While Google Now exists as a cohort of Google Search in Android, and indeed is allowed to be summoned by a long-press of a button here or a swipe-up of a home button there, the iOS integration released today pushes this functionality down. When a user opens Google Search – the home of Google Now on iOS – “cards” as they’re called are stacked in a neat pile below the main Google Search interface.

“It’s kind of a new paradigm, and one which I think does speak to the future of this very helpful type of computer interface, as opposed to the current start screens where you have to make all the choices, it’s almost like a computer control panel in a rocket ship where there’s lots of icons you have to punch-punch-punch.” – Matias Duarte

Swiping up from the bottom of the iOS Google Search app shows the selection of cards available to an Android user as the app is opened. This is due in a large way to the necessity of a set of buttons between the search bar and the cards. Where Google Now can exist as a set of cards directly below a decorated Google Search bar in Android, iOS’s Google Search app also includes quick links to other Google services.

From a user’s Google Search app in iOS, one is able to reach Google Calendar, Gmail, and a collection of other Google Services. These Google connections are made at the base of an Android operating system build with a series of apps that appear in a user’s app drawer. Apple’s version of this is the set of apps that come built-in to an iPhone or iPad when one opens their device up for the first time.

Above you’ll see the launch build of Android’s Google Now experience as it existed approximately one year ago when it was launched at Google I/O 2012. You can see how this app evolved in our Google Now tag portal. Below you’ll see our hands-on with the iPad and iPhone version of Google Search with Google Now integration, released just today. Equal experiences, but certainly different.

Much like the Android version of Google Now, this interface shows several different kinds of cards, each of them containing information based on the unique user that’s using them. If a user has worked with Google Now outside of iOS before they sign in initially, they’ll find cards based on their use of Google waiting for them. In our example here, two sports teams recent game scores appear, a map to work appears, and several birthday announcements appear.

Google Now is part of a user’s Google Search experience, meaning they’ll be getting results – cards, that is – based on what they’ve worked with in the past for search terms. If a user has never searched for anything in Google while being logged in to their Google account at the same time, results will appear as example cards. Example cards show what COULD be displayed for the user if they’d agree to have their search results utilized.

With the iPhone and iPad versions of Google Now, it would appear at first that the user’s calendar will not be used as it would in an Android device. If one does use Google Calendar separate from iOS, they’ll still be able to see dates of Birthdays, connections to events, and etcetera. Birthday announcements can be sourced from a user’s Google+ social networking account as well, as this connection is also made possible via the user’s all-encompassing Google account.

One of the key reasons a user might prefer using Google Now with an Android device rather than with an iOS device is their ability to access the system easily. With some Android devices, the user is able to hold their finger down on their on-screen home button and swipe up to move into Google Now. Some devices working with Android allow access to Google Now with a long-press of a back or menu button.

Intrepid iOS hackers have already made inroads to similar access with apps like “Activator”. This app allows Jailbroken (read: hacked) iPhones to launch apps using a variety of gestures and button presses. Tie your home button to Google Now for a real slick experience.

Users will be able to check this Google Now experience out by updating (or downloading) Google Search for iOS on their iPhone or iPad starting today. Let us know how you’re liking it – or if you’re avoiding it – in our Google Now chat in Google+ right this minute!

Android users have had Google Now for several months, this system having been launched originally approximately a year ago at Google’s developer conference. At Google I/O 2012 we had our first hands-on look at Google Now with the Samsung-made Galaxy Nexus handset which you’ll be able to have a retro look at below this paragraph. The update for iPad and iPhone will be available in the iTunes app store immediately if not soon.

Google Now 1.0 at launch with Android – see our iOS hands-on soon!

Google Now for iPhone and iPad will not be offered as a separate app, but integrated into the original Google Search app experience. Because of this, many users will find the Google Now environment appearing in an update they’d be running automatically. This system will be working on a voluntary opt-in basis, this allowing users to decide if they want to use the personalized system or not.

Note: this version of Google Now is NOT able to access your iOS calendar, it seems – stay tuned for more hands-on revelations.

Google Now uses search results and terms typed in by the user as tuned by their Google account. If the user has a Gmail address, they have a Google account – and if the user wants to use Google Now, they’ll need to have an account to make it all work. Have a peek at the launch video here and get ready for SlashGear’s full hands-on experience as well, coming up soon!

