[calicocat2010]

Okay,

I have never owned an Android or IPhone, but from watching commercials of the Samsung Galaxy Note or Note 2, I notice that with Android Jelly Bean running 4.1 or 4.2 they have Google Now. I think it's very cool that there's contextual information regarding flight info, nearby places or traffic. The one I really like is when a person is in a meeting and their phone alerts them that there is a traffic jam at so and so location and to leave X amount of minutes early. I never really used BlackBerry Maps or Google Maps. It has always been BlackBerry Traffic. I hardly fly out of my state, and so I hardly use BlackBerry Travel.

Here is my question,

Do you think BlackBerry will build something like Google Now into their OS, or in a new update with 10.1? Is this even possible at the moment with BB10?

[jdhooghe]

From what I've read and seen, BlackBerry's "Siri" can't do all that. There is a program called SayIt which might but not sure.

[Thunderbuck]

From what I've read and seen, BlackBerry's "Siri" can't do all that. There is a program called SayIt which might but not sure.

Well, even Siri doesn't do the contextual stuff that Google Now does (though I understand that there's an iOS app forthcoming). As the OP stated, GN can step in and notify the user of stuff like traffic that might interfere with a meeting, and send you a notification to leave earlier than planned. Some have called it "creepy", but that might be a reflection on its accuracy.

I'm curious myself about Google Now, and wonder how well it actually works in the real world.

[jdhooghe]

Oh wow, sorry, had just got done with my workout and was tired. Maybe once the jelly bean runtime gets updated for BB10, someone can sideload the google now apk.

[belfastdispatcher]

No and I hope they never ever do.

[PFman]

Google now is excellent.

Last night I was leaving a clients premises for home (175 miles) and stuck the address in the car sat nav and then saw on Google that the route was full of traffic problems - saved me an hour at least. I didn't have to put anything into the phone as the home destination is always available.

Also when I look up a place using chrome on my laptop the route appears on my S3 Google screen -with offers to navigate etc - not sure how this works but it "just works". You need to be logged in when browsing but that's all.

Once you start using it, it is a really good feature.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[anon(4044683)]

Will the sideloaded android port work on BB10? or even after Jellybean Runtime update?

[InvalidUser0510]

No, there's no Google Now on BB10, which I really don't mind. While not exactly Google Now, I do wish that there was something that groups a bunch of separate information just like the hub. For example plane tickets, coupons, package tracking info, etc.

Google now, though sometimes useful is mostly a gimmick. Before I sold my Nexus 4, the package tracker, and flight warnings never went off. I constantly got places on there they had to clear off cause anything you search on gmaps in your computer ends up there. Also, if you've ever made a spelling mistake in all the time that you've used Google since about 2007, your history might become a problem. For example, I incidentally typed a few stock symbols years ago, and Google now thought I wanted stock updates for those. I could remove the stocks I personally chose, but not those ones. This was a known issue for months that Google never fixed. The same issue is true forms ports teams, etc. Also, the warnings to leave are almost always late. For example, it'll give you a warning that you need to leave at 12:30, when it is 12:45 or so on.

With that said, Google Now is, without a doubt, innovative. It just isn't useful in its current form. They need a lot of work to make it useful. Just as was the trend with voice assistants, I am positive that we'll see a whole wave of these Google now clones on every OS in the future built by each manufacturer for their OS. I will be happy that the blackberry 1 would not have access to what I've searched on Google I'd rather tell it what sports teams or stock symbols I wanna see. This brings me to my initial point. I guess the cool thing about Google now is that it brings information from all over the place together (tracking info, flight info, directions, etc.).

[Tre Lawrence]

Google Now is phenomenal. Never thought I'd like it, but the proof is in the using.

Even if using for search alone, it is worth its weight in gold.

[howarmat]

I love it too. Use it for weather, stock and travel info daily. I have had a couple stocks creep in but you can get rid of them. I do like how it auto populates travel info if you search on chrome and such. If it shows up and i dont want it i just get rid of it with a simple swipe. It does best when you use gmail account obviously. It needs to be able to read email from the stock email app and then it really would be perfect for me since i dont rely on gmail much.

[calicocat2010]

See I like that idea of adding something like that into the hub keeping us notified of contextual information that is synced to our calendar. Imagine if BlackBerry could come up with a way to be accurate with our daily life. If the calendar shows busy and there's a movie that a person needs to get to, or they have an anniversary dinner to get to, they can't because that person is stuck at the moment. Say the person is able to free his or herself from that situation they get a notification alert on their phone stating X amount of minutes until the movie starts, and the directions to the movie, alternate routes if there's traffic etc. By the time the person gets to the movie theater the phone will pull up the online ticket purchase with all the information including the bar code and the person just needs to walk up to the reserve desk, or concession stand and bam their ticket is scanned.
This can be the same with the anniversary dinner. Say your husband or wife made reservations at this place and the information is synced from your calendar. Your phone will alert you the address of the place, the x amount of time until your name is called for a table, what table number your spouse is sitting at, and so on and so forth.

But you get the idea mostly because BlackBerry's motto is, "keep moving". Well our daily life is compacted with keeping us moving. Having the Future updates in the palm of our hand will let us get things done. Accurately and on time.

[Omnitech]

As long as you don't mind uploading every single bit of your personal life and doings into their giant database in the sky, I'm sure it's handy.

Personally I think there are ways to accomplish such things that don't require integrating everything you do into them.

Which is why when I installed Google Maps on my Bold I refused its attempt to give itself permissions for everything under the sun. It complains when it runs but I ignore that and use it fine. It does NOT need to know every email account, telephone number, full access to all my contacts and everything else just to show me where the freeway onramp is.

[Omnitech]

FWIW, I also don't think there's much of a technology leap to go from an app like Blackberry Traffic, which already has the ability to predict arrival times, warn of unusual slowdowns, re-route off the original route and so on, to something that can tell you that your route is going to be unusually congested.

There are also some interesting 3rd-party voice-control apps coming or already available for BB10 that add to the built-in voice capabilities. Lots of opportunities there.

[Omnitech]

Sorry, forgot to add: I think there's a real opportunity for Blackberry to stand out from the rest of the market and publish position statements and privacy policies that specifically point out how they limit personal data they have possession of to only what is necessary to process some particular transaction.

Google of course will never do that because their entire business-model revolves around gathering as much info about every single person they can, and then try to monetize it.

[anon(4044683)]

Blackberry travel, Remember, universal search, maps, navigation and voice assistance should be merged to form one killer app better than Google now!

[Tre Lawrence]

Blackberry travel, Remember, universal search, maps, navigation and voice assistance should be merged to form one killer app better than Google now!

They'd need the data to get it done. The ROI might not be there.