Never thought that day would come honestly, when Apple allows direct Siri replacements in Apps. The new Google Search App for iOS brings expanded voice search alongside the iPhone 5 compatibility.
While at first glance it seems quite responsive and does a good job of understanding the Indian accent. Download it for yourself and see if you like the UI refresh.
[quote]Improved Voice Search
Simply say what you want and get results without typing.
Faster and significantly improved voice recognition with text streamed on the fly.
Get answers spoken directly back to you with web results tailored to your questions.
Want to see types of questions that work well? Visit http://google.com/support/mobile/?p=gsa_voice.
Other Google Search app features
Faster: get to search results faster than by searching from a browser
Beautiful full-screen image search
Swipe away webpages to quickly return to search results
Search within a webpage using the built in text finder
Google Goggles: Snap a photo of what you see to find more information about products, landmarks or famous paintings, and even solve Sudoku puzzles[/quote]
Google today announced the Google Nexus 4 Smartphone, the Google Nexus 10 Tablet and the 32 GB version of the Google Nexus 7 tablet.
The Google Nexus 4, the newest smartphone in the Nexus line-up from Google, was announced today for availability starting next month in select markets.
[quote]“LG is proud and excited to play this role in helping build the latest Nexus smart-phone,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Com-munications Company. “Users will be delighted by the perfectly balanced combination of form and function with the latest generation of Android.”[/quote]
The specs of the Google Nexus 4 include a 4.7-inch True HD IPS Plus display (1,280 x 768), an 8 megapixel rear camera, Gorilla Glass 2, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 2GB of RAM and the latest rendition of Google Now. Turn-by-turn navigation via Google Maps is included, as are 3D Maps, Street View and Indoor Maps. The Nexus 4 will be sold unlocked, supporting some 200 carriers that play by the GSM / HSPA+ rules. It’ll be made available in both 8GB and 16GB versions starting November 13 in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Spain and Australia, with pricing set for $299 (8GB) / $349 (16GB).
[quote]“This is the first time we collaborated with LG to build a Nexus device,” said Andy Ru-bin, Senior Vice President of Mobile and Digital Content at Google. “They brought an extraordinary amount of talent to the project, and the result is a feature-packed device that feels great in your hand, and blazingly fast under the hood.”[/quote]
[toggle_box title=”Press Release” width=”Width of toggle box”]
LG AND GOOGLE ANNOUNCE NEXUS 4
Sleek, New Smartphone Combines LG’s Best-in-Class Hardware with the Best of Google
SEOUL, Oct. 30, 2012 – Designed collaboratively by LG and Google, Nexus 4, the newest smartphone in the Nexus line-up from Google, was announced today for avail-ability starting next month in select markets. With a sophisticated hardware design from LG, your favorite Google Apps, and the latest version of Android™, Nexus 4 puts the best of Google in the palm of your hand.
“LG is proud and excited to play this role in helping build the latest Nexus smart-phone,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Com-munications Company. “Users will be delighted by the perfectly balanced combination of form and function with the latest generation of Android.”
“This is the first time we collaborated with LG to build a Nexus device,” said Andy Ru-bin, Senior Vice President of Mobile and Digital Content at Google. “They brought an extraordinary amount of talent to the project, and the result is a feature-packed device that feels great in your hand, and blazingly fast under the hood.”
Capture and share your world Nexus 4 comes with a high-performance 8MP camera and takes stunning Photo Sphere images, letting you capture every detail of the world around you. Up, down and all around you, it’s like no camera you’ve ever seen; with Nexus 4, you can snap pictures in every direction that come together into incredible, immersive Photo Spheres that put you right inside the scene. Plus, photos upload themselves with Instant Upload so you’ll never lose a shot.
All of this comes to life with stunning clarity and crisp, natural color on the vibrant 1280-by-768 4.7-inch True HD IPS Plus display supported by Zerogap Touch technol-ogy. Gently curved glass edges allow your finger to slide smoothly on and off the 320ppi screen, while cutting edge display technology means you feel like you’re touch-ing every pixel, protected by scratch resistant Corning? Gorilla? Glass 2.
