Google Now

By Darren John Nelson

Copyright © 2014 Gold Medal Solutions, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or byany means, be it electronic or mechanical, without the prior written permission of the copyrightowner and the publisher. Trademarked names may appear in this book, and instead of using theTM symbol with every name, they are used only and strictly in an editorial fashion, with noinfringement intended or inferred.

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Information contained in this book is provided for educational purposes only and on an asis basis without any warranty. Though this work was compiled to the best of the author’sability without error, the author shall not have any liability to any person or entity with respectto any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused by the information contained within thisbook, be it direct or indirect in nature.

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Email: [email protected]

From the Author

I sincerely hope that you enjoy and can benefit from this book to get the most out of GoogleNow. My passion for technology and unique ability to explain technical concepts in a way thatis easy to understand, motivates me to help others become comfortable and confident with thechallenges of new technology. If you have any questions or comments about the book, pleasedon’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected].

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mailto:[email protected]

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Sincerely,

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Why You Need This Book

What is Google Now?

How Do I Get Google Now on My Smartphone? Here is How!

What are the Differences Between the iOS Version and the Android Version of GoogleNow?

Google Now Settings: Helping Google Now to Deliver the Content That You Need

Google Now Functionality and the “Cards”!

The Google Now Voice Commands and Reference Guide

Don’t Get Caught Off Guard! Check Out the Public Alerts Card

Keep Track of Your Monthly Activity with the Activity Summary Card

Never Print a Boarding Pass Again with the Boarding Pass Card

Never Miss an Appointment with the Next Appointment Card

Know Your Commute Times with the Traffic and Transit Card

Keep Up to Date with Commercial Flight Schedules with The Flights Card

Your Weather, Wherever You Are...with the Weather Card

Get to the Restaurant On Time with the Restaurant Reservations Card

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Quickly Access Your Event Information with the Events Card

Your Hotel Information When You Need it With the Hotels Card

Tracking Your Important Packages with the Packages Cards

Get a Reminder at a Specific Location with the Location Reminders Card

Get a Reminder When A New Movie Opens at Theaters with the Event Reminder Card

Get Personalized Sports Scores with the Sports Card

Go See a Movie When You are Close to a Theater with the Movies Card

The Invaluable Time Reminders Card

See Your Favorite Stars with the Concerts Card

Check the Stock Market with the Stocks Card

Keep Current with the Breaking News Card

The New Books and New Video Games Cards

The Fandango Movie Tickets Card

Is There Anything Going On Nearby? Find Out with the Nearby Events Card

Find the Right Word Quickly with the Translation Card

What’s Nearby? Find Out with the Nearby Places Card

Ready for New Music? Find it with the New Albums Card

All Aboard with the Public Transit Card!

Check Out the Nearby Attractions with the Nearby Attractions Card

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Looking for a Great Spot for a Photo? Find it with the Photo Spots Card

Need to Know How Many Pesos to the Dollar? Check the Current Currency Rate with theCurrency Card

Get Updates About New Content on Your Favorite Websites with the Website Update Card

Find Out What’s On Television Now with the Watch Now Card

Never Miss a New TV Episode with the New TV Show Card

Use Google Now to Identify Television Shows and Songs

More About the Awesome Google Now Reminders

Learn How to Quickly Add Events to Your Calendar with Google Now

Learn How to Set A Timer or Alarm with Google Now

Translate English Words to Any Other Language with Google Now Translations!

Opening an App on Your Smartphone...the EASY Way!

Need Help Calculating the Tip? Let Google Now Make it EASY!

Time to Wake Up! Setting Your Morning Wake Up Alarm

Using Google Now to Call, Email or Text Your Contacts

Using Google Now to Find What is Near

Personalized Sports Updates with Google Now for Sports

Find Out the Current Weather for Any Location

Using Google Now for Web Browsing

Using Google Now for Entertainment

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Do You Have the Time? Find the Current Time for Any Location in the World with GoogleNow!

It Will Only Take a Minute: Please Leave a Review!

More from Darren Nelson

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IntroductionGoogle Now is one of the most exciting things that I've written about! Not only because whatGoogle Now can do today, but for the promise of what Google Now will eventually evolveinto. As Google continues to improve this product, you can see how it will become muchbetter, much more accurate and much more integrated with your daily life.

Using voice commands and voice recognition as well as proactively anticipating whatinformation you're going to need at what time, Google Now will continue to become one of themost innovative products that Google has ever produced.

I would anticipate that Google will continue to push forward with home automation and alsowith Google Now possibly in motor vehicles. The consistent experience that Google Now isable to provide will continue to grow in all aspects of our lives.

