Google Now on your iPhone and iPad • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#71

Post by herge » Mon, Apr 29, 2013, 3:58 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #66

epo wrote: post #44

Funny, if Apple trawled through your email, calendar and search history to pull a stunt like this people would be up in arms. Guess whether a walled garden is a bad thing depends on your particular brand of fanboyishness. Personally speaking, the idea of Google displaying things based on my email history, diary and a knowledge of my location makes me shudder, "You're near that motel where you had that quickie last mo…

Funny, if Apple trawled through your email, calendar and search history to pull a stunt like this people would be up in arms. Would they? Is there any precedent here of Apple scraping user info? The usual complaints against Apple (mine included) is that their systems are far too locked down and closed to competition- not that they do funny stuff with my data.

Remember the hubbub two years ago when Apple was collecting GPS data?

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/iphone-customers-laws...

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#72

Post by VLM » Mon, Apr 29, 2013, 3:58 PM UTC

alec wrote: post #60

VLM wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine how useful intelligently feeding google reader data into Now would be... oh wait, whoops. Aside from whining about Reader being cancelled I am serious that sniffing relevant RSS feeds would be a highly useful feature to add. I've had it for a few months on my Nexus 7. In summary its travel and shopping push notifications. I had the usual intense short lived "oh that's really cool" reaction and haven't used it…

I don't think it would be very useful to have RSS feeds in Google Now. I like Google Now because it tells me what I want to know right now , like that my flight is delayed or traffic is bad or here's how to get to that restaurant and you need to leave in 15 minutes. I don't want to know about a new article right now .

Perhaps. But the app has very little to say if you're not traveling or shopping. Personalized news would fit in with the "a push of personalized interesting stuff" model. On the other hand if its sticking to the "travel and shopping" model then I do agree news would be inappropriate.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#73

Post by dodecaphonic » Mon, Apr 29, 2013, 3:58 PM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #41

stylo wrote: post #3

I honestly did not expect to see Google Now on iDevices. For me it is definitely the "killer app" on my Android phone.

I used to think that but lately I've been considering switching to Android. Google Now is one of the reasons. Giving me the opportunity to really try it might make be switch now. I think it's because Google Now isn't the kind of feature you can just test in the shop and make a decision on. It requires actual use to know if you like it.

I had the opportunity to use it for a few weeks at work, when developing and Android app, and made the jump from the iPhone to a Nexus 4. Google Now is incredible. Last week I went to another city for a family funeral and the next day it was showing traffic to the place I slept, sights to see, etc. This weekend I was walking around town and a card showed up with movie times. It's little things that wow you and actually turn out to be useful.

The Android experience is very good now, but I would be lying if I said that app quality is nearly as high, especially in things like photography and audio. That still makes me think about whether my commitment is long-term.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#74

Post by mcintyre1994 » Mon, Apr 29, 2013, 3:58 PM UTC

DigitalJack wrote: post #64

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #62

Dammit Google, this is awesome, and genius, and pretty much obsoletes Siri, but why didn't you push this in the Android Google search app? I really want Now on my phone since it's awesome on my tablet, but I can't get Jellybean onto it.

I don't have Siri on my iphone (a 4), but I always thought the benefit was from composing text messages and such... This is just search isn't it?

I believe on an Android phone it integrates all Google voice actions (I may be being unfair to say it obsoletes Siri for iOS as some actions may be unavailable for iOS), which include texting/calling etc. It's not just for searching though, no. It basically acts like Siri, in that it gathers cards of information, but it does that without you asking using a wealth of data Google hold.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#75

Post by psbp » Mon, Apr 29, 2013, 3:59 PM UTC

songgao wrote: post #68

psbp wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give it time. Mine popped up 5 cards that I commonly get in Google Now on my Nexus 7.

So it's a initialization delay? If you add something in your calendar, does that pop up as a card right away?

When is the event? Reminders usually pop up the night before the event for me.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#76

Post by toomuchtodo » Mon, Apr 29, 2013, 3:59 PM UTC

alec wrote: post #60

VLM wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine how useful intelligently feeding google reader data into Now would be... oh wait, whoops. Aside from whining about Reader being cancelled I am serious that sniffing relevant RSS feeds would be a highly useful feature to add. I've had it for a few months on my Nexus 7. In summary its travel and shopping push notifications. I had the usual intense short lived "oh that's really cool" reaction and haven't used it…

I don't think it would be very useful to have RSS feeds in Google Now. I like Google Now because it tells me what I want to know right now , like that my flight is delayed or traffic is bad or here's how to get to that restaurant and you need to leave in 15 minutes. I don't want to know about a new article right now .

Agreed.

Google Reader = News Feed

Google Now = Life Feed

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#77

Post by cocoflunchy » Mon, Apr 29, 2013, 4:09 PM UTC

VLM wrote: post #72

alec wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it would be very useful to have RSS feeds in Google Now. I like Google Now because it tells me what I want to know right now , like that my flight is delayed or traffic is bad or here's how to get to that restaurant and you need to leave in 15 minutes. I don't want to know about a new article right now .

Perhaps. But the app has very little to say if you're not traveling or shopping. Personalized news would fit in with the "a push of personalized interesting stuff" model. On the other hand if its sticking to the "travel and shopping" model then I do agree news would be inappropriate.

You have cards for breaking news, and updates on stuff that you've searched Google News about (e.g. for the Boston bombing, I was getting regular updates on the situation. If you don't want to hear about it anymore, you can opt out easily.)

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#78

Post by notatoad » Mon, Apr 29, 2013, 4:09 PM UTC

epo wrote: post #44

Funny, if Apple trawled through your email, calendar and search history to pull a stunt like this people would be up in arms. Guess whether a walled garden is a bad thing depends on your particular brand of fanboyishness. Personally speaking, the idea of Google displaying things based on my email history, diary and a knowledge of my location makes me shudder, "You're near that motel where you had that quickie last mo…

Unless something has changed since I first set up google now on my phone, anything that requires trawling through your inbox is entirely opt-in (that is, another layer of opt-in beyond installing the app and enabling google now)

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#79

Post by eitally » Mon, Apr 29, 2013, 4:11 PM UTC

My favorite feature of Google Now is that when I've searched for a place/address in Chrome on a PC, it automatically pops up with proposed navigation in a card on my phone. That has saved me so many times from the "dammit, I can't remember the street number" while moving from house to car.

p.s. This is one widget where allowing it to use the maximum space possible makes a lot of sense, especially when traveling internationally (traffic, places, weather, currency, timezone, social/birthdays, calendar events, "things nearby".

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#80

Post by pkulak » Mon, Apr 29, 2013, 4:11 PM UTC

epo wrote: post #44

Funny, if Apple trawled through your email, calendar and search history to pull a stunt like this people would be up in arms. Guess whether a walled garden is a bad thing depends on your particular brand of fanboyishness. Personally speaking, the idea of Google displaying things based on my email history, diary and a knowledge of my location makes me shudder, "You're near that motel where you had that quickie last mo…

People are "up in arms" about Google's email reading _constantly_. Microsoft is producing brand new ads about it as we type. Maybe it's just hard to care after this long? Google has been traipsing through my email for a decade now and all that's ever come of it has been my personal convenience.