Google’s voice recognition technology used in software and services like Google Now and search has been among the best for the past couple of years. Still, the company hasn’t been resting and just announced that the methods in which it detects and predicts words have been improved to give much faster, more efficient results with better reliability…
Although Google isn’t yet rolling out Android Marshmallow to the masses (it’s currently rumored that the rollout will begin on October 5th), many users are this morning waking up to an automatically-updated Google Now Launcher, sporting a design that might be familiar to those who have taken a look at the Android M developer preview…
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Google is rolling out an update to its self-titled app for Android, bringing it up to version 5.3. It’s available to download for free for anyone running Android 4.4 or later, bringing a fresh look to the standard Google Launcher. For those running Android ‘M’ Dev Preview 3, the update also brings one of Marshmallow‘s most exciting features: Now on Tap…
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In addition to unveiling its all new logo today, Google has announced some changes coming to its Search experience on mobile devices and its Google Now homepage on Android. Google notes that it’s made the search results page for mobile devices easier to navigate with a new swipeable and tappable UI. Google offered a look at the new UI for images, videos and news stories in the video below.
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Android Wear finally has iOS support after Google pushed its iPhone-compatible software to the App Store. This means that Android has beaten Apple Watch to the cross-platform game. Or, at least it would, if iOS didn’t restrict it to a state of almost uselessness. The only device officially supported is the LG Watch Urbane although — as we previously revealed — the older generation Android Wear watches do work. I got it set up with my Moto 360, and have been mostly disappointed by my experience so far.
Facebook today confirmed previous rumors that it was developing a Messenger-based virtual assistant codenamed “Moneypenny.” The software was debuted today under the name “M,” and will be available in a very limited release to users in the Bay Area starting today.
Cortana, Microsoft’s cross-platform voice assistant not dissimilar from Google Now, is today becoming available as an official public beta through Google Play.
As part of its Android M announcement, Google showed off its Now on Tap feature which will allow you to get contextual information within any app or screen just by pressing the home button for a few seconds. With Marshmallow not set to hit the public until later this year, it gave Microsoft a chance to beat Google to it. And it has done just that in its latest Bing app for Android.
Google pushed an update to its Android Auto app today refreshing the home screen to bring bigger, easier to see cards, particularly when using navigation and playing music. Previously, all stacked cards were of equal height. Now, the top activity card is double the height of any of the cards below. Being bigger not only makes them easier to see, but also easier to interact with on the touch screen.
As well as the updated user interface, there are a few bug fixes and performance improvements. You can download the fresh update right now from the Google Play Store. It’s a free update and requires Android 5.0 or later to work. Obviously, you’ll also need a car with a compatible built-in system, or a compatible after-market system.
You can find out more about Android Auto, including compatible vehicles, over at android.com/auto.
We first gave Cortana beta for Android a try a few weeks ago, and I just wasn’t impressed. Our own Cam Bunton went on to give it a deeper look and a comparison to Google Now and was a little less cynical than I, but overall neither os us were convinced that it is something that Android users need. I would argue that that’s still the case, but Microsoft clearly hasn’t given up yet. With a recent update to the app, you can now set Cortana as the home button shortcut.
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In an interview in Engadget, Motorola’s SVP of Software Seang Chau spoke briefly about the focus the company had chosen for the development of its latest Moto X smartphone, and where he saw the next generation of smartphones heading.
Chau said that Google “levels the playing field every time” by adding to Android features that were once device-specific. It’s for this reason that Motorola has chosen to focus on the ‘always on’ capability of the Moto X Style (or Moto X Pure Edition, as it is known in the U.S.).
We’ve got Moto Voice, where you just talk or make motions and gestures or you just approach it and [it] wakes up — those kinds of things, you can’t copy in software and if you try, you’ll just kill your battery. We put a lot of effort into always-on, and I think that’s where we’re going to continue focusing a lot of our software efforts.
The future would, he said, be in making intelligent assistants like Google Now, Siri and Cortana significantly more capable. So far, he considers them to be at the “getting there” stage …
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Late last week, Microsoft made its Cortana digital assistant available as a beta for Android, and we’ve been putting it through its paces ever since to see how it stacks up against Google Now. To compare, we put together a list of all the things we think a good assistant should be able to do, then tested them both using the same commands.