TIP: Be sure to tap or double tap and pinch to zoom any of the images in the book for acloser look. This will enlarge the image so that you can see more of the details.

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Why You Need This BookGoogle Now is evolving into one of Google’s most valuable and useful products ever! It wasawarded “Innovation of the Year” for 2012 by Popular Science magazine and will continue toevolve as time goes on. It does take a little time and practice to use it but it can dramaticallyimprove your life.

This book is designed to help users on an Apple device or Google Android device get the mostout of Google Now as quickly as possible. The book will explain all of the capabilities ofGoogle Now as well as providing a reference tool that you can refer back to as you continue tolearn about Google Now and as Google Now continues to evolve.

This book contains very descriptive text and screenshots that will demonstrate exactly how toaccomplish each activity within Google Now. When you have read the book completely, youwill have a great understanding of Google Now and what it is capable of...not only now but inthe future as well.

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What is Google Now?Good personal assistants help you when asked but great personal assistants anticipate yourrequests and act accordingly. Google Now is Google’s version of a personal digital assistant.It is somewhat similar to Apple’s Siri application. Google Now uses voice recognition toallow you to search or ask for things using normal speech. You can ask Google Now aquestion like “Is it going to rain today?” or “What is the time in India?”. Google Now issuperior to other personal assistants because it is built on top of Google’s own search engine.We will cover all of the voice commands for Google Now later in the book.

Google Now is also passively predicting what users will want to see based on their location,search behavior and interactions with other Google products, like Gmail. It presents thisinformation in “cards” which we will discuss later as well. Information like weather reports,personal reminders, nearby events, airline boarding passes and traffic reports are allautomatically delivered to the user.

This is one of the first steps into what will evolve into one of the greatest Google productsever. As you go through the book, you will be excited and amazed about all of the potentialuses for this product to improve your life. Let’s get started!

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How Do I Get Google Now on MySmartphone? Here is How!Let’s first look at how to install Google Now on an Android device. In some cases, yourAndroid device may already have the Google Search app installed. If so, you can skip thisstep. If Google Search is not already installed on your device, you can search for “Google” inthe Google Play store and look for Google Search app like in the screenshot below.

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If you are using an iOS device like an iPhone or iPad, search for “Google” on the Apple appstore. You will see something similar to the screenshot below.

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Depending on which device you use, the information or process that you will go through tosetup Google Now will be similar. Just say “I’m in!” and then sign in using your Googleaccount. In most cases, the app will recognize that you have a Google account or Gmailaccount on your device and will use that information. If you don’t have a Gmail or Googleaccount and want to be able to fully utilize Google Now, I recommend that you create a GoogleAccount.

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To get the full Google Now experience, you need to use several Google services. If you don’tuse many Google services, Google Now will be somewhat limited on the quantity and qualityof data that it can provide to you. Using Gmail as your primary email service is the mostbeneficial tool to Google Now to proactively deliver the information to you that you need.Things like hotel reservation information, airline flight information or package trackinginformation will all come from Gmail.

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What are the Differences Between the iOSVersion and the Android Version of GoogleNow?Today, there are not many differences between the iOS version of Google Now and theAndroid version of Google Now. Because of the closed nature of iOS and the inability of appsto talk to one another, the Google Search or Google Now app may not be as functional as theAndroid version. I expect that Apple will do everything in its power to give it Siri personalassistant an advantage over Google Now.

For now, the Google Now products on both iOS and Android smartphones are comparable.

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Google Now Settings: Helping Google Nowto Deliver the Content That You NeedThe settings screens for the iOS version versus the Android version will look a little bitdifferent but much of the functionality is the same. For these examples, we will use theAndroid versions of the Google Now settings. To access the settings within Google Now,scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the three dots in the lower right part of thescreen.

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The main settings screen is divided into unique sections. We will take each section separatelyand provide a brief description of each section.

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Keep in mind that the iOS version will have the settings divided into two different areas.There is a gear icon in the upper right part of the iOS version as well as the three dots in thelower right part of Google Now.

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Under the “Phone search” screen, you will be able to specify which areas of the phone aresearchable when you do a Google Now search. You can see that it can include apps, music,contacts, etc. This is only available on the Android version. Because of the closed nature ofiOS, these options are not available. It is disappointing that this feature is absent from iOS butwe hope that will change in the future.

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The next setting screen is the “Voice” settings. This allows you to modify the settings aroundspeech recognition. Most of these should be let at the default setting.

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The next section is the “Accounts & privacy” section. You will want to play close attention tothese settings. Google Now asks some of these questions in the course of asking what type ofinformation that you want to see. Refer back to this section to be sure that you are sharing onlythe information that you want to share.

