You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
As a fashionable internet denizen, you do not use a homepage, probably. You open a new browser window or tab, and you’re met with your Chrome apps, or Safari favorites, or whatever the hell Firefox is doing now. And if you do have one, it’s probably a legacy media hub like MSN, AOL or Yahoo, or a search page like Google or Bing. But what if the web found a way for a landing page to be useful again? More »
Android users should be pretty familiar with Google Now and how much better the Android experience has become after its launch. But it looks like Google may be planning to expand its Google Now feature to beyond Android, according to some newly discovered code.
Some very interesting code within one of Google’s pages has hinted at the possibility of Google Now making its way to standard web search interfaces. The code suggests users to “get started with Google Now” as its use could provide “just the right information at just the right time.” Google Now for web would also allow users to change between their home and work locations in order to provide relevant information, like weather, traffic conditions and places of interest. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Adobe Launching Primetime To Tackle TV Everywhere, Study Finds That More Than Half Polled Check Their Facebook On Their Phones At Work, On The Toilet Or While Drunk, 
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Google Now is one of the main features in the latest Android iteration, known as Jelly Bean, but it’s also hinted for iOS and it’s in the works for Chrome. However, according to some source code from Google Now, the search giant looks to be planning to implement Google Now in the web, meaning that any browser on any computer could use it.
The source code comes from one of Google’s webpage, and it tells you to “get started with Google Now.” The code also reveals that users will be able to change their home and work locations because “Google Now uses your Home location to show relevant information like weather, traffic conditions, and nearby places.”
The code also reveals references to a code phrase called “now_card,” which if you know anything about Google Now, those boxes of information that pop up are called “cards.” Of course, there’s no information as far as what the web interface of Google Now would look like, but a recently-launched Chrome extension developed by Google, known as New Tab Page, reveals what Google Now for desktop could look like (our own screenshot below).
As you can tell, the new Chrome extension looks a lot like Google Now, and it could be the company’s first steps into experimenting with Google Now for the desktop, but we’ll ultimately have to wait and see what Google does in the near future. In our recent interview with Google’s Matias Duarte, he noted many times at how the company wants to expand Google Now, and this could be one way that they’re accomplishing that.
[via Google Operating System]
Google Now source code hints at desktop web version is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Bark something at Siri and it might get back to you with what you’re looking for. Google Now is supposed to serve up relevant information when you need it without having to do the legwork yourself. Now imagine the two merging together to form a Voltron-like personal assistant. Sherpa is that Voltron and it’s finally available in the US. More »
I guess you can more or less say that Google Now has long proven to be the main selling point of the Android mobile operating system, and for folks who have been using an Android Jelly Bean-powered device, and have been rocking to Google Now for some time already, surely you do not need the Internet search giant to coerce you into evangelizing on their behalf on the benefits of Google Now, as your smartphone has been transformed to a device that more or less has this uncanny ability of knowing what you will search before you actually do.
It does not matter if you are looking out for sports news, weather information, traveling tips, or to perform a basic task, Google has it all down to pay with Google Now on your Jelly Bean device. Well, a new update has been introduced that adds even more enhancements to Google Now, including faster search results retrieval and real package tracking updates, among others.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: HTC First Officially Announced, Facebook Home Announced, 
Google has been rolling out new functionality to quite a few of its services lately, including full-size photo support for Google+, improved auto-complete predictions in Gmail, and data autosync for Chrome for Android, to name a few. Now we’re seeing another update, this time for Google Now. With this update, Android users will find additional Google Now settings in Google Search, including real-time package tracking.
Google Now is the handy service from Google that offers you everything you need right before you need it automatically, available to those running Android Jelly Bean handsets and the Google Search app. It does this via cards, which provide things such as airport and gate information as your flight nears, for example. If you’re not familiar with the service, you can check out our hands-on review of it here.
With today’s Google Search for Android update, which is available from the Play Store now, a couple new features have been added to Now, with perhaps the best update being to the package tracking feature. Once updated, users will be able to track packages in real time from supported carriers if they have a tracking number for the shipment. The card has been updated, as well.
Results are said to be faster with this update, but you’ll have to check that one out for yourself (let us know if you’ve noticed a speed increase in the comments!), and in addition, settings and information can be accessed about cards directly from the card via a small “i” icon, which allows users to, for example, mark the card as something they aren’t interested in to help generate better results in the future.
[via Droid Life]
Google Now gets new features in latest Search update is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Your smartphone is dumb. Mine is too. I’ve got an iPhone in my pocket, and a Galaxy S III, and an HTC One, and they’re all stupid. The BlackBerry Z10 in my bag is a clot, and the Lumia 920 isn’t just thick in the hand, it’s just plain thick. Today, on the fortieth birthday of the first cellphone call, the gadget that was supposed to liberate us has turned us into plagued, screen-tapping obsessives, in thrall to every buzz and bleep.
