Google Now

On Wednesday, Samsung announced the acquisition of Viv, an artificial intelligence startup that was created by Siri co-founders and former Apple employees Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Viv will operate as a separate entity from Samsung but it must provide services to the Korean tech...

Today, Google has started rolling out an update to its iOS app. The update to version 7.0 is the first significant update to come to the app in some amount of time, and includes a handful of notable new features. The update brings the ability to say "Ok Google" while on any webpage to get...

Apple has responded to the new Google Now in Android M with a more advanced version of Siri in iOS 9 with "proactive" personal assistant features at the recent WWDC event and already, the folks over at CNET have pitched the two upgraded virtual assistants head-to-head with each other in a new comparison. While some overlap exists...

According to a new report from 9to5Mac, Apple is working on a new iOS feature codenamed “Proactive,” integrating Siri, Maps, Contacts, Calendar, Passbook, and third-party apps into an expanded spotlight search. Apple’s Siri and Spotlight search features may be expanded significantly in iOS 9, letting Apple better compete with Google Now. Proactive will reportedly function...

Canada Post and Google have teamed up to display package tracking information within Google Now, available via the cards feature, which scans your Gmail account for tracking numbers (like it already does for UPS and FedEx). Here’s an image below of Google Now on iOS (via the Google iOS app) tracking a recent order from Amazon.ca...

The folks over at Stone Temple Consulting have decided to test the quality of Google’s Knowledge Graph by comparing it with the competition. The company put Apple’s Siri, Google Now (running on the Google Search app on an iPhone), and Microsoft’s Cortana head-to-head in an extensive test. They took 3086 different queries, all of which...

According to a report from TechCrunch, Facebook has started to test a new feature in its iOS app, which brings Google Now-like contextual cards to the companies mobile app.  The new feature, which is currently appearing to a few users of Facebook's mobile app, shows relevant information after you check in to a location, or...

Today, Google updated its Google Search app for iOS to version 4.0.0, which brings plenty of new features and improved voice search. The search giant has added new voice question capabilities which allows users to engage in smarter conversations with Google Now. After launching the Google Search app, users can start a conversation by saying, "OK...

Microsoft’s all new 'Halo-flavored' voice assistant Cortana, has been put to test against its two main competitors i.e Siri and Google Now, by the folks over at WP Central in the ultimate voice control showdown. While for the most part, the three digital assistants were found to be on even footing, Cortana did surprisingly well considering the fact...

Today, at its annual Build developers conference in San Francisco Microsoft announced Windows Phone 8.1, which includes the company’s own personal digital assistant, Cortana. The personal assistant has been in development for several years and is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s Siri and Google Now. The name of the personal digital assistant from Microsoft was inspired...

If you’re a heavy Google Now user, you’ll be happy to hear alerts are starting to roll out today on Chrome users on their desktops and laptops. Google says to enable notifications, you need to sign into your Google Account on your desktop and iOS app: Starting today and rolling out over the next few...

Microsoft is set to introduce its own voice-activated assistant named ‘Cortana’ with the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 update, in an attempt to compete with the likes of Siri and Google Now, The Verge is reporting. Cortana, who will take the form of a circular icon, will reportedly replace the Windows Phone’s built-in Bing search functionality. The icon will also animate...