Built for speed Nexus 4 comes with a cutting-edge Qualcomm Snapdragon™ S4 Pro processor, so you’ve got speed and power to spare. Zip around the web, experience rich 3D graphics and gameplay, and effortlessly switch between multiple apps without ever missing a beat. With 2GB of RAM and the fastest version of Android ever, Nexus 4 is the snappi-est Nexus smartphone yet.
Information at your fingertips Nexus 4 comes with the latest Google apps, putting the best of Google in the palm of your hand. The latest version of Google Now is built-in, which keeps you even more organized – get reminders about upcoming flights, restaurant reservations, hotel confir-mations and even nearby photo opportunities – when and where you need them.
Get to the places you care about quickly and easily with Google Maps™ for Android. With turn-by-turn GPS navigation, live traffic info, and integrated driving, walking and public transit directions, getting from A to B has never been easier. 3D Maps and rich satellite imagery give you a more realistic sense of what’s around you while features like Street View and Indoor Maps make sure you always know what’s in front of you.
Nexus 4 is sold unlocked and is GSM/HSPA+ compatible so it will operate on more than 200 network providers worldwide. Just pop in a supported SIM card and be up and running in no time. It will be available to purchase in both an 8GB version and a 16GB version on Google Play™ starting November 13 in the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Spain and Australia. Offline availability in Europe, Central/South Americas, Asia, CIS and the Middle East will begin from the end of November.
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Also, Google released the 32GB version of the Nexus 7 tablet, signalling an end to the 8GB version. The 16GB Google Nexus 7 has now taken center stage in Google’s Play Store, with $199 netting you a slate that’s currently boasting a “now shipping” status. Those willing to fork out $249 can get a 32GB model (also listed as “In Stock”), while $299 provides access to a GSM-enabled 32GB model that’ll hop onto cellular networks — unfortunately, that one’s listed as “coming soon.”
And last but not least, out comes the iPad rival from Google’s stable, the Google Nexus 10. The new tablet, built in collaboration with Samsung, has one big bragging point — the highest resolution display of any tablet on the market — a 2560 x 1600, 300ppi, 10-inch touchscreen. Google promises about 9 hours of continuous video playback and about 500 hours of standby time. Despite being a Nexus device, the new tablet picks up on the design language of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Note 10.1. It features a pair of front-facing stereo speakers on either side of the display (when it’s held in a landscape orientation) plus an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1.9-megapixel front camera for video chats. Under the hood, there’s a dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM and built-in NFC. It also gets a built-in micro-HDMI port.
Like the Nexus 4, the Google Nexus 10 will ship with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. One new 4.2 feature Nexus 10 users may enjoy is the ability to have multiple user profiles on a single device. The Nexus 10 will ship on Nov. 13 at a price of $400 for 16GB of storage and $500 for 32GB.
Over the weekend, yet another Nexus 4 leak emerged. This time, @evleaks showed off what is ostensibly going to be the new home screen of Android 4.2. While the overall look remains the same — some think this will still be called Jelly Bean — it shows off something very interesting.
On all other Nexus devices, Google has put four icons on the bottom dock in order of importance. Phone, then Contacts, then Messaging, then Browser. In Android 4.1, the Browser icon became Chrome for Android, but the order was the same. These are icons that stay with you regardless of what home page you’re on; these are the ones you’re likely tapping the most.
If the above render is accurate, Google has changed up this order for the first time since the Nexus One in 2010. On the left-most side now is Chrome, emphasizing the fantastic browsing abilities of the new device. Then we have Gmail, which was previously relegated to the Google folder. After that, another new icon in the dock: Camera. While the Galaxy Nexus didn’t have a great camera sensor, Google reworked the camera UI to make taking photos much enjoyable.
Lastly, we see the Phone icon, which still remains an important part of the show, but less so than ever. Judging from the informal surveys I’ve taken of smartphone users over the years, voice calls are decreasing in importance as users transition to text-based forms of communication. Data — and therefore browsing — have become paramount in the eyes of the average Android user. Email, too, has maintained its importance, and Android 4.2 is expected to improve the experience dramatically with a new Gmail app.
