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Google Now for iOS   Google now for iOS (2)

Just like that, Google has updated its Google Search app for iOS with the Google Voice Search functionality that mimics Apple's Siri, first seen on Android devices. For those using iOS, now you have the best of both worlds. The update went live yesterday, and is a universal iOS app update for all iDevices, which also includes the new iPhone 5, iPod touch, and iPad mini. Users must be running at least iOS 4.2 to use the new app. My initial impressions of the Google Now voice feature is that it is quick, fairly accurate, and I like how it composes voice to text in real time. What are you waiting for? Go update and ask Google where to hide the body. 

Click to continue reading Google Search iOS app updated with Siri-like Google Voice Search functionality (video!)

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Ancestry app 1 million

Ancestry.com on Tuesday announced that its mobile app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch has received over one million downloads.

One-third of those one million downloads occurred in the last two months alone, and over half of the app users are new to Ancestry.com.

"We've been pleased with the early adoption of our iPhone and iPad apps and believe we are just getting started," Eric Shoup, senior vice president of product for Ancestry.com, said in a statement. "It's a natural extension of the Ancestry.com service and another way to help our members discover, preserve and share their family history."

Ancestry.com Inc., the world's largest online family history resource, has nearly 1.4 million paying subscribers, who have created more than 20 million family trees with over 2 billion profiles. In the past 14 years, more than 6 billion records have been added to the site.

Click to continue reading Ancestry app surpasses 1 million downloads


Microsoft knows the importance of the mobile audience, even when it means taking advantage of a competitor's mobile platform—in this case, Apple's. Since late 2009, iPhone users have been able to download a Bing app that offers voice search, local shopping, scrolling image search, maps and directions. Now iPad owners get a Bing app that adds a new trends feature, which lets them explore the trending search topics of the week.

The new app, which is available in the iTunes App Store starting today, sports a homepage featuring the trademark (and often stunning) Bing photo of the day, along with tiles showing local weather, news, maps, movies, and trends. The interface makes a lot of use of the swipe touch gesture, especially in image search. A dropdown menu offers all these choices plus Images, Videos, Shopping and History—that is, your search history, not the school topic.

Trends shows tiled images for the week's major current events. It can almost be thought of as a lightweight replacement for an app like The Daily or Flipboard. Touching one of its images opens a search page showing news and images about the topic, like MLB Opening Day. Some topics get a slicker treatment rather than just a Bing search results page: touching through an entry about "30 Rock's" Tina Fey labled "Ms. Bossypants" displayed a grid of stories that somewhat resembled the New York Times' Web site layout. After reading a result page, you can swipe left-to-right to get back to the trends page.

Click to continue reading Bing launches magazine-like iPad app


Latest Gear Live Videos

Google Translate is one of the best known online translating service. It supports a large array of languages, and usually has very good results. The service has also been integrated in Android handsets for a while. Yesterday, Google released a native iPhone version as well. While there's been clones and unofficial apps before, this is the original, from Google itself. The app adds features over what the web has offered before, and is overall very impressive. It's no wonder that it shot right up in the top 10 apps on the App Store. Oh, and of course, it's completely free.

Click to continue reading Google Translate for iPhone review

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Aura Cacia Aromatherapy appAura Cacia is a nationally branded Aromatherapy product provider and today has leaped dredlocked and pachouli-soaked head-first into the smartphone world with their new iPhone app. Now you can learn about the history and benefits of aromatherapy without having to worry about getting sandalwood oil all over your iPhone touch-screen.  While the app does have different factoids and bits of information regarding aromatherapy treatments and different combinations of oils, it is merely an information source and not a diagnostic tool like many other similar iPhone apps in the same arena.  Considering it is free, I guess you get what you pay for.

Read More | Aura Cacia Aromatherapy

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