Check out SlashGear’s Google Now tag portal for more information on this system and have a chat with us in today’s Google Now post up on Google+, the search giant’s social network.

The source code comes from one of Google’s webpage, and it tells you to “get started with Google Now.” The code also reveals that users will be able to change their home and work locations because “Google Now uses your Home location to show relevant information like weather, traffic conditions, and nearby places.”

The code also reveals references to a code phrase called “now_card,” which if you know anything about Google Now, those boxes of information that pop up are called “cards.” Of course, there’s no information as far as what the web interface of Google Now would look like, but a recently-launched Chrome extension developed by Google, known as New Tab Page, reveals what Google Now for desktop could look like (our own screenshot below).

As you can tell, the new Chrome extension looks a lot like Google Now, and it could be the company’s first steps into experimenting with Google Now for the desktop, but we’ll ultimately have to wait and see what Google does in the near future. In our recent interview with Google’s Matias Duarte, he noted many times at how the company wants to expand Google Now, and this could be one way that they’re accomplishing that.

[via Google Operating System]

Google Now is the handy service from Google that offers you everything you need right before you need it automatically, available to those running Android Jelly Bean handsets and the Google Search app. It does this via cards, which provide things such as airport and gate information as your flight nears, for example. If you’re not familiar with the service, you can check out our hands-on review of it here.

With today’s Google Search for Android update, which is available from the Play Store now, a couple new features have been added to Now, with perhaps the best update being to the package tracking feature. Once updated, users will be able to track packages in real time from supported carriers if they have a tracking number for the shipment. The card has been updated, as well.

Results are said to be faster with this update, but you’ll have to check that one out for yourself (let us know if you’ve noticed a speed increase in the comments!), and in addition, settings and information can be accessed about cards directly from the card via a small “i” icon, which allows users to, for example, mark the card as something they aren’t interested in to help generate better results in the future.

[via Droid Life]

Before you say anything – though I understand you may instantly have raced to the comments section before you even reached the period in my first sentence, desperate to berate me – I’m not a luddite. I love smartphones; I like Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and even have a soft spot for BlackBerry 10 in places. I don’t leave the house without at least one phone in my pocket. It – and its ringing alarm – is the first thing I reach for in the morning; with the exception of the light switch it’s probably the last thing at night.

That devotion, or maybe obsession, doesn’t mean I’m blind to the limitations of what we have today, however. The modern smartphone is faster, lighter, runs longer, has more apps, sensors, radios, and gadgetry than any before it, but all that complexity has only served to pull us in closer, to enmesh us more with the digital world on its terms.

Your phone still, generally, demands you reach for it and proactively consult it. If it has something for you, it’ll beep to let you know, but it’ll generally do that on its own timescale. Many devices have a “do not disturb” mode, which blanks all (or all but the most important) notifications between certain periods, and some can “intelligently” manage alerts depending on what you’re doing at the time, though that tends to amount to little more than bashing calendar entries against the clock and keeping quiet when you’ve remembered to log a meeting taking place.

Beyond that, for all their sensors and smarts, most phones are pretty dumb in how they understand context. Right now, they’re portable terminals for the internet, for the most part: a smaller window than our regular browser, or one we view through the medium of function-specific apps. Much of the development we’ve seen from phone software and hardware over the past 3-5 years has been in translating the internet into something that fits onto a smartphone-scale screen.

And yet, our needs from a companion device are surely different from those we have of a regular computer. I don’t necessarily want every single piece of information out there delivered to the palm of my hand; I just want the right, most relevant information. You can find that on a phone, certainly, but for it to be a true companion it really should be one step ahead of what you need. Some emails, or IMs, or calls, are more important than others, but my phone beeps for all of them. Sometimes I don’t know what the most relevant information actually is, or that it’s even out there, and my digital wingman should be using everything it knows about me to fill in those gaps of its own accord.

That’s something all of the platforms fall down on, for the most part. Yes, iOS has Siri, and its clever digital personal assistant can certainly hook into your agenda, contacts, location, and other data to give better advice, but it only happens when you ask for it. BlackBerry is terribly excited about its “peek” system for better handling notifications on your own terms, but it still leaves you in the thrall of the beep and the blinking light.

