Voice Search coming to Chrome for iOS soon

By Christian Zibreg on May 22, 2013

Google is on a roll these days. Hot on the heels of updating its desktop Chrome browser with Siri-like conversational search earlier today, the Internet giant just published a post over at the official Chrome blog confirming that Chrome for iPhone and iPad with voice search is “coming soon.”

A Chrome update for the iPhone and iPad will be ready “over the coming days” and will let you speak your searches into Omnibox, which in Google’s parlance means Chrome’s combined search and address box.

You’ll even get certain results spoken back to you, right in the Chrome browser – how cool is that? Read More

 

Google Now-like conversational search goes live in latest Chrome build

By Christian Zibreg on May 22, 2013

Google Now-like voice search in the desktop Chrome browser is definitely one of the easily overlooked Google I/O 2013 announcements. There’s no denying that it makes a hell of a lot of sense to unify Google’s voice search experience, no matter what device or operating system people happen to be using.

Having recently added Google Now to its native Search app on iOS devices, the Internet giant has now enabled very similar conversational voice search capabilities in the latest build of its Chrome desktop browser for Mac and Windows… Read More

 

DirecTV app now supports voice navigation

By Christian Zibreg on May 15, 2013

DirecTV has a decent iOS app on the App Store which streams live television programming, supports DVR functionality and lets you browse and access on-demand streams of past television shows and movies.

The company previously promised to activate voice-enabled features and today it made good on that promise by updating DirectTV software to version 2.5.

The new version uses voice-activated navigation to enable users to find whatever they want to watch on their telly. It’s just like Siri: simply speak to the app just as you would to a person in order to find something to watch. In fact, DirectTV’s software gives us a good indication how a rumored Siri-enabled Apple television set could enhance the experience… Read More

 

Google Now doesn’t tax your battery, says Google, but users beg to differ

By Christian Zibreg on May 2, 2013

As we told you yesterday, a growing number of users report problems with the Google Now feature depleting their iPhone’s battery fast due to its reliance on iOS location capabilities. On Monday, the Internet giant finally brought Google Now capabilities to iDevices via an update to its native Search iOS app.

Responding to the battery life concerns, Google on Thursday issued a statement denying any problems with the app draining your iPhone’s battery… Read More

 

Is Google Now draining your iPhone’s battery?

By Christian Zibreg on May 1, 2013

Google’s take on search AI dubbed Google Now went live Monday via an update to the Internet giant’s native iOS Search app.

Today, a number of users took to the Internet to complain about the application’s excessive power drain due to a possible glitch in how it retrieves your location in the background… Read More

 

Google’s iOS Search app, now available with Google Now

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 29, 2013

Boom, just like that Google has issued an update to its excellent Search app for the iPhone and iPad which enables some of the most popular Google Now features on the iOS platform. At least initially, Google Now on iOS devices doesn’t support some of the features Android users have come to love.

Boarding passes, activity summary, events, concerts, Fandango and Zillow cards aren’t included in the update.

All told, 22 of the 29 card types found in Android have made their way to the iOS edition, including weather, traffic, transit schedules and sports scores. Also: Google Now doesn’t have Push Notifications, which makes the feature less useful than on Android, where Google Now can notify users via alerts of their upcoming appointments, changes to their flight schedule, weather and more.

Your promotional video, screenies and additional details are after the break… Read More

 

Yahoo to launch new iOS weather app and iPad email client tomorrow

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 18, 2013

According to well-informed sources, Internet giant Yahoo will tomorrow release two new iOS applications, one a standalone weather software and the other an iPad version of its native email client. The news arrives hot on the heels of last week’s claim by The Wall Street Journal, which has it on good authority that Apple and Yahoo are “in very early stages” of deepening their partnership in order to grow Yahoo’s presence on mobile devices as Apple continues to push itself further away from Google… Read More

 

Google talks Search iOS app design

By Christian Zibreg on Apr 9, 2013

When it comes to UI design, Google up until recently used to make what you’d call Spartan programs, more often than not resembling old-school software your parents might use. What a difference a leadership change makes: after co-founder Larry Page took over from Eric Schmidt as Google’s CEO in April 2011, we started noticing radical changes to how the Internet giant approaches app design.

