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Google Now awarded Popular Science's Innovation of the Year
Popular Science has given Google Now its "Innovation of the Year" award, putting it alongside past winners like the Large Hadron Collider, the Toyota Prius and the Mars Curiosity Rover. It's august company to be sure, and the reasoning behind the decision is that it's "the first virtual assistant that truly anticipates your needs." The service has grown quite a bit since its initial launch -- from personalized recommendations to public safety alerts and the addition of a pedometer, it seems that these are early days yet for the context- and location-aware app. Hit the Android G+ source link to read a Q&A between PopSci and part of the Google Now team to get some behind-the-scenes insight of the award-winning service.
Google Now slips in a pedometer, reminds us we need to get out more
Anyone who checks Google Now compulsively on a Jelly Bean-equipped Android phone might have noticed a surprise appear while they were checking for directions home from that big Halloween bash. An unannounced pedometer card has surfaced that shows just how many miles we (or our phones) have been biking or walking in a given month, with the intent clearly to spur couch dwellers into action. The discovery at Droid-Life reveals that Google has been using the GPS information it already had to catalog our athletic progress since at least September -- a bit creepy, but not shocking when the positioning is already needed for directions. As for the mileage figure you see above? It's not this writer's only phone, so that distance is much lower than it should be. Really. Honest.
Google Search updated with Now improvements, available on Play store for Jelly Bean devices
Adding to the flurry of Mountain View-born announcements today, Google's just released an updated version of Search to the Play store. Available for devices running Jelly Bean 4.1 and up, this boost in functionality adds Gmail integration to the prescient Android software, in addition to tracking info related to flights, reservations for hotels and restaurants, scheduled events and even the delivery of packages. The company also bundled in a host of new cards for nearby attractions, movie openings, as well as expanded voice control that'll allow users to launch applications, check the calendar and set up future meetings. It's live now, so click on the source below to start your download.
Google bumps Android to 4.2, keeps Jelly Bean moniker
Well, it's no Key Lime Pie, but Android 4.2 is certainly a treat in its own right. The latest version of Google's mobile OS makes a number of evolutionary improvements to its already impressive repertoire -- including a new quick settings menu that can be accessed from the notification pull down and support for multiple user profiles. The multiple user support is especially handy for tablets like the new Nexus 10, which are much more likely to be shared, and now offer quick and easy user switching right from the lock screen. If you don't want to share your tablet, just what's on it, the new support for Miracast makes will allow you to wirelessly beam movies, games or anything else to a compatible display. The 10-inch tablet UI has also received a slight tweak, moving closer to the design for phones and the Nexus 7, with centered navigation buttons and the notification area up top. It might seem strange for users used to the Honeycomb-style tablet layout, but the new design is much simpler and provides a consistent experience across devices. Google has also overhauled the photo experience and added Photo Sphere -- a 360-degree panoramic shooting mode that captures everything around you. Obviously, you'll be able to post those shots to Google+, but you'll also be able to add them to Google Maps, basically creating your own personal Street View. Interestingly, Google has also taken a page from Swype's playbook, adding "Gesture Typing" to its keyboard. There's also a new screensaver called Daydream that offers up news, photos and other content when a device is docked or idle. Perhaps the biggest, and creepiest improvements are to Google Now, which can monitor your Gmail for relevant content such as flight numbers. Hotel and restaurant reservations are now presented as cards, as are packages enroute to your humble abode. The service will even remind you of events you've purchased tickets for, essentially making Calendar redundant for a lot of your personal life. For more info check out the source links.
