There are so many AI-powered digital assistants out there these days, we’ll forgive you if you’ve lost track. Hound is an offering from Shazam rival SoundHound, and it’s packed with an impressive number of features considering it doesn’t have the weight of Apple or Google’s engineering teams behind it. Here are five…
Now on Tap was launched as an extra on top of Google Now last year, and frankly, it was kind of a dud. The feature was slow, unhelpful, and generally pretty annoying. But since its release, Google has been quietly pushing out dozens of new features and tweaks. If you haven’t checked it out in a while, it’s probably…
A new report from The Information says Google is working on its own personal assistant hub, similar to Amazon’s Echo. Only recently, through a series of updates and new hardware, has the Echo grown into a gadget worthy of its original transformative promise, and Google’s apparently taken notice.
Both Google Now and Siri now support the use of nicknames for your contacts, so you can quickly get in touch with “mom,” “dad,” “the boss,” or “maverick” more easily than ever. Here’s how to ditch those long-winded real names and get your nicknames set up instead on Android and iOS.
Smart mirrors still reside in the realm of tinkerers, only achievable for those who’ve mastered the art of DIY electronics. Which is too bad! Because Max Braun, a software engineer at Google, may have hacked together the first IoT device I actually want to buy.
Android app developers don’t always play by the rules when it comes to icon size, which can leave the home screen looking like a bit of mess. But now Google is forcing icons to assume a unified size, pleasing design pedants everywhere.
Google Now is partly a portal to the main Google search engine, so you can ask the digital assistant anything that you would query Google for: the height of the Eiffel Tower, what six inches is in centimeters or even what’s on your agenda. But the app also integrates with specific features on your phone—here are 9…
Every mobile operating system comes with its own digital assistant. iOS has Siri, Android has Google Now, and Windows phone has Cortana. But now, Microsoft is giving all smartphone users some choice, now that Cortana has escaped (the sinking ship that is) the Windows phone and officially migrated to Android, iOS and…
Google likes to keep all of your voice searches on its servers so it can more easily learn to recognize your voice, understand what you might be looking for in the future, and, of course, serve you ads. If you want to review this archive of Google Now searches and clear it out, here’s what to do.
If you’re a sports fan then you might well have Google Now set up to ping you with updates about your favorite teams... but what about those times when you’re watching the game later and don’t want to spoil the surprise? The Android app lets you hide score spoilers until you’re ready to see them.
Apple kick-started the mobile digital assistant thing with Siri some years ago, but it’s Google who mostly run the machine learning show, with its creepily efficient Google Now service. Based on its jobs postings, Apple wants to play some catch-up ball.
It only took me a few hours to get cozy with my new assistant. “Alexa,” I barked at the nine-inch black cylinder on my coffee table, “Shut up.” The lights on top of the cylinder went dark; the embarrassing 90s music playing from its speaker cut out. “Alexa, what’s the weather?” I paused with anticipation. “45 degrees…
Imitation in the tech world is normal, even expected, but during Apple’s developers conference Monday, Tim Cook and company were in rare form. They didn’t have much uniquely Apple to show off at all.
In the early years (like 5 years ago tbh), iPhone and Android were at odds. Closed vs. open; Design vs. customization. Now, those lines are more blurred than ever. But Android has always had one absolute ace, and Google I/O 2015 just proved it: Google Now.
One of the most exciting features in the (distant future) release of Android M is the upgraded version of Google Now. It’s built to understand context better than before. I just got a quick look at it on a Googler’s Nexus 5, and while this was obviously a demo, I’m cautiously optimistic about it.
The iPhone’s big software version for 2015 seems surprisingly dull. Security and stability are always good things, but iOS 9 had appeared to be more about maintenance than a makeover. However, a new rumor about a feature called “Proactive” suggests iOS 9 might have a few tricks up its sleeve.
Google Now is the intelligent, voice-controlled digital assistant baked into Android and various other parts of the Google ecosystem. If you need to get a lot of information from Google Now in a short space of time, here’s a trick you might not yet be aware of.
There’s a rumor that Apple will be redesigning Siri to better resemble its colorful Watch version. Cool. But with Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana getting a lot of development attention on their platforms, including a male version of Cortana, Siri probably needs more than just an interface overhaul. In fact, there’s…
Google Now is the opt-in, “just a swipe away” assistant that keeps track of everything going on in your digital life. It’s a powerful little tool meant to usurp all the Siri and Cortana alternatives, and Google made a huge stride today to make that happen, adding over 70 new apps to Google Now like Spotify, Feedly,…
Five years ago, Google CEO Eric Schmidt proclaimed that laptops would become disposable. We’re nearly there. Starting today, you can buy a new Chromebook for just $150—the cheapest price ever. And this spring, there’s a $250 Chromebook coming that looks pretty incredible.