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Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

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Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#141

Post by mpowered »

bsimpson wrote: post #125
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…

I had plans in G+ to go to the Exploratorium at 2:00 on Saturday. I finished brunch early, so I arrived at 1:30. Google Now interrupted me at 1:45 to remind me to go to the Exploratorium.

Are you really complaining that it can't read your mind?

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#142

Post by uptown »

mpowered wrote: post #141
bsimpson wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had plans in G+ to go to the Exploratorium at 2:00 on Saturday. I finished brunch early, so I arrived at 1:30. Google Now interrupted me at 1:45 to remind me to go to the Exploratorium.

Are you really complaining that it can't read your mind?

It sounds like he's complaining that it was telling him to go somewhere he already was.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#144

Post by louthy »

ceejayoz wrote: post #118
hnriot wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I'd guess he left earlier than he strictly had to to make the specific appointment. The "leave now" is presumably just "if you want to be on-time", not "if you want to be on-time and do some antiquing and grab some lunch first".

But I guess it should know you're on your way if you appear to be moving along the route to the event.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#145

Post by timroman »

eitally wrote: post #79

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 inter…

Eh, I find it kind of annoying, a notification for every restaurant, city, country, etc that I look up and have absolutely zero intention of traveling to. It has potential to be useful, but it needs to get smarter first.

Maybe I spend too much time searching Maps randomly.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#146

Post by prawks »

timroman wrote: post #145
eitally wrote: post #79

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 inter…

Eh, I find it kind of annoying, a notification for every restaurant, city, country, etc that I look up and have absolutely zero intention of traveling to. It has potential to be useful, but it needs to get smarter first. Maybe I spend too much time searching Maps randomly.

Probably. It would have to make a lot of assumptions to infer your intention when searching, at least in Maps, etc. current form.

A browser plugin to enable/disable Now tracking seems like it could be handy, however. Though then if you forget to turn it back on you lose what eitally mentioned: "I forgot X, oh, thankfully Now caught it".

But doesn't Google Maps have a history feature that syncs across devices? Now seems like it might be polluting that space.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#147

Post by smith7018 »

mehta wrote: post #22
adlpz wrote: post #6

Well, I hate to admit it, because I am an ex-iOS user that ran away from it because of the closed ecosystem, but seeing that it keeps aggregating the absolute best applications, even from Google, and with the goodness everyone feels is coming from the Ive-influenced iOS 7, I might have to fall back into the walled garden. Apple is really good at this stuff.

Not sure what you mean by "absolute best applications" since the app on ios is fundamentally limited by the APIs that are provided by the OS. I agree that ios has some of the better apps but I don't think presence of Google Now on ios is better then that on Android.

As someone who has used all three major platforms extensively, I think I could shed some light on this.

iOS has the "absolute best apps" because of the level of polish, design, and near-pixel-perfect elements visible in the apps. I've used Android for years (SGS2 and Nexus 7) and many of the apps are poorly designed and have even poorer implementations. Many of them feel like they are just 5 standard UI widgets put together on the screen is just bland. This can be seen by how many Android applications use Holo but don't try to give it their own personality. Small changes to the UI can lead to a personalized and tailored/polished feel (Starbuck's green standard navbar, Netflix's logo on their own red navbar, etc). Also, iOS apps seem to experiment more with gestures and UX concepts. Using apps like Clear, Google Maps, Haze, etc. really shows you how well thought out an app could be. It just seems like many of Android's apps look the exact same and lack that attention to detail, I guess.

Also, please remember that "more powerful" doesn't correlate to "best." I would rate Clear much, much higher than most Android apps. While it doesn't allows me to access the root filesystem, overclock the CPU, or alter the boot image, it's extremely intuitive, attractive, and works beautifully.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#148

Post by evilduck »

tambourine_man wrote: post #21
lawdawg wrote: post #2

Glad to see this coming to iOS, the more users, the more feedback Google will get on how to improve the service for everyone . Hope Apple can try their hand at creating some cross platform applications as well.

Hope Apple can try their hand at creating some cross platform applications as well. iTunes? QuickTime?

They had Safari for Windows and dropped it. And iTunes and Quicktime both run considerably worse in Windows compared to OSX (besides looking out of place).

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#149

Post by sbuk »

Kiro wrote: post #43
dpcx wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google better not be evil. Given their history, that's an awful big statement to make.

Who thinks Google is evil?

I do. They are the proverbial sheep in wolves clothing IMHO. It's why I choose not to use their products. Unlike many though, I have no issue with anyone else using their products. Google Now seem like a cool product, but for me the cost is far too high.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#150

Post by hamax »

uptown wrote: post #142
mpowered wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you really complaining that it can't read your mind?

It sounds like he's complaining that it was telling him to go somewhere he already was.

But being in the same building doesn't mean he was already there. When I'm at work I still want a reminder for a meeting.
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