There are glimmers of a change ahead, though only faint. Google Now for the most part still waits for you to check its curated cards, showing nearby businesses and scenic spots, flight times and reminders of when you might need to leave to make your next appointment, but it does at least try to fumble some sort of contextual link between what you’re doing, where you’re doing it, and what you might be interested in knowing given those factors.

At least, that’s the theory. I gave Google Now a whole homescreen pane of its own to play with on the HTC One recently – the only widget Android offers takes up the entire page – and, in all the time I’ve been using the phone, I haven’t seen a single card pop up. I’ve played with all the settings to try to coax something more out of it, but it doesn’t seem particularly keen to talk to me.

I know Google has more ambitious plans. When I sat down with Mattias Duarte and talked about Now and how it essentially forms the basis of Google Glass, it was clear that the company sees its mobile strategy evolving from one where it gives all the possible answers, to giving more specific results based on greater confidence that it knows what you’re likely looking for. That makes perfect sense for a bleeding-edge wearable, but it’s also something the mass market needs to tame the gush through to our everyday phones.

Faster, lighter, just plain shinier phones aren’t enough now. Squeezing in another core, or adding a couple of extra megapixels, isn’t going to address the underlying issue: today’s “smartphone” is a small, relatively dumb computer, not smart at all. Certainly, there was a time – and it wasn’t long ago – when firms were making groundbreaking steps with each generation of device, pushing the boundaries of mobile tech. Revamping hardware has become the easy way out, however, and we need to stop letting companies off the hook for not tackling what have now become the new shortcomings. Sure, it won’t be as easy as slapping a bigger display on the front, but until the question of context is addressed, we’ll forever be ruled by our phones, not liberated.

Dave Winer, the creator of the first version of RSS, stated on his blog that he won’t miss Google Reader. He stated, ‘Never used the damn thing. Didn’t trust the idea of a big company like Google’s interests being so aligned with mine that I could trust them to get all my news.” He continues to say that he didn’t like Google’s “Mailbox” approach when it came to RSS feeds, and that he likes the “river of news approach”.

Winer believes that Google Reader shutting down is a good thing for RSS. He believed that Google was in the business of controlling the news, especially with services like Google Now. Google Now brings you the latest updates on stories you have recently searched for and/or read. He said that it’s bad because one, it’s snooping on your information and searches, and two, it’s deciding what news “you don’t see”.

While Winer does have some interesting points, the point of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds is to frequently publish updated works from subscriptions, which Google Reader had done exceedingly well. Unlike what Winer said, I believe that Google Readers did have a choice of deciding what type of news stories came to them, and Google in no way tried to omit any of that information out of its Reader service.

[via ZDNet]

The video surfaced over at Engadget, where a tipster made its existence known. As they point out, a careful ear will note that the voice in the alleged promotional video sounds the same as the one featured in official Google Now promotional videos. That and the fact that it was pulled shortly after surfacing publicly gives it an air of legitimacy.

According to the video, using the iOS version of Google Now is as simple as “swiping up.” It provides all the goodies current users enjoy, including contextual data cards and alerts. This leak follows a non-functional tease of Google Now on Chromium, indicating that the service is at least finding its way to the desktop.

Of course, while it is nice to believe this to be a legit foreshadowing of what is to come, there are some other possibilities, the most of obvious one of which is forgery (although it would be quite a high-quality fake if that is the case). And it is also possible that this low-res promotional video shows a project that Google toyed around with but ultimately abandoned. For now, at least, the search engine giant hasn’t commented either way.

[via Engadget]

At the moment, the latest Chromium build has an entry for enabling Google Now testing. However, it requires manual input of the relevant server address, since Google Now does most of its processing in the cloud; without that URL, none of the Now cards will be generated.

Exactly when Google will make Now functionality public is unclear, but the fact that it’s in testing suggests it could be sooner rather than later. That would certainly fit in with the ambitions of Android user experience chief Matias Duarte, who we talked to about Google Now back at Mobile World Congress; he sees the system as the next gateway to smart devices, leveraging context as part of a new, more confident Google that allows prediction to take a stronger role.

Google Now is already likely to feature strongly in Glass, Google’s head-mounted wearable computer, which uses the system to respond to voice commands. As we exclusively previewed last month, the pared-back Glass interface is very close to what we’ve seen of Now already.

