Google Now

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j2VUJX2BLY]

Beginning today, AT&T Moto X owners will be able to download the camera improvements that debuted a few weeks ago. According to AnandTech, this update greatly improves the quality of images taken with the Moto X camera.

There are some other improvements in this update from AT&T that focus on Touchless control accuracy, updates to Motorola Migrate and finding lost phones functionality.

• Camera enhancements:
  • Enhanced camera auto-white balance performance and color accuracy.
  • Improved exposure when taking photos outside or backlit, and improved clarity in low light.
  • Faster touch-to-focus time and reduced unnecessary refocusing in low light or scenes with continuous motion.
• Faster response and improved accuracy when using Touchless Control and easier set up and training of the “Ok Google Now” trigger.
• Enhanced transfer of content from old phone to new phone using Motorola Migrate.
• Fine-tuned feature that allows you to find phone when it is lost that sometimes prevented a lost phone from reporting its location.

More at AT&T.
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Photo: chromespot.com

When Google announced (and later began rolling out) conversational search back in May, the company saw that as only the start. The company’s plans for the feature take us all the way into the realms of a true virtual personal assistant.

If you haven’t yet tried conversational search in Chrome, the feature as it stands is useful but basic. Speak a search like “How old is Barack Obama?” and Chrome will speak the answer. With a person, you could then ask a series of follow-up questions like “How tall is he?”, “Who is his wife?” and “How old is she?” and they would know who you were referring to in each question. That’s the functionality Google is rolling out, remembering who or what you just asked about and interpreting pronouns appropriately.

But Google’s long-term plans are far more ambitious. In an interview with TechFlash, Google Research Fellow Jeff Dean talked to Jon Xavier about his team’s work on machine learning and neural nets to expand Google’s abilities in conversational search … 
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Google just announced that the XE8 update is rolling out to Google Glass users and with it comes a new controls for video playback, a ton of new voice commands, and several new Google Now cards.

When it comes to voice commands, Google is adding integration with Path and Evernote and says similar integration is coming soon for other third-party apps:

You can now update your Path feed by saying “ok glass, post an update.” Similarly, sending a note to Evernote is as easy as saying “ok glass, take a note.” To see the new voice actions in your voice action menu, you’ll need Path and Evernote Glassware turned on from the MyGlass Android app or website. This is just the beginning. More Glassware will support these and new voice actions over time.

Another new voice related feature is the ability to add a caption to a photo or video by using the “ok glass, add caption” command. Other new voice commands provide hands-free navigation with commands to show route overview, hide route overview, and stop directions, while Google noted the release also includes “more fluid voice commands” in general:
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Google is testing a new “card” for its Google Now service that would display local news that’s contextually relevant to the user. It’s not something that users have been able to try out just yet, but Quartz reports that vice president of search and assist at Google Johanna Wright tells them that Google is currently testing the feature internally.

There’s no word on whether or not the Google Now card would some how be integrated with Google’s current News service, but Wright provides an example of how the “hyper-local news card” might function:
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We’ve seen hints of Google Now coming to Chrome for a long time now, but it looks like we are getting very close to a launch. CNET has discovered a pop-up notification within the developer build of Chrome that says, “Enable Google Now Cards — Would you like to be shown Google Now cards?”

The prompt appears to be hitting those running the developer channel build of Chrome on both Windows and OS X. On Windows, the card appears in the status bar along the bottom, while on OS X it is in the menu bar up top. Google Now on the desktop could allow for directions to appear for a location you just searched or sports scores for your favorite team, which is similar to what it does on mobile.

Also on Windows is a control panel setting for controlling which web apps and extensions are allowed to send notification. This includes services like Gmail, Twitter, Google Calendar, and more. This could mean that Google is looking to open the notification technology to more and more apps. 
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As noted by Droid Life , Google is rolling out nutritional information from the Knowledge Graph into its search results for users in the U.S. over the next ten days.

Google Now will be able to take advantage of these results across various platforms including Android and its iOS application:

From the basics of potatoes and carrots to more complex dishes like burritos and chow mein, you can simply ask, “How much protein is in a banana?” or “How many calories are in an avocado?” and get your answer right away. You’ll hear the answer to your specific question, see relevant nutrition information under an expansion, and be able to switch to other related foods or serving sizes.

