Google Now context based - Nexus 7 General

I may be the last person in the world to know this, but "Google Now" on the Nexus 7 answers in context.
This is something I picked up from The Verge:
Ask Google Now "Who is Barack Obama". It answers with a good description. No surprise.
Now ask "Who is his wife". This one blew me away - gave a nice verbal description of Michele.
Try that on any less capable assistant - like Siri - and see what you get. She does not do windows - or context.
A conversation between two people consists of everything said up to that point. Easy to see "Google Now" developing to that.

Related

A Brief Letter to Microsoft

Hi all. I've decided to try and make some future Microsoft product "my idea", so I've submitted the following letter to them via billg [at] microsoft [dit] com. I just wanted to know if you guys had any input.
Flaming is sure to happen, and while I won't argue with you, I will probably wish your firstborn child is used as a shot put.
Dear Microsoft,
Lately I’ve been bombarded with commercial after commercial showing random people (and their self perceptions) stating that Windows 7 was their idea for one reason or another. I’m not completely disgusted by these or anything, but it started my mind on one of those winding roads a character in a story might have to take to get home, or to the girl, or to the climax, or… well I guess that is kind of repetitious – but the point is, I started thinking about the variety of Microsoft’s operating systems and the history they’ve had – rather, our history together.
I’ve used just about everything Microsoft has created… I started my computer “education” by soldering a few broken parts back together on a Commodore 64 I found in a dump, and then learning BASIC on it (the BASIC on the Commodore 64 was a variant created and licensed by Microsoft). Right now, I’m typing this in Microsoft Word, on a laptop that has Microsoft Windows Vista, being distracted by a cellular phone that runs Microsoft Windows Phone 6.5.
That was a mouthful when I read it aloud.
But the reason for this letter is not so much a history lesson, but a worry of what is to come. It seems the goal over there the past few years is some cross between being different and being more like Macintosh, or Google, or insert company name here, and I’m here to state that I don’t like the transformation the publicists and tech news sites are ranting and raving about.
A few examples?
- Most recently must be the attempt to remove the clipboard features from my phone. I say “attempt”, because I am willing to bet that will be brought back, either by you or some developers out there.
- Office 2007’s menu structure looks like someone tried to “make it better” and ruined it.
- Windows Vista and Windows 7 both look like some kind of cross-dressing Microsoft product who was “supposed to be a Mac”.
What happens when you become so close to the competition that nobody can tell you apart? Developers and IT teams may not like parts of Windows, but they are able adjust most of what they don’t like to work for them. If this path continues, and all of the contenders out there do the exact same thing, you’re really shooting yourselves in the collective foot by taking away your uniqueness.
I guess what I’m really trying to say is “different” does not equal “better”. Get back to your roots and make something that your current audience will buy. Put them above the “new customers” you’re trying to reach. It’s the same error that many companies make nowadays – neglecting the long time customers for some new ones. You end up losing great customers that way.
See, I am a man. There’s an expression stating that men marry women expecting them to be the same, and women marry men expecting that they’ll change. I feel like Microsoft is giving in to the women out there – the ones who complain about it being too hard to use or not pretty enough – and we have enough of that already. I’m not trying to hate on women out there, but maybe the movie Team America explained it best… something about assholes, dicks, and ******* (I won’t go into it, but watch the movie if you need an explanation). What we need is for Microsoft to be a **** again.
Good luck and happy creating,
(Name Removed)
P.S. This email was sent using Microsoft Outlook.
Thanks in advance for any feedback,
Drunk
oooh nice
so did they reply back and what did the email say?
anyway nice letter
no replies yet, but I just sent it last night.
Mad props for Team America reference =P
the whole my idea is just a commercial not a real deal imho
http://gizmodo.com/5477384/windows-7-was-my-idea-but-to-be-fair-i-dont-know-what-im-talking-about
I don't doubt that it is just a big marketing gimick, but I wanted to explain that it looks like they are listening to people's ideas - just the wrong ones.
I'm waiting for them to show the ads on TV which make the claim that W7 has fewer clicks so I can report it to the ASA.
Starting a program like solitaire with the mouse is either the same number (if you don't mind a 2 second wait) or one more click than XP/Vista.
As for getting to the network card properties that's a heck of a lot more clicks than Vista or XP.
W7 has some very well thought out features, but unfortunately it's got more that just aren't.
I hate MS for putting me in a position where I have to say I prefer Vista! Damn them! Damn them to Hades!
WM7 looks awful, and the restrictions they're putting on it make no user or business sense.
