Once upon a time, before Google Assistant was a thing, Google’s Android operating system had an often-misunderstood feature called Google Now. It wasn’t really a voice assistant like Siri, Alexa, or Cortana… but it did use information Google knew about you to suggest information you might want before you asked for it. Google Now could give […]
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Google’s personalized feed gets smarter thanks to machine learning (mobile first)
The Google app for smartphones is much more than a tool for conducting web searches. For the past few years it has also been home to Google Now cards, which show you relevant news, upcoming appointments, travel, weather, and traffic alerts, and other information before you even think to ask for it. Late last year […]
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1 Comment on Clarity is a touchscreen Android speaker with Alexa and Google Assistant (crowdfunding)
Clarity is a touchscreen Android speaker with Alexa and Google Assistant (crowdfunding)
1 Comment on Clarity is a touchscreen Android speaker with Alexa and Google Assistant (crowdfunding)Looking for a smart home speaker, but can’t decide between an Amazon Echo with the Alexa voice service or a Google Home with Google Assistant? Why not both? At least that seems to be the thinking behind the Clarity Speaker. It’s basically a familiar-looking speaker with a 7 inch touchscreen display and Android software. But […]
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What are the coolest features your smartphone has… that you don’t use?
These days you can ask most smartphones questions as if you were speaking to another person, use your phone as a GPS navigation device, tap a button on your phone to instantly get contextual information about whatever’s on the screen, and do a whole bunch of other cool things. But a recent study from Creative Strategies suggesting […]
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iOS 9 includes Apple’s Google Now clone
Apple’s answer to Google Now is here. As expected, it’s called Proactive, and it’s built into iOS 9. Proactive learns from the way you use your phone and automatically offers suggestions depending on your time, place, connected devices, and other details. Apple is releasing a developer preview of iOS 9 today with a public beta […]
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Google Now on Tap: Get answers, recommendations from any Android M screen
Google Now is a service designed to provide you information Google thinks you’ll want, when Google thinks you’ll want it. For instance if receive an email confirmation for an upcoming flight, Google Now will know that and send you a reminder when it’s time to leave for the airport. You can also pull up Google […]
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Report: Proactive is Apple’s answer to Google Now
Apple may be preparing to launch a new feature for iPhones designed to automatically show you relevant information before you even ask for it. According to 9to5Mac, the new feature is called Proactive, and it’s basically the iPhone equivalent of Google Now. Proactive is said to pull together features from Siri, Contacts, Calendar, Passbook, and […]
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Google Now adds cards for 70 new apps including Zipcar, Spotify, Feedly
Google Now is a service designed to show cards with relevant information when you need it. At first that just meant information from Google’s apps and services such as Maps, News, and Gmail. But earlier this year Google added support for a handful of third-party apps to Google Now for Android. Now you’ll need a […]
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Google’s new Chrome OS app launcher includes Google Now
Google will begin rolling out an update to the Chrome OS Beta Channel next week bringing an updated Chrome Launcher, support for password-protected ZIP files, and more. One of the most interesting new features coming to Google’s operating system for Chromebooks is support for Google Now in the app launcher. Hit the search icon in the taskbar […]
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Google Now could eventually show data from all Android apps
Google Now is designed to show relevant information on your Android phone or tablet (or Chrome browser) when Google thinks it will be most useful to you. Originally Google Now would only show data from Google apps and services. Earlier this year the company started adding support for data from a select number of third-party apps. […]