Moments ago, Google pushed an update out to Google Search in Google Play, bringing some slick new features that we have been talking about over the past couple of days. Google Now widget, anyone? On top of an all new widget that can be placed on either your homescreen or lockscreen, movie rating are pulled from Rotten Tomatoes, there are movie passes from Fandango, and even real estate listings from Zillow. 

This morning, Google Search received an update, but it must be quite minor given that Google didn’t update the changelog. The app did recently receive a big update, so we are guessing this is more of a bug fixing update or something along those lines.

If you haven’t already, go grab it.

Play Link

Cheers ViZZiATO!

With the newest Google Now update, Google built in a new Voice Action that allows you to scan barcodes with your camera. All you have to say is, “Scan barcode” after hitting the voice search button. But if the voice search button isn’t handy or you don’t want to speak out loud to your phone, you can access it another way.

If you open Google Now, scroll to the bottom and hit the 3-dotted menu button in the right corner. As long as you have updated your Google Now, you should see a new option that says “Search with camera.” Tap that, and find something to search for with your camera.

So far, I’ve had good luck snapping photos of text, but logos or objects, not so much. Give it a shot!

Cheers Nishant!

With today’s update to Google Now, we have more than 25 cards that can pop up and show us information depending on our location, recent searches, or location. It can even pull from our Gmail inboxes to track packages, remind us of hotel or restaurant reservations, and make sure we get to our flight on time. As a Jelly Bean user, it’s probably my favorite feature, and one that I’m glad more and more phones are now taking advantage, thanks to recent updates.

Below, and thanks to Google Support, we have the entire list of Google Now cards that can pop up on your device. Since many of us won’t have the opportunity to see some of these, we thought we’d share. 

A major Google Search update just hit the Google Play store for devices running Android 4.1+ (Jelly Bean). The update introduces a handful of new cards for Google Now along with some new voice actions. You will now see Now cards for events happening nearby, suggestions to help with research, boarding passes (United only for now), weather for upcoming travel destinations, and more. On the voice actions side of things, you can tell your phone to post to Google+, ask what song is playing, and have your phone to scan a barcode.

Go grab it! 

Last night on the Droid Life Show, we talked about Google’s penchant for throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. Their latest project, Google Free Zone, seems to be one of those ideas, but we hope that it catches on. Currently being tested in the Philippines, Google is allowing feature phones that have access to the internet to get on Google+, Gmail and use Google Search without incurring any charges.

There are a few caveats however, the main one being that you will be exposed to ads in your searches, Gmail and G+ posts. While the initial searches are free, if you click a link that takes you to another site out of the Free Zone you will be charged, so users beware. It does seem that if this test goes well that Google will try and expand this to other carriers around the world.

Bets on if Verizon would allow this on their network?

Via: Google

Last night, and possibly because the month of October came to a close, Google Now started showing a new card to a number of our readers. That new card is a pedometer that has been tracking their steps and miles biked over the last couple of months, behind the scenes. I say “behind the scenes” because this is a card that we have yet to see or hear about. In fact, I took a quick look through Google Now settings and could not find this feature mentioned. 

You may as well start thinking of Google Now as one of the backbones to Android going forward. It’s clear that Google and the Android team are going to make this the most robust and feature-rich service on Android going forward. Sure, they’ll turn the camera software around, make UIs smoother, and tweak little things here and there, but the future is in Google Now and its ability to make your life easier. In the latest update to Google Search, that was released today, new Google Now cards and behind-the-scenes integration are more advanced than ever.