Hands-on with Google's $249, ARM-based Chromebook (update: video)
Google really impressed us in San Francisco here today with its 11.6-inch ARM-based Samsung Chromebook. The $249 laptop is 0.8-inches (20mm) thin and weight only 2.43 pounds (1.1kg). It features a 11.6-inch 1366 x 768-pixel matte display, a full-size keyboard, a button-less trackpad and a 30Wh battery for 6.5+ hours of operation. Specs include a fanless dual-core A15-based Samsung Exynos 5 Dual (5250) SoC, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of built-in flash storage, WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth. There's a full-size SD card reader and a standard 3.5mm headphone jack (with mic support) on the left, plus the power input, HDMI output, USB 2.0 port, USB 3.0 connector and SIM slot (currently unused) in back. First impressions? This is a solid machine -- build quality and materials are fantastic for the price. It's also pleasantly thin and light, a boon for people who are used to carrying a laptop around every day. We're happy with the display which is bright and crisp. Viewing angles could use some improvement, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a better laptop screen at this price. The keyboard and trackpad feel great (we're coming from an 11-inch Core i7 MacBook Air), and two-finger scrolling works like a charm. Performance is somewhere between the original Atom-based Chromebooks and the current Celeron-equipped Series-5 model. The system didn't have any issues playing back 1080p content in YouTube, but we didn't get a chance try Hulu or NetFlix. Ultimately, this is a phenomenal device for the price. If you're used to working in the cloud, you're basically getting 80 percent of the entry-level MacBook Air experience for a quarter of the price. Factor in the Google Now integration and 100GB of free Google Drive storage for two years and this latest Chromebook is a winner. Check out the gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video.
Google launches 11.6-inch ARM-based Samsung Chromebook: $249, 6.5-hour battery, 1080p video
Google just launched the latest iteration of its Chrome OS-based laptop here in San Francisco -- the $249 (or £229, for those in the UK) 11.6-inch Samsung Chromebook. It's ARM-based (fanless), 0.8-inches thick, weighs only 2.43 pounds, runs 6.5+ hours on battery, boots in under 10 seconds and supports 1080p video playback. Pre-orders start today at Amazon and PC World, and the laptop includes Google Now integration using Google Drive as a transport and comes with 100GB of free storage for two years. It will be available for sale on the Play Store and featured prominently at retailers like Best Buy, and naturally, we're expecting this one to make a bigger splash than prior models based on the bargain bin price alone. Under the hood, there's a dual-core A15-based Samsung Exynos 5 Dual (5250) SoC, 2GB RAM, 16GB of built-in flash storage, WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth, all of which should act to give this Chromebook a lot more oomph compared to slower, earlier models. Other specs include a 1366 x 768 native screen resolution, a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 socket, combo headphone / mic jack, an SD card slot and a "full-size Chrome keyboard." Hit up the links below for the nitty-gritty, or hop on past the break for a promo vid. Update: Our hands-on with the new Chromebook is live!
First official Jelly Bean OTA update for the Samsung Galaxy S III lands in Poland
The long-awaited roll-out appears to have commenced, with lucky GS III owners in Poland being among the first to get an early official taste of Android 4.1.1. If you hadn't heard, the update will bring a host of subtle yet powerful improvements, including Google Now for anticipating search queries, smooth UI improvements from Project Butter, as well as some Samsung extras already seen on the Galaxy Note II, such as a resizable Pop-up play screen. Hopefully this means the update will soon be sent on its merry way to GS IIIs in other parts of the Old World, and maybe at some point -- dare we suggest it -- those in the US too.
Google Now update brings public safety alerts, lets sports fans manually pick teams and adds movie listings
If you're sporting Android 4.1 Jelly Bean then one of its most notable features just got better, as an update for the Google Search update is enhancing Google Now (still getting adjusted? check the guide book for a list of commands) functionality in a few key ways. The new version brings public alerts to your Now page, with emergency messages like storm warnings or earthquake alerts, so if you're in range of Hurricane Isaac, it may be worth grabbing sooner rather than later. A more trivial change lets sports fans manually select their favorite teams from 140 pro soccer, baseball, basketball and hockey clubs -- we tried to find our college favorites and were denied, for now. While trying to automatically decipher our preferred squads from searches is nice, it might not be practical when we're just looking up information on our fantasy football players so this should be a help. It has also added support for movie listings as seen above. Search for a flick that's in theaters and you will not only receive relevant information, but also when and where it's playing in your area. If that's not enough, it can be set to pop up on your "movie days" or when you just happen to be loitering outside a theater. Finally, in a move that should please many prospective Galaxy Note II owners it is ready to work in Korea -- grab the new version of the app at the link below.