[via The Verge; via Francois Beaufort]

Duarte’s role at Google has been to coax a more design-led attitude out of product development, something he himself admits that the search giant hasn’t, historically, been great at. He came to the job with good credentials, too, integral in developing webOS – pre-HP acquisition – which, for all its faults, was well regarded for its user-friendly aesthetic.

Most recently, though, Duarte has been integral in refining the Google Now experience, a process which began in an inter-disciplinary meeting back in November 2011 and culminated, in its first iteration at least, at Google I/O in July last year. For those unfamiliar, Google Now turns the “portable computer” nature of smartphones on its head, instead using a powerful contextual engine to suggest information that your Android smartphone believes will be relevant at any one time.

That could include flight details if you have travel coming up in your calendar or Gmail, driving directions to your next appointment (or public transportation guidance if you tell Google Now you’re more likely to use it), weather information, or even just a pedometer summary at the end of the month, showing how many steps you’ve taken while carrying your Android phone. However, the simple suggestions mask an altogether more important change in how Google sees its search results: with greater confidence that its top result is the one you’re probably looking for.

Asked whether Google Now is in grooming to be the new Android homescreen, Duarte told us that he feels “it has the potential to be.” In fact, it’s already the first place he usually begins his smartphone journey. “For me, Google Now is the place I go to all the time, and that’s why it was so important for us not to create a new location to bring assistance, but to go to the place where people were going to start searching the web, or searching their phone, with Google, and make that the place where these assisted cards could appear” he explained. “It’s kind of a new paradigm, and one which I think does speak to the future of this very helpful type of computer interface, as opposed to the current start screens where you have to make all the choices, it’s almost like a computer control panel in a rocket ship where there’s lots of icons you have to punch-punch-punch.”

Google Now differs from traditional search results in that, while it calls upon the same engine, it takes a more definitive stance on presenting an answer. The development team quickly decided that it would need to have a distinct visual identity, separate both from Android and Google on the web, and that the snackable data it gave would have to be pared down rather than a list of blue hyperlinks. That focus on the right answer, not the range of answers, has since been echoed in Google Glass, which shares similar interface dynamics: a small display footprint, intended for at-a-glance consumption, so that it fits into life’s routines rather than demanding full attention.

“[Project Glass] was very exciting, because the design work we did for Google Now kind of served as a really strong touchpoint for some of the design work that happened with the Glass team” Duate told us. “In fact, members of my team collaborated very closely with members of their team in doing that. And the kind of bold, typographic version of Google that is confident about giving you an answer, and confident about giving you the big picture – very different from the old Google – that’s present in Glass, and I find that really satisfying and really exciting.”

Duarte shares a similar obsession with wearables like Glass with many of us, though he told SlashGear he’s yet to try the Pebble smartwatch. But in general the wearables space, I think it’s terrific, because for as long as I remember it I’ve been excited about Android because it is the computing platform for everything” he told us, sticking perhaps a little closely to the company line. “So I’m just waiting for the screens to show up so we can put Android on them, and now we really are starting to see wearable screens, and that’s great.”

However, beyond the expansion of Android, Duarte’s interest in wearables is as a user-experience expert, and in how the growing persistence of data – contextual and otherwise – will affect the way we interact not only with our devices but in social settings. “At a greater level, this question of user’s attention and user’s immersion into technology, I think is something we as designers have a big responsibility to pay attention to” he said. “I think one of the challenges with technology is how we can use it to make our lives better, but actually to be present in the real world while we’re using it, not just sucked into the technology. And part of that is the minor cycle of distraction while you’re using one part of your phone, and the icons for other things can distract you about other parts of your phone.”

“But the challenge that I find even more exciting, is when you’re in a room with people, or when you’re out and about, how do you keep from even getting sucked into the phone, how can we be smarter about when to notify you about things, how can wearable technology allow us to notify you, or immerse you in data, in less intrusive ways?” It’s a question that has been asked on many occasions since the first Project Glass concept video was released: will wearers simply end up interacting with a persistent smartphone in their peripheral vision, losing all contact with the people around them.

As Duarte sees it, part of his responsibility to users – and that of his team at Google – is to “put you in control of when you decide to deal with that online world.” That’s not so simple as cutting out the flow of data altogether, as we usually do when we drop our phones in pockets or bags. Indeed, it’ll require an even greater bond between wearer and device, something into which design plays a hugely significant role.

