So where are the people saying that Google is artificially limiting Google Now from running on phones with older versions of Android OS and arguing that there are no resources needed to run the service.
Google won't put some arbitrarily limit to restrict access to this service, every phone able to run Android 4.1 will be able to use it whereas iPhone 4 users running iOS 4 are forbidden to use Siri simply because Apple is making sure that those who aren't using an iPhone4S identifier are locked out...
@ hunterhp
You got banned for voicing -albeit aggressively- some truths, that what you got when 'moderators' are part of the fanboism problem... So sad.
Google won't put some arbitrarily limit to restrict access to this service, every phone able to run Android 4.1 will be able to use it whereas iPhone 4 users running iOS 4 are forbidden to use Siri simply because Apple is making sure that those who aren't using an iPhone4S identifier are locked out...
You've missed the point. Since Now isn't processed on the device why isn't it being added to all Android devices? Why is it only devices with 4.1?
The answer is quite simple: resources! Not local resources, but server-side resources. You need to consider how iOS and and Android versions are dispersed. There were more iPhone 4S phones on the market being used the first weekend than there will be devices running Android 4.1. Probably the first month of devices when Android 4.1 is first launched and that's with a year advantage for Android since the market is growing).
Since even month old Android devices don't often get new versions of Android at all or if they do it's certainly not right away it's very a different landscape than with iOS where every device typically gong back 3 generations will get the update at the same time. That means if all iDevices that run iOS 5 were to get Siri last year you'd have more than 100 million devices that could potentially be accessing these new, beta service at the same time. Consider what happened with Apple's poor MobileMe release where they did allow everyone (including allowing CC-free trial periods) unfettered access without a structured release cycle from current iMac users, and doing in at the same time as the iOS 3 and iPhone 3GS release. It was a disaster; they should have done with Google with Gmail. Hell, even in the first weekend Siri was still struggling with 4 million iPhone 4S users testing out this new feature.
Surely you can see how the logistics are completely different. Google is smart to not give it to all users. Just to be clear, my comment is a slam on those suggesting Apple should have given Siri access to 100+ million users at the same time.
Soli, I think there is on-device processing. I mentioned yesterday that Google has enabled on-board voice recognition with JB, so that even involved voice to text dictation can be accomplished without a network connection. I believe that 4.1 may be a mandatory upgrade for GoogleNow operations to work.
EDIT: It just occurred to me that if Google is doing on-board processing of voice requests beginning with Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) that it may also avoid that Siri-search patent that Apple is trying to throw at the Galaxy Nexus. If so it would be a lot quicker dealing with it than going thru all the patent invalidation motions. Dunno tho.
Soli, I think there is on-device processing. I mentioned yesterday that Google has enabled on-board voice recognition with JB, so that even involved voice to text dictation can be accomplished without a network connection. I believe that 4.1 may be a mandatory upgrade for GoogleNow operations to work.
EDIT: It just occurred to me that if Google is doing on-board processing of voice requests beginning with Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) that it may also avoid that Siri-search patent that Apple is trying to throw at the Galaxy Nexus. If so it would be a lot quicker dealing with it than going thru all the patent invalidation motions. Dunno tho.
If that is the case it would certainly be different from Siri and in many ways more complex to build. I'd imagine that such a thing would have to be segmented to only being dictation and not the actual Google Now service as having the local system pre-process the data to then determine if the voice commands are to be done local or server-side would probably slow it done and I haven't seen a notable initial lag with Now.
If it is split between the two then I wonder how the two voice-to-text systems work differently. In fact, that seems like it would cause too many issues, be too resource heavy and wouldn't be as versatile or robust as a server-based option so I'll wait for some more evidence that anything outside basic commands could feasibly be done locally.
A video posted today, 40 questions posed to Google Now. Ifit truly works as shown, Google has done an impressive job with it IMO. Even if you hate Android it's worth a watch to see what they've done with it.
A video posted today, 40 questions posed to Google Now. Ifit truly works as shown, Google has done an impressive job with it IMO. Even if you hate Android it's worth a watch to see what they've done with it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fHkhp6BwnGo
Very impressive! For a version 1 Google product this seems very fluid and smooth. I like that it's minimalistic and displays web search content without having to jump into the web browser app. That is a major issue I find with Siri but I have a feeling that everyone at Google that used Siri said "we can do better right there."
It's very fast, but I imagine that Siri would be faster if it only had whatever the number of Jelly Bean users there are right now. I doubt the number is as high as Apple had on day on with the iPhone 4S bombarding their servers with Siri queries. That said, Apple needs to plan for that sort of thing if it doesn't want its new server-side features to be received poorly.
As good as Google Now is and the timeframe in which they have come out with it, even if it's just for 4.1 users, after Siri's debut let's not forget that it was Apple bringing Siri to the iPhone 4S that started this ball rolling. Google had all the pieces but it was Apple that showed them how to put the pieces together in the right way to make a killer product. When a new way of doing something is the only way that makes sense going forward that's when you know you've truly innovated.