Office 2007 is appauling, what were they thinking? Why make an application which users have to refer to google in order to complete simple common tasks?
Don't expect a reply, Drunk, at least something that isn't just generically polite and thanking you for your thoughtful input.
You blended good points that resonate with much of their shrinking user base, made up partly by people who have no idea they're running Microsoft and also in part by people who are obsessed with modifying them, with that bit on genitals. They're not interested in us anymore, nor would they want to add a lot of attention to your letter by giving you something from them to paste on and spread around. They want to intercept people from buying the other phones with no regard to who's already buying their own phones, and you can't really blame them considering how fast they're still falling (down 4% last quarter) toward obscurity.
Just to offer myself as an example of others reading what you just posted and what may be on their own minds, considering I made two websites about the damn thing, I'd say I was a bonafide WinMo fanatic, one of the last expected to say adios, but I just did, a Nexus One, and not only will I continue to love and go nuts with it I will attempt to take others with me. It's brewing right here on XDA, the place you'd think would be the haven mainly for people who like to do what can mostly only be done exclusively with WinMo phones.
Actually I read this by mistake, forgot to get rid of all my WinMo rss feeds on Google Reader to which my phone's synced. Good read though, glad you posted it. So thanks.
But no matter how much rabble you rouse here nor what signs you wave in front of their Seattle office you won't stop this train, the general direction of which they've made it clear that they are taking with WP7 being mostly the opposite of what a lot of us want. They can't please everyone and they'd rather please would-otherwise-be customers of their competitors even at the expense of estranging themselves from part of their existing customers. On the bright side, in addition to there being other options (specifically the one I took), they claim they'll keep supporting existing versions of WinMo for at least a while, though not forever on new devices I don't think which will have unique hardware that if I heard correctly won't even have removable storage, not to mention any support for decentralized application distribution. You don't like the sound of what's coming but what's coming is in their opinion good for business and I suppose mine too. When you're already failing at this rate in such a critical time of penetrating a huge market with enormous potential that will be realized further and further every day, it's hard to come up with a dumb idea on how to do things differently. Not to mention I've seen quite a few extremists shrug off each new bit of bad news saying Whatever I'll still try it, and once they do, then Microsoft has got them for at least a long enough period of time to figure out how to keep them hooked while they intercept little bits of business from the others. Right now they're handing business away. It's a joke.
Making sure the likes of you and others on sites like XDA remain happy customers as they implement these drastic changes to their mobile operations is not high up on their to do list.
Just sayin'.
Doug
Can't say I don't agree with you on most of that. I honestly don't expect much of a reply... at most a blanket letter or something like that. I've also been working my way to other vendors. I've got some android variant on my TP2 now and Ubuntu on my laptop (both still dual boots, but it's a step that direction). I just didn't want it all to happen without my 2 cents' worth being thrown at them.
Thanks for stopping by.
I hear you man, I'm all about ranting. This and this in particular. Also this.
Take a look at that and mobilitydigest.com (basically the same with a less weird domain), you'd make a great writer. Perfect style, perfect background (impressive by the way), perfect fire in your belly. We can't yet offer you money but what we can give you is an audience. Let me know.
"but I wanted to explain that it looks like they are listening to people's ideas - just the wrong ones."
yeah with the whole win phone 7 seeming like being a copy of the features of org iphone sure sounds like they are getting bad advice

Yongzh developer account not showing up (Nor his famous emulators)

There was recently some talk on this Forum about Yongzh rereleasing N64oid. I went on the Market 10 minutes ago and was shocked to see that none of his emulators were in the "Top 10 Games" section of the Market. I then did a search for first, his Developer account, and that yielded no results. Then I searched for every emulator that he has released, which still yielded no results. Me thinks there has been foul play... What do you guys think is happening?
Yea, realised this before, im scared.... ive been looking forward to n64oid for ages.... still searching for answers...
This is exactly what happened to ZODTTD, someone should tweet him about it and look for some answers.
yeh i just noticed they were no longer under my purchased app list in the market also... even when n64oid was gone it would show up under my purchased list but say that the emulator couldn't be found... now its absolutely nothing at all... something foul is afoot :/
hmmm i hope i get a chance i never used an emulator on mu droid
I noticed this as well. Does Yongzh post anywhere we can see status updates?
OMG if it is Goole for real who is baning the accouts i start hating the company...
I talked to yongzh about it and this is his respones
From: Yongzh
Google pulled all my emulators, explaining that they violated the distribution terms on the Android Market, but without mentioning the details.