I think it is safe to say that some of Google’s contemporary iOS apps are starting to look arguably better than Apple’s. But what’s so special about Google’s newly found design language? To answer that question, Google recently uploaded an interesting video to its Life at Google channel on YouTube. The entire clip is dedicated to highlighting how the new app design philosophy lends itself to the nimble, streamlined and interactive search experience on the Apple tablet… Read More

 

Google: missing iTunes Store search links only technical mistake

By Ed Sutherland on Apr 4, 2013

If you’re one of those conspiracy theorists, there’s a bit of a tempest in a teapot happening over Google’s search results. On the surface, it appears web links to iOS apps hosted on iTunes are being buried under related but not Apple-endorsed web sites. Meanwhile, some iOS apps from Google prominently appear at the top of search results. Is Google, which promotes its Android mobile operating system as an alternative to Apple’s iOS, using its mammoth search database as a competitive weapon?

Or are Apple fans seeing phantoms? The Mountain View, California-headquartered Internet giant blames it all on a technical problem… Read More

 

Eric Schmidt on Google Now for iOS: the ball is now in Apple’s court

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 21, 2013

An alleged promo video thought to show off an unreleased build of Google Now for the iPhone and iPad has piqued our interest, as you could imagine. It was pulled from YouTube soon after, posing questions about the state of the official Google Now software for Apple’s mobile platform.

Speaking at the Google Big Tent Summit in India, Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt hints Google Now has been submitted to Apple for approval. He suggested the ball is now in Apple’s court. If approved, Google Now features are likely to be added to the Internet giant’s native Search iOS app.

Update: Apple confirmed to CNET that Google never submitted Google Now to the App Store in the first place…  Read More

 

Google paying Apple $1 billion annually in per-device iOS search fees

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 11, 2013

Analyst Scott Devitt of Morgan Stanley has estimated that Google pays Apple up to a billion dollars each year to be the default search engine choice on iOS. That’s $1 billion in pure profit.

The two companies apparently have a per-device deal in place rather than a revenue sharing deal, he wrote in a report titled “The Next Google Is Google.” The fee-based co-operation was agreed on in order to simplify accounting and it lets Apple collect upfront payments.

By contrast, Devitt estimates that Google pays around $300 million annually to Mozilla to be the default search engine for Firefox.

While one billion in traffic acquisition costs isn’t much relative to Apple’s $13 billion in holiday quarter profit, it ain’t spare change either. Moreover, it just shows that Google is very much keen on having iOS users search the web using Google search…

Read More

 

Twitter refreshes its terrible iPhone app with revamped search, tweaks

By Christian Zibreg on Feb 6, 2013

The popular micro-blogging platform Twitter today announced a freshly redesigned search experience for its iOS/Android apps and the Twitter.com web interface. This helps you find relevant tweets, trends and people to follow in a single stream. Plus, the reorganized search is now available anywhere in the mobile apps via a new icon.

You can see your five most recent searches, tap them to redo the search and clear your recent search history. Twitter says the updated iOS client launches faster, especially on older iDevices. It’s a nice, albeit way overdue refresh. If you’re using Twitter’s official client, you can update your devices now. I’m sticking with Tweetbot… Read More

 

Facebook to take on Google with new search tool

By Cody Lee on Jan 15, 2013

Facebook has just kicked off its highly anticipated “come and see what we’re building” event, and it’s first big announcement of the day is its new search tool. It’s not necessarily a web search per se, but a graph search, capable of crawling all of Facebook’s data.

It will help you answer questions like: what are some things my friends like, what kind of music are they listening to, what about places my friends have been to or liked and much more more. We have more details on Facebook’s new search tool after the fold… Read More

 

Microsoft rolls out Bing social sidebar on iPads

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 14, 2012

Microsoft recently overhauled its Bing search engine around a new social bar to let desktop users “find people who are relevant to your search based on what they’ve shared, publically blogged or tweeted about”.

Friday, the Bing team announced that the feature is now available on the iPad and iPad mini via browser support for iOS Safari. The new UI adapts to landscape or portrait orientation automatically, with the social bar on the right.

If you’re a big Bing fan, this addition makes it easy to learn what your friends shared on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Klout related to what you’re searching for… Read More

 

The iPhone 5 is the top searched gadget of 2012 on Yahoo and Bing

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 3, 2012

Samsung reigns supreme in handsets, but Apple’s iPhone continues to pique consumer interest like no other gadget. The easiest way to figure out what consumers want is to comb through logs of major web search properties. Yahoo is out today with their annual top searches and the results are hardly surprising.