Duarte actually thinks Glass is already a beautifully designed product, and disagrees with the suggestions of some that the headset needs a redesign in order to be palatable to a more general audience. Still, he concedes that there are more pressing aesthetic questions around wearables than current smartphone technology. “Whenever you bring technology into your personal space, it’s a really hard challenge” Duarte points out. “The challenge of designing phones is almost the same thing, except that for [the Glass team] it’s dialed up to 100.”

Rumors have circulated recently that the Glass team might be working with a US designer to refine the wearable hardware; Duarte wouldn’t comment on that specifically, but he did point out that the development cycle – including aesthetics – is so rapid, what may seem clunky in the first iteration will quickly be refined tomorrow.

“If you look at the devices we have today, it’s amazing how much like jewelry they are. Even four, six years ago, the phones we had – if you go back in time – they’re huge! They’re clunky, they’re plastic, they’re terrible” he told us. “Today, a product like Nexus 4, has kind of the precision and polish and feel of, like, a really beautiful Art Deco cigarette case. And yes it’s functional, but it’s also a fashion accessory. And I think all technology goes through that curve, when you first have something which looks really, y’know, technologically clunky, like the original Motorola StarTACs, and then it becomes something that there is one for everybody, that meets their personal style; just something you fall in love with.”

While Glass is a standalone product – albeit one that can tether to your 3G/4G smartphone for use outside of WiFi coverage – Duarte is confident that tomorrow’s wearables will be more distributed than converged in a single point. Asked whether he would opt for a head-mounted display, like Glass, or a smartwatch, he told us that “”I always pick both when I’m faced with a choice like that” and that we should “embrace the power of ‘and’!”

That’s down to different form-factors still having relevance, even if they only contain a few sensors, or perhaps just one. Google’s advantage in the fledgling market is one of breadth of user-base, the design exec points out, not to mention the not-inconsiderable amount in the bank. “I think the whole realm of wearables is really exciting” he said. “I think one of the cool things about Glass, and the way that Google approaches things, is that we have the scale and the opportunity to do things that are kind of outside the box, and I think there’s a huge range of ways that we can get technology on you that are not obvious.”

“Strapping technology to your wrist is something that we’ve all been used to for, what, hundreds of years now,” he emphasized, “and I think that’s actually really powerful, that’s really cool. But that’s just the beginning.” Research into context, and about delivering relevant results without distractions, are “super-exciting questions” as well as “things we’re going to be doing a lot of work on in the next few years.”

For Google Now, meanwhile, it’s still very much a work-in-progress. Duarte wouldn’t give us any specific examples of where the context engine would go next, but it’s clear that with the amount of work that has gone into Now so-far, it’s likely to play an increasingly central role in future iterations of Android. As Glass reaches the consumer market, meanwhile, later in 2013, that will likely see Now’s brand of confident predictions tested more thoroughly. Users might be less willing to accept misguided results on a mobile device versus in a desktop browser, but they’ll be even less accommodating of poor suggestions floated in their wearable display. The Glass project – and indeed Google Now – are still young, but there’s a lot about the future of Android that rests upon their reception and development.

So, to take a photo you can merely wake the headset with the “OK, Glass” command, and then say “take a picture” complete with a preview in the corner of your vision. The same is true for video – “Start Recording” – and you can trigger Google+ Hangouts too, giving friends a live streaming view through the headset’s front-facing video camera.

There’s also support for directions, with overlays of which roads are coming up, what path to take, and ETA, together with the ability to Google for information such as “how long is the Brooklyn Bridge.” Glass even supports voice-dictated messages, and translations, so you can ask “how do you say bread in French?” and have the headset whisper the answer to you.

Google Now-style features, such as flight information cards, are also included, popping into your vision when relevant rather than forcing you to manually ask for them.

Meanwhile, there are new images of the Glass headsets, including five different colors – charcoal, tangerine, shale, cotton, and sky – and seemingly confirming that the wearable will be water-resistant. Considering it’s designed to be worn all the time, that’s probably a good idea. A version with sunglasses lenses attached is also shown, and we know Google is thinking about prescription lens support too. Finally, the headband itself is seemingly made from flexible metal, for better resilience.

Google is yet to delivery the first batch of Glass Explorer Edition headsets to Google I/O 2012 preorder customers, though that hasn’t stopped it opening up for a second round of orders. Developers who can give a sufficiently interesting use-case will be invited to preorder one of 8,000 more Glass units.