Leaving Siri Speechless: Google Assistant

It's not hard to tell how competitive Apple and Google are. And they're quite equally matched teams. Google's Google+ certainly beat Apple's Ping in social networking, but Apple's iTunes creamed Google's Google Music. As for mobile operating systems, it's a close call between iOS and Android, but Apple might have the edge there. Well, how about voice-powered assistants? It really isn't a far-fetched idea to say Apple's already won that battle with Siri. But Google doesn't give up that easy.

As always, Google needs to find one of Siri's weaknesses. And they could've done the trick. See, Siri is built more to perform operations when given the relative command. In fact, it's more or less a modified search engine that talks. It doesn't have much social capabilities, or personalization. And that's where Google comes in. Their service, which they plan to call "Google Assistant," will be engineered more towards a "do engine" than a "search engine." In other words, Google will try to get a lot of information packed into their assistant, but they'll try to display it in a more personalized way than Siri does. The personalization settings will likely go further than Siri's calling you by your name. Google could even open up their assistant to third-party developers, so that their assistant could do even more. Considering what developers have hacked Siri to do, (play the piano, start a car, adjust their thermostat, and much more) Google Assistant could perform some crazy stuff. And I mean crazy.

Anrdoid 4.0 Running on Kindle Fire: Video

Most of the people reading this post right now are probably very familiar with this situation; you ask for something for Christmas, but the person who gets it for you isn't as technology-oriented as you, and they end up buying the wrong thing. This problem has never been more apparent this Christmas, because a lot of people who asked for an Android tablet received a Kindle Fire. And while a Kindle Fire technically does run Android, it's so modified that you can't even tell it's Android, except when you see the selection of apps.

Well, other people noticed this problem as well; hackers. And now, they have figured out a solution to the problem; put Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) on your Kindle Fire! Hackers have indeed figured out how to do this, and they even posted a video below:


As you might be able to guess, the Kindle Fire and the Ice Cream Sandwich don't go perfectly together, just as putting an ice cream sandwich over a fire would make it melt. There's a lot of bugs that could ruin your Kindle Fire, and they haven't figured out a way to let the Kindle do audio and video playback. Nevertheless, if the situation I described is exactly what happened to you, I would wait around until the hack is improved, and then you'll have your wish.

Ice Cream Sandwich photos leaked!

Some Ice Cream Sandwich (the next version of Android) details (and photos!)  have been leaked. From the pictures it seems like blue is replacing green as the primary color in Android's operating system. We've also heard that the camera will be capable of taking panorama pictures.

Samsung plans to release phones with a 2GHz dual-core processor!

How would you like it to have a phone that responds to your commands almost instantly, and runs huge programs without a problem? And what if that phone had a dual-core 2GHz processor? Well, by next year, Smasung will make this phone a reality! The Maeli Business Newspaper reports a Samsung official has said that they are planning on offering a dual-core Android smartphone with a 2GHz processor. 2GHz on each core! Samsung also will sell these chips seperately to make any device rocket-fast.

Kyocera Echo, dual-screen phone, to make its debut in three days, copied my idea!

Didn't Kyocera just copy my "BiPhone" idea? They did! In three days, the Kycoera Echo, the world's first dual-screen smartphone makes its debut! Sure, I'm happy that Kyocera is making this awesome phone, but I wanted to design it myself! Anyway, let's take a look; Kyocera did leave out some cool features that I thought of after all.

The Kyocera Echo features two 3.5" WVGA displays that can work in four modes; single-screen mode, which only uses one screen, "Simul-task" mode, which runs two different apps, one on each screen; "Optimized" mode, which has the two displays complement each other, like a map on one and directions on the other; and tablet mode, where the two screens act as one big 4.7" one. I did have a lot more modes in my idea... I'll explain all of the missing features below.

Another nice thing is that some apps like Facebook, MLB At Bat 11, and Google Maps are designed for the Echo, so you can use special modes on them. On the back of the Echo, you will find a 5MP camera with 720p HD video recording. And the specs are as follows;

- Android 2.2
- 8GB SD card included
- Flash 10.1
- 1GHz Snapdragon processor
- Bluetooth 2.1
- Tethering at an extra charge

And now for the features I got and they missed:

- The BiPhone screen can fold at a reflex angle for multiplayer games like battleship

- The keyboard locks and unlocks for better typing

- Magnets let you use the two screens as a belt clip for easy carrying

- Supports 4G networks

This phone looks very promising, but it could've been even better had they included some of the above ideas that I thought of.

Next Nook Color with Android 2.2, Flash Player, Push email and Apps!

The Nook Color has always been a good choice for people who like tablets and like reading. It also beats the Kindle and other e-ink readers in reading blogs and magazines. Well, the next Nook Color with Android 2.2 is debuting in mid-April! That's right: Android 2.2! It will also feature Adobe Flash Player and push email. There will even be "lots of Nook apps" avaliable, like drawing ones. If the price can stay low,  Barnes and Noble could make a good profit here.

Amazon's Appstore App Shall Let You Purchase Apps Without a Device!

Apparently Appstore for Android (by Amazon) will let you buy apps even if the device you want to run them isn't on hand yet! Unfortunatley, we do not know when this app will launch. We can guess however, that Google could find itself making less money from the Android Market.

Best Buy to accept Motorola Xoom pre-orders for $1,199 on Thursday?!

Of all the posts I've made on Tech n' Cars!, this has been the most shocking. Best Buy is going to accept pre-orders for the Motorola Xoom tablet on Thursday... okay... but for $1,199?!?! There isn't even anything to suggest this is a prank or a mistake! I mean, cool, this tablet has a bigger screen than an iPad and runs Honeycomb, but, I'd rather have a MacBook Pro, thank you very much.

Update: You're in luck: this is just a placeholder number that will soon get updated. The actual price will be $800, only $70 more than a 32GB 3G iPad.

The LG Optimus V is Now Avaliable on Virgin Mobile

I still don't have an answer to my question "Why doesn't everybody use Virgin Mobile?" (see that post), but I do have further proof why everyone should use Virgin Mobile. First off, the LG Optimus V, a 3G+Wi-Fi smartphone with a 3.2" touchscreen running Android 2.2 is now avaliable on Virgin Mobile for only $149 with no contract. It was sold out, and currently out of stock (update: it is now in stock). Second, they've gave us HUGE deals on their phones. They lowered the price of the $249 Samsung Intercept to $199, the price of the $199 BlackBerry Curve to $149, the price of the $149 LG Rumor Touch to $99, and the price of the $89 LG Rumor2 to $49! Could somebody please tell me why everybody isn't using Virgin Mobile?

Conversation Mode on Android

Say you're at a restaurant in South America, where everyone speaks Spanish. You want to order your meal, but the waiter only speaks Spanish, and you haven't learned the language yet! What can you do? Well, if you have an Android smartphone, you're in luck. Conversation mode is now built in to Google Translate for Android. So, hit record, say in English what you want to order, and the phone then says what you just said in Spanish, so the waiter can understand! And if the waiter wants to reply to you, it can work in reverse; it records what he says, and says it in English so you can understand! It can only comprehend English and Spanish for now, but Google is probably working on other languages. You can imagine that this app will be a big help for travellers!