released closer to Christmas sell more in that season.

Whatever the month maybe, Apple iPhone 5 is certainly going to be a big release for the company. The anticipation and expectations around the device are going far above the ground. Apple is expected to stick to its 3.5-inch display size but will include LTE and a new dock plug. The phone might also be slimmer or have a metal back with “rubber or plastic material” along the sides to bridge the front and back of the device.

Cases for the new iPad, iPad2 and MacBook Air were announced by Atlanta based, accessory manufacturer Enki USA, Inc. (Enki). Enki also launched a new site design for enkigear.com with a unique Made in America category featuring domestic designed and manufactured products. Enki launched in 2011 a week after the release of the iPad2 with their first product the Genius Case for iPad2. The first Genius Case provided polycarbonate protection for the back of the iPad with openings compatible with Apple Smart Cover. Beyond the innovation of the Genius Case for iPad2 was the unique distinction of being 100% designed and Made in America.

Today Enki launched new product offerings for the new iPad, iPad2, MacBook Air 11” and 13”. With an eye on the success of Apple’s latest release of the new iPad, Enki announced the Color Sync Genius Case, a lightweight case compatible with the new iPad and iPad2. The Color Sync Genius Case is made of lightweight ABS Plastic with a smooth finish and is available in four colors; white, black, powder blue and red and comes with a screen protector and cleaning cloth. The Color Sync cases are also designed and Made in America.

“We make quality cases and accessories for devices that people have deep connections with like the new iPad, iPad2 and MacBook Air,” said Richard Jones, Vice President of Business and Product Development. “Our goal at Enki is to develop great accessories that protect, enhance and expand the users experience with the device. 2012 has already been a landmark year for technology with the release of the new iPad and a new iPhone on the way. We’re looking forward to it.”

Also released today for iPad2, the Enki Genius Case Signature series that bundles a premium frosted polycarbonate case with a balanced premium ergonomic Mermaid Graffiti Stylus. The Signature Series Genius Case is available in Clear, Blue and Pink (stylus colors match case colors).

Enki also unveiled their expansion into cases for the Apple MacBook Air. The new ultra-light AIRshell cases are available for MacBook Air 13” and 11” models. Made of lightweight frosted polycarbonate, every AIRshell case comes with a silicone keyboard cover. The AIRshell snaps to fit and adds protection and style to Apple’s ultra portable MacBook Air and is available in Blue, Clear, Pink and Smoke.

“The iPad and MacBook Air are ground breaking devices that have redefined portability of computers and devices globally,” said Edward Cates, Chief Operating Officer of Enki from their offices South of Atlanta. “We’re proud to have a mix of products Made in America and around the world. Visitors to enkigear.com can make a choice to buy cases Made in America or any of our other great products. We launched a year ago and we’re excited about what this year has in store.”

Do you have any feedback or suggestions you would like to share with the Google News Team? We always love to hear from you, so we made submitting feedback much easier.

Simply click the “Send Feedback” link at the bottom of Google News pages. The Google Feedback gadget will appear, and you can leave us general comments, problem reports or feature suggestions. The feedback gadget will also help you send us a screenshot if you want to draw our attention to a specific aspect of the site. Use the tool to highlight an area relevant to your feedback and black out any personal information before submitting the screenshot to us.

Although we won’t be able to reply to your comments individually, your feedback will help us create a better Google News experience. This tool will be launching worldwide, beginning with the U.S. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Who just endorsed whom? What do the latest polls say? How much money did they raise this quarter? Keeping up with the 2012 elections in the U.S. and staying abreast of breaking developments can be quite a task in today’s fast-paced news cycle.

So today, we’re excited to continue our tradition of supporting you during elections season. Google News is launching an Elections section on its homepage which will organize and present elections coverage as it grows through the general election — Tuesday, November 6, 2012.

The Elections section will be visible by default for all US users and will be located beneath the Health section. It will bring readers the latest and most relevant news stories, using all of the ranking intelligence that users have come to expect of Google. You should also check out Google’s official elections page, YouTube’s collection of candidate videos, and the elections Trends Dashboard to find out more about how people are interacting with the elections online.

Over the past few months, myriad sites across the web (including Google News) have adopted the +1 button to help start conversations. But there hasn’t been an easy way for signed-in users to see what news articles your friends are enjoying — until now.

Starting today, the Spotlight section will sometimes include articles that your Gmail contacts and people in your Google+ circles have publicly +1’d. You can see their profile pictures and click through to their Google+ profiles, just like on Social Search. And of course you can +1 the stories too, expressing your opinion and optionally sharing with your circles.

Here’s what Spotlight looks like with social annotations:

We hope this change helps you find more great articles to enjoy, and gives more power to your +1s.

Great journalism takes more than facts and figures — it takes skilled reporters to knit together compelling stories. Knowing who wrote an article can help readers understand the article’s context and quality, see more articles by that person, and even interact directly with them. Whole communities can form around prominent contributors, which is why we started showing information about content creators next to their material in Google Search.

Accordingly, Google News is rolling out more information about journalists over the next several weeks, starting with English-language editions. When reporters link their Google profile with their articles, Google News now shows the writer’s name and how many Google+ users have that person in their circles. For the lead article for each story, Google News also shows that reporter’s profile picture and enables readers to add them to their Google+ circles right from the Google News homepage.

When a big story breaks, there are often over a thousand articles written about the news event. At Google News, we work hard to surface the most relevant and interesting content to you — so you can spend less time sorting through thousands of articles, and more time consuming news from a range of diverse perspectives.

For instance, since introducing expandable stories, we have added additional labels to call out special types of articles in many editions. These labels are designed to highlight different content types on Google News, and show you stories that complement and expand upon standard news reporting. The four labels we recently launched include:

• Live Updating: A live-updating article, such as a liveblog.
• Featured: An article a publisher has told us is standout.
• Fact-check: An article providing fact-check content about the story.
• Your Preferred source: An article from a source that you preferred.

Evaluating a story from different angles often provides a sharper perspective. That is why we also now highlight special types of articles in many Google News search results. Your search results will not only show recent articles, but also those from diverse perspectives that relate to a given query.

We also recently added the Translate button to non-English international stories in expandable story boxes in the U.S edition, giving you the ability to read pieces from all over the world — even if you don’t speak the language.

 

We hope you find these changes useful as we continue to develop opportunities for you to find more interesting and valuable content.

Halloween is almost here and we’re celebrating early. No trick — just a treat. As of now, you can access Google News in the Google Dashboard. This gives you the ability to see basic information about your Google News personalizations, check out our privacy policy and click through to edit your preferences.