Rumors are circulating that the next major version of Apple's iOS, iOS 6, will do away with the Google Maps app that has been preloaded on iPhones since 2007.

Over the past year, Apple has acquired companies like 3D mapping specialists C3 and started using Open Street Maps instead of Google Maps in iPhoto, hinting at the eventual launch of a proprietary Google Maps replacement in iOS. Now it appears that app might show up sooner than previously anticipated.

9to5Mac reports:

According to trusted sources, Apple has an incredible headline feature in development for iOS 6: a completely in-house maps application. Apple will drop the Google Maps program running on iOS since 2007 in favor for a new Maps app with an Apple backend. The application design is said to be fairly similar to the current Google Maps program on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but it is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience.

Can Apple's new maps app replace a product Google has been evolving for close to a decade?

[dvice.]

Instagram, one of the most popular photo-sharing apps for iPhone, has finally made the leap to Android.

The Android app has all of the features of its iPhone cousin -- including a variety of built-in filters and photo effects -- and Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom says that "in some ways, it's better than our iOS app. It's crazy."

Instagram is available for free on Google Play, and works on phones running Android 2.2 and up.

[pcmag]

A new project called Wind Map, created by two Google employees, visualizes wind patterns across the United States using hourly data from the National Weather Service. Along with the "live" wind animation, there's also an archive of previous days' patterns.

The map's creators, Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg, are the co-leaders of Google's "Big Picture" research group, responsible for visualizing Google's search data.

Wind Map doesn't appear to be an official Google project, and Google Maps is run by a separate team, but its conceivable we could see wind patterns as a Maps layer one day.

For right now, though, Viégas and Wattenberg are just looking to expand it outside the U.S., as soon as they can find a reliable source of global wind data.

[mashable]

Google has announced that it will combine the Android Market, Google Music and the Google eBookstore into a new cloud-based service called Google Play.

With the advent of Google Play, Google is ditching the "Android Market" branding altogether, and Android device owners will soon see the Market app replaced by a Google Play app, as well as Play versions of Android's existing Movies, Books and Music apps.

All purchased media and apps will be stored in the cloud and synced across all your Android devices. Play will even save your progress in movies, games and books, so you can pick where you left off when you switch to a different device.

The Google Play store has already launched, and the app will roll out "in the coming days."

[theverge]