Google Now goes much deeper than just voice recognition and AI. It actually learns what you do through searching and starts to identify patterns. Additionally, it will give you information before you even ask for it. For instance, in the short period of time I’ve been using Now, it became convinced that I lived at my hotel in San Francisco (sad, I know). When I went out earlier today, it prompted me for directions back to my "house." Of course I corrected it and gave it my actual home address, but the functionality is fascinating. Presumably it would offer driving directions which would get me home the fastest way possible without having been asked to do so.
’ve searched for the red eye flight I’m on tonight a few times, and now the card with my flight info is waiting for me when I open Google Now. According to Duarte and others from Google, it will get smarter and gain functionality as time goes on — and I can see incredible uses for the service. As Matias said, it’s not an app, "It’s a platform."
Now is far from perfect, and it certainly can’t go toe-to-toe with Siri in every department — but it’s also not supposed to. After only using it for a couple of days, I’m deeply intrigued and excited about its possibilities. It’s doing something that computers rarely can pull off without becoming annoying — which is thinking for you — and so far it’s doing a relatively good job in its limited way.
Now feels like science fiction in many ways. Like a future technology that got here a little early.
One final note on software. While Google’s new OS and latest app initiatives are very, very good, Android on tablets still suffers from an incredible lack of developer support. Mainstream apps like Twitter have yet to be updated to an appropriate tablet-friendly design, while others seem to be slightly optimized, but not working 100 percent correctly, such as Pocket. Some apps simply aren’t optimized for the tablet in any way. The Android 4.1 SDK is now available to developers, so hopefully that’ll be changing soon.
There are some very good experiences to be had on the Nexus 7 — and frankly, even the un-tweaked Twitter app looks pretty passable on the 7-inch display — but this is still a problem Google needs to tackle if it’s going to truly combat competitors in the space.
Wrap-up
Google’s Nexus 7 isn’t just an excellent tablet for $200. It’s an excellent tablet, period. In fact, it’s the first Android tablet that I can confidently recommend to buyers — and not just because it’s got a low price tag (though that certainly helps). It’s a well-designed, powerful, and useful product, with lots of bells and whistles that makes it feel like a device that should be more expensive than it is.
There are still issues that need to be addressed — particularly around growing the tablet app footprint and expanding content offerings — but I don’t think those are deal breakers. The Nexus 7 delivers way more functionality than I expected, and it delivers it in a package that’s sleek, smart, and affordably priced.
Believe it or not, the last time I was surprised by a product with those same qualities, it was called the iPad.
Compare this: Google Nexus 7 vs. Kindle Fire vs. Nook Tablet vs. Galaxy Tab 2.7
This article was originally published on theverge.com - Nexus 7 review
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