The chat room and social network religious wars between Apple and Google demand that you take sides. But I've always felt that the best experience includes a cherry-picking of Apple hardware, Google services and apps from both. For example, on my MacBook Pro, iPad and iPhone, my No. 1 application is Google Chrome, where I obsessively use Google Search, Google Photos, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google News, Google Maps, Google+, Inbox and more. ![]() Yes, I use non-Google services, but eight out of the top 10 sites I use are Google services. [ Further reading: ] After the announcements at Apple WWDC last week, and at Google I/O last month, it's clear that the days of using Google services on Apple hardware are numbered. Soon we'll be forced to choose between all-Google or all-Apple. Why your virtual assistant has an entourage Google Now often knows what you want before you do, and it can predict when you should leave your house in order to get to the airport on time and do other helpful tricks. None of this works unless you're using Google's Gmail, Google Search, Google Calendar and Google Maps. That's where the data comes from. So for a couple of years, to embrace Google Now fully meant also embracing at least four other Google services. Google I/O ushered in a powerful new Google Now. Excel data analysis button 2010 for mac. To uninstall it, go to the Chrome Extensions by opening a new tab in chrome and navigating to chrome://extensions. Then locate Search App by Ask, and click 'remove' below it. MacOS 10.9 + Thanks for downloading Backup and Sync. Get the Google Photos app to back up and view photos on your Android and iOS devices. ![]() A new feature called brings contextual awareness into your apps as well (when developers support the feature). For example, if you were listening to a song in a music app, you could ask Google Now: 'Who sings this?' Google Now would get the contextual information from the app, instead of its own Knowledge Base, and just answer your question. A chat app could enable anyone engaged in a conversation about a restaurant to simply ask Google Now (without leaving the app) what time the restaurant closes, and Google Now could answer based on information it got from Yelp -- a different app. [ ] Now on Tap is a huge benefit that Google Now fans are going to love. There's just one catch: You need an Android phone to use it. So now, in addition to using all those other Google services, you also need to use Google's mobile operating system to take full advantage of Google Now. And last week at WWDC, Siri, Apple's virtual assistant, gained amazing new powers as well. For starters, Siri got the a major feature that Google Now once had exclusively: preemptive notifications, which interrupt you with important information rather than waiting for you to ask. The next Siri, in the upcoming iOS 9, will feature integration with (and reliance upon) Spotlight search, as well as Apple's Calendar and Maps applications. So if you're an iPhone user like me who favors Google Search, Google Calendar and Google Maps, Siri won't let you take full advantage unless you switch to Apple's alternatives. Like the Now on Tap feature in Google Now, Siri will offer developers an API for third-party integration. Needless to say, these will be iOS apps and no other kind. Both Google Now and Siri just got way, way better. But they both achieved those improvements by favoring the full-time, exclusive use of either Google or Apple apps, services and operating systems.
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