Tag Archives: google now

Google Now’s Flight Tracker Saves Frequent Flyers a Ton of Cash

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Google Now

Assuming that you travel by plane on a regular basis and that you search your flights using Google, from now on you’re going to get price updates in Google Now, a feature that will certainly help save a lot of money.

Google Now already provides cards that are related to our online searches, and besides that, it is a life saver, in that it displays relevant, current information about weather, news, nearby places, stocks and so on. The latest feature to be implemented in this personal digital assistant is a flight tracker whose data is also correlated with your queries. The best thing about the Google Now flight tracker is that it displays more than just the date of the next possible departure, but also fluctuations in the price, something that has the potential of saving people money.

The flight price monitor is firm proof that Google’s service are very well integrated with one another. Besides that, the new card saves us a lot of time, and not just money, as otherwise we’d have to check Expedia, Orbitz, SkyScanner and other such online services quite frequently in order to make sure that we’re not passing up a great deal. Some are arguing that the new Google Now card takes away all the fun from searching for cheaper flights, but I have to disagree. The time you save by using the flight price monitor could be otherwise spent on looking for a nice hotel that’s close to your points of interest. Speaking of hotels… Hey, Google, think you could make a similar card for hotel room prices? I bet travelers wouldn’t mind at all.

Everything depends on which airlines Google is able to monitor, though. The ones who are traveling in business class don’t really care about the travel cost (even though the companies employing them should), but the rest of us wouldn’t decline a low-cost airline’s offer. Assuming that Google is able to track both low-cost and regular airlines, the addition of the flight price monitor card would be indeed great news.

I wonder what other things Google has in store for us, as the latest updates to its personal digital assistant have all been extremely helpful. The ones wondering how to trigger this one should visit Google Flights and start from there.

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Google Now Cards No Longer Require an Internet Connection

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Google Now No Internet Connection

The search giant’s mobile apps are slowly starting to offer offline support, something that is definitely appreciated by Google Now users, as of late.

There are plenty of scenarios when the lack of an Internet connection could disrupt our well-being. Fortunately, Google gave that some thought and jumped to the conclusion that some of its apps could fare well even in offline mode, Google Now Cards being the latest such example.

Last Friday, the company announced on Google+ the new feature of the Google Now cards: “Next time you’re on the subway and want to check on your day’s appointments with Google Now, you won’t have to worry about lack of cell service. Starting today (make sure you update your #GoogleSearch App for Android http://goo.gl/idgt3y) your Google Now cards stay loaded, even when you lose service in the subway… or your favorite underground bar!”

The above image was attached to the Google+ update, and as some noticed, the Wi-Fi seems to be on, despite the app saying that there’s no connection. That’s a bit odd! Another user gave an explanation for that, pointing out that if a wireless network loses its uplink, it would show up just like that on the smartphone’s display.

Google Now’s latest update also brought some kind of a parking detector. By using the smartphone’s sensors, Google Now can tell when you’re leaving your car. The reduction of speed will trigger a parking card to show on the map, so after a long walk in an unknown area, you will still know where you parked your car.

Google explained how this works on its Help page: “When the card shows up in Google Now, you’ll see an indicator showing the approximate location of your car. To see other locations where you’ve recently parked, touch Previous locations. Your location data for parking location cards isn’t shared with anyone else.”

Still, this update is not without drawbacks. For the time being, Google can’t tell whether you’re leaving your car, someone else’s vehicle, or just a bus. Because of this, the parking card might confuse some people. The feature is still useful if you want to find the bus station where you got off, or if for some reason you need to get back to the place where your friends dropped you.

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Android and Google Services Are About to Get Hitched

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Google’s web services and Android have been a pair for years now, but a recent leak suggests Google might be preparing to finally pop the question.


Google I/O is fast approaching, so the leaks are starting to become more prolific. There’s never any way of knowing what will be anounced–and history would suggest rumors are often innacurate–but one thing is for sure: Google will anounce new things. Google’s lineup of products and serves is constantly expanding. We already detailed some of what can be expected at Google I/O, but new leaks have illuminated some additional details on Android updates.

Google doesn’t always anounce (or release) Android updates at Google I/O, so it could be a few months or so before we see any new iterations, but either way, there are updates coming down the pipe and they were leaked to Android Police recently.
The name of the update is Project Hera. Hera is the Greek godess of marriage and that’s exactly why Project Hera is named after her. The update is the proper marriage of Google’s various web servics.

Up to this point, Android has definitely been plugged in to Google’s services, but Google’s entire ecosystem is very compartmentalized. A marriage of Android’s software and Google’s services through Project Hera will blur the lines between different apps and distinct tasks.

The leak suggests that Hera will provide a bridge between Chromium and Android, bringing more HTML5 centric features into play. This will be most evident as a form of multitasking. Currently, multitasking in Android means flipping between snapshots of various open apps and choosing which app is needed to complete a specific task.