I am considering hosting my apps on SlideME (a 3rd-party app store). I will make them free for download for a limited period of time (eg. a week) to avoid existing customers from having to pay again.
Thanks very much for your understanding and support!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I Also Talked to google about it and this is what they had to say:
Greetings,
Thanks for your inquiry. It looks like the applications you referred to
are no longer available on Android Market due to violations of our Terms
of Service. You may view those terms here:
http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.html
http://www.android.com/market/terms/developer-content-policy.html
If you'd like additional details, we recommend you contact the developer
directly.
Let me know if I can assist you with anything further.
Regards,
Eric
The Android Market Team
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Started a support thread here. (WARNING: strong language)
ok yongzh apps are on slideme for free for a little while: http://slideme.org/applications?text=yongzh
engagdget artical: http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/29/android-markets-most-popular-emulators-disappear-without-a-trac/
Thank god he lets people dl it for free i bought all his apps and forgot to save them. Good guy always loved his support and customer service. Bought all his apps from the market. stupid google
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
http //www reddit com/r/Android/comments/hmwj7/android_markets_most_popular_emulators_disappear/
http //www snes9x com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=4454
http //www gp32x com/board/index.php?/topic/58889-n64-for-android/
ok another update from zodttd
Hello, ZodTTD here again.
Things have been rough as of late. Please read this one through as it will also shine a little light on why products and updates have not been rolling out. I’ve been extremely busy getting things straight in the “real world”. Though Google’s takedown of my Market and Checkout account couldn’t have come at a worse time. As you may have seen, Yong Zhang (yongzh) of Android emulator fame, was also taken down from Market by Google in the same manner that I was.
First and foremost, our takedowns have nothing to do with any sort of open source licensing violation. Both Yong and I handle developer relations behind the scenes. We give cuts to original authors at times, and I have posted sources to my source repository. Though there is a lot of rhetoric surrounding this, it is not an issue.
Google has no developer relations and support. Instead of Google simply removing the application in question, psx4droid, they did that and followed up a week later suspending my entire Market and Checkout account, with no interaction on my part.
And what happens when you suspend a Market account with a case such as Yong’s with lots of customers? Well you get hellish levels of emails, tweets, etc. that I must respond to most of every day. What’s worse is these customers are pretty stranded by Google. We can’t verify that many customers by hand. There’s no way to honor these previous customers, effectively killing our products. We can’t even issue a refund to users who are furious.
Yong’s emulators built Market up and gave it purpose when there was little to care about on there. Google was well aware of Yong’s top selling apps. Why is Google killing off developers (not even apps but the developer accounts!) that helped them get to where they’re at now? I wonder if they were aware all along. Take high risk apps, make themselves look all nice and open, then once they approach AppStore reach, they pull the developers they used. World may never know.
Right now as it stands, there’s little to no chance of Yong or I getting back on Market without a fight. I appealed and lost with Google in a canned response manner. I can go to 3rd party storefronts, but they have such a small number of users compared to Market, it’s not really an option with the large amount of effort these apps take.
For Cydia fans out there, I apologize for my lack of updates. But with all that has been happening, it made updating so many products nearly impossible. Things have snowballed and I now have so much work to do on Cydia products that it too has become more work than it’s worth.
So I wonder where that leaves me. This has killed my spirits immensely and I think it’s time to change things up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
source: http://www.zodttd.com/wp/2011/05/it-hit-hard/

Why does Google hold events on days Microsoft has already chosen for big events?

This is something that just occured to me. Microsoft always comes out with dates for big events and after a few days you also hear Google planning an event on that same day; time and location may vary though. For example; Google released the soo called Motorola Droids the same day Microsoft talked about Windows Phone 8...I think a couple of months ago. Now Microsoft has planned Windows Phone 8 launch on October 29th and as you all know from last week, Google has also planned to release the next Nexus on that same day....Now is this a coincidence or Foul play??
Foul play in a sense to divide the number of techies who will attend these events....as you know these two giant companies don't go along very well (Google being too stingy with Microsoft and even refusing to release offical apps for Windows Phone.....and what pains me a lot is Microsoft always taking care of them by releasing beautiful apps and better servicies to Android)....but this is a different discussion alltogether.
What do you think??
Google hates everything there is to be about ms, cause ms is their prime competitor:
1) Bing -> this search engine is pretty powerful and offers results as good as Google's. A shame it doesn't come in all languages. Google tried several time to discredit bing,
2)Chroome OS-> this is Google's attempt at removing windows from its monopole position over OS. Of course, it failed dramatically.
