Hasta La Gadget!

Google’s Conversational Voice Search system has been living on both iOS and Android for either weeks or months – this week it’s coming to the Chrome web browser for all devices complete with a command familiar to Google Glass users: “Ok, Google.” This system will allow users to speak with natural language – conversational, that is – on any desktop computer with a microphone.

Google Search expands with several different elements this week, including Knowledge Graph working with statistics, anticipation of comparisons to other elements available in the system, and more. Knowledge Graph works with interesting events and locations in cities, is able to find photos from specific locations, and is able to tie these items together both in mobile mode and on a desktop through a Chrome web browser.

If a user has Google open and asks for information about a location, they’ll get that information along with related bits and pieces – photos, restaurants, etcetera. With Google’s newest update, the user is also able to say something as simple as “how far is it?” Google understands what you’ve been talking about and gives you a map.

This is all part of a system that follows three mainstays:

• Answer
• Converse
• Anticipate

As Google Search hears you, it understands and responds in kind, and also anticipates what you might want to know next. This system also works with Google Now on Android to give you information on your flights, your favorite sports teams, weather information, and the like. This system is bringing many Google Glass commands to Google Now as well.

A user will be able to make the following commands: “Ok Google, send an email to my friend George, I’ll be late today and we’ll have to meet up at 4 PM.” This message is understood by Google and a card appears which the user will then be able to tap to send – or – “OK send” will work as well.

This system will be available to Google Search beta experience users today and will be rolling out to users across the spectrum in users in the near future – stay tuned to our Google I/O tag portal all week long as the announcements and information continue to flow.

Google Voice search hits Chrome with Hotwording: “Ok, Google” is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week at Google I/O 2013, a new application has been introduced to take on cross-device and cross-platform communication: Hangouts. This system expands on what’s existed inside Google+ with a Hangout, turning chat both text and video to come with a user wherever they go. This system allows for saving of conversations, photos, video, and media of all types, sharing made as smooth as it has been inside Google+, now here on the web, in Android, and in iOS all at once.

This chat system will be available for Android and iOS as well as on the web starting today. This cross-platform initiative works with group video as well as video chat, and all of it without charge. Though this may seem obvious for some, there have been systems similar to this in the past where chatting with your camera cost extra cash – can you name that system?

With Google+ Hangouts, a Google+ account will be needed to chat. This account is the same as a user’s Google account for Gmail and the like, but the social networking sign-up will need to be done.

This system will also be launching with photo storage with Google+ at 15GB at full size. This means that if you want to automatically upload photos to Google+ with your Android or iOS device, you can upload 15GB worth of full-sized photos. If you want to upload limited-size photos, you can upload as many as you like.

Google+ has also been updated with a system that can break down your collection of photos to find what’s best based on a variety of pre-selected criteria. This system as well as Google+ Hangouts will be launching today with Google+ photo enhancement abilities far beyond those available in the past. Stay tuned to SlashGear’s Google I/O tag portal all week long for more developer action as it occurs, piece by piece!

Google+ Hangouts take chat cross-platform: Web, Android, and iOS is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week Hugo Barra spoke up at Google I/O 2013 on the devices that make Android a unique and powerful system, including the HTC One and the Samsung GALAXY S 4. This introduction moved quickly to a Google Edition of the Samsung GALAXY S 4. This version of the device will be working on AT&T and T-Mobile 4G LTE with a 16GB internal storage and a vanilla flavoring of Android. This will be sold through the Google Play and will receive updates straight from the company.

This device will be sold straight through Google Play, this implying an unlocked bit of greatness – and indeed that is what it is. The Google Edition of the Samsung GALAXY S 4 will cost users a cool $649 USD and will be coming up on the web starting on June 26th. It should be made clear that this device is not branded with the word Nexus, but is essentially that: unlocked, basic Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, and updated by Google.

This device works with the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor that the normal edition does, and it’ll be coming with essentially the same set of hardware from top to bottom that the normal edition has. This release marks the point at which Google begins selling 3rd-party hardware for Android on their website. Of course you’re able to purchase Chromebooks made by Samsung and Acer direct from Google Play, but this is the first Android to come without Nexus in its name.

Stay tuned as we see how well a relatively expensive device such as this does on the Google Play online store. While the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 7 – and the Nexus 10 to a lesser degree – have been successful in Google Play due to their relatively high value and low price, this GALAXY S 4 might see not quite so easy a time at a price that’s double the Nexus 4. We shall see!

GALAXY S 4 Google Edition made real with Vanilla Android is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week the 6th annual Google I/O 2013 developers conference began with a series of Android announcements, picking up on Google Play game services as a central element in the future of the system – both cross-device and cross-platform. The keynote began with Google’s Vic Gundotra speaking about how important it is that they reach out to this community year after year. He handed the mic over to Sundar Pichai almost immediately, who made the case for the ever-changing world with a photo of Google I/O compared to last year’s event: a “sea of smartphones” compared to a single flip phone (guess which is which.)

Pichai spoke about The Journey of Personal Computing, noting that Android and Chrome remain two separate systems. Android began, he said, as an open system that is now the most popular operating system in the world. Chrome as a web browser, he reminded the audience, is now the world’s most popular web browser. It’s through this web browser and with this system that Google Play game systems will come to life.

Pichai showed the current level of Android activations in the world – 900 million strong. Comparing this number to 2012′s activations at 400 million, it was plain how the operating system was making waves. 48 billion app installs were announced for Google Play by Google’s Hugo Barra. Google’s Vice President of Android Product Management announced further that the company had already paid out more this year to developers through Google Play than they had the entirety of 2012.

Barra continued with updates for the developer community on Google Services updates with APIs for Google Maps. Activity Recognition, power saving, and ease in integration bring this system into the future. Also on tap was Google+ sign-in. This system allows users to log in with Google+ on-the-fly through a series of websites – and all, in the near future, if Google has their way.

Google+ Cross-device Single Sign-on was made clear – Google+ will now be as easy to sign in with as Facebook is in both apps and on your desktop. Signing in on your desktop computer will also have you signed in on your tablet or smartphone if the app is compatible with this system.

But it was Google Play game services that knocked out the most important update to Android without a doubt. Here you’ll find users able to save their game on one device and pick it up from another place without a problem.

This system is both cross-device and cross-platform. It works for both Android and iOS – Apple devices as well as those made by LG, HTC, and all the rest. Connecting through Google+ and the users’ Google account, multi-player games will also be made a snap over the web – more-so than before, that is.

Google Play game services will be rolling out starting this week and we’ll be having more of a close-up look at it each day. Stick around our Google I/O tag portal to see it all, start to finish.

Google Play game services launched cross-device and cross-platform is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

While Intel’s Clover Trail+ Atom platform has been slow-moving so far, with only a handful of noteworthy unveilings, it just got a big shot in the arm through the official launch of ZTE’s Grand X2 In. The 4.5-inch, 720p Jelly Bean phone is smaller than the Geek we saw not long ago, but it still carries that 2GHz Atom Z2580 inside — and it’s quite the screamer for shutterbugs between its 24 frames per second burst shooting, zero shutter lag and image stabilization. It otherwise sits in the middle of the road like its ancestor, carrying an 8-megapixel rear camera, a 1-megapixel front camera, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable storage. We’re digging that soft-touch purple finish, though. Europeans should receive the Grand X2 In sometime in the third quarter of the year; there’s no word on launches elsewhere, but you can be sure that we’re interested in giving this x86 headliner a proper shakedown.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Intel

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Via: MojAndroid.sk (translated)

Source: ZTE