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Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

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Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#31

Post by zgohr »

RyanZAG wrote: post #6

Google Now has a lot of promise, but I've been using it a bit since it was first released, and it's never actually provided me with any really useful information. The promise behind Google Now is amazing, but it simply doesn't work well enough yet to be any kind of consideration. Here's hoping they manage to get the actual software in-line with the promise eventually!

If you want to see how awesome it is, here's what you do. Purchase some tickets for a sporting event, and schedule a reservation for a restaurant afterwards. Make sure you purchase the tickets online and get the reservation through something like OpenTable so the confirmations get to your email.

Enjoy!

Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#32

Post by nivla »

bussiem wrote: post #3
compilercreator wrote: post #2

The submitted title is somewhat non-sensical. Google Now smartphone makes it sound like there is a company/team called Google Now building a smartphone.

I believe he forgot the word "app"

Not sure if you can call it an app if it is deeply integrated with the system.

Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#34

Post by boi »

Hummm another app that will know where I go, what I eat, dress, with whom I speak, meet, have sex, what I read, what music I like, and where I am all the time, sweeet and free. A real killer app. I hope one day It can make choices for me, ow wait, It is already happening.

Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#36

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

w1ntermute wrote: post #23
TillE wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> enable all your Search History This is something I just can't bring myself to do. I disabled it years ago, along with all the other personalization options. I don't mind giving them my location. I don't even mind them analyzing my mail. But I search for all kinds of crap, and I really really don't want anyone building a profile on me based on that. The manual customization options in Google Now are sadly lacking. I…

Just train yourself to use Incognito Mode when you're looking for porn.

This in wonderful advice. More broadly, use one browser and account for the stuff you'd like to train Google on, and another (in incognito mode) for the stuff you'd prefer not to add to your profile.

Of course, they'll probably still know its you, but one imagines the algorithms will respect your preferences (as it would make the service worse if they didn't).

Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#38

Post by jackalope »

As a user, I'm not sure I'm impressed. On my WP8 phone, I pin a live tile to the home screen exactly where I want it, at the size I want it, and it displays the information I expect to get from it. But Google Now sounds like a live tile knockoff that's constantly changing because it's guessing what I want to see based on personal information that I agree to share with it. I don't recall this approach ever working, and it practically guarantees that it will only have information I want a fraction of the time, so I'm unlikely to give it a prominent place on my home screen (or even use it if it affects battery life). If/when they start slipping in ads, it will be even less attractive.

But in the field of personal agents, it's definitely a significant milestone. At some point, we'll want to be able to ask what's on today's schedule when we wake up in the morning, or immediately check messages when we walk into our homes, or find out where a movie is playing and buy tickets when we hop into our self-driving cars that will take us right to the theater. Nobody's going to want to talk into a quaint little smartphone when all this becomes possible, but it's probably where personal agents start getting refined into a usable state.

Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#39

Post by bytefactory »

JulianWasTaken wrote: post #8

It's cute. I've been using it for the past couple of weeks on a Nexus 4. My opinion on it currently is that it looks promising but it's quite useless until there are finer controls on when and how cards appear (the controls there are now are really simplistic), and more importantly the ability to create my own cards, which would give me a reason to get back into SL4A. As an example, the commute card that shows your d…

I've found that Now has started automatically showing me the distance to my frequently visited places. I suspect this is because I've navigated to their location a few times on Google Maps, so Google knows this is a location I care about.

I'm guessing you've already set your home and work location in Google Maps? You could then also search for your other work location, and Now should automatically start prioritizing it later, especially if you pull up that card often.

By the way, you probably know this, but you can change how often different cards show up, and when they show up in the settings. For example, I've set weather to only show up in the morning and evening, so it doesn't clutter up my cards.

Re: Google Now's smartphone is the real deal

#40

Post by DominikR »

I do not use Google Now that much but I've got to say that I am surprised how well it predicts what I am going to do based on patterns.

First it knew all by itself where my home and where my workplace is (it named both correctly) and when I am leaving the house - then it suggested that I give that new place I am visiting more and more often a name. (my girlfriend) And then it knew before I knew it myself that I will go to my girlfriend on a monday because I've apparently been there the last 3 or 4 mondays. It's not that hard to see such a pattern if you are actively looking for it, but I wasn't really thinking that much about when I visit someone and if there is some kind of pattern.

I am pretty sure that such a tool can be amazingly predictive and helpful given enough time and data.

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