Before you say anything – though I understand you may instantly have raced to the comments section before you even reached the period in my first sentence, desperate to berate me – I’m not a luddite. I love smartphones; I like Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and even have a soft spot for BlackBerry 10 in places. I don’t leave the house without at least one phone in my pocket. It – and its ringing alarm – is the first thing I reach for in the morning; with the exception of the light switch it’s probably the last thing at night.
That devotion, or maybe obsession, doesn’t mean I’m blind to the limitations of what we have today, however. The modern smartphone is faster, lighter, runs longer, has more apps, sensors, radios, and gadgetry than any before it, but all that complexity has only served to pull us in closer, to enmesh us more with the digital world on its terms.
Your phone still, generally, demands you reach for it and proactively consult it. If it has something for you, it’ll beep to let you know, but it’ll generally do that on its own timescale. Many devices have a “do not disturb” mode, which blanks all (or all but the most important) notifications between certain periods, and some can “intelligently” manage alerts depending on what you’re doing at the time, though that tends to amount to little more than bashing calendar entries against the clock and keeping quiet when you’ve remembered to log a meeting taking place.
“Most phones are dumb in how they understand context”
Beyond that, for all their sensors and smarts, most phones are pretty dumb in how they understand context. Right now, they’re portable terminals for the internet, for the most part: a smaller window than our regular browser, or one we view through the medium of function-specific apps. Much of the development we’ve seen from phone software and hardware over the past 3-5 years has been in translating the internet into something that fits onto a smartphone-scale screen.
And yet, our needs from a companion device are surely different from those we have of a regular computer. I don’t necessarily want every single piece of information out there delivered to the palm of my hand; I just want the right, most relevant information. You can find that on a phone, certainly, but for it to be a true companion it really should be one step ahead of what you need. Some emails, or IMs, or calls, are more important than others, but my phone beeps for all of them. Sometimes I don’t know what the most relevant information actually is, or that it’s even out there, and my digital wingman should be using everything it knows about me to fill in those gaps of its own accord.
That’s something all of the platforms fall down on, for the most part. Yes, iOS has Siri, and its clever digital personal assistant can certainly hook into your agenda, contacts, location, and other data to give better advice, but it only happens when you ask for it. BlackBerry is terribly excited about its “peek” system for better handling notifications on your own terms, but it still leaves you in the thrall of the beep and the blinking light.
There are glimmers of a change ahead, though only faint. Google Now for the most part still waits for you to check its curated cards, showing nearby businesses and scenic spots, flight times and reminders of when you might need to leave to make your next appointment, but it does at least try to fumble some sort of contextual link between what you’re doing, where you’re doing it, and what you might be interested in knowing given those factors.
At least, that’s the theory. I gave Google Now a whole homescreen pane of its own to play with on the HTC One recently – the only widget Android offers takes up the entire page – and, in all the time I’ve been using the phone, I haven’t seen a single card pop up. I’ve played with all the settings to try to coax something more out of it, but it doesn’t seem particularly keen to talk to me.
I know Google has more ambitious plans. When I sat down with Mattias Duarte and talked about Now and how it essentially forms the basis of Google Glass, it was clear that the company sees its mobile strategy evolving from one where it gives all the possible answers, to giving more specific results based on greater confidence that it knows what you’re likely looking for. That makes perfect sense for a bleeding-edge wearable, but it’s also something the mass market needs to tame the gush through to our everyday phones.
Faster, lighter, just plain shinier phones aren’t enough now. Squeezing in another core, or adding a couple of extra megapixels, isn’t going to address the underlying issue: today’s “smartphone” is a small, relatively dumb computer, not smart at all. Certainly, there was a time – and it wasn’t long ago – when firms were making groundbreaking steps with each generation of device, pushing the boundaries of mobile tech. Revamping hardware has become the easy way out, however, and we need to stop letting companies off the hook for not tackling what have now become the new shortcomings. Sure, it won’t be as easy as slapping a bigger display on the front, but until the question of context is addressed, we’ll forever be ruled by our phones, not liberated.
Bad Context: Why nobody, not even Apple, has done mobile right is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Schmidt is waiting, Apple
We caught a glimpse of Google Now for the iPhone and iPad after a YouTube video was leaked last week, although it was pulled from the service once Google was made aware of the leak. Considering the leak, we know an app will soon be made available on iOS, but what exactly is holding it up from being released.
According to Google’s Eric Schmidt, the ball is completely in Apple’s court as he was asked directly if Google Now would arrive on the iPhone. Schmidt responded by saying “you’ll need to discuss that with Apple. Apple has a policy of approving or disapproving apps that are submitted into its store, and some of the apps we make they approve and some of them they don’t.” He also took a small shot at their review process as “they recently did approve Google Maps, thank goodness.” When asked to give specifics regarding the Google Now situation, Schmidt declined to comment. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Hater App for iPhone Allows Haters To Come Together To Hate As One, iPhone 5S Will Launch With New CPU, Camera In Q3 [Rumor], 
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