Now, this render could be totally bunk, or it could be that I’m reading way too much into this. But if it turns out to be true, Google is certainly making a statement about what it thinks is the future of smartphone usage. Or, it could just be a big, fat arbitrary coincidence.
It must be a rude shock for many but Google’s Nexus 4, Nexus 10 and Android 4.2 release event in New York has been cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy
Android and Google fans must be feeling very disappointed. They were all expecting several new Google products and an improved version of Nexus 7. But there seems to be disappointment in store as Google has reportedly cancelled its media event in New York slated for October 29. Besides the hardware, Google was expected to introduce Android 4.2 during the much publicized event.
But alas, like everything under attack in New York thanks to Hurricane Sandy, Google was forced to cancel the event. The company hasn’t yet announced the new dates for the launch event. But insiders suggest that as there is no problem with either hardware or software updates the rescheduled even should be held within a short period of time.
“We are canceling our Monday morning event in New York due to Hurricane Sandy. We will let you know our plans as soon as we know more,” Google said.
Google’s event was planned to compete with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 event taking place in San Francisco the same day.
Android chief Andy Rubin is still expected to speak at the All Things D “Dive Into Mobile” conference in New York City on Monday afternoon.
What we have here is a brief 5 second video of the upcoming Google Nexus 10 by Samsung, courtesy of BriefMobile who recently leaked images of the the device. The launch date for the 10.1-inch tablet is unknown, but we should be hearing specific details in the coming days. The specs included are a 1.7 GHz dual-core processor, runs Android OS 4.2 Jelly Bean and sports a 5MP camera – you can check out the full specs here. In the meantime, brace yourself for the 5 seconds… it goes fast. Video below.
Come Monday and Google is expected to unveil multiple Nexus devices that will be released this fall including a Nexus 10 tablet, which has surfaced online recently.
There have been less number of rumors regarding the Nexus 10 tablet as compared to the LG Nexus 4 or other Nexus devices. The first images of the rumored Nexus 10 tablet leaked on Friday
The tablet is 10.1-inches and sports a Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 (298.9PPI), runs Android OS 4.2 Jelly Bean (not Key Lime Pie), and has a 1.7GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos 5250 processor. Other notable specs have the Nexus 10 coming with NFC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, 16GB of internal storage, 2gigs of RAM, plus dual stereo speakers. The display looks like a fingerprint magnet, or somebody really has greasy fingers. The back is reportedly brushed aluminum with “rubber coated edges.”
In addition, as suspected by the picture captured this morning, the rear-facing camera is a 5MP shooter, but no word on what the front-facing camera is. Apparently the camera features in OS 4.2 have been improved, now bringing a new slide-to-activate menu and a redesigned camera icon. Finally, as previous leaks suggested, OS 4.2 will bring the ability to have multiple user accounts.
If you needed any more proof that the Nexus 10 is coming next week, here it is. The Samsung Nexus 10’s quick start guide has leaked online, courtesy of Korean site Seeko.
The photos show the name “Nexus 10” on the cover of the guide, and inside it are basic images of a tablet with both Samsung and Nexus branding. The outlines show that the Nexus 10 has a camera and notification LED on its face and a second camera with a flash on its rear. On the left side is a 3.5mm headphone jack and microUSB port, and over on the right side is a microHDMI port, and speakers are on either side of the display. The power/lock button looks to be on the top of the device along with a volume key.
There are no specs confirmed for the tablet but, from we’ve been hearing this could well become the Samsung tablet that packs a wonderful 2560×1600 display and a quad-core Exynos 5250 with Android 4.2, which would make for a compelling tablet, Android or otherwise.
The Nexus 10 name popped up on our radar last week when it appeared in the EXIF data of a photo posted to Picasa.. This purported manual doesn’t confirm or debunk any of those details, but it does give us a peek at what the (basic) design of the Nexus 10 will be like, which appears to be similar to the Galaxy Note 10.1 with the speakers on its face and a panel around the rear camera.