Intelligent personal assistant Cue adds support for iPhone calendars, iOS 6
One thing that stands out in our modern digital age is the sheer volume of information that we must process. There is so much information coming at us from our calendars, emails and social feeds that it seems like we have information everywhere -- and never where we want it to be. This information overload is one reason why Cue piqued my interest when it recently launched the latest version of its iPhone app. Cue is a startup that lets you organize information across many of your online accounts. Originally launched as Greplin, it started off as a way to search through your personal information, but the company realized early on that it could do more than just regurgitate your calendar entries. Now the service indexes all your incoming information, parses it for important snippets and intelligently ties it together. When you look at a meeting on your calendar in Cue, you can see the contact information for the people attending the meeting, any associated emails about the meeting and the necessary contact information from your address book. The latest version of the Cue app lets you view all the events from your iPhone calendar and gives you additional control over which calendars show up on your Cue. As someone who uses multiple calendars, this is a welcome improvement. Cue has also been updated to support all versions of iOS, including the upcoming iOS 6. The Cue: Know What's Next app is free and syncs information from several online services including Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, iPhone Calendars, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, iCloud Mail, Dropbox, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Premium account holders who pay $50 a year or $5 monthly for the service can also add in their Evernote, Salesforce, Yammer, Basecamp, Reddit, Pinboard, Delicious, Tumblr and Google Reader accounts. That is a lot of information indexed in one place and available at your finger tips. If you enjoy being on the cutting edge of technology, then you should check out Cue. I talked with founder Daniel Gross and he said the company has big plans to expand its scope beyond contacts, calendars and files. The company has been building the infrastructure to process a large amount of incoming data and now it is signing third-party agreements that will let you track other information like order statuses and travel reservations from within the iPhone and web app. Backed by Sequoia Capital and other angel investors, Cue has a shot at making a dent in the fledgling personal assistant market. With services like Cue, Siri and Google Now, this is going to be an area of explosive growth in coming years.
Official Jelly Bean for Samsung Galaxy S III spotted in the wild, blends old with new (video)
Getting Jelly Bean to run on a Galaxy S III has so far required a strictly unofficial build that strips away much of Samsung's handiwork. If you prefer the official software to the point where thoughts of TouchWiz keep you comfortable at night, you'll be glad to hear that a beta of a more official Android 4.1 upgrade has reportedly landed in the hands of AndroidMX.net. An extensive video look in Spanish (after the break) almost completely mirrors what you'd expect: clear advantages like the expanded notifications and Google Now make the cut, while Samsung's Nature UX vibe remains intact. Only a few minor surprises have snuck their way in, such a brightness slider in the notification bar that we'd previously seen in some firmware for the Galaxy Note. We're skeptical of claims that Jelly Bean for the Galaxy S III is just days away -- Samsung isn't exactly known for speedy Android updates. As long as the update we've seen here isn't just a clever hack, however, it's close enough to completion that it might tame the pessimists.
Google gives mobile search a makeover for quick-answer queries
If you're looking for flight times, currency conversions, word definitions and more, you'll notice that Google has dressed up the responses in new, Now card type clothing. On top of being prettier, the look is designed to make the data easier to parse and also adds an interactive element -- letting you change a distance or unit when doing metric conversions, for example. Currently the refresh is limited to smartphone and tablet searches, but Google has promised to roll it out soon to desktop searches and international users. The change is part of an ever-evolving list of tweaks and updates to Mountain View's venerable search engine -- check the source for more info.
Google's revamped voice search coming to iOS, tackles Siri on her home turf
Google has been offering the ability to search the web with your voice using its iOS app for some time. But, it always just spit out a pile of links. While the next version wont be getting quite as creepy as Google Now, it'll be bringing with it the vocalized responses that debuted as part of Jelly Bean's revamped search offerings. The UI is also getting an overhaul to bring it inline with Now and Mountain View's recent aesthetic tendencies towards sharp lines and limited color schemes. Obviously, the new app also taps the Knowledge Graph, allowing you to make natural language queries like, "what's the weather like in San Francisco," and get a detailed vocalized response. According to Google the update should be hitting the App Store in "the next few days," but don't expect it to keep tabs on your favorite sports team for you.