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The next section is “Notifications”. Nothing real exciting here. Adjust if and how you want tobe notified.

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The last section on the Android version of Google Now is the “Help & feedback” section.This section explains most of the sections already mentioned above. There is good informationhere straight from Google if you have any questions about the settings that we have alreadycovered.

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As I mentioned before, the iOS version will have a different look to the settings menu but mostof the same settings will be present. You should be able to easily navigate the iOS version ofGoogle Now based on the previous examples.

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Google Now Functionality and the “Cards”!The Google Now intelligent personal assistant is not only meant to use natural languageinteraction to perform searches but to also proactively predict what information that you mightneed based on data like your physical location, tracking and confirmation information fromyour Gmail account and repeated searches or activities. This proactive information isdelivered to you within Google Now as “cards”.

These cards are incredibly useful and provide you with timely and relevant information. Youcan also let Google Now know if a card is not appropriate and prevent certain types of cardsfrom appearing. Below is a list of cards currently available in Google Now. As this list ofcards will surely increase and change over time, I have provided a link below the image to allof the currently available cards.

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(Image provided by Google, Inc.)

If you would like to view the most current list of cards available, please visit the Google sitehere: http://www.google.com/landing/now/#cards

As you can see, there a lot of incredibly useful cards that are generated from the variousGoogle services that you use (not all cards are available on the iOS versions). When you beginto see and use some of these cards, you will realize how incredibly useful this product is. It istruly exciting to foresee how useful Google Now can become in the future. We will cover mostthese cards in the coming chapters. Hang on and enjoy the ride!

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http://www.google.com/landing/now/#cards

The Google Now Voice Commands andReference GuideSince Google Now has the ability to listen to your natural speech and intelligently deliver thedesired response, why not take advantage of it instead of having to type the search into thesearch box. The voice commands are much faster and are very easy to use. And the voicecommands are not just used for searching the web. They can be used to send email, createappointments and reminders, as well as opening apps on your smartphone.

In the list below, I have collected some of the most common voice commands that are currentlyavailable on Google Now. These are just some guidelines to get you started. You can often usevariations of these commands and still produce the same result. It really depends on what ismost comfortable to you.

Initiate the Google Now voice interface by first saying “OK Google” followed by thecommands below.

General Commands

“Search for [sharks, cats, television shows,etc]”“Say [hello] in [spanish, croatian, italian, etc]”“How do you say [I’m hungry] in [Italian]”“What is a [dinosaur, bird, football]”“Who is [Al Gore, Stephen Hawking, Leo Laporte]”“What is the stock price of [Google, Apple, IBM]”“Who discovered [gravity, America, chickenpox]”“How old is [William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Hugh Hefner]”“What is the definition of [antagonize, philanthropy, internet]”“How big is [the earth, Texas, the Pacific Ocean]”“Where is my package”Open [app name]

Notes & Reminders

“Remind me to [buy] [beer] at [7PM]”

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“Remind me to [wash clothes, feed dog] when I get [home, work]”“Wake me up in [2 hours]”“Wake me up at [7:30 AM tomorrow]”“Set alarm for [7 PM]”“Note to self: [I am sitting in section G]”“Set timer [2 hours]”

Time & Date

“What time is it in [Zagreb, Bogota, Hong Kong]”“When is the sunrise in [Honolulu, Taipei City, Ahmedabad]”“What time zone is [Denver, London, Brussels]”“Calendar event: [8PM Saturday], [dinner with friends]”“What time is it”“What does my schedule look like”“When is [Labor Day]”

Communication

“Call [Mike, Sean, Scott]”“Send [email] to [Mike], [Subject: Meeting], [Message: I will be there shortly]”“Send [SMS] to [Tiffanie] [home, or mobile], [bring the snacks]”“Send [Text] to [Tiffanie], [bring home bread]”“Contact [Mike, Tiffanie, Sean, etc]”Post to [Twitter], [message]

Weather

“Weather”“Is it going to rain [today, tomorrow]”“What is the weather in [London, Honolulu, Anchorage]”“What is the weather in [London] on [Friday]”

Maps & Navigation

“Map of [Tuscon]”“Show me the closest [Starbucks, McDonalds, Pharmacy] on map“Navigate to [New York] in car”

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“Navigate to [Destin] on foot”“How far is it [New York] from [Dallas]”“Directions to [Wal-Mart / street address]”“What are some restaurants near by”

Conversions & Calculations

“What is the tip for [$59]”“Convert [12 inches/measurement] to [feet/measurement]”“What is [75/number] times [2/number]”“What is [75/number] plus [2/number]”“What is [30%] of [500]”“What is the square root of [144]”How many calories are in a apple”