While none of this is official until Google makes it so, the company’s Android event is just a few days away, so it may not be long before we get to see the Nexus 10 in real life. Are you interested in a 10-inch Nexus tablet from Google and Samsung?
Nexus 4 cant leak enough it seems, as after the LG India fiasco, the phone has appeared on UK phone retailer Carphone Warehouses website. The Nexus 4 is up for pre-order on the website and will be available Oct 30th according to the site. The Website has also listed the following specs and supposer 4.2 version of Jelly bean.
Specifications
4.7-inch 1,280 x 768 display
Snapdragon S4 processor
8+ megapixel camera
8GB of storage
no microSD card slot
“gesture typing”
No Sim Free price Listed
Free on Contract
The phone was earlier leaked online, and then mentioned to being launched in India next month by LG India. We should get a lot more information in the coming week when Google announces the phone officially.
If you jumped onto the Play Store today looking to pick up an 8GB version of the tab in time for the holidays, you may have noticed the $200 8GB has been completely sold out, listed as “coming soon.” So what gives? Well, there have been whisperings that Google could have plans to completely phase out the 8GB version of the Google Nexus 7, in favor of offering the 16GB models for the exact same price.
Google is expected to announce a 32GB Google Nexus 7 tablet, both Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, at their upcoming “playground is open” Android event on October 29th. Google has yet to confirm the news of a new version of the tablet, but some retails have received stock and unofficially started selling them.
From day one, many have complained that the 8GB version of the N7 simply lacked sufficient storage (5.6GB usable), and dropping it entirely sort of makes sense at this point, particularly with both the iPad Mini and Kindle Fire HD starting at 16GB. The 8GB retailed for $209 and hopefully a massive price drop for the 16GB version is en route…
Of course, it could just come back tomorrow, and we could be wrong, but hey, the timing is right, and our gut instinct here tells us otherwise.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Google is contemplating a settlement of an FTC investigation that is probing whether the company purposely refused to license industry essential patents to competing mobile device makers, and in some cases leveraged the IP to seek injunctions.
The FTC in June began investigating Google’s use of patents it acquired after purchasing Motorola in May. Following the buyout, the internet search giant continued to press forward with a number of existing lawsuits, including possibly anticompetitive litigation regarding standards-essential FRAND patents.
One of the sources noted that the FTC had threatened to bring a case against Google over alleged unfair business practices involving the use of Motorola’s IP against rival mobile device makers like Apple and Microsoft. During discussions, the agency’s lawyers cited a number of cases in which the Google subsidiary possibly violated FRAND terms.
Google reportedly argued that competitors currently holding FRAND patents also violated their duties in bringing suit against Motorola and others, including filings from Apple. The company went on to say that if a settlement was reached, it would be left defenseless as rivals push forward with their own FRAND claims.
If you are as upset as the rest of the world using an iDevice on iOS 6, Google just might come to your rescue with a Google Maps app for iOS 6. San Francisco-based software developer Ben Guild has posted some details about Google’s upcoming maps app, including some super low res blurry a$$ images if we have seen any. Guild says the app will be “ vector-based,” will feature “two-finger rotation for any angle” and will be formatted for the iPhone 5?s four-inch display.
Looks like iPhone 5 users, along with other iOS 6 users will be happy after all, now that they can navigate to their favorite Starbucks. Oh wait, we still don’t have those in India!
The Federal Trade Commission of the United States is raising the ante in its antitrust confrontation with Google with the commission staff preparing a recommendation that the government sue the search giant.
Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the F.T.C., said the agency would decide whether to sue Google by the end of the year while Joaquín Almunia, competition commissioner for the European Union, said he was troubled by Google’s dominance.
The government’s escalating pursuit of Google is the most far-reaching antitrust investigation of a corporation since the landmark federal case against Microsoft in the late 1990s. The agency’s central focus is whether Google manipulates search results to favor its own products, and makes it harder for competitors and their products to appear prominently on a results page.
The staff recommendation is in a detailed draft memo of more than 100 pages that is being shared with the five F.T.C. commissioners, said two people briefed on the inquiry.
