Google has been prolific with its apps, cranking out mobile tools for a variety of its services. Now the company has announced it will retire four of its iOS apps in the coming month. Fans of Google+ Local (formerly Google Places) will be the first to lose a standalone app. Many Google+ Local features are now available in Google Maps instead.

Ratings and reviews created by users will continue to be available via the Google Maps app and on Google+ profiles. Even though Google announced plans to remove Google+ Local from the App Store on August 7 it appears as though the app is already unavailable. So what other iOS apps is Google pulling from the App Store forever?

Google released version 2.0 of its Maps application for iOS earlier this month. One feature that was not mentioned in the official change log is the ability to cache maps. In fact, this capability is hidden and requires a special trick to activate. Performing this one simple step will automatically pre-load the current map into your local cache, making it viewable offline.

This means if you suddenly lose your data connection the map is still available. To save a map to your iOS device, just zoom into the area you want to download then type "Ok maps" without the quotes into the Search box, then hit Search. If successful, Google maps will provide a pop-up box noting that the on-screen map area has been cached.

Looking to save videos from the Vine app to the iOS Camera Roll? Now thanks to the jailbreak tweak VineDownloader the process is simple. Once installed, VineDownloader will add an option to Settings making it possible to switch on and off the tweak. Enable the tweak to get started and make sure the official Vine app is installed.

Normally, when viewing a Vine video the ellipsis (...) in the lower right corner brings up options to Share or Report a post. With VineDownloader on your device, an additional option "Save video" is added to the menu. Simply tap the Save video button to download the video to your Camera Roll. When saving a video for the first time, Vine will ask for access to the Camera Roll.

iMessage Spam, we all get it, and we all think it is annoying. Luckily Apple is tired of it too, and has established a way for iPhone users to report it. iPhone owners can now take a screenshot of unwanted spam, and email them to imessage.spam@icloud.com. You must include the full email address or phone number of the spammer, and the date and time that you received the message. It's unknown what Apple plans to do with the information, but hopefully they're planning to do something to slow down the amount of iMessage spam iPhone owners receive.

Apple is also adding the ability to block unwanted callers with iOS 7. Users will be able to add specific contacts to a "Block Contact" list after the new firmware is released. Previously you needed a jailbroken device to block unwanted calls.

Passcode unlock modifications for iOS are nothing new. Examples such as PatternUnlock and Stride provide entirely new ways to unlock the iPhone. Now with Control Unlocker a virtual NES-looking video game controller brings the passcode unlock back in time.

Even though there are no Select or Start buttons, combinations using the A and B buttons along with the D-pad can be used to lock and unlock. In its current iteration, Control Unlocker is mostly for fun. If a stock passcode is enabled, unlocking will involve entering the game pad combo followed immediately by the actual passcode.