Project Hera’s version of multitasking has broken this out into a task oriented model, though. Think about it as a blend of Google Now and Android’s existing multitasking card view. Instead of opening Google Now to view your cards, those cards (and equivalent task oriented cards from other apps) will appear in the multitasking view.

This doesn’t only allow for quicker, more contextually relevant multitasking options, but also for quicker access to relevant features without having to enter into a new app every time. It’s like combining your notification shade, your Google Now cards, your current multitasking cards and your widgets into a new type of super multitasking cards.

So, in practice what this will do is place the information and tools you need right now directly at your fingertips. Imagine you are going on a flight and have already checked in with your airline on your phone. Today, the QR code for your electronic boarding pass will appear within the Google Now app when you are close to the Airport. In Project Hera, though, it will appear in your miltitasking view as its own card, making it just one button press away.

A lot of the features required to truly take advantage of such an update would depend on developers to update their apps, but once the industry adjusts, it will make your smart phone that much smarter. It may take some time, as this isn’t simply a software update, but an entire paradigm shift on the concept of what an app is vs a specific task or presentation of data.

Source: Android Police

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Read more on Walyou, Android on the Verge of Getting a Major App Boost, Google Expected to Beef Up Android Security for Enterprise

Google Now Might Soon Include a Bill Reminder

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Google Now Bills

The search giant seems to have made a goal from helping people better organize their lives. As a consequence, the future updates of Google Now might include reminders for paying bills.

Google Now already provides current updates (hence this service’s name) on weather, sports team results, birthday reminders, stock prices, flight information and transport data for getting to work or back home. As of late, Google Now even offers quick access to track and trace services, assuming it found in your Gmail account a tracking number. Of course, there are plenty of other everyday life aspects that could be integrated in this service, and the Google Now bill reminder is only one of them.

Energy suppliers, ISPs and a whole lot other types of companies made the switch from paper to electronic bills a while ago. Assuming that your customer account includes your Google e-mail address and that you get e-mail reminders when the bills are issued, Google Now might be able to detect these e-mails and provide you with notifications in the form of cards.

The Google Now bill reminder would most probably display information in a minimalistic manner, typical for most of the search giant’s services. After all, all that people need to know is the name of the service provider, the amount of the bill and the due date.

This has a great potential of becoming something really big if Google decides to integrate Google Wallet in the reminder cards. That way, people could make payments a lot easier and their lives would become even better, all thanks to Google. A simpler and less impressive option would be to link to the service provider’s website in the Google Now cards, in order to pay the bills.

The way I see it, a bill reminder integrated in Google Now could be of great help for common people, and even more so for companies. In the case of the latter, bills represent a more pressing matter, not to mention that they imply larger amounts of money. Currently, it isn’t even certain whether the tech company will implement a bill reminder in Google Now, but the code snippets found by Android Police suggest that. We all have to wait and see how Google means to play this card, and an official announcement shouldn’t take long.

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iGoogle Web Portal is Closed Now

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Google has made an official announcement on Friday. Its iGoogle service is closed for good. Google officially announces that "iGoogle was retired on November 1, 2013. The mobile version was retired...

Google to Start Mass Production of Google Now Integrated Smartwatch Soon

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Google is almost ready to enter into the smartwatch market. Google smartwatch is in final stages of its development. Tech giant is going to launch its intelligent digital assistant with Google Now...

Google Watch to Come with Android 4.4 KitKat and Google Now Features on October 31

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Google is very close to reveal its next OS version called Android 4.4 KitKat. And it is rumored that Google will reveal is next generation platform along with its wearable watch device called Gem....

Google Now Updated with Car Rentals, Concert Tickets and 3 More New Cards

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The search engine giant, Google has renovated its Google Search app which was meant for Android use. A series of transformations have occurred in Android's personal assistance Google Now app. Among...

Google Now’s voice query support gets ported to Google Search: ask, and you shall receive

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Google Now's voice query support gets ported to Google Search ask, and you shall receive

Google Now's a solid product, but it's reach is also fairly limited... compared to Google Search, anyway. Now, the company's voice element in Search -- which was updated in a major way back at I/O in May -- is gaining some of that Now flair. In the coming days, Google will be rolling out a smarter Search to all US, English-speaking users on desktop, tablet and smartphone, regardless of platform. You'll need only to tap the microphone icon instead of typing in a search query, and then ask humanistic questions about your upcoming flight(s), reservations, purchases, plans and photos.

Naturally, you'll need your flight confirmations sent to Gmail and your photos stored in Google+, but if you're already neck-deep in Google's ecosystem, the newfangled functionality ought to serve you well. For a few suggestions on questions to try, check out the company's official blog post. (Hint: don't ask what your Facebook friends are doing tomorrow.)

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Source: Official Google Blog

Motorola Moto X Leaked Video Shows Always On Voice Commands, Active Updates Features

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Motorola Moto X is hot in leaks these days. Just a day before, some images of the smartphone get leaked online shows it in hands of Google’s Eric Schmidt. Now today, a promo video related to device...