google now

Google Now, the predictive search available to users of the latest versions of Android, received a significant upgrade today, with new features focused on making travel easier.

On your way to the airport for a holiday visit to a relative? Google Now will tell you the weather at your destination. Once you arrive at the airport, Google Now will pull up your boarding pass -- as long as you're flying on United Airlines, anyway. (Google says more airlines are coming.) And once you've landed, Google Now will suggest possible activities, local Web sites, and provide other sources of … Read more

Both Motorola smartphones will see Jelly Bean take control as the new operating system version as soon as next week, according to Verizon's blog. As a refresher, Jelly Bean offers enhanced notifications, Google Now, and a more intuitive keyboard.

Verizon is also using the update to implement a few carrier-specific changes to the Motorola duo. Gone are the Verizon Video app and Color app, making room for a new Video calling portal and Accessories app. What's more, the Droid Razr HD … Read more

While Google's big press event scheduled for today in New York may have been canceled, the company still decided to move forward with a slew of announcements via blog post. Among them was the release of Android 4.2, an updated version of Jelly Bean to come preinstalled on the new line of Nexus devices.

Swype fans will be pleased to hear that Android 4.2 includes a keyboard that lets users input text via gliding gestures. Not only that, it offers predictions based on common strings of word combinations for "smarter" typing. While the news is … Read more

Google Now is a bit creepy at times, there's no doubt about it. But, it's a fun service to use and it definitely provides some value to your Android experience.

Yesterday, Google released an update to the Search app, which powers Google Now. One of the features in the update allows Google Now users to add their favorite sports teams to the service, without having to rely on search history for your teams to show up in the app.

To add your favorite sports team, launch Google Now and scroll to the bottom of your list of cards. … Read more

As you navigate your Android 4.1 Jelly Bean-stocked phone or tablet, you might come across a new, built-in feature called Google Now.

Often mislabeled as a Siri competitor, Google Now is not an intelligent voice recognition service. Instead, it's a built-in assistant that serves up Google search-based answers to voiced questions.

Google Now also tries to give you those answers before you even pose a question by predicting the data you want, based on your search history.

Walk through the smart feature and get a few little-known tips in this video and written guide.

On April 1, 2004, Google announced its new and capacious Gmail service and said it would serve up contextual ads, a move so radical that people initially thought it was an April Fool's joke. It wasn't.

At the time, more than 30 civil liberties groups urged Google to suspend Gmail, arguing that targeting people with ads in their e-mail was setting a dangerous precedent and letting the "proverbial genie out of the bottle" for privacy abuse. California Sen. Liz Figueroa drafted a bill aimed at restricting this use of Gmail (later dropped), privacy groups asked the California Attorney General to investigate … Read more

Google Now is the Mountain View, Calif.-based monolith's apparent answer to Apple's Siri -- a voice assistant that responds to requests for information and other commands, while also trying to anticipate what bits of data you might want by digging into your search history and other interactions with the Googleverse. It's a buzz-worthy feature available only on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which is only on Google's new Nexus 7 tablet and some lucky updated Galaxy Nexus phones.

At least, that was the only way to get it a week ago.

It didn't take long for the community on the XDA developers forum to come up with a port to bring Google Now to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich devices, with one caveat -- you need to have a rooted device running an Android 4.0 AOSP ROM like CyanagenMod. In other words, if you're running Ice Cream Sandwich on an unrooted phone from the one of the carriers, it's not going to work for you.… Read more

It's going to be pretty hard for Apple to top the Samsung Galaxy S III and the latest release of Android 4.1 that will be running on the Galaxy Nexus later this summer.

In this edition of Ask Maggie I offer some advice on whether it's worth it to wait for the new iPhone expected in the fall. I also explain why Samsung is releasing the new Galaxy S III on different carrier networks on different dates.

iPhone 5 vs. Samsung Galaxy S III vs. Samsung Nexus

Dear Maggie, I have an iPhone 3G (yes it's … Read more

I've finally had a few days to decompress from Google I/O 2012 and wrap my head around all of last week's big announcements. And with a tablet, a streaming media device, Google Glass, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, there was plenty to go around.

While I certainly love the power and performance of the Nexus 7 tablet, it's Jelly Bean, and specifically Google Now, that blows my mind.

Don't get me wrong, I've seen a number of Siri-like apps for Android over the last year or so, many of which have their own … Read more