Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Google Now

             
  

Here is the review of Google Now which I promised to talk about.  It hasn't been to long since I have been using this application, however it has surprised me immensely already. Just to let you all know, google now is available for iOS 6 and above and is part of the google search application; for android users, it is only available on Jelly Bean 4.1 and above. Also, as a quick side note, I tested this application primarily on my Note 2 and  HTC One X and also a bit on the iPad 2.  So let's get into this review.

One of the main features of this application I s that just by your voice all your information is at your finger tips. Literally. I just asked it what the height of Barrack Obama was and in just a second it gave me the right answer. brilliant! It does all the normal things you would expect google to do for example detailed weather, general knowledge, news stories, reminders, alarms, sports scores, blah blah blah.... 

Now, lets go to the more advanced features of it. I asked it to remind me to buy an article the next time I would be at a particular place, frankly I expected it to fail. But surprisingly, it actually worked! Just a minute after I reached that place, I heard my phone's notification tone go off. Then, I check it and it reminds me of the same exact thing!

The next thing I am going to talk about isn't very advanced, but it is worth mentioning, I just asked it, would I need my sunglasses today and it answered no, showers are expected. (It's monsoon where I'm at) so this is awesome!

You can open this application by long pressing one of the capacitive buttons on your phone, after which, will appear a screen with a number of 'cards'. What do they do? Well they provide information about various stuff. For example, if a soccer team I support is either paying a game right now, just played a game, or is about to play a game, it would pride me information on the same. Furthermore, if I search for a particular topic repeatedly on a different device (eg: my Mac) using my same google account, then a card would appear, updating me on the same.   

Now the are tons of features to this application that I haven't mentioned and neither do I plan to do as it would take me millennia however, since this is free and since it is awesome, I officially recommend this application to all. Also, this application is being constantly updated with better features, though a lot of features related to your phone's settings are not available as yet, Google promises it in the near future and I trust them. Anyway, signing off, Google just hit a home run. Well done!