Sports

“How are [the Miami Heat] doing”“When is the next [Miami Heat] game”“Show me the [NFL playoff] schedule”“Did the [Dallas Cowboys] win their last game”

Flight Information

“Flight [DAL975]”“Flight status of [DL 1178]”“Has [DL 1161] landed”“When will [DL 2042] depart”“When will [DL 2138] land”

Web Browsing

“Go to website [Yahoo]”“Open website [Destin Shines]”“Show website [microsoft.com]”“Browse to [samsung.com]”

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Entertainment

“Listen to [Led Zeppelin]”“YouTube [Minecraft videos]”“Who acted in [Titanic]”“Who is the director of [Jaws]”“What is the runtime of [Goodfellas]”“When was [North by Northwest] released”“Listen to TV”“What’s this song”“What is the theme song to [Gilligan’s Island]”“What movies are playing”“What are the showtimes for [Thor]”

Easter Eggs

“Do a barrel roll”“Make me a sandwich”“What is the loneliest number”“When am I”“Ok Jarvis” (instead of Ok Google)“Who are you”“How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood”“Beam me up Scotty”

You can also download and print a copy of these commands by visiting this Google Doc link:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MHRV0dBMDb2E-vMBg7ObFAAbbRcxt2yJZqO9c-hTHVc/edit?usp=sharing

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MHRV0dBMDb2E-vMBg7ObFAAbbRcxt2yJZqO9c-hTHVc/edit?usp=sharing

Don’t Get Caught Off Guard! Check Outthe Public Alerts CardGet emergency information from sources such as the National Weather Service and the U.S.Geological Survey. This card is available on the iOS and Android versions of Google Now.

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You can also customize the cards by clicking the three dots in the upper right part of the cards.

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Keep Track of Your Monthly Activity withthe Activity Summary CardThe activity summary card appears once a month in Google Now and gives a roughapproximation on the amount of walking, running or cycling that you have done in the previousmonth. The data is based on periodic samples taken from your device accelerometer andlocation information.

The information from this card isn’t available unless you have enabled Location Reporting andLocation History on your device. If you have turned that functionality on for more than onedevice, the summary will reflect the information from the device that you used most for thatmonth.

Lastly, the activity summary card is currently only available on Android devices.

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Never Print a Boarding Pass Again with theBoarding Pass CardThe boarding pass card is another handy and convenient card. This card is generated from theflight confirmation information that is sent to your Gmail account. Google interprets thisinformation and provides you with the boarding pass card which can be scanned at the gatebefore you board the airplane. Google Now will show you this card at the correct time aswell. You won’t see the boarding pass card a week before your flight but you will see it theday of your flight. Convenient!

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Never Miss an Appointment with the NextAppointment CardThe next appointment reminds you of upcoming appointments on your calendar. If you haveassociated a location with your appointment, the card will even display the map location andcommute time to your appointment.

Click the Navigate button to launch the navigation app with turn-by-turn instructions to yourappointment by walking or by car. This card is available on both the Android and iPhoneversions of Google Now.

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Know Your Commute Times with theTraffic and Transit CardThe traffic and transit card gives you an approximation of your commute time and traffic fromyour current location. Clicking the navigate button will launch the navigation app with turn-by-turn directions. This card is available on the iOS and Android versions of Google Now.

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Keep Up to Date with Commercial FlightSchedules with The Flights CardWith this card, you can get real-time status updates on most commercial airline flights that youhave recently searched for. For instance, if you know the flight number of a family member andwant to know if the flight departed, if the flight landed or if there are delays, this card willreport that information to you. It will also let you know the terminal and gate numbers. Justsearch for the flight number in Google Now. Very handy!

This card is available on the iOS and Android versions of Google Now.

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Your Weather, Wherever You Are...withthe Weather CardThe weather card will give you the weather forecasts for home, work or destinations that youhave recently searched for. Google Now predicts which weather cards you will need based onyour location or search habits.

If Google Now as incorrectly anticipated your needs, you can click the button with the threedots and tell Google Now not to report the weather for this location.

The weather card is available on both iOS and Android versions of Google Now.

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Get to the Restaurant On Time with theRestaurant Reservations CardThe restaurant reservations card is another card that is generated from your Gmail emailaccount. Based on the reservation confirmation email that you receive, Google Now willremind you about the reservation, give you directions and time to the restaurant as well as giveyou direct access to the email containing this information. You don’t have to ask Google Nowfor this information...it anticipates and produces this information automatically. It doesn’t getmuch more convenient than that.