Many consumers will value this information as caloric intake and personal fitness trends more and more popular. Even fast food restaurants are starting to report nutritional information for its products. Good on Google’s part for making this information more accessible for everyone.
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During its Google I/O keynote earlier this month, Google announced that it would be bringing conversational, Google-Now like voice search to the desktop. Using a UI similar to voice search and Google Now in its mobile apps, Google would soon allow Chrome users to search and drill down further into results using only their voice.

Today, Google appears to have finally started rolling out the feature for Chrome users on the stable and beta channels of Chrome.

After updating to the latest version 27.0.1453.93 of Chrome, users can navigate to Google.com, click the microphone icon, and choose to allow the new Google Voice search feature to begin listening. Google will only ask for permission to listen once and from then on users can simply speak in order to search. For certain search results such as questions Google will also provide audible results.

Not all of the functionality seems to be available as of yet. For example, when Google first showed off the feature users weren’t required to click at all. Google execs were activating the feature by simply saying “Ok, Google” and were able to continue searching with their voice, hands-free, from on the search results page. The feature as it’s currently implemented now requires users to click the mic icon in order to start a voice search.
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Earlier this week Google confirmed that its head of Google Wallet will leave later this year, and today AllThingsD reports that the company is scrapping its plans for a physical credit card that would accompany its mobile payment service.

Google CEO Larry Page reportedly canned the physical card just last week after being dissatisfied with its reliability due to glitches.

The company was reportedly preparing to demo the physical card, which featured the colorful Google Wallet “W” branding, at Google I/O next week, so it is interesting that this report is surfacing so suddenly.

Larry Page reportedly cited more innovative approaches to mobile commerce from startups like Square, which seems to have solidified his decision to shred the company’s plans for a physical Google Wallet credit card.

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Last month we saw hints that Google Now could be coming to the web, and now it looks like we could see deeper integration than we thought.

François Beaufort points us to Notification Center pop-ups being developed in a recent Chromium build, much like the Gmail notifications offered by its web app.

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via phandroid.com

Google appears to be readying a Google Now web interface for the company’s Siri-like voice search with Google’s homepage as the intended destination.

It’s no surprise that Google would bring its voice search to the web, as it already offers the service on Android and plans to bring it to iOS (Google Search for iOS currently offers real-time voice search but doesn’t support Google Now cards), and tends to have a cross-platform approach to its services as opposed to Apple’s ownership approach to its services.

Sure, Apple does have limited iCloud functionality on Microsoft’s Windows operating system and allows users to manage iCloud from a nicely designed web interface, but Apple only offers Siri on the iPhone 4S and 5, as well as the iPad mini, iPad 3 and 4, and latest iPod touch, though the upcoming release of OS X 10.9 could bring Siri to the Mac just in time to compete with Google Now on the web.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kusQK7PCXTM

If Nuance gets its way with the just announced ‘Voice Ads’ mobile advertising platform, soon every mobile ad could include Siri-like functionality that lets you communicate with and ask questions about the product being advertised.

Nuance, the company behind the voice recognition module now used in Apple’s Siri, today announced a new project to bring its voice recognition technology to the mobile advertising world. The basic concept of the new platform, which Nuance made available through an SDK for advertising companies, is to bring a two-way, interactive conversation to mobile ads. As highlighted by Nuance in the video above, ads that implement the Voice Ads platform will allow users to engage in a Siri-like conversation with an advertisement:

Nuance Voice Ads gives mobile advertisers and creative agencies an opportunity to go beyond the limitations of the four-inch mobile device screen and create a conversation with consumers through the power of voice recognition. Voice Ads finally creates an opportunity for brands to deepen the relationship with their consumers, with targeted interactive ads that deeply engage their core audience – much in the way that the world’s most popular mobile personal assistants have deepened consumers’ relationship with their mobile phones.

In the demo above, Nuance shows an advertisement for a fictional deodorant brand that uses a magic 8-ball theme to answer any question that users might have. The ad of course ends in a pitch for the product in question, as you might expect. Other ads could allow users to ask specific questions about a product’s release date or specs…

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