Playing with Google Now

The_B_Man · 01-01-2013 1:24am #1

Any good uses so far?
I've trained mine to give me directions and time it'll take to get home or to work in current traffic. I did this by setting home and work in My Places in Google Maps.

Also, I searched man utd's fixture list a few times and now it gives me live scores and fixtures.

Another one was using my gmail to book flights. It picks up the flight number and gives live details. When me mate was flying over, I emailed the flight details to me self and that works too. Probably could have just googled the flight number either .

Any other tips?

JacksonHeightsOwn · 01-01-2013 1:18pm

im intrigued, what exactly is it?

i feel such a gimp, i cant even find it in the play store. Is it only compatible with new devices?

ongarite · 01-01-2013 1:23pm

Its much more useful when you are travelling. I used it in the US a lot recently and it'll give me daily currency rates, tourist sites near me.
If you have a calendar appointment with location added, it'll tell you when you need to leave based on current traffic conditions.

PogMoThoin · 01-01-2013 1:35pm

chrisbonnie wrote: »

im intrigued, what exactly is it?

i feel such a gimp, i cant even find it in the play store. Is it only compatible with new devices?

It's built in to the latest Android Jelly Bean, not available in Play store.

As ongarite says, it's much more useful when you are away. I was in the USA earlier this year, it popped up lots of interesting stuff, weather, currency rates, nearby attractions, flight times etc.

I find it pretty boring at home, just weather, calendar and distance to home.

Kavrocks · 01-01-2013 1:40pm

chrisbonnie wrote: »

im intrigued, what exactly is it?

i feel such a gimp, i cant even find it in the play store. Is it only compatible with new devices?

This is it on the Play Store. As previously stated and on that page too you need to be running JellyBean, if you aren't go to XDA Developers and put a custom JellyBean ROM on your phone (providing there is one available).

MiCr0 · 01-01-2013 3:45pm

If you go into the settings menu in Google search you can see all the Google now options. Its also possible to tell it which is your favourite football team and how you'd like score updates.

Sonics2k · 01-01-2013 3:50pm

I like it for casual use, but it's quite annoying that it doesn't show Munster rugby on the sports section.

long_b · 01-01-2013 4:14pm

I've a drive-train-walk commute - doesn't show diddly for me even though I've set my work and home locations

danniemcq · 01-01-2013 6:48pm

Sonics2k wrote: »

I like it for casual use, but it's quite annoying that it doesn't show Munster rugby on the sports section.

no europa league results either

The_B_Man · 01-01-2013 7:18pm

Or international soccer .

DarkBlonde · 01-01-2013 7:18pm

Mine told me how many extra miles I walked in December than November . Thought that was pretty cool. Didn't even ask it, the card just popped up today.

danniemcq · 01-01-2013 7:30pm

DarkBlonde wrote: »

Mine told me how many extra miles I walked in December than November . Thought that was pretty cool. Didn't even ask it, the card just popped up today.

yeah i got the same,

dont think its very accurate though, walk back from work every day (3k) and take dog for walk nearly every day too.

So unless i only worked 8 days in December....

BopNiblets · 03-01-2013 10:00am

Google knows you're a lazy bum! :pac:

Anyway, I saw that one and the weather one, I still haven't got any commute time cards, maybe because I have it set to public transport and it only works for driving?
I already set my Home and Work locations.

Patsy fyre · 03-01-2013 10:36am

It's pretty useful but it's a big battery drain so I've had to turn it off recently.

elderlemon · 03-01-2013 11:53am

Despite the battery drain I actually like Google now and use it all the time. In addition to the points made above if you do a search for say "Liffey Valley" in the browser or google search you will then see sometime later a card pop up with time and traffic to Liffey Valley, so its "thinking" ahead to what you might want to do next.

I think we'll see a lot more from Google Now over the next year. I think its going to be one of those killer apps for a smartphone.

jester77 · 03-01-2013 12:11pm

I really like it. When I'm away somewhere the translator is available & shows sites of interests near by. Cinema listings are shown when near a cinema, shows what restaurants and bars are in my area, if I searched for something recently on Maps it shows me the directions and shows the current traffic situation and time to get there. It shows the timetable for my train when it's time to go to work or home from work. It's pretty clever over all.

Plus I walked 10 more miles in December than I did in November

long_b · 03-01-2013 12:23pm

jester77 wrote: »

I really like it. When I'm away somewhere the translator is available & shows sites of interests near by. Cinema listings are shown when near a cinema, shows what restaurants and bars are in my area, if I searched for something recently on Maps it shows me the directions and shows the current traffic situation and time to get there. It shows the timetable for my train when it's time to go to work or home from work. It's pretty clever over all.