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Quickly Access Your Event Informationwith the Events CardThe events card is a reminder about tickets that you may have purchased for museums,concerts, etc. This card is also generated from your Gmail email ticket confirmation. You canclick the view email option to instantly access the email with the ticket confirmationinformation.

This card is currently only available on the Android version of Google Now.

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Your Hotel Information When You Need itWith the Hotels CardThe hotels card is another card driven off of your Gmail email confirmation from the hotel.Google Now interprets the hotel information and provides you with information you mayneeded prior to your arrival at the hotel. This card will also allow you to get directions andview the original email.

This card available on both iOS and Android versions of Google Now.

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Tracking Your Important Packages withthe Packages CardsIf you order a lot of goods online, you will like this card! The packages card is automaticallygenerated whenever you receive an order or shipping confirmation email from the site youpurchased from. Google Now will create the card based on that email and give youinformation about shipping and delivery times. The track package button will link you directlyto the package carrier so that you can see up to the minute package details. You can also linkdirectly to the email with additional package information. This card is currently available onboth iOS and Android versions of Google Now.

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Get a Reminder at a Specific Location withthe Location Reminders CardThe locations reminder card is what is displayed for you when you set a reminder for yourself.As we covered in the voice commands section of the book...you can have Google Now remindyou about something when you are in a particular location. Some examples might include“Remind me to take out the garbage when I get home”, “Remind me to let the air out of theboss’ tire when I get to work” or “Remind me to get milk at Wal-Mart”.

You can use voice commands to set a reminder or you can click the reminder button at thebottom of the Google Now screen. Unfortunately, this card is only available on the Androidversion of Google Now.

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Get a Reminder When A New Movie Opensat Theaters with the Event Reminder CardThe event reminder card will remind you of an event that you have search for. For instance, ifyou do a search for “lego movie”...Google Now will produce a card like this. You can thenclick the reminder link at the bottom of the card and Google Now will remind you of thisevent.

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You can set similar reminders for new seasons of your favorite shows like House of Cards,Game of Thrones or Justified.

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Get Personalized Sports Scores with theSports CardThe sports card is great for sports fans that want to keep up with their favorite teams withouthaving to open up a specialty sports app each time. The sports card updates you on the latestgame highlights and scores from your favorite teams.

To specify which teams that you follow, click the magic wand icon at the bottom of the GoogleNow screen.

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Then click the sports teams button and search for your favorite teams.

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Go See a Movie When You are Close to aTheater with the Movies CardThe movies card will show you what is playing when you are near a movie theater. It will alsogive you a reminder when a movie that you are interested is available at the theater. This cardis available on both the iOS and Android versions of Google Now.

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The Invaluable Time Reminders CardThe time reminders card is self explanatory. This will be the card that displays if you have seta reminder to do something at a certain time. You can push this reminder to a later time if youaren’t able to respond to the reminder at that time.

To create the reminders that generate these cards, you can use the voice command like “remindme to get milk tonight”. You can also use the button at the bottom of the Google Now screen totype in the reminder manually. This card is only available on the Android version of GoogleNow.

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See Your Favorite Stars with the ConcertsCardThe concerts card will let you know when your favorite artists or artists that you are interestedin are performing at a venue near you. This could be a musical act or movie star. Just searchfor an artist and you will see an option to receive updates about this artist.

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Check the Stock Market with the StocksCardThe stocks card will display real-time information about the stocks that you are interested in. Ifyou have used Google Now to search for a stock quote in the past, Google Now will predictthat you may want updates on that stock again and provide this stocks card for you.

If you are not interested in real-time updates about this stock, just click the three dots in theupper right corner to modify the settings. This card is available on both iOS and Androidversions of Google Now.

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Keep Current with the Breaking NewsCardThe breaking news card will display news stories that you may be interested in. Google Nowpredicts what news that you may be interested in based on your related searches. From thiscard, you can click the link to read more about the in story.

This card is available on both iOS and Android versions of Google Now.

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The New Books and New Video GamesCardsBased on your search habits, Google Now will also predict books or video games that youmight be interested in. These cards are only available on the Android version of Google Now.

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The Fandango Movie Tickets CardIf you use Fandango to purchase your movie tickets, the Fandango card will display the movietime, ticket QR code, directions and commute time to the theater. You can also click the viewemail button to see the original email that all of the information in the card is based on.

This card is only available on the Android version of Google Now.

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Is There Anything Going On Nearby? FindOut with the Nearby Events CardThe nearby events cards are produced from events sites like eventful or reverbnation whereartists can promote their schedules. It matches the location of these events with your currentlocation to show you some popular events that are nearby. The events could be anything frommusic festivals to live theater.

This card is only available on the Android version of Google Now.