Having just had a chance to spend 30 minutes or so on voices searches (Nexus7), I can verify that's it's literally 2 seconds or less on average to get an answer back on a query. Voice request processing must be directly on the device for it to respond so fast. Natural language seems to work just fine, no special phrasing needed for the most part, and is surprisingly accurate. Out of dozens of questions it only misunderstood one, rendering "tarpon" as carpet.
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
So where are the people saying that Google is artificially limiting Google Now from running on phones with older versions of Android OS and arguing that there are no resources needed to run the service.
Google won't put some arbitrarily limit to restrict access to this service, every phone able to run Android 4.1 will be able to use it whereas iPhone 4 users running iOS 4 are forbidden to use Siri simply because Apple is making sure that those who aren't using an iPhone4S identifier are locked out...
@ hunterhp
You got banned for voicing -albeit aggressively- some truths, that what you got when 'moderators' are part of the fanboism problem... So sad.
You've missed the point. Since Now isn't processed on the device why isn't it being added to all Android devices? Why is it only devices with 4.1?
The answer is quite simple: resources! Not local resources, but server-side resources. You need to consider how iOS and and Android versions are dispersed. There were more iPhone 4S phones on the market being used the first weekend than there will be devices running Android 4.1. Probably the first month of devices when Android 4.1 is first launched and that's with a year advantage for Android since the market is growing).
Since even month old Android devices don't often get new versions of Android at all or if they do it's certainly not right away it's very a different landscape than with iOS where every device typically gong back 3 generations will get the update at the same time. That means if all iDevices that run iOS 5 were to get Siri last year you'd have more than 100 million devices that could potentially be accessing these new, beta service at the same time. Consider what happened with Apple's poor MobileMe release where they did allow everyone (including allowing CC-free trial periods) unfettered access without a structured release cycle from current iMac users, and doing in at the same time as the iOS 3 and iPhone 3GS release. It was a disaster; they should have done with Google with Gmail. Hell, even in the first weekend Siri was still struggling with 4 million iPhone 4S users testing out this new feature.
Surely you can see how the logistics are completely different. Google is smart to not give it to all users. Just to be clear, my comment is a slam on those suggesting Apple should have given Siri access to 100+ million users at the same time.
Soli, I think there is on-device processing. I mentioned yesterday that Google has enabled on-board voice recognition with JB, so that even involved voice to text dictation can be accomplished without a network connection. I believe that 4.1 may be a mandatory upgrade for GoogleNow operations to work.
EDIT: It just occurred to me that if Google is doing on-board processing of voice requests beginning with Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) that it may also avoid that Siri-search patent that Apple is trying to throw at the Galaxy Nexus. If so it would be a lot quicker dealing with it than going thru all the patent invalidation motions. Dunno tho.
If that is the case it would certainly be different from Siri and in many ways more complex to build. I'd imagine that such a thing would have to be segmented to only being dictation and not the actual Google Now service as having the local system pre-process the data to then determine if the voice commands are to be done local or server-side would probably slow it done and I haven't seen a notable initial lag with Now.
If it is split between the two then I wonder how the two voice-to-text systems work differently. In fact, that seems like it would cause too many issues, be too resource heavy and wouldn't be as versatile or robust as a server-based option so I'll wait for some more evidence that anything outside basic commands could feasibly be done locally.
A video posted today, 40 questions posed to Google Now. If it truly works as shown, Google has done an impressive job with it IMO. Even if you hate Android it's worth a watch to see what they've done with it.
Very impressive! For a version 1 Google product this seems very fluid and smooth. I like that it's minimalistic and displays web search content without having to jump into the web browser app. That is a major issue I find with Siri but I have a feeling that everyone at Google that used Siri said "we can do better right there."
It's very fast, but I imagine that Siri would be faster if it only had whatever the number of Jelly Bean users there are right now. I doubt the number is as high as Apple had on day on with the iPhone 4S bombarding their servers with Siri queries. That said, Apple needs to plan for that sort of thing if it doesn't want its new server-side features to be received poorly.
As good as Google Now is and the timeframe in which they have come out with it, even if it's just for 4.1 users, after Siri's debut let's not forget that it was Apple bringing Siri to the iPhone 4S that started this ball rolling. Google had all the pieces but it was Apple that showed them how to put the pieces together in the right way to make a killer product. When a new way of doing something is the only way that makes sense going forward that's when you know you've truly innovated.
Having just had a chance to spend 30 minutes or so on voices searches (Nexus7), I can verify that's it's literally 2 seconds or less on average to get an answer back on a query. Voice request processing must be directly on the device for it to respond so fast. Natural language seems to work just fine, no special phrasing needed for the most part, and is surprisingly accurate. Out of dozens of questions it only misunderstood one, rendering "tarpon" as carpet.
A very fair video IMO, mirroring my own observations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw-RzN4xYyE