google now

"Ok, Glass -- take a picture!"

"Xbox, what's on HBO?"

"Siri, play Angry Birds."

During the reveal of the Xbox One, I was struck by just how many voice commands Microsoft programmed into the device. Kinect brought a rudimentary set of commands to the gaming console, but now everything from opening movies to launching apps can be done via voice. "Xbox, Live TV" may be my new favorite phrase in the living room.

Microsoft's not the only one who's betting big on voice commands. The vast majority of Google Glass'… Read more

As I sat through the last half hour of a nearly 4-hour keynote, sweat pouring through my shirt, my attention waned. Most people's did. Where were the gadgets? Last year, Google seemed like the hottest (or, most conversation-starting) hardware company around. This year, the only hardware mentioned was the 3-month-old Chromebook Pixel. I wanted new, weird products: watches, new evolutions of Glass, crazy convertible tablets. I wanted to see what Google's next products are.

Yet, you can see the message. In the people wearing Glass -- of which I was one, sheepish, awkward. In the customized, personalized Maps. … Read more

At Google I/O, the company announced some small updates to its Google Now service. One of those updates added the ability for Android users to create location- and time-based reminders.

There are a few different methods for adding a reminder to Google Now. You can use your voice or enter it manually.

To create a reminder by voice, launch Google Now and say "Google" or tap on the mic icon. Once you hear the beep to alert you that Now is listening, start the command with "Remind Me" and add in what you're afraid … Read more

Good assistants -- the kind you can't live without -- are hard to come by. For starters, they should always be on time; any lag simply won't do. They should also get things right the first time, because who has time for inaccuracies? And, last of all, the assistant should be so good, they're always a few steps ahead of their boss.

Those are pretty high expectations, but Google and Apple both think they've got the magic to meet all those requirements and more. The secret, it turns out, is to hand off the work to … Read more

Larry Page is turned off by treating his life's work as a kind of sporting competition. In his way of thinking, battles over Android vs. iOS or Google+ vs. Facebook are a petty distractions, glorified in the press. They generate negative energy, which leads to a diminished capacity to innovate and focus on moonshots, such as self-driving cars, that have the potential to change the world.

"Every story I read about Google is us versus some other company or some stupid thing," the Google co-founder and CEO told 6,000 developers at Google I/O in his … Read more

Google Search was already scarily good at knowing what you wanted -- sometimes before you even knew what you wanted. And now it'll talk back to you.

At Google I/O 2013, the company announced an update to its Google Now search app for Android and iOS as well as enhanced voice search for Chrome and Chrome OS.

For Google Now on Android and iOS, you'll start seeing six new card types, bringing the total to 23. Four of them seem entirely intended to sell you stuff from Google Play, displaying new music, video games, books, and TV … Read more

Last week, my son lost all the research he had done for his first science fair project. (Topic: Can Fossils Form in Igneous Rock?) Extreme drama ensued, and ultimately, I ended up typing his dictation for him as he Googled frantically to meet his deadline.

If you've ever worked with a nine-year-old on a big project, you know that unless your child is a prodigy, the process often dissolves into tears of frustration.

As a parent or adviser, you need to teach a child to think critically, understand basic concepts of measurement (Should we measure the temperature at which … Read more

Google's search engine is powerful, but not all-knowing. Every month Google processes 100 billion queries, and typically returns results with microsecond speed. However, on a fairly regular basis, Google's search engine has to think a bit harder to render a result. On a daily basis, 15 percent of queries submitted -- 500 million -- have never been seen before by Google's search engine, and that has continued for the nearly 15 years the company has existed, according to John Wiley, the lead designer for Google Search.