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Find the Right Word Quickly with theTranslation CardThe translation card is also another great card that can be used with the Google Now voicecommands. You can ask Google Now to translate any word into any other language. You canuse a voice command like “Say hello in [spanish, croatian, italian]. Or “Translate [food] in[spanish, croatian, italian]”. This is a great way to quickly find the properly translated word nomatter where you are.

This card is currently available on both iOS and Android versions of Google Now.

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What’s Nearby? Find Out with the NearbyPlaces CardIf you occasionally travel to new cities or areas, you will appreciate the nearby places card.This card will make suggestions to you about nearby places that you might be interested in.These places could be bars, restaurants and general places of interest.


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Ready for New Music? Find it with the NewAlbums CardThe new albums card will recommend new music from artists that you may have searched forin the past. If you use the Google Play music service, I expect that recommendations will bebased on music that you frequently listen to or may be part of your saved playlists.

If you click the Google Play link at the bottom of this card...you will be linked directly to thisalbum in the Google Play store where it can be purchased. This card is currently onlyavailable on the Android version of Google Now.

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All Aboard with the Public Transit Card!Do you need to know what trains or buses are leaving from stations near your current location?If so, you will definitely enjoy the convenience of the transit card. You will know just where tobe in order to catch a ride to wherever you are going. Click the all scheduled departures buttonto get the entire picture.


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Check Out the Nearby Attractions with theNearby Attractions CardHave you ever been to a new city and wondered what popular attractions were nearby? If so,you aren’t alone. The nearby attractions card will suggest some popular attractions near yourcurrent location. You can then click one of the options to get more information about thatattraction.

This card is currently available on iOS and Android versions of Google Now.

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Looking for a Great Spot for a Photo? Findit with the Photo Spots CardWhenever you travel to a new place, you want to capture your experiences with a photo.Wouldn’t it be great if you knew of the best photo spots near your current location? Yes itwould! That is what the photo spots card does. It will the spots for great photos near yourcurrent location. Always take an amazing photo wherever you are!


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Need to Know How Many Pesos to theDollar? Check the Current Currency Ratewith the Currency CardThe currency card will allow you to quickly check current exchange rates no matter where youare. You can use this with the Google Now voice commands as well. Say “Convert [1200pesos] to [dollars]. Google Now will provide you with the correct conversion based oncurrent exchange rates.


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Get Updates About New Content on YourFavorite Websites with the Website UpdateCardThis is a very cool card. If you frequently visit a website, the website update card will let youknow when that website has new and fresh content. This is great for those sites that may nothave as frequent updates as some news sites. I really like this card!

This card is currently available on the Android version of Google Now.

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Find Out What’s On Television Now withthe Watch Now CardThis is another great card that is delivered right before prime time each day. If you are stayingin for the night and want to watch something on television...the watch now card will show yousome popular options on television and video on demand services like Hulu, Netflix and otherservices.


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Never Miss a New TV Episode withthe New TV Show CardHave you always wanted a reminder when a new episode or new season of your favorite showis about to come on television? I certainly do! The new TV show card will update you onshows that you have searched for in the past. Just search for one of your favorite televisionshows and at the bottom of the resulting card will be the option to get updates about the show.Subscribe to those updates and you will never miss another episode! Awesome!


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Use Google Now to Identify TelevisionShows and SongsYou may have used services that help you identify music that you hear on the radio or at a barjust by using their app to letting your phone listen to the song. Google Now is also able helpyou identify music. In addition, you can use the “Listen to TV” voice command to tell GoogleNow to listen to a television show or movie to help you identify it.

Just say or type “Listen to TV” to let Google Now listen to the television show and identify itfor you! Nice!

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To have Google Now listen and identify a song, just click the microphone in GoogleNow...then click the music note icon.

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Google Now will listen to the music…

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When Google Now has identified the song, it will display the the song name along with theartist and a link to the song in the Google Play store.

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More About the Awesome Google NowRemindersWe have already briefly covered location reminders and time reminders in the previouschapters but I wanted to spend a little more time with these two features as they can be reallyuseful.

Location reminders are reminders that you set in Google Now to remind you to do somethingwhen you are in a certain location. One example might be that you want to be reminded to getsome lightbulbs when you are at or near Home Depot. The voice command to create thisreminder would look something like “Remind me to get lightbulbs when I’m at Home Depot”.

The results looks like this…

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You can see that the “where” radio button is selected which lets you know that this is alocation reminder. You can also select which Home Depot location that you are referring towith this reminder. Lastly, you need to click the “Remind me at this place” button to confirmthe reminder. That is all there is to it! When you start to think about and use this functionality indaily life...you can see how incredibly useful this type of reminder can be. You will nevermake an unnecessary trip again with this type of reminder!

