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Google Introduces New Android Features

Posted by timothy on from the so-advanced-you-don't-even-need-it dept.

adeelarshad82 writes "Google introduced the next generation of interaction with its Android operating system by introducing a set of new features. The most prominent one is the voice-driven actions. Google executives outlined 12 new 'Voice Actions for Android,' including phone calls, reminder e-mails, direction search, and music search. The app is called 'Voice Search,' requires Android 2.2, and is available in the Android Market now. Voice actions can be triggered by clicking the 'microphone' icon on the screen. Saying 'call John Smith at home' will trigger the contacts list and voice dialer, 'find art museums in Amsterdam' would launch a Google Maps application, and 'listen to Ace of Base' will search for music from the artist on Pandora, Last.fm, or another music application. Another improvement worth a mention is 'Chrome to Phone,' allows users to click on a new 'mobile phone' icon to send links, YouTube videos, even directions, to the phone. So far, the features are exclusive to Android phones and US English, although the capabilities will be moved to other languages and other operating systems (including the iPhone) in the future." Add reader CWmike: "JR Raphael takes a first look at Voice Actions for Android, and tells you how to get voice control even if you are not on Froyo."

2 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. That's great but... by Simulant · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ...my 6 month old phone will apparently never get 2.2. (Samsung Moment/Sprint)

    This is exactly what I was expecting to avoid with an android based phone. Silly me.
    Not only does it suck to to have to renew my 2 year contract & shell out a few hundred bucks every 6 months to get a phone that has up-to-date software... it's just fucking wasteful.

    Yeah, I know... Sprint sucks. As do they all, in one way or another.

  2. Would be interesting if Android was actually open by cstec · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    After shopping Android tablets hard for the last few days, the reality is there are lots of potentially great Android devices - that can't have apps. They can't because the "open" OS Android won't let you access Marketplace without ponying up to Google. (Let alone use Google's apps.) Net result is you get a device that's crippled compared to even a base Linux distro.

    Yet /. invariably front pages what they do, because they successfully pitched Android as 'open' while keeping core functionality (the app market!) closed and /. fell for it. This reflects badly on /. as much as Google - if you're going to rip on proprietary OS's, you better crap on Android too.

    TFA reads "Google introduced the next generation of interaction with its Android operating system". Well that needs to be clarified. Are these new features available for Android, the open OS available all over now? Or is this just more for Google Android, the proprietary OS with a marketplace and PIM functionality? I'm guessing the latter.