The iPhone 5 was the top searched for gadget in 2012: it’s managed to beat Kim Kardashian for the most searched for term overall in 2012. Matter of fact, three of Apple’s gadgets landed at the top of Yahoo’s year in review list. Looking beyond units sold, it’s clear where the public’s heart lies… Read More

 

5 excellent jailbreak tweaks to improve search on iOS

By Jeff Benjamin on Nov 22, 2012

Searching is something we do day in and day out. It’s an integral part of the desktop experience, so it only makes sense that it’s something we do often on mobile devices as well.

Searching on the iPhone, while adequate, has always left a little something to be desired when compared to competing operating systems like Android. It only makes sense, considering Android is the product of Google — the creator of the world’s best and most popular search engine.

If you’re jailbroken, however, you have many more choices when it comes to search on iOS. There are search improvements for Spotlight, voice search enhancements, Notification Center search options, and much, much, more. Jailbreaking is a great way to get more out of your device, and that’s why we’ve taken the liberty to compile a list highlighting some of the best jailbreak tweaks for search… Read More

 

How to add Facebook, Twitter, and more search options to Spotlight

By Jeff Benjamin on Nov 14, 2012

The awkwardly named SLightEnhancerSearch, is a recently released jailbreak tweak that adds a ton of new search options to the stock Spotlight search on iOS. When it was first released, I ran into many issues with the tweak, namely, the search options not showing up on the Spotlight page when enabled.

The tweak was updated today, and the developer seems to have stamped out all of the bugs that plagued the initial release. SLightEnhancerSearch, as silly as its name may be, is a quality jailbreak tweak that many will no doubt find useful… Read More

 

Showdown: Google Voice Search v. Siri speed test

By Christian Zibreg on Nov 5, 2012

Google’s recently updated Voice Search iOS app is simply amazing as it demonstrates just how speedy Siri should be. Unfortunately, Apple’s digital secretary remains reliant on network connectivity for voice recognition. Heck, this time last year some folks were even convinced only the iPhone 4S was fast enough to run Siri. That couldn’t be farther from the truth because Google’s iOS app comes with real-time voice recognition. So, how speedy is Siri compared to Google’s refreshed app? Check out this clip by Gizmodo and meet us down in the comments. It’s a couple days old but definitely worth watching… Read More

 

Google gives its iOS search app Siri-like voice magic

By Christian Zibreg on Oct 30, 2012

Google’s most advanced voice search has arrived on iOS! The company yesterday issued an update to its Voice search app for Android with new Google Now features for Android 4.1 devices. And today, the search Goliath has finally released a long-expected update to its iOS app. It brings a bit overdue iPhone 5 compatibility in addition to – and this is huge – the vastly improved voice search capability with artificial intelligence aspects akin to Google Now on Android Jelly Bean devices.

Give it a few more releases and this app is bound to compete with Apple’s Siri. Also on tap are the usual bug fixes and a few other tweaks and enhancements. It’s a free universal binary that supports all iOS form factors natively so make sure to update to the latest version. Jeff had a chance to take it for a spin, I’ve included his video hands-on right below… Read More

 

Apple poaches a prominent Amazon search technologist to improve on Siri

By Christian Zibreg on Oct 15, 2012

According to a new report by AllThingsD, Apple has nabbed an Amazon search specialist William Stasior, who also held a senior position at AltaVista and Oracle. Stasior has reportedly landed the top job: Apple basically has charged him with running its Siri unit.

In hiring a new tutor for its underachieving digital secretary, Apple has indicated intentions to double down on enhancing Siri’s skill set, per Tim Cook’s promise a few months ago.

It also might signal a broader search agenda down the road that might give birth to an Apple-branded, more natural version of the traditional web search.

At any rate, the iPhone maker is interested in expanding Siri’s scope, which in its current incarnation focuses on voice-activated artificial intelligence, leaving search queries to specialized search engines and data bases such as Wolfram Alpha.

This could change down the road, however, especially as Apple continues to lessen its reliance on Google technology for some software features of the iPhone… Read More

 
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