google now

Just so long as you have Google Now activated on your Android device, you'll be seeing "G" notifications soon. The notifications you're getting might not end up being all that different from what you've been seeing before today, but they will LOOK a little different. The biggest change is the branding. Instead of just a circle with an icon in it, your notifications from Google Now will also have the newest version of Google's "G" logo.

Continue Reading

The holidays are fast approaching and, while it's a season for festivity and good cheer, for some it is also a season for hair pulling stress. Whether it be the arrival of friends and relatives or even your own flight, or the sending and receiving of gifts, there are just a lot of pieces of information to keep track of. Good thing, then, that Google, the master of amassing and keeping track of information on the Internet, has your back with a few new Now on Tap features.

Continue Reading

Android 6.0 Marshmallow's newest update to Google Now on Tap has introduced a new way to take screenshots. Now more integral to the Android experience, Nexus and non-Nexus devices alike will be able to and encouraged to take screenshots using the Google Now on Tap system. This makes the process a little less confusing for those of you that do not own a device made by Google with the most basic vanilla Android experience.

Continue Reading

A recent study carried out Experts Exchange has compared the user satisfaction ratings between the three main virtual assistants, Apple's Siri, Google Now, and Microsoft's Cortana. In survey covering a number of different aspects, including accuracy in answering questions and completing requests, along with overall satisfaction, Siri came out on top, followed by Google Now, and then Cortana.

Continue Reading

Google Now is Google's version of the smart personal virtual assistant, though it doesn't exactly have a personable personality like Siri or Cortana. It makes up for that with smarts, offering recommendations not just when you ask it but sometimes even when you don't. And sometimes it even makes suggestions from sources you probably didn't know about. VentureBeat's Jordan Novet reports seeing Foursquare place recommendations in his Google Now search results. Which he finds strange considering that he doesn't have the Foursquare app installed at all.

Continue Reading

Google, Apple, and Microsoft have worked hard to implement hands-free features when it comes to safely using their smartphones while behind the wheel, allowing drivers to keep their eyes on the road. While these settings are certainly better than physically holding and interacting with a phone while driving, it turns out they're not quite as safe as we all thought. A new study from the University of Utah and AAA (American Automobile Association) has found that voice commands can still be very distracting.

Continue Reading

Siri and Google Now might soon have some competition, and this is just as smart as the others. Maybe even smarter. Facebook already revealed that indeed has plans for a virtual "shopping" assistant simply called "M", but it seems there isn't anything simple about it. A lucky Facebook Messenger got the rare chance to play around with the virtual helper, and to his surprise, "M" proved to be quite up to task in making sure all your purchasing and booking needs are met, right inside Facebook's chat app.

Continue Reading

Although they haven't become the widespread and always used features they were meant to be, voice controlled virtual assistants like Siri, Google Now, or Cortana can be found in almost every mobile device in the market. In some cases, they are even enabled by default. While convenient and useful, this may lead to some serious security and privacy issues, as some researchers from the French government agency ANSSI have discovered. They have come across a way to call Siri and Google Now into action with neither user nor hacker uttering a single word.

Continue Reading

This week the folks at Google have released Google App v5.3, a version made to NEARLY bring Google Now On Tap to Nexus devices. Of course you'll need to have a Developer Preview build ready to go, and you'll need to be on Developer Preview M 3, but once you are, there's a bit of treasure to (almost) be found. This update also brings on the full Marshmallow user interface aesthetic to the Google Now launcher.

Continue Reading

The first BlackBerry Android device has been leaked with a series of photos up close and personal. These images show the device to have a touchscreen display and slide-out keyboard - a hardware keyboard, that is - and a relatively sizable back-facing camera. This device has a number of BlackBerry-specific software features in addition to its notable odd hardware. You'll notice slightly modified icons as well as a set of BlackBerry-made apps, new to Android entirely.

Continue Reading

Every could of years, it would seem, Google opts to update their main "Google" logo - that time has come again. This year Google is working to become a whole lot more modern, cutting out the serifs and going super flat. This version of the logo retains the colors from the past couple of schemes, while changing the lettering relatively drastically. This is the first time Google has gone without serifs in their mark - ever.

Continue Reading

In terms of a third-party app achieving success on a smartphone platform, there's probably nothing better than getting set as the default application for a specific task, whether it's the browser, email client, or messaging service. That's why Microsoft has scored a big win with its latest beta of digital assistant Cortana for Android, as users can choose it over the built-in Google Now. This comes shortly after the initial beta rollout of Cortana for Android.

Continue Reading