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Microsoft recently released its Cortana digital assistant as a beta app, and we’ve been able to get our hands on the preview. Apart from its Material-like design, the app looks, performs, and acts just like the Cortana on Windows Phone. You can ask it to set reminders, give you directions and weather information, or do simple arithmetic. It has its limitations and doesn’t feel quite as intuitive or in-depth as Google Now or Siri, but it has its uses.
After taking on messaging, cash transfers, and more, Facebook is preparing to challenge Google in the virtual assistant arena. The social company is in the process of developing a Messenger-based Google Now competitor called Moneypenny, a new report indicates.
Have you ever wondered to yourself, “Am I taking full advantage of Google Now’s voice search?” The point of Now is to make our lives easier through proactive assistance and easy-to-use voice commands, but there are so many of these commands available that it’s not always easy to remember all of them, especially while you’re out on the go. And how many people are going to read through all of the possible commands when they first get a phone that supports Google Now?
Fortunately, a user posting to the /r/Android community on Reddit noticed that when you activate Google voice search and simply say “hello,” Now will present you with a list of commands you can use to get things done faster. At the bottom is a card that shuffles through lots of smaller, miscellaneous voice actions like, “Post to Google+ I’m feeling lucky.” Nice touch.
If you’re anything like me, at some point during your day you’ll consciously think to yourself about what time you’d like to get up the next day. You’ll think about it, but then just forget to set an alarm on your phone before you go to sleep and end up waking at a different time than you’d like. Well, there’s a neat card in Google search that can be evoked with a simply query that may help you with this problem.
The month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan runs from this evening, June 17th, and ends in the evening of July 17th, and Google has launched a website that takes advantage of the company’s vast offerings to provide a helpful dashboard through which to get the most out of the month.
Quietly, Google introduced some new location-aware search functions in voice search over the last couple of weeks. The feature lets you perform several searches based on your location, with Google looking at its Maps data to figure out what you’re talking about. For example, you can voice search “how tall is this?” and looking at your location, Google can tell you the height of the building that you’re looking at.
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We told you earlier this week about a new voice assistant called Hound, and if you take SoundHound’s internal demo at face value, the app seems like it’s almost too impressive to be true. That video actually went somewhat viral (despite being recorded with a potato), and we wanted to put Hound through the paces to see if it lives up to the hype. We decided it wouldn’t hurt to put Google Now in the mix too and see how SoundHound’s new app compares to Google’s trusty voice assistant…
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SoundHound’s first app is known as one of the best offerings when it comes to recognizing sounds. You could hum a song and the app could, fairly reliably, tell you which one you were humming. Now, the same company has released a new app, called Hound, which attempts to usurp the Google Now throne with some really impressive voice assistant technology…
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Stephen and I are off to Google I/O 2015 this week (the first time we’ve sent 2 people – for double the coverage!) but we wanted to preview what we we’re excited about this week. I’d run through the list of expectations but Chance already made 90% of the list when the sessions were launched. Go check it out. Here’s what I’ve been hearing…
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Reuters reported back in March that Microsoft planned to bring its Google Now competitor Cortana to Android, and Microsoft has now officially confirmed this in a blog post.
Today, we’re announcing a Cortana application for Android phones and for iPhones which works as a companion to Cortana on your Windows 10 PC. The ‘Phone Companion’ app on the PC will help you install the Cortana app from the Google Play or Apple App Store onto your phone so you’ll be able to take the intelligence of Cortana with you, wherever you go […]
The Cortana companion will be available for Android phones at the end of June and for iPhones later this year.
While Microsoft is pitching the intelligent assistant as a companion to a Windows PC, it appears that most of the functionality will work in the Android app without the need for a Windows device, Microsoft saying that you can “make the same queries, ask the same questions” in the standalone app …
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via <a href="http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/05/18/google-app-v4-6-enables-translucent-status-and-navigation-bars-for-google-now-screen-on-custom-launchers-apk-download/">Android Police</a>
With Google I/O right around the corner, the company is prepping its apps with minor updates ahead of the expected larger changes to come later this month. This evening, the Google App on Android received a minor update with a few visual changes. For users of custom launchers, the update enables full screen mode for Google Now.
Popular feed reader app Feedly has been updated today to version 27 with a handful of new features. First off, the update adds Google Now integration. The app will now push the most interesting stories to Google Now every morning at 7:00AM, allowing you to quickly digest the most important news of the day.