The second type of reminder that we have briefly covered is time reminders. This type ofreminder will remind you to do something at a certain time. For example, you may want toremember to pick up donuts for the office in the morning. The voice command for this type ofreminder might look like this…”Remind me to pick donuts up tomorrow at 8AM”.

The results from that voice command would look like this…

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You can see that the “when” radio button is selected and lets you know that this is a timereminder. You see that Google Now also recognized the time that I specified along with thetitle of the reminder.

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Learn How to Quickly Add Events to YourCalendar with Google NowIn this chapter, we are going to cover adding events to your calendar using Google Now. Inmost cases, it will be easier to use Google Now and voice commands to add an event to yourcalendar instead of trying to find the calendar app on your smartphone. Once you learn thevoice commands of Google Now, it's easy to add an event to your calendar with a specifictime and date for that event.

To enter a new event, open Google Now and say “calendar event 8 PM Wednesday dinnerwith friends”. The results that you'll see will look similar to the screen below.

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Now that you created the event you will want to verify the information that was created in thecard and if everything looks correct you will want to click the create event button at the bottomof the card to actually create the event.

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Learn How to Set A Timer or Alarm withGoogle NowAnother great feature of Google Now is being able set a timer for a certain amount of time. Ifyou want to set a timer for 60 seconds, an hour, or two hours...you can do that using Googlenow. I'm sure that you can come up with a lot of great uses for this type of feature in GoogleNow. You may want to get a reminder to take the biscuits out of the oven or you may want toset a time limit on how much time your kids spend on the Internet.

To set a timer, just open Google Now and say the command “set timer” and then for the timeperiod that you want the timer to last. You could say two minutes, two hours three hours, orwhatever you'd like. Once you complete the voice command, Google Now will present a cardto you showing you the timer that you set. You will need to confirm the information or click thex button to cancel timer.

If you have completed the voice commands correctly, you'll see a screen like the one below.

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Translate English Words to Any OtherLanguage with Google Now Translations!Google Now translations is one of those features of Google Now that I thought was especiallyimportant and will be especially useful to you. Being able to converse in another languagequickly or just coming up with the equivalent in another language...whether you're talking to afriend on Facebook or talking to someone in another country… it can be very useful andGoogle Now provides a quick and easy solution for making those translations.

To have Google Now translate a word into another language, simply say the word and then thelanguage that you want to translate it into. For example, “translate food in Italian”. You couldalso say “how do you say food in Italian”. If you completed the command correctly, youshould see you screen like the one below.

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Also, be sure to have the sound turned on on your device. Google Now will even pronouncethe word for you!

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Opening an App on Your Smartphone...theEASY Way!Opening apps is now easier than ever with Google Now! All you have to do is say open appand the name of the app that you want to open and Google Now will present that card as anoption and then automatically open the app.

Using Google Now to find and open the app that you need immediately is much easier thanflipping through home screens to find the app and then pressing the app to open it.

If you are using the open app voice command correctly, you should see a screen similar to theone below.

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Need Help Calculating the Tip? Let GoogleNow Make it EASY!The Google Now tip calculator is another helpful in handy feature of Google Now. This willkeep you from having to bring out the calculator, look at the bill and try to come up with theappropriate tip. With Google Now, all that you need to do is say “what is the tip for” and thenthe total of your bill and then you'll be presented with a card with some options about your tipamount.

For example, let's calculate the tip for $52.00. If you said the voice command correctly, youshould see a screen similar to the one below.

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Google Now may have some problems differentiating between the words temp and the wordtip. So, you can also use the word gratuity to determine the tip amount. Also, Google Now hasproblems when you state the amount in dollars and cents. You can also use the number “point”cents to communicate the amount. Below is a sample of communicating to Google Now usingthis method.

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Keep in mind with most of the voice commands there are alternate verbiage that can be used.Just use your natural language to experiment with the voice commands to find alternate ways tocommunicate the same thing.

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Time to Wake Up! Setting Your MorningWake Up AlarmAnother great feature of Google Now is using voice commands to set your alarm for certaintime on a certain day. Let's say that you want to wake up at 7:30 in the morning on Monday...you can say the voice command “wake me up at 7:30 AM on Monday”. If you sent the voicecommand correctly, you should see a card similar to the one below.

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When you see this card, there's a timer that will start and set the alarm for you automatically.Or you can click the X and stop the timer and then click the set alarm button to set the alarmthat way.

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Using Google Now to Call, Email or TextYour ContactsGoogle Now makes it easier than ever to communicate with your friends and family. You canuse Google Now too create an email, to send a text message, or open a contact.

