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Image credit: CNET |
It's been 229 days since Apple announced the iPhone 5 and iOS 6. In Silicon Valley time,
that's roughly a millennium.
And we're unlikely to see major
updates to the iPhone, iOS or any other major Apple products until this fall,
based on CEO Tim Cook's comments during the company's latest earnings
call.
Meanwhile, Android has lengthened
its stride.
I'm not talking about the Samsung
Galaxy S4 with its flurry of software features, or the HTC One with its amazing
hardware design. I'm talking about the killer feature in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
as well as the latest version of the one killer app on Android that you can't
get on iOS.
Here's why those two big leapfrog innovations
matter
1.
Google Now: The killer feature
We first saw Google Now last
June when Hugo Barra
demoed Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" at Google I/O. While
the demo had its share of whizbang-ness, it wasn't something that looked like a
game-changer. It even appeared a bit gimmicky. But, with a steady stream of
software improvements and the fact it's stunningly useful once it's activated and starts doing
its thing, Google Now emerged as one of Android's biggest advantages over the
iPhone.
As I
noted earlier this year, Google Now has given us one of the
great "Ah, ha!" moments in tech in recent memory. It automatically
alerts you when you need to leave for a meeting based on current traffic
conditions, or warns you that your flight has been delayed, or reminds you that
one of your favorite teams is playing tonight, or has navigation directions
ready for you on that restaurant you just searched for — and it does all of
this without you even having to configure anything. It's truly a
big data moment, and although
Google has indicated that it would like to bring Google Now to iOS,
for now it's only available on Android and the iOS version will obviously never
have the same deep integration. One of the things that makes Google Now so
great is that it goes hand-in-hand with
Android's other killer feature: notifications.