3) Windows Phone -> Of course Google finds it a threat, a pretty big one. After Samsung lost the battle with apple, Google is kinda scared that their biggest client, Samsung, might go around and make more WP instead. There is also the nostalgic popularity of Nokia, which did come back in play with the Lumia line.
So google does try to minimize the impact of Microsoft over its domains as much as possible. However, from a consumer's point of view, having at least two players that are actually in conflict (Apple vs google does not count, apple does not care about google),is a good thing, so I hope MS will succeed.
These were exactly my thoughts and I think it's clear enough to be known by everyone in the tech industry.
mcosmin222 said:
3) Windows Phone -> Of course Google finds it a threat, a pretty big one. After Samsung lost the battle with apple, Google is kinda scared that their biggest client, Samsung, might go around and make more WP instead. There is also the nostalgic popularity of Nokia, which did come back in play with the Lumia line.
So google does try to minimize the impact of Microsoft over its domains as much as possible. However, from a consumer's point of view, having at least two players that are actually in conflict (Apple vs google does not count, apple does not care about google),is a good thing, so I hope MS will succeed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I don't think google finds WP as a threat... Android has a bigger share of the mobile market whereas iOS is slowly losing the pace...all in all while WP is eating on BlackBerry and symbian...
Taurenking said:
Actually I don't think google finds WP as a threat... Android has a bigger share of the mobile market whereas iOS is slowly losing the pace...all in all while WP is eating on BlackBerry and symbian...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
....yeah and maybe when WP eats BB and Symbian, they'll grow and attack them. I don;t think Google is looking at the race now but in five years time....where most giants are going to fall since they'll have nothing more to offer. Lets just hope all goes well.
This is a fairly standard industry practice and they all do it to each other whenever possible. No point in singling out any one of them.
Moved to Q&A as this is a question thread.
Thank you,
mf2112
XDA Moderator
The bitterness is only set to grow as MS has just named google in its case against Motorola. Google is running out of friends as they leave there oems open to attack and steal tech without the ability to defend there moves. Google is a vile company Android is a great OS its my second love to WP like a second child but Google over all makes companies like Fox, BP, British Gas etc look like saints
mf2112 said:
This is a fairly standard industry practice and they all do it to each other whenever possible. No point in singling out any one of them.
Moved to Q&A as this is a question thread.
Thank you,
mf2112
XDA Moderator
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the correction mf2112.
Come to think of it, if this a fairly standard industry practice and Company giants all doing whatever (Gorilla warfare) to each other whenever possible, why is Microsoft always kind and releasing apps for them whilst they have never released anything for WP since it came out 2 years ago? Microsoft even planning on releasing Office for Android and iOS in 2013. Is Microsoft afraid? or trying to be a Mother? I understand when it comes to the market size and all about Benjamins, but it should be tit for tat. Microsoft should stop offering them good services if they are not doing same for us.....maybe I'm missing something and you can make me understand.
One will say WP market size is soo tiny that Google refuses to release anything for them...some sort of market demand should be in play...BUT, if you are a big company like Google and really want your services to be popular and widespread (Google+ challenging Facebook), will you think about Market share of a competitor before releasing an app for it? Does Facebook think about market share of a mobile OS before releasing it's app? They just release it no matter what because they want it to be used and popular...more benjamins
Google should just understand that, not all consumers will love their mobile OS but at least one consumer will use at least one of their services. (I for one use Google scholar, Gogle+, Google Drive as a backup to my Skydrive and Google maps A LOT) Why shouldn't I have an app for any of these Google services? Because my beloved WP OS is a competitor with a tiny market share and there's no demand? Why should Google punish me if I'm not using Android OS? and why should they force me to use it? SMH
Kenzibit said:
Thanks for the correction mf2112.
Come to think of it, if this a fairly standard industry practice and Company giants all doing whatever (Gorilla warfare) to each other whenever possible, why is Microsoft always kind and releasing apps for them whilst they have never released anything for WP since it came out 2 years ago? Microsoft even planning on releasing Office for Android and iOS in 2013. Is Microsoft afraid? or trying to be a Mother? I understand when it comes to the market size and all about Benjamins, but it should be tit for tat. Microsoft should stop offering them good services if they are not doing same for us.....maybe I'm missing something and you can make me understand.
