GOOGLE NOW APP AVAILABLE FOR iPHONE AND iPAD GOES UP AGAINST SIRI

GOOGLE NOW APP AVAILABLE FOR iPHONE & iPAD

Google announced on Monday that the Google Now voice search capability is now available for your iPhone or iPad. The Google Now service is often compared to Apple‘s Siri – both are considered virtual personal assistants that will work by natural language voice commands.

Google Now in the App Store
The new app is available in the Apple App Store, but you find it not by the name Google Now, but by Google Search. I loaded it onto a new iPhone5, which is a short-term evaluation phone that Straight Talk wireless sent me for a post about no-contract cell phones that I’m working on. Of course, the iPhone 5 is a powerful device and I’ve had the chance to compare Siri to Google Now. Normally, I’m working from a dumb phone or an Android-powered smartphone. If you are using a no-contract cell phone, such as the ones you find in Walmart from Straight Talk, get in touch.
Overall, I find the two voice applications to be complementary on the iPhone. There are situations where one is superior to the other. Siri, for example, couldn’t tell me what time my local Starbucks would open, but Google Now could. They both gave me standard search results, however, so I could click through and get extra details. Of course, the results are different on an Android-phone where you can’t get Siri and only have Google Now.
If you haven’t tried using the voice commands, and in particular, the voice assistant in Google Now, you are missing out. I use it to set appointments, alarms, search for airline flights, figure out the weather, learn what time a restaurant is opening or closing, check traffic, and more. These may seem like small time-savers, but if you can just click a button and start giving a simple command and get the task done — that’s a big deal. Apple’s Siri does some of these, but not all.
The same is true that Google Now can’t do everything Siri can do, at least on the iPhone. Siri could follow the command “Call Craig Smith” and found the person in my phone address book and dialed. Poor Craig, since I am writing this post rather early for him…
But Google Now couldn’t do it. Perhaps it is matter of permissions and core iOS access.
Part of what drives all of this is Google’s access to your profile and personal data. I’m sure my Forbes colleague, Kashmir Hill, who writes about privacy, is watching this growing trend. But I granted it access for the iPhone test and found this new app to be a time-saver and productivity boon. If you do not grant access, you get mixed results, albeit poor results.

source: TJ McCue