Having Google Now is like owning a personal assistant, giving you the ability to manage, search for and organize your information easily within your phone. Your related searches, flight tickets, restaurant reservation, friends’ location and more are presented in specific and minimalistic Google Now cards.

Get the most out of Google Now with the following tips and tricks. Its a very handy product if you are the kind of person who needs information at your fingertips all the time.

Recommended Reading: 15 Google Drive Tips & Tricks

1. Use Google Now Research Topics

All the searches that you do on Google Now will be finetuned and condensed into a research topic that is based on your search queries and the links you click into. To check out what your past searches revolve around, check out your research topics here.

Your search will appear together with other similar contents and will be put accordingly into categories. The categories that are available are Fresh Content, Forums, Reviews, Videos, Music, People, TV Shows and Webpages.

2. Get Reminders

When you search for a TV show, music artist, actor or filmmaker on Google Now, you will find at the bottom of the search card a "Remind you about new episodes?" option. Click that to enable it and Google Now will automatically remind you if there is a new update in your search query e.g a new episode.

3. Commute Sharing

If for some reason you need your location to be known by friends or family on Google+, you can enable Location Sharing between you and your circle(s). For detailed instructions you can visit here.

More importantly, you can also enable Commute Sharing in Google Now. What can this do for you? Well, if you live in the city where traffic jams and breakdowns in public transport are common then this will help your family and loved ones keep track of where you are in your latest commute.

On Google Now, go to Menu > