7 replies to this topic

[aktrazer]

Hello again everyone!

There's obviously been a lot of talk regarding Google Now and the advantages it brings. I'd like to give everyone some info that you may or may not know about this incredible app and it's capabilities. We'll start with the basics.

What is Google Now?
Well, in short, Google Now puts all of your most commonly used information at your fingertips without the need for trudging through various apps and widgets by using "cards" for different things you need to have access to. It's a landing page that allows you to customize it with the information that you need or want and make it readily available with one touch. We'll get into what exactly can be added and how you can use it to your benefit later in the article.

What can it do?
Well, as I stated before, it puts all the information that YOU want right at your fingertips with one touch, simply click the Google logo and off you go!

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As you can see, I live in Greensboro, NC. I used my chiropractor's office as a sample of the traffic information that it can give you.

This app saved me last week. I have a ~20 minute commute to the office. There was a really bad accident that had both north and southbound lanes completely blocked. When I woke up in the morning, I simply clicked on Google Now and it told me about the accident, suggested an alternate route and gave me the traffic information and ETA for the new route to work.

You can also see below that, it also gives you the weather for the area and forecast. On top of that as you use it more, you'll notice it will suggest new cards for you, everything from sports scores to restaurants and activities. The possibilities are endless as more cards are being added which give yet another level of personalization unique to you.

How many "cards" are there?
Thanks to our friends at DroidLife, they've compiled a list of the 25 available cards that can be used, so far. Thank to Memnoch for finding this one!

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As you can see, everything from weather to sports, to flight information is available at your fingertips!

How do I get Google Now?
Well, if you have JB, you already have it! For ICS, you'll need to do some slight modification to get it. There's a great thread over at XDA that explains how to install it on your ICS build. You need only have 2 things: 1) ICS and 2) Be rooted.

Here's the link:

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A note worth mentioning. You will see a slight decrease in battery performance if you're running ICS and install GNow. I have a MAXX and, with heavy usage, my battery usually depletes in 18-20 hours whereas before I'd get 24-30 with heavy usage. If you're on JB, it's built in and shouldnt affect your battery performance.

In my opinion it's worth the slight decrease in battery life to have all this info so readily available.

What do you think? Have you found it be useful? Have any tips or pointers to share that make it better? Sound off!!

Huge thanks to Memnoch, DroidLife and our friends at XDA for the information!

[Memnoch73]

Great write up man!!

[snives]

Have they fixed Bluetooth voice recognition in the new version? I've had to avoid it (disable it in ROMs) due to this bug and making it prevent me from voice dialing in my car. As far as my commute, I much rather having Waze auto-start when I dock my phone rather than relying on Google Now. I really like the package tracking and other cards, but they aren't worth losing voice dialing to me as that is a safety feature which I will always say outweighs convenience.

[aktrazer]

Are you running it on JB or ICS? I can't really speak to it as I don't really use blue tooth. Can anyone confirm this?

[Memnoch73]

Sorry I don't use bluetooth either.

[hootowlserenade]

I'm running arctic HD and I use my bt headset to use Google now's voice dialer... it starts up perfectly fine and recognizes my voice above and beyond the stock ICS voice search.

Sent from the cutting edge of my Droid RAZR MAXX

[snives]

Awesome, I'll have to give it a try again.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[segordon]

Are any of the versions included the newest version of Google Now?

Sent from my Droid Razr Maxx using Tapatalk2.