Plus I walked 10 more miles in December than I did in November

Are you in the US or UK ?

danniemcq · 03-01-2013 12:54pm

I have never got cinema info, i search quite a lot for movies, granted not always cinema releases but when i'm down near the cinema or a movie i searched for is released i still get nothing

elderlemon · 03-01-2013 12:55pm

make sure you have it enabled in the settings.

danniemcq wrote: »

I have never got cinema info, i search quite a lot for movies, granted not always cinema releases but when i'm down near the cinema or a movie i searched for is released i still get nothing

jester77 · 03-01-2013 1:18pm

long_b wrote: »

Are you in the US or UK ?

Germany.

DarkBlonde · 03-01-2013 1:34pm

danniemcq wrote: »

I have never got cinema info, i search quite a lot for movies, granted not always cinema releases but when i'm down near the cinema or a movie i searched for is released i still get nothing

I get movie listings near the cinema.

Another cool thing, kind of thing creepy is this. Every Saturday I collect my son at the same time. One Saturday a card appeared telling me the commute time to the destination. Now I get this every Saturday morning.

danniemcq · 03-01-2013 1:52pm

elderlemon wrote: »

make sure you have it enabled in the settings.

yup its all active.

just outta curiousity are people usually walking around with GPS enabled? or just relying on the network location

DarkBlonde · 03-01-2013 1:57pm

danniemcq wrote: »

yup its all active.

just outta curiousity are people usually walking around with GPS enabled? or just relying on the network location

I have started leaving on the gps to make better use of google now. I was turning it off to save on battery but the way i see it I'm charging every night anyway so it doesnt make much difference to my battery.

danniemcq · 03-01-2013 2:03pm

DarkBlonde wrote: »

I have started leaving on the gps to make better use of google now. I was turning it off to save on battery but the way i see it I'm charging every night anyway so it doesnt make much difference to my battery.

yeah guess i'll give that a go for a while and see

Zascar · 03-01-2013 2:23pm

I like the way it tells me how long my commute is to and from work, and any delays, and also how long to get home from anywhere I am - pretty cool. Impressive how it knows where I'm thinking of going based on my search although sometimes it gets it wrong.

What I would like it to be able to do is to take audio notes for me. I use Google Tasks within Gmail, does anyone know how I can get it to take a note and add it to my task list?

PogMoThoin · 03-01-2013 2:29pm

Leaving gps on makes no difference to battery usage if you don't have an app open using gps. I have always had mine on.

Zascar · 03-01-2013 3:00pm

Does the same go for Bluetooth?

PogMoThoin · 03-01-2013 3:01pm

Zascar wrote: »

Does the same go for Bluetooth?

No, Bluetooth like wifi is always beaconing

danniemcq · 03-01-2013 4:18pm

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Leaving gps on makes no difference to battery usage if you don't have an app open using gps. I have always had mine on.

i guess you would get more drain though for stuff like twitter when it grabs your position or any other apps that go looking when they really don't need too (really bad piggies really?) so i guess if you have them running the GPS will be looking.

Although LBE privacy Guard can put a stop to that (although if running jelly bean which Google Now requires it can cause boot loops but the chinese version translated by the lads over at XDA works a treat)

Dony · 03-01-2013 10:23pm

I went to do an update for this recently and one of the permissions it was requesting was to read my sms.
What's all that about?
Needless to say I didn't update.

Dudda · 04-01-2013 11:26am

I've my Nexus 7 for a few months and find Google Now getting better. I travel to Glasgow every few weeks and it works much better there.
As soon as I get off the plane it tells me the weather, currency rate and that the next bus to the city center (the 505 which I always get) leaves in 8 minutes as well as the two after that. When the bus starts it tells me duration to destination etc. It suggests restaurants, night life, shows etc and shows distance to and from hotel.

At home it's not near as good just showing me distance to work/home, weather and Man Utd (fixtures, live scores and results). I must have once searched Fulham FC as it started showing their info too until I removed them manually. I added Apple, Google, Facebook in my stock portfolio on Google Finance and it shows me the price if they rise or drop more than 1% in a day. Probably see that card every 10 days on average.

I really wish it would use the info like birthdays from the contacts app to alert me. Currently it only uses the info from Google+ which none of my family or friends use.

Playing with Google Now

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