One will say WP market size is soo tiny that Google refuses to release anything for them...some sort of market demand should be in play...BUT, if you are a big company like Google and really want your services to be popular and widespread (Google+ challenging Facebook), will you think about Market share of a competitor before releasing an app for it? Does Facebook think about market share of a mobile OS before releasing it's app? They just release it no matter what because they want it to be used and popular...more benjamins
Google should just understand that, not all consumers will love their mobile OS but at least one consumer will use at least one of their services. (I for one use Google scholar, Gogle+, Google Drive as a backup to my Skydrive and Google maps A LOT) Why shouldn't I have an app for any of these Google services? Because my beloved WP OS is a competitor with a tiny market share and there's no demand? Why should Google punish me if I'm not using Android OS? and why should they force me to use it? SMH
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, having worked at Microsoft twice and for Microsoft partner companies previously and currently, I would hesitate at describing Microsoft's business practices as "kind".
It is not that Google doesn't want to offer services to Windows Phone users, it is that they want to do so on their terms. Microsoft would prefer to dictate the terms in such an engagement. Apple dictates the terms for iOS devs and how the apps get distributed in the app store. Oracle tries to control their environment. All companies do this as much as they can, so nothing out of the ordinary there.
Google also has a limited number of developers available to spend on projects and they want those developers to spend their time on the things that are going to be most beneficial (profitable) to Google in the end. All companies have business strategies and different behaviors but in general the profit motive is the driving factor. This is true for Microsoft as well.
Many people use Google's services. It actually is a pretty big thing for many people to at least have them available and by not having them available for WP they can in fact impact the growth of the Windows Phone platform (YouTube being a great example there). So unless Microsoft gains enough Marketshare to make it problematic for Google to leave them out I guess this situation will continue.
Concerning how Microsoft deals with Android and iOS the situation is different. Those two OSes basically own the market. Unless Microsoft wants those users to go with alternative Software they have to have there core applications available there. This means that Bing, SkyDrive, Xbox Live and Office have to be available there. For other Apps they go with the iPhone partly because it was not yet viable to do on the Windows Phone platform (e.g. PhotoSynth) but you will notice that Android is quite often left out or only done quite some time later.
I actually don't see the benefit of hosting those events on days when Microsoft is releasing Windows Phones. The Lumias arguably had more publicity then the lackluster Razr series that left journalists rather disappointed. Also the new Nexus 4 seems to bring little new stuff to the table. If they were to launch a really new version of Android like during I/O or if Apple launched the iPad mini on the same day they actually might hurt Microsoft but with stuff like this they rather risk being second page news themselves.
But we will see what they are bringing to the table this time around.
Kenzibit said:
This is something that just occured to me. Microsoft always comes out with dates for big events and after a few days you also hear Google planning an event on that same day; time and location may vary though. For example; Google released the soo called Motorola Droids the same day Microsoft talked about Windows Phone 8...I think a couple of months ago. Now Microsoft has planned Windows Phone 8 launch on October 29th and as you all know from last week, Google has also planned to release the next Nexus on that same day....Now is this a coincidence or Foul play??
Foul play in a sense to divide the number of techies who will attend these events....as you know these two giant companies don't go along very well (Google being too stingy with Microsoft and even refusing to release offical apps for Windows Phone.....and what pains me a lot is Microsoft always taking care of them by releasing beautiful apps and better servicies to Android)....but this is a different discussion alltogether.
What do you think??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Galaxy Nexus was unveiled by Google on October 19, 2011.
So ,I think this year just the same.
mcosmin222 said:
1) Bing -> this search engine is pretty powerful and offers results as good as Google's. A shame it doesn't come in all languages. Google tried several time to discredit bing,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They've tried to point out before that Bing is ripping off Google search results and they have some very compelling evidence that this is the case:
http://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying-our-search-results-62914
http://googleblog.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/microsofts-bing-uses-google-search.html
I thought this was pretty much accepted as common knowledge now... unless you have another explanation as to how Bing returned the same results as Google after the Google experiment?
SlCKB0Y said:
They've tried to point out before that Bing is ripping off Google search results and they have some very compelling evidence that this is the case:
http://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying-our-search-results-62914
http://googleblog.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/microsofts-bing-uses-google-search.html
I thought this was pretty much accepted as common knowledge now... unless you have another explanation as to how Bing returned the same results as Google after the Google experiment?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As if google doesn't use all kind of software to see what you are looking for on the web with other search engines.
It is just that they never did something against any other engine because Bing is the only real threat.
I agree
Sent from my HTC HD7 using Board Express
mcosmin222 said:
As if google doesn't use all kind of software to see what you are looking for on the web with other search engines.
