Wireless music streaming and web-wide social networks dominate tech headlines

Hot topics in the tech blogs for the week ending April 1 include the launch of Amazon Cloud Player, Google's new +1 social network, iPhone 5 delays and WWDC, Android Market in-app billing, and the removal of the "#DickBar" from Twitter's iOS app.

Amazon Cloud Player
Amazon launched a new cloud-based music streaming platform in the US, getting a head-start on both Apple and Google in the coveted music streaming business. Customers can store up to 5GB of their music collection in Amazon's Cloud Drive storage for free while the Amazon Cloud Player provides over-the-air music streaming.

Google +1 web-wide social network

"It's called +1 - the digital shorthand for 'this is pretty cool,'" said Google when unveiling its new +1 recommendation feature this week. +1 is Google's version of the Facebook "like" button or Twitter's "retweet" feature. It's being rolled out as a feature to help people further personalize web searches but the +1 button will soon start to appear on websites around the web.

Apple WWDC sells out, iPhone 5 delay
The 2011 edition of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) sold out within a day of its announcement despite growing rumors that the iPhone 5 won't be announced at this year's event. WWDC will "unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS," said Apple while bloggers hinted that this year's iPhone might have a later-than-usual release in August or September.  

Android Market in-app billing launched
Google launched in-app billing for apps in its Android Market, helping app developers further monetize their free and paid apps with "try-and-buy, virtual goods, upgrades, and other billing models."

'A bar walks into an app' and gets removed
Twitter removed the controversial QuickBar - or as bloggers liked to call it, the "#DickBar" - from its iOS app. Twitter proclaimed the QuickBar "feature" was originally implemented in the app to "help users discover what's happening in the broader world beyond people they already follow." The black bar showed Twitter's current trends but was permanently fixed to the main timeline, a feature which irritated many of the app's most vocal users.