The memo is still being edited and changes could be made, but these are mostly fine-tuning and will not alter the broad conclusions reached after an inquiry that began more than a year ago, said these people, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified.
Google rivals specializing in travel, shopping and entertainment have accused Google, the world’s No. 1 search engine, of unfairly giving their web sites low quality rankings in search results to steer Internet users away from their websites and toward Google products that provide similar services.
Computer users are overwhelmingly more likely to click on the top results in any search. The low ranking often forces companies to buy more ads on Google to improve their visibility, one source said.
The agency also is examining whether the company is using its control of the Android mobile operating system to discourage smartphone and device makers from using rivals’ applications, two of the people said.
The FTC began making calls to high-tech companies to gather information for its probe in April 2011 and Google disclosed in June of that year that the FTC had begun a review of its business practices.
On the patent investigation, the agency is scrutinizing whether a strategy of seeking court orders to ban Apple Inc. and Microsoft from using mobile and video compression technology is anticompetitive, said the people.
Meanwhile, Google has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
We have some exciting news for long-suffering Android users patiently waiting for a feature that arguably should have been included since the beginning. Google is set to add pinch-to-zoom to its next version of Gmail, presumably to be added to the final build of Android 4.2 when the Nexus 4 launches next month.
AndroidPolice obtained exclusive access to the .APK file, which seems to work without issue on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Besides the obvious improvements, Google has added some subtle things such as swipe right to archive/delete, as well as reporting phishing from inside the app.
Even more features are said to be on their way, including the ability to swipe an email in the inbox view left or right to either archive or delete, always delete, or do nothing when in the All Mail or Sent views.
We imagine the “archive or delete” option will hit you with a prompt asking you which one you want to do. You’ll also be able to do this for labels. Performing the gesture on “regular labels” will remove that label.
Finally, a new “Report Phishing” feature has been added. Google probably wanted to give users a way to report the far more serious problem of phishing instead of the more generalized spam. This should hopefully allow them to bust these malicious emails more effectively and efficiently.
You can check out a preview video after the break. Android Police says it’s working on obtaining permission to release the .APK to rooted Android users running Jelly Bean, but we’re sure other copies will crop up in the near future.
Google has extended its free SMS chat service to India, whereby users can send text messages to mobile phones via Gmail Chat.
[quote]”You can send SMS messages to your contacts’ mobile phones using Gmail Chat … Google does not charge for using this service,” according to information available with Google’s website.[/quote]
The SMS service is available in India and 51 other countries in Asia, Africa and North America.
According to the feature, people using either chat programmes ( GTalk, or Gmail chat ) can send texts to mobile users for free and cell phone subscribers can reply at regular SMS rates.
To ensure maximum coverage, the company has tied up with mobile service providers Aircel, Idea, Loop Mobile, MTS, Reliance, Tata DoCoMo, Tata Indicom and Vodafone in a few cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
The service starts with 50 SMS credits for each user, every sent SMS costing one credit. Every reply received adds on 5 credits subject to the maximum level being 50 SMS at any given time. There is no official statement from Google on the launch of this service, however the service has gone live this evening in the chat windows of many users.
But don’t stress if you run out. “In case the SMS credit goes down to zero, it will increase automatically to one text after 24 hours. Keep in mind that if you’d like a higher message credit, you can always send an SMS to your own phone, and then reply to that message multiple times. Every time you reply, your SMS credit is increased by five. Effectively, you’re buying more messages by paying your phone company for these outgoing messages,” says Google in an explanatory post on its website.
Google+ for iOS and Android now seem to be iterating at the same pace, after months of what seemed like preferential treatment by Mountain View for the latter version.
The most recent update adds Pages administration abilities, so you can add, view and comment on posts if you own a company or a brand. This is one of the most helpful new additions, as it doesn’t you to your computer when performing social media-related work duties. Facebook already has a separate app for its Pages administration.
Google+ for Android also received a new widget design (above), while iPhone 5 users can now stretch out in front of your 4-inch display. iOS users can now edit posts, while both versions have gained the ability to search for people and posts.