It is just that they never did something against any other engine because Bing is the only real threat.
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Click to collapse
That's a diffferent tangent from what youj quoted. Using other engines search results is weak. Seeing what other engines come up with is smart.
Since you said bing is a threat, how is that so ?
Aside from that the Bing Bar looks at all Search-Input fields and reports what search parameters made people end up at certain sites. Therefore if you enter "HTC Titan" in the Search-Box of the XDA-Developers Forum Bing will take that one up too and report back which topic of the presented list you then chose (given that if you search for something and then select a certain result it is highly likely that you thought it was relevant in the context of your search).
It is one of many signals Bing relies on in it's rankings. But given that the search term only appeared in the tests of Google's team it was the only hint available for the search. This still is not copying of Google's search results at large.
The search engine discussion is somewhat offtopic here - don't you think?
absorootly!

this about sums it up for me

"Hey, Google! What the hell??!?! Honestly, I'm not upset that that the phone is in huge demand. I'm not upset that they sold out far faster than expected or that they just didn't have enough supply. That's great for Google, great for Android, and great for wireless in the US where carriers have a stranglehold on the market. I'm freaking thrilled, in fact, that the market is embracing a new model for buying phones and sticking it to the carriers who have been totally ubstructionist to updates and have, in many ways, crippled Android over and over on phone after phone.
I'm angry because this is bloody Google - You'd think they could figure out how to handle peak loads and ecommerce at least as well as Apple. Google locates their datacenters near hydroelectric dams for God's sake so that they can access enough power to keep the world searching, to process the 72 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, and to crunch enough data to automatically give me directions to my various destinations as I hop into my car for an appointment.
And yet Google couldn't switch from "Ships in 3-5 days" in the Play Store to "Sold Out" several hours after their stock had been depleted. Google didn't know the difference between "Coming soon" and "Sold Out" and actually let people continue buying phones long after they had all been gobbled up.
Google didn't have the sense to limit numbers of purchases to one or two per household and the situation was exacerbated because the miserable excuse for a storefront that they call the Play Store was such a disaster at peak load that people were buying two or three phones accidentally.
Google has enough information from the nation's aggregated searches to track influenza outbreaks faster and more accurately than the CDC and yet they didn't anticipate demand for a $300 unlocked superphone running the latest version of Android. Gee, Google, do you think a few people might want one of those? They certainly knew I did based on the search and social data I happily and consensually share with them every day through my Google account.
Google can track the movement of illegal weapons worldwide better than our own government who should really be in a position to know about the weapons trade. And yet, when I sent an email today checking on the status of my order, just moments before I received that backorder email, the automated response cheerily told me that my phone should ship today and that I would have a UPS tracking number by tomorrow.
Why is this so damned hard for a company that is probably better than any other at processing data? Why, for a company that pioneered large-scale failover and redundancy and can shift literally petaflops of processing power among its various datacenters worldwide, could it not handle demand for a phone? Have you ever gotten an email from Apple saying, "Gosh, so sorry, we didn't think many of you would actually want a freaking iPhone so we didn't bother scaling our ecommerce systems or building a kajillion phones, so even though we told you that you got one, we were wrong so now you'll have to wait a while"? No, probably not.
Google finally discovers the secret sauce for Android and turning the wireless industry on its ears only to be derailed because its online store choked. Really? Seriously? Because Google didn't have the scalability or computing muscle to handle a spike on a few of their several hundred thousand servers? Because there weren't any Google engineers smart enough to figure out a better way to do ecommerce? Despite being able to auction millions of ads in real time? Really?
Ridiculous. Just ridiculous. Google, if you're listening (and I know you are, since you already know virtually every move I make), please go buy a company that knows how to sell things on the Internet. There's one or two (or 100) that do it fairly well." Christopher Dawson ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com/google-nexus-4-play-store-debacle-gives-buyers-the-backorder-blues-7000007482/
AmesCell said:
http://www.zdnet.com/google-nexus-4-play-store-debacle-gives-buyers-the-backorder-blues-7000007482/
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Click to collapse
yes - hence I quoted him.
Its good that a writer from one of the tech sites finally wrote this - it feels like the others are letting Google off the hook.
Google made an excellent choice by hiring Matias Duarte to head up UI creation they urgently need to hire logistical experts.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
It's not even the demand that was the issue. If they knew they would have (say) 100 phones that would be ready to be shipped on Nov 15th. HOW is it possible for them to take more than a 100 orders?