To create and send an email using Google Now say “send email to Darren Nelson, subjectmeeting, message I will be there shortly”. If the contact has more than one e-mail address,Google Now will ask you to confirm which e-mail address you want to send this e-mail to.Once you confirm the email address by clicking it Google Now will then ask you to click thesend e-mail link to complete sending the e-mail.

If you completed the voice commands correctly, you will see screens similar to the onesbelow.

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If you want to send a text message to one of your contacts, you'll use the voice commandsimilar to this “send SMS to Darren Nelson, bring the snacks home”. If you completed thevoice commands correctly, you'll see the screen similar to the one below.

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You may also be able to use other language to send an email or send a text message. Use yournatural language to experiment and find other ways of accomplishing the same task.

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Using Google Now to Find What is NearYou can use Google Now for maps and navigation and that is great! You can also use GoogleNow to find the locations of your favorite stores or coffee shops that are currently near you. Ifyou travel much, this is invaluable information that can make getting to these locations quickand easy. If you're traveling and need medical assistance, this type of functionality isincredibly useful.

For example, you could say “show me the nearest hospital”. If you completed the voicecommands correctly, you should see a screen similar to the one below.

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If you were looking for the closest Starbucks, you might say something like show me thenearest Starbucks.

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You could also use Google Now to show you the closest restaurant type that you're interestedin. For instance you could say “show me the nearest Italian restaurant”. If you completed thevoice commands correctly, you should see a screen similar to the one below.

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Personalized Sports Updates with GoogleNow for SportsAre you interested in the latest scores from your favorite sports teams? If so Google Now canhelp you track your favorite teams, how they're doing, what their schedule is, when their nextgame is and a lot of other information. For example, you could say “how are the OklahomaCity Thunder doing”. If you said the voice commands correctly, you should see a screensimilar to the one below.

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If you want to know when the Oklahoma City Thunder play their next game, you could say“when is the next Oklahoma City thunder game”. You should see a screen similar to the onebelow.

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Find Out the Current Weather for AnyLocationIf you're curious about the weather in a location that you may be traveling to, you can useGoogle Now to find the weather for any location in the world. You might say something like“what is the weather in London”. If he said the voice commands correctly you should see thescreen like the one below.

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You can also just say weather or is it going to rain tomorrow. This voice command willproduce a screen like the one below.

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Using Google Now for Web BrowsingGoogle Now can also make browsing the web easier. You can say things like “open awebsite” or “view a website” or “browse the website” along with the website name andGoogle Now will produce that in the web browser for you.

If you said the voice command correctly you'll see a screen like the one below. There will be atimer that will automatically launch the website unless you click the X to cancel out. You canalso click the go to website button to launch the browser.

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It is very likely that there are other commands that will launch the browser as well. Feel freeto experiment with your natural language to open a website.

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Using Google Now for EntertainmentNow let's talk about how to use Google Now for entertainment. You can use Google Now tolaunch music or videos. You can say voice commands like “who acted in Titanic” or “who isthe director of Jaws” or “what is the runtime of Goodfellas”. You can even use Google Now tolisten to your television to identify the television show that's currently playing. Google Nowcan also identify songs. You can let Google Now listen to a song being played and it willidentify for you. Lastly you can use Google Now to find out what movies are playing in yourarea.

These Google Now voice commands will produce the screens you see below.

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Refer to the voice commands discussed earlier in the book for more options about usingGoogle Now for entertainment.

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Do You Have the Time? Find the CurrentTime for Any Location in the World withGoogle Now!In today's world, people are communicating with people all across the globe at all times of dayand night. What would be convenient to know the local time of the person you're talking to ormaybe you're about to call someone need to know the local time so that you're not calling in themiddle of the night when they may be sleeping?

With Google Now, you just have to ask “what time is it in Paris” or “what time is it inMoscow”. You can insert any city name or even a country name to find out the local times. Ifyou said the voice command correctly, you should see screens similar to the ones below.

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It Will Only Take a Minute: Please Leave aReview!If you enjoyed the book and feel that it can help others, please leave a review. It is greatlyappreciated!

GOOGLE NOW: A GUIDE TO THE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANT [KINDLE EDITION]

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Thanks in advance!.

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More from Darren NelsonIf you enjoyed this book, be sure to check out my other books on Amazon.com. Just click thelinks below to download your copy today!

Apple iOS 7: A Guide to the New Apple iOS 7 [Kindle Edition]

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Kindle Fire HD Tips and Tricks How-To Guide [Kindle Edition]

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Essential Apps for the Kindle Fire HD [Kindle Edition]

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