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My GPS gives commute time, i get notified by email when a package ships and the amazaon app can also give me that info. Dont need bus info i drive a car and google maps already gives that info. I just dont see a point opening the app when the info that is givin is so weak compared to a app.

So your GPS notifies you when there is traffic ahead of time so you can leave earlier than scheduled? Does your GPS learn when you get to work and leave work normally?

I guess when Apple does this, you will tell us how awesome it is. Clearly Apple is going to have to do this with Siri or risk falling even farther behind. So far Siri is just a one trick pony (voice commands) whereas Google Now has really become a personal assistant.

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What did you expect? It's a Siri competitor.

It's not really a Siri competitor. Voice commands were already in the app. But since apps can't have the kind of access Siri has, they can't really perform as many functions. On Android, the voice assistant does basically the same thing as Siri. However, Google Now is much more than Siri in that you aren't actively asking it questions.
 
So your GPS notifies you when there is traffic ahead of time so you can leave earlier than scheduled? Does your GPS learn when you get to work and leave work normally?

I guess when Apple does this, you will tell us how awesome it is. Clearly Apple is going to have to do this with Siri or risk falling even farther behind. So far Siri is just a one trick pony (voice commands) whereas Google Now has really become a personal assistant.

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It's not really a Siri competitor. Voice commands were already in the app. But since apps can't have the kind of access Siri has, they can't really perform as many functions. On Android, the voice assistant does basically the same thing as Siri. However, Google Now is much more than Siri in that you aren't actively asking it questions.

I wish everyone would stop assuming you're an apple fanboy when you saying something negative about a google product. I have a android device also and wouldn't care if Apple got such features. You wouldn't see me getting all happy and praising such a thing. Never. Anyways my GPS does notify me of traffic and I don't need such a feature as "GPS learning when you get to work and leave work normally"? Such uselessness why would it need to know that? is it going to go pick me up a cup of coffee before I get to work?
 
Of course it does, that's how it works. I keep Google Now on 24/7 on my Nexus 4 and get 1.5 days of battery life with it active. It's a nice thing to have.

I have the same on my Nexus 4 plus the other 4 Android phones I have while getting similar battery life.
 
Get Back Cards

I accidentally swiped the weather card and cant seem to get it back. I turned it on and off then deleted the app and still cant get it back. All it says now is "Check Back Soon" Hmmmm
 
I accidentally swiped the weather card and cant seem to get it back. I turned it on and off then deleted the app and still cant get it back. All it says now is "Check Back Soon" Hmmmm

I'm going to assume it will show up the next day.

*EDIT* actually give it a few hours...minds is back up now.
 
Am I the only one completely entertained by the fact that 11 pages in people are still asking if the location icon is supposed to remain on or the fact that location services remaining on drains their battery, when its been pointed out about a dozen times that you can turn that off!? :eek:
 
Am I the only one completely entertained by the fact that 11 pages in people are still asking if the location icon is supposed to remain on or the fact that location services remaining on drains their battery, when its been pointed out about a dozen times that you can turn that off!? :eek:

I'm more entertained by the sheer paranoia about Google.
 
You must be an Android user then set out to troll Mac boards?

Passbook does the passport thing, Apple maps shows you traffic etc.

Does it not get boring trolling these boards?

Nope, Apple all the way.

But I also like to point the obvious, sometimes
 
I'm more entertained by the sheer paranoia about Google.

The irony being the same people who are paranoid about Google invading their privacy probably just voluntairly let Facebook's computers know what they are eating for dinner or that they got a B- on their final...
 
If you wanted a preview of the flat cleaner iOS 7 design, there you go

Now what I don't understand is why Android continues to be so ****ing ugly when Google has all the cards in hands.
 
Just did some research and found that google now is completely useless to me, because it only grabs info from my iPhone calendar...wtf? All my daily routine and every meeting is on my exchange calendar. My iPhone calendar is empty. Without calendar it basically can't predict where I will be and such so almost 90% of this utility is gone. I don't understand why can't it just ask for my calendar access permission so they can include my calendar items? Maybe they want us not to use a Microsoft product?

Also, an article said it doesn't use GPS but a less accurate location. It doesn't have most of the features available on Android. It also doesn't have notification....wtf? What's the point of this if it won't tell me relevant information unless I open it manually??
 
Just did some research and found that google now is completely useless to me, because it only grabs info from my iPhone calendar...wtf? All my daily routine and every meeting is on my exchange calendar. My iPhone calendar is empty. Without calendar it basically can't predict where I will be and such so almost 90% of this utility is gone. I don't understand why can't it just ask for my calendar access permission so they can include my calendar items? Maybe they want us not to use a Microsoft product?

Also, an article said it doesn't use GPS but a less accurate location. It doesn't have most of the features available on Android. It also doesn't have notification....wtf? What's the point of this if it won't tell me relevant information unless I open it manually??
Google no longer supports ActiveSync, so your Exchange calendar is unreadable to Google.
And yes... they do prefer you use their products.

As for location services, it uses whatever location services you have enabled.
If you use GPS, it will use GPS. (You can disable this too)

As for notifications, I've read it has to do with Apple's restrictions on background processing. For Google Now to work as it does on Android, it has to be running all the time.

Not bad for a first release, but I suspect they'll put more polish on it over time.
 
So giving you commute times, notifying you of packages, providing bus/subway schedules when you are near a station are useless? A lot of the information it provides you aren't notified anywhere else. Now is about passively getting information. You don't need to actively check apps because it is there without you having to ask. On Android is was an absolute life saver. It's the one thing I really miss in iOS.

I take the 8:12 or 8:25 train and they are always a few minutes late
Don't need google now to tell me when the train is coming
 
I've been playing with Google Now for an afternoon and all I seem to have is weather. I can't seem to get any more cards up. When I click 'more cards' I get a message saying: 'no more cards available try refreshing later.'

Any tips?
 
I can see where this technology is going, and it's very exciting, but I don't think this particular iteration of it is there yet. It would be helpful if these cards showed up on the lock screen so the info I might want was at my fingertips, but taping on the app to do it doesn't make sense.

Right now its giving me the score of the Twins/Tigers game. Ok, I also get that by tapping the ESPN app - how was this better? When I went out for lunch it showed me restaurants in the area (not something I need when I'm in the place I've lived for 30 years but that's not its fault). I could have accessed that same info by Siri in exactly 2 less steps (unlocking phone, tapping on app)

It also doesn't help that when I'm sitting in my living room it tells me I have a 7 min drive to get home :rolleyes:
 
It says it's not available in my country. :(

Anyone know if there is a way to "trick" the app into activating Google Now?:apple:
 
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this in 11 pages.

Google is probably not running GPS and all that constantly. They are most likely using "Significant Location Change" location services. This is normal and barely uses any battery life at all.

Unfortunately the location services icon does not change for this as it does for geofencing. Significant Location Change uses less battery than geofencing. Essentially all it does is track cell tower changes and when there is a cell tower change it gets a triangulation from the cell towers.

This is a big difference from using location services with GPS.

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Here is a great thread from 2011 that may help people understand how it works.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1168048/

We use SLC quite a bit for task/context location alerts in our app (its in my sig) for several years now. We tried geofencing but found it to be more of a battery hog and not always very reliable. SLC seems more reliable to me and also uses less battery. I just wish Apple would hollow the location icon for its use.
 
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this in 11 pages.

Google is probably not running GPS and all that constantly. They are most likely using "Significant Location Change" location services. This is normal and barely uses any battery life at all.

Unfortunately the location services icon does not change for this as it does for geofencing. Significant Location Change uses less battery than geofencing. Essentially all it does is track cell tower changes and when there is a cell tower change it gets a triangulation from the cell towers.

This is a big difference from using location services with GPS.

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Here is a great thread from 2011 that may help people understand how it works.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1168048/

We use SLC quite a bit for task/context location alerts in our app (its in my sig) for several years now. We tried geofencing but found it to be more of a battery hog and not always very reliable. SLC seems more reliable to me and also uses less battery. I just wish Apple would hollow the location icon for its use.

That's interesting. I didn't know about significant location change for location services. Thanks for the information. :)
 
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