It's really put a bad taste in my mouth for Google. It may be true, all they care about it the data they need from all of us. Everything else (experience, consistency, etc) comes second, at best.
---------- Post added at 05:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:02 PM ----------
Blackice-original said:
Its good that a writer from one of the tech sites finally wrote this - it feels like the others are letting Google off the hook.
Google made an excellent choice by hiring Matias Duarte to head up UI creation they urgently need to hire logistical experts.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
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They should ask Tim Cook for recommendations. That man is a genius when it comes to this.
Google deserves bad publicity for their launch failure!
glenroebuck said:
"Hey, Google! What the hell??!?! Honestly, I'm not upset that that the phone is in huge demand. I'm not upset that they sold out far faster than expected or that they just didn't have enough supply. That's great for Google, great for Android, and great for wireless in the US where carriers have a stranglehold on the market. I'm freaking thrilled, in fact, that the market is embracing a new model for buying phones and sticking it to the carriers who have been totally ubstructionist to updates and have, in many ways, crippled Android over and over on phone after phone.
I'm angry because this is bloody Google - You'd think they could figure out how to handle peak loads and ecommerce at least as well as Apple. Google locates their datacenters near hydroelectric dams for God's sake so that they can access enough power to keep the world searching, to process the 72 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, and to crunch enough data to automatically give me directions to my various destinations as I hop into my car for an appointment.
And yet Google couldn't switch from "Ships in 3-5 days" in the Play Store to "Sold Out" several hours after their stock had been depleted. Google didn't know the difference between "Coming soon" and "Sold Out" and actually let people continue buying phones long after they had all been gobbled up.
Google didn't have the sense to limit numbers of purchases to one or two per household and the situation was exacerbated because the miserable excuse for a storefront that they call the Play Store was such a disaster at peak load that people were buying two or three phones accidentally.
Google has enough information from the nation's aggregated searches to track influenza outbreaks faster and more accurately than the CDC and yet they didn't anticipate demand for a $300 unlocked superphone running the latest version of Android. Gee, Google, do you think a few people might want one of those? They certainly knew I did based on the search and social data I happily and consensually share with them every day through my Google account.
Google can track the movement of illegal weapons worldwide better than our own government who should really be in a position to know about the weapons trade. And yet, when I sent an email today checking on the status of my order, just moments before I received that backorder email, the automated response cheerily told me that my phone should ship today and that I would have a UPS tracking number by tomorrow.
Why is this so damned hard for a company that is probably better than any other at processing data? Why, for a company that pioneered large-scale failover and redundancy and can shift literally petaflops of processing power among its various datacenters worldwide, could it not handle demand for a phone? Have you ever gotten an email from Apple saying, "Gosh, so sorry, we didn't think many of you would actually want a freaking iPhone so we didn't bother scaling our ecommerce systems or building a kajillion phones, so even though we told you that you got one, we were wrong so now you'll have to wait a while"? No, probably not.
Google finally discovers the secret sauce for Android and turning the wireless industry on its ears only to be derailed because its online store choked. Really? Seriously? Because Google didn't have the scalability or computing muscle to handle a spike on a few of their several hundred thousand servers? Because there weren't any Google engineers smart enough to figure out a better way to do ecommerce? Despite being able to auction millions of ads in real time? Really?
Ridiculous. Just ridiculous. Google, if you're listening (and I know you are, since you already know virtually every move I make), please go buy a company that knows how to sell things on the Internet. There's one or two (or 100) that do it fairly well." Christopher Dawson ZDNet
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If the person who wrote this were on XDA, I would have made a thousand accounts just to Thank him as many times. I am bloody tired of the whole Play Store debacle. Not usually the one to whine and *****, but this is beyond words!
Only those who got no phone care. /small violin playing.
I clicked buy and it worked for me. But then again, even if I had missed getting one. Its a phone. I just would have waited for the next batch. Or maybe I would piss and moan about something so small, write a 5 paragraph statement on a Non Google Site and then burned down an orphanage. /Waaaaaaaa

Google Now vs Siri, your opinion

Hello, I recently switched from ios to android, google disadvantage now see that (in my opinion) do not fulfill specific functions, we changed the English but still not correctly answer general types: how's the weather today nearby restaurants etc.. What is your opinion about google now?
I always think that google now is in development, cuz first of all is the voice engine its pretty "mechanical".That's all
You will be told soon comparison threads are not allowed.. Prepare for thread closure..