Google Knowledge Graph coming to all English-speaking nations tomorrow, adds lists to results
Google launched its contextual and intelligent search service, Knowledge Graph, only a few months ago. Till now, it's been limited in its availability and, while most nations will still be left out, tomorrow it will be coming to all "English-speaking" countries. The ability to discern your intended search goal and present you with relevant information immediately, as opposed to just a page of links, is the next step in search technology and the secret sauce powering the somewhat creepy Google Now in Jelly Bean. The Graph has also received a few enhancements and tweaks, including the ability to answer queries with collections and lists. So, say you're looking for rides in Disney World, a thumbnail of every attraction will appear at the top in a horizontally scrollable list. How much longer till our Spanish, French or Chinese speaking pals can get in on the action? That's anyone's guess. But, if English is the native tongue of your home, then rest assured your flavor of Google has just gotten a little bit smarter.
Google Now hits some rooted devices, adds topping to your Ice Cream Sandwich
If you can't wait to subject Google Now to an epic interrogation of your own but don't have access to Android's Jelly Bean-flavored OS, then you may want to check out what's cooking over at the XDA Developers forums. If you've got a rooted ARMv7 device with Ice Cream Sandwich and ClockWorkMod Recovery, it's actually possible to start enjoying Google's take on the virtual personal assistant on your smartphone right now. As usual, you'll need to download the requisite file and partake in some good, old flashing action. Folks who appreciate having options can also take their pick between a fuller Google Now experience or a more stripped down version by hitting the source link below.
Mobile Miscellany: week of July 2nd, 2012
Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you're like us and really want to know what's going on, then you've come to the right place. This past week, the HTC One V marked its debut at US Cellular and Verizon announced a dumb phone with a surprisingly handy feature. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of July 2nd, 2012.
Google Now gets an epic 47-question interrogation, survives for now (video)
You've seen us give Google Now a shakedown in our Jelly Bean review, but one JLishere decided to give the voice command system an unusually thorough grilling. The 47-question test goes beyond what Google showed onstage at I/O and shows that, in some cases, Android's new rival to Siri can cover a wide range of answers, whether it's day-to-day queries like directions and image searches to more esoteric trivia, like the minimum height for riding Disney World's Space Mountain. There's even a special treat for those who dare to bring up Google's best-known Easter egg. That said, we wouldn't be too eager to kick earlier voice command systems to the curb: we've tried a few close variants on the questions and sometimes managed to stump Google Now, so it's clear Google could stand to layer on some more polish. JLishere's original video evidence is available after the break.
Nexus 7 guidebook appears on Google Play, teaches you how to blink, manage Google Now cards
Trapped in that post-Google I/O funk of hurry up, pre-order and wait? Maybe this can satiate your desires: a Nexus 7 guidebook detailing the basics of Mountain View's upcoming slate. The digital tome covers standard Android usage as well as Jelly Bean specific tips -- including the OS' dynamically resizable widgets, using Google Now cards and "blink for face unlock," a stock Android take on Samsung's eyelid shuttering identification tweak. Ready to read up? Check it out at the Google Play link below.
Android 4.1 SDK hands-on
Too lazy to download and install the brand new Android SDK yourself and don't feel like tweaking an AVD for optimal operation? Don't know what an AVD is? We don't blame you, and that's why we're here. We fired up Jelly Bean in the Android emulator and started poking around a bit. Sadly, most of the most exciting new features -- offline speech recognition, Google Now -- don't work. And we couldn't really delve deep into the new notifications system thanks to some limitations on the SDK. We could, however, play with the new version of Maps and demo the new widget placement tweaks. Most of the UI should look familiar. In fact, the only obvious changes we noticed were the new search widget and a few tweaked buttons, like notification clearing option. You'll also notice a new layout for the clock and date in the notification pull down. Mostly, from a aesthetic point of view, the refinements are minor, but welcome. Everything feels a little more spacious, less cramped, without becoming overly simple. Want to see it for yourself? Check out the gallery below and the video after the break. %Gallery-159332%
