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Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

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Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#221

Post by julianz »

moskie wrote: post #111
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 work at a coworking space 4 miles from my home. The hours I'm there vary. Followed by: > Overall it just doesn't seem to understand my usage patterns. It sounds like that's because there isn't a pattern, at least in the case of your commute. You should just configure it to not try to show you those directions.

You can't. I work from home and Now has decided that I work at the vegetable shop nearest to my house (because I visit there often I guess), and it has assigned it the location name "Work". You cannot delete this location. You can rename it, but that won't stop Now from suggesting that you drive there. If there was a bit more control it would be fantastic.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#222

Post by julianz »

GilbertErik wrote: post #140
lucian1900 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could maybe change it to be the same as your home address.

Having tried that myself, I discovered your suggestion causes Google Now to go a little cuckoo. It spent a week trying to suggest that I work at our local grocery store because I went there one morning for coffee, milk, and lunch ingredients. Then when I met up with some associates at a coworking spot, it tried recommending that I drive home to the grocery store. :-?

My experience exactly.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#223

Post by lucian1900 »

smith7018 wrote: post #167
lucian1900 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you describe is precisely the sort of thing I dislike in mobile apps. On a (non-Windows) desktop, no one would dare do such crazy, confusing things.

These "crazy, confusing things" these mobile app devs are trying are expanding the way we use applications. Making apps gesture-based has lead Google Maps (for iOS), Clear, and even Facebook (swipe down closes image) to have much more intuitive UIs. I'm much happier that developers are experimenting with improved UX experiences rather than just trusting the designs Google or Apple decided on.

Gestures are of debatable utility of course, I often find some of them useful. There are only two problems: 1) not discoverable and 2) overlap with system gestures. The latter is particularly annoying when websites do it.

The part I have a problem with is the wildly different-looking and different-functioning buttons, lists, menus and so on. If they had exercised some restraint and only applied a minimal colour-only theme, I could figure out what their UI does after just looking at it.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#224

Post by kalleboo »

What do you guys do about multiple accounts? I have my email on a Google Apps for Business account since it's set up on a custom domain, but I have my legacy gmail account for everything else (Search, Maps, YouTube, Google+, Play, Checkout, the list goes on). Since there's no way to merge accounts, and Now can only use a single account, I can either have it only get data from my mail, or get data from everywhere BUT my mail.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#225

Post by mmcnickle »

julianz wrote: post #221
moskie wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I work at a coworking space 4 miles from my home. The hours I'm there vary. Followed by: > Overall it just doesn't seem to understand my usage patterns. It sounds like that's because there isn't a pattern, at least in the case of your commute. You should just configure it to not try to show you those directions.

You can't. I work from home and Now has decided that I work at the vegetable shop nearest to my house (because I visit there often I guess), and it has assigned it the location name "Work". You cannot delete this location. You can rename it, but that won't stop Now from suggesting that you drive there. If there was a bit more control it would be fantastic.

In Now app, go to Settings | My Stuff | Places | Work. You can edit the address in there.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#226

Post by badgar »

rogerbinns wrote: post #215
badgar wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can't be sure if a card will appear for flights In my experience, Google Now finds my flights in my Gmail 100% of the time. For at least a dozen flights across the US. And for some airports (SFO is one, unsurprisingly) it even has the terminal and gate information ready! Google Now makes the "arriving at the airport" experience better every time for me.

I had some friends arriving at SFO from Dubai a few weeks later, but had no way of telling if Now would show the right flight on the right day since there is no card about future flights. Similar story for the cross country flight they took a few days later. In order for me to depend on Now, I need to know I can trust it and it only got one of the flights right. There is no way to know if it will do the right thing i…

That's because it's Google Now, not Google Planner. It's for giving you information relevant to right now. You don't plan to use Google Now for something, you check it when you want information relevant to you at the moment. If you stop trying to make Google Now into a personal organizer, you'll enjoy using it more.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#227

Post by rogerbinns »

badgar wrote: post #226
rogerbinns wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had some friends arriving at SFO from Dubai a few weeks later, but had no way of telling if Now would show the right flight on the right day since there is no card about future flights. Similar story for the cross country flight they took a few days later. In order for me to depend on Now, I need to know I can trust it and it only got one of the flights right. There is no way to know if it will do the right thing i…

That's because it's Google Now, not Google Planner. It's for giving you information relevant to right now. You don't plan to use Google Now for something, you check it when you want information relevant to you at the moment. If you stop trying to make Google Now into a personal organizer, you'll enjoy using it more.

> It's for giving you information relevant to right now

More accurately it is giving you a random subset of information that might be relevant right now. The behaviour is not deterministic so you can't rely on it.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#228

Post by mentat »

nedrichards wrote: post #107
gee_totes wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if you continually use public transportation. I go all over the place in NYC, and there doesn't seem to be a way to get the directions to default to public transportation. Having driving directions and traffic wait time when I don't have a car is kind of useless.

Press the i button in the top right hand corner of the card. Select 'Transportation Mode' from the expander. Select from Driving, Public Transport, Walking, Cycling etc.

Excellent, thank you so much for this. "Next train leaving in minutes" is sweet.

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#229

Post by rolandal »

fakeer wrote: post #217
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…

It would have a lot lot better feature if Android could manage battery usage for things like GPS in a low power mode[1] even if it was on all the time and would only activate in the background intermittently or AGPS fetches some region of interest. Though for this to work efficiently AGPS shall have to be more accurate than it is as of now - at least available on Android phones. [1]Sth like Bluetooth Low Energy (it r…

Have you heard of or taken a look at Gimbal SDK? http://www.gimbal.com - it consumes about 3% battery for always on GPS/location...

Re: Google Now on your iPhone and iPad

#230

Post by cargo8 »

hadem wrote: post #45
cargo8 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not surprised at all. The mobile market is a much more compelling _user scenario_ than desktop, both in terms of the user-need and the user-interface. On mobile, the user-need can be satisfied much better with additional sensor data that aren't common in computers today. The user-interface, too, is why it's a much more compelling mobile offering than a desktop offering (collating all that information in mobile be…

They really have been doing very well on iOS recently. So much so, most of the stock Apple apps have been replaced by a Google app. It is really making me think about switching to Android.

Yeah, I find in general that Google's Android apps are more focused on functionality (regardless of if that makes it a bit in your face), whereas iOS they've focused a lot more on simpler design. I guess it matches the cultures and users of each ecosystem, but it's too bad that the Android apps don't look as pretty as iOS.
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