Let's put it this way:
Siri:
"What's the weather like today?" "Are you sure you want to delete all contacts?" "No! No! No! I didn't ask you to do that!" "Delete Confirmed."
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Google Now:
Open the app
Look at the weather card. (Usually the first thing you see when you go in the app)
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Google now has handy "cards" for you to view wherever you are. Like what restraunts are nearby, Photo locations, Traffic information, ETA to Home/Work etc.
You don't need to ask it anything most of the time, although you can ask simple questions such as "How old is (Insert famous person here)" or "How tall is (Insert Famous Person here)" or "When was (Insert building/landmark here) built?" and it'll often tell you the answer
What I've heard from people is if you live in the US and speak US english, like me, it's by far better than anything else out there. If you don't live here / don't speak US english, it's not that great. I've never tried any other language or country so I can't tell, but for me, Google now is miles ahead of siri. Cortana is actually pretty good though.
Thanks for the opinions guys, one more question, I have to search the motor google.us or have active locations to benefit from all functions of the application? thanks
Dante15 said:
Thanks for the opinions guys, one more question, I have to search the motor google.us or have active locations to benefit from all functions of the application? thanks
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Google search is normally set to your local one (I.e if you are in the US, you'll be automatically searching with the US one)
You need to have active location (GPS) to get the best benefit from all the function.
It needs to know where you are so it can show those cards with information relevant to your current location but hey, at least you don't have to keep on asking it questions!
Sent from mah haytch tee see Juan via crapatalk
Siri feels like an assistant.I cant say the same for google now.Its my personal opinion
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
To be honest I don't see much of a difference in what they do, besides their names and companies. After all, Google is my favorite search engine and database, and I definitely prefer Google Maps over Apple's, so Google Now does a pretty awesome job for me. Siri/Google Now would not really affect my purchasing decision in any case.
I really like the functions of Google Now. It's more helpful and able to provide information when I need it. However, to enable the full functionality of Google Now means Google Service Framework is running all the time and producing a huge amount of wakelocks... Which means a lot of battery drainage.
So I would say neither one of these meets my expectation...Hope GSF could get better
I think Google Now "understands" your requests better, but maybe it is microphone related... I dont know anybody using any of these services because it affords more time getting what you want.
i prefer google now. looks a lot cleaner and more accurate imo.
Although I have never used an iPhone except for demo kiosks, I hear nothing but terrible things. Can't remember who did it but there was a Youtube video comparing the two when they came out. Siri for some reason kept wanting to talk about horses. :laugh:
teaspoon83 said:
Although I have never used an iPhone except for demo kiosks, I hear nothing but terrible things. Can't remember who did it but there was a Youtube video comparing the two when they came out. Siri for some reason kept wanting to talk about horses. :laugh:
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yah i like google now
I don't like any of the Google Apps included Google Now because it's waisting all your RAM memory!
And it stays running in the background.
I have only used S-Voice when i was on stock but i'm now on custom rom and now i'm don't using a siri anymore.
Siri Apps are defenitly better then any other !
I have had the iphone 4s firmware updates and enjoy siri, was an addition more than useless over to the friends. I have now and s-voice s4 is something less mechanical than siri in the sense of the daily use
rivalstorm v.1 with Tamirda's mod
I know this is very unscientific, but whenever I meet someone who uses an iphone, I ask if they use siri. Most don't. Not everyone uses google voice search either, but it seems like more do. Take from that what you will. As for me, I love google's voice search. It has rarely failed me.
I have to admit, Siri is fun. And many people just use it for entertainment purposes.
Google Now is mainly used for help and knowledge. And I use it everyday. Its a great way of doing tasks while you're a bit busy.
Defenitly Siri
Sent From A Samsung Galaxy S2 With Resurrection Remix ROM .
ZeroInfinity said:
Let's put it this way:
Google now has handy "cards" for you to view wherever you are. Like what restraunts are nearby, Photo locations, Traffic information, ETA to Home/Work etc.
You don't need to ask it anything most of the time, although you can ask simple questions such as "How old is (Insert famous person here)" or "How tall is (Insert Famous Person here)" or "When was (Insert building/landmark here) built?" and it'll often tell you the answer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SOME ONE GIVE THIS MAN A REWARD!!!
I agree, Google Now is awesome... Gives me all the informations I need without even FRIGGIN ASKING ABOUT IT!!! (Etc. How to get back home from school or work using public transit, football matches results, nearby places to visit and all)
Sent from my AWESOME Ponified HTC Sensation using Tapatalk 4

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