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Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

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Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#91

Post by huxley »

herge wrote: post #71
untog wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

The hubbub was due to some bugs in iOS location services and wasn't ever directly accessed by Apple or shared with 3rd parties.

http://www.apple.com/ca/pr/library/2011/04/27Apple-Q-A-on-Lo...

All smartphone providers track the same sort of data in roughly the same way, it's part of what makes location software work.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#92

Post by hnriot »

blhack wrote: post #81
eddieroger wrote: post #46

I fell for Google Now when I booted my old Nexus to test test something, and Google Now had read through my emails and showed me a tracking status for a UPS package I was expecting. I was pretty jealous of that functionality, but never convinced to go back to Android just for one feature. Now, I really have no reason. It's also pretty telling of something when more iOS devices have Google Now than Android devices do.

I had a similar "whoa" moment a couple of weeks ago. Google alerted me that I should leave for Santa Barbara "now". Which was really, really weird for me, since I was already halfway there (from Phoenix). Apparently, it had read through my emails, seen a receipt for sigur ros tickets from ticketmaster, figured out where I was, and already calculated how long it would take me to get there. That is insanely awesome .

How is it awesome that it told you to leave, when in fact you had already left? Shouldn't it have alerted you before you left?

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#93

Post by driverdan »

After listening to friends rave about Now and reading so many positive comments online I really wanted to like it. I've been using it for a few months and my experience is significantly worse than what others have reported. It always seems to show me notifications for the wrong information at the wrong time.

Take directions. I work at a coworking space 4 miles from my home. The hours I'm there vary. Now seems to try predicting when I'm going to leave and shows me directions home. Its timing is never correct and I don't need directions for a route I drive all the time.

I can only remember one instance of it correctly notified me of when to leave (with directions) for something on my calendar. Often it just shows directions without the "Leave Now" message.

Sometimes it notifies me of the weather. Sometimes it doesn't. I haven't figured out that pattern yet.

Overall it just doesn't seem to understand my usage patterns.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#95

Post by eli »

pspeter3 wrote: post #12
adlpz wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It used to be an useless time to commute by car to home (and I used to take the train) and the weather thing. Until I went on vacation to Germany and it started popping places to see, German translating widgets and other goodness. Not that useful still, but I believe it can grow into something really useful and quick.

You can change the commute mode from driving to public transportation

I'd imagine that works great in SF. The realtime public transit data Google has access to varies greatly city to city.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#97

Post by jcomis »

lucaspiller wrote: post #90

I really like the dynamic header pictures. It seems to be based upon your location. Any ideas how they are made / where they are from? http://i.imgur.com/0rEQcKp.png

They are illustrated just for Google Now. Can't seem to find it now, but it a "making of" video (I think from verge) they showed a few different iterations of the top graphic and how they ended up with the current version.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#98

Post by hrayr »

keso wrote: post #89
blhack wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar "whoa" moment a couple of weeks ago. Google alerted me that I should leave for Santa Barbara "now". Which was really, really weird for me, since I was already halfway there (from Phoenix). Apparently, it had read through my emails, seen a receipt for sigur ros tickets from ticketmaster, figured out where I was, and already calculated how long it would take me to get there. That is insanely awesome .

I don't know if Google Now is that clever. If you had an event in a calendar which had something in the "Location"-field it took the location you should be at from there. Still it is a "whoa" moment. :)

It finds hotel reservations and flight itineraries in your email, and shows cards based off of those as well.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#99

Post by sahaskatta »

driverdan wrote: post #93

After listening to friends rave about Now and reading so many positive comments online I really wanted to like it. I've been using it for a few months and my experience is significantly worse than what others have reported. It always seems to show me notifications for the wrong information at the wrong time. Take directions. I work at a coworking space 4 miles from my home. The hours I'm there vary. Now seems to try…

It doesn't work too well on the first day. Use it for a few days and it will begin to learn your habits.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#100

Post by mjmahone17 »

hnriot wrote: post #92
blhack wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar "whoa" moment a couple of weeks ago. Google alerted me that I should leave for Santa Barbara "now". Which was really, really weird for me, since I was already halfway there (from Phoenix). Apparently, it had read through my emails, seen a receipt for sigur ros tickets from ticketmaster, figured out where I was, and already calculated how long it would take me to get there. That is insanely awesome .

How is it awesome that it told you to leave, when in fact you had already left? Shouldn't it have alerted you before you left?

If she'd forgotten, it would have been an excellent reminder.
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