Tag Archives: Google Now

Auto-Set Google Now Backgrounds As Android Wallpaper By Time Of Day

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Those of us who often use Google Now on their Android devices running Jelly Bean are bound to be awed by the background images of the app. What makes those wallpapers awesome is the way they automatically change based on your current local time. All of this however is restricted within the the app itself. Enter GoogleNowWallpapers – the wallpaper app that brings Google Now wallpapers to your home screen, from stars lit in the sky to a bright sunny sky. The app also changes them according to times split into Day, Dawn, Dusk, and Night. You can customize the time after which wallpapers will change to reflect the time of the day. Let's take a closer look at this simple but distinct app after the jump. Read More

Use Google Search’s Text-To-Speech Engine To Command Siri With Googiri

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Ever since the release of Google Now for iOS, Siri must be feeling a bit insecure for the first time, as prior to that, even the best third-party personal assistants have struggled to give it any real competition on the platform. Although Google Now is more feature-rich, Apple’s own talking assistant enjoys better integration with the OS, and has the ability to create reminders, launch apps and perform other similar system tasks. On the other hand, Siri’s speech recognition isn't something to write home about. People have often suffered placing awkward calls to their contacts while trying to create a simple reminder. Won’t it be just perfect if you could have Siri's features accessible through the speech recognition prowess of Google Search? Googiri is a new Cydia tweak that makes this dream come true. By saying ‘Siri’ before any request made to Google’s voice search, users can get the results of their queries from Siri. You can even choose to stop using Google’s search altogether, and completely switch to using its text-to-speech engine with Siri. Read More

Set Google Search App To Open Directly To Google Now On iPhone

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Soon after its release, the Google Now feature of the Search app met a bump along its otherwise smooth road on iOS. Since Google Now requires constant access to your current location in order to function properly, speculations were rife that the feature is a real battery-killer. Though Google was quick to quash these rumors, refuting all such claims in a statement released just a few hours ago. So now that they don’t have to worry too much about their precious battery life, a lot of people are sure to start using Google Now quite heavily. However, you have to remember that Google Now is only a part of the Search app in iOS, and doesn't enjoy the level of system integration that it has in Android. StartToNow is a Cydia tweak that might be considered the first step towards ingraining Google Now in iOS. Admittedly, it only makes sure that Google Now becomes the default view for the Search app, but this means you have to perform less taps to get to everybody’s favorite and immensely useful new virtual assistant by Google. Read More

How To Use Google Now For iPhone In Unsupported Regions

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Last night, Google released Google Now for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad in the form of an update to the Google Search app available in the App Store. It is working well so far for people in many major countries, but those living outside them receive a popup message telling them Google Now isn't yet supported in their country. Well, we have found a way to bypass said region restriction and as always, we're going to walk you through the entire process. So check it out after the jump, and get Google Now up and running on your iDevice no matter where you are! Read More

Google Now Finally Launched On iPhone, iPad & iPod touch

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One of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean’s most surprisingly useful features was Google Now: the intelligent personal assistant that – besides processing basic commands like Siri on iOS – would very intelligently present you with the “right information at the right time”. Now, the acclaimed service is available on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Check out the details after the jump. Read More

Osito Brings Google Now-Like Traffic, Weather & Event Alerts To iPhone

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When it was initially released, Sherpa gained a lot of acclaim as many iOS users felt that the app brings the best bits of Google Now to iOS. As great as the app was, it was still in its beta until now. Things have finally changed though, and Sherpa has shed its beta tag. Not only that; the team behind the service has also decided to rebrand it to Osito. For those who didn't use the app previously, Osito analyzes your activities, location and calendar entries to come up with highly personalized notifications that can help you in a number of situations. The best thing about Osito is that you don’t have to configure the app to send you notifications; it does all the work automatically, and makes sure you are never late for an appointment or in danger of missing a flight. Read More

Google Search Android App Adds Google Now Widget, Movie Ratings & More

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If you've got a device running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean or higher, you better not miss out on checking the latest update to the Google Search app, as it is a massive one! As always, there are a number of new Google Now smart cards added to the mix, but most importantly, the brings a dedicated Google Now widget for for your home screen and lock screen, for the first time since the inception of Google Now. That’s right – you can now have all the automatically updated location and travel-based information from Google Now displayed right on your Android device’s home as well as lock screen. In addition to the new widgets, the update adds movie passes from Fandango, movie ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, real estate listings from Zillow, better support for US college sports, and a dedicated music button on the app’s voice search UI indicating the active status of Google Search's song identification feature. Read More

Google Search For Android Gets New Now Cards, Song Recognition, Camera Search & More

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The holiday season is just around the corner, and if your vacation plans involve a lot of traveling and sightseeing, you better grab the latest update of Google Search meant for Android 4.1 (and higher) devices. Powered by improved search capabilities, Google Now Smart Cards and voice commands, your Android’s stock search app is now equipped to keep you apprised of the weather and other information regarding your touring destination. To help you easily explore all the fun places and upcoming events around you, the app will display relevant cards and also show informative content about popular locations captured with your device’s camera. Read More

Don’t Have Siri? Quickly Launch Google Voice Search From Anywhere On Your iPhone

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NowNow might not sound like the name of a seriously useful Cydia tweak, but that’s exactly what it is. While the Google Search app's new voice search feature for iOS doesn’t offer nowhere near as much options as Siri does, it has the potential to give Siri’s search capability a run for its money. The Search app’s voice recognition is visibly faster, if not better, than Siri, and its search results support rich information cards for a variety of topics, which are read out loud in their entirety, while Siri remains silent on Wolfram Alpha results. So, if you want to have a powerful voice search option handy all the time, NowNow is the perfect tweak for you. NowNow lets its users choose any Activator gesture to initiate Google voice search from anywhere. It's almost like having Google Now on iOS. Read More

How To Replace S Voice With Google Now On Samsung Galaxy S III

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Got yourself a Samsung Galaxy S III and not too happy with its own voice assistant S Voice? Would you rather prefer the excellent Google Now app to take over all your voice-based assistant needs on your SGSIII? You’re looking at the right place. In what follows, we will show you how to install Google Now on your rooted Galaxy S III running Ice Cream Sandwich and completely replace S Voice with it, for a fully integrated Jelly Bean-like voice search and assistant experience. While Android has had pretty good voice control built-in since late 2010 from Android 2.2 Froyo onward, it wasn’t till Apple released Siri with the release of iOS 5 and iPhone 4S, that voice control of smartphone became virally popular. Since then, we have seen various Siri clones appearing for Android. We even brought you our roundup of several of those. With the Galaxy S III, Samsung decided to ship its own voice assistant S Voice, which was very well received as a decent and viable Siri alternative. Read More

Google Mobile Search Becomes Smarter, Integrates Google Now-Like Cards

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With the introduction of Google Now in Jellybean, Google really showed the world what really makes Android a “smart” platform. Where there is a functional Google Now port available for ICS devices, but all Android phones running versions older than that haven’t had a chance to get a taste of the amazingly intelligent search assistant. Now, however, the interactive cards that appear in Google Now's search results have been made available to the masses through Google mobile search. The rollout of information card integration with Google search has taken effect for most smartphones, including iOS and Android devices. Thanks to this integration, you will be able to get direct answers to your questions, rather than just getting links to webpages. Ranging from instant solutions to calculations, currency/unit conversions, details regarding stocks, routes to destinations of choice, weather and sports information and general Knowledge Graph-based queries, you can now view all these on interactive cards without having to navigate away from the search results page. Read More

Get Voice Enabled Google Now On Any Android Device Running ICS

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A couple of weeks ago, we posted a method to get Google Now on devices running Android 4.0 or higher. Although said procedure was effective enough to give your rooted Android device a taste of the revamped and intelligent version of Google Search (now popularly known as Google Now), it lacked a very important feature: voice search. However, as is so often the case in the Android realm, a workaround is never too far away. XDA member SilentStormer has managed to come up with a solution that lets you use Google Now through voice recognition, too. As with the previous method, this latest solution is also meant to be working with just AOSP-based ICS ROMs, and hence requires a rooted Android device. It must be mentioned here that the solution mentioned in this particular post requires a couple of additional steps in order to get things sorted out accordingly. That said, should you be able to follow the process correctly, rest assured that you won’t be missing Jelly Bean on your device a great deal – not at least in terms of availing the much-revered Google Now functionality. Read More

Unofficial Google Now Port Available For Rooted Android Ice Cream Sandwich Devices

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Android 4.1 Jelly Bean was announced at Google I/O last week with a plethora of new features and tweaks, but none of them has been making the headlines more than Google Now – the revamped version of Google Search that not only makes much accurate and quicker suggestions to your manual or voice-based queries, but also learns from your personal information (travel schedules, calendar events, search history etc) and presents the most relevant information on various smart cards. Now, if you happen to be an Android user rocking an AOSP-based ICS ROM on your rooted device, you can get your hands on a feature-restricted version of Google Now, without having to wait to get it via the official Jelly Bean OTA update. The procedure involves side-loading an APK and tweaking a few values in the build.prop file within your Android’s System folder. Barring the voice search feature, the app works fine, and lets you enjoy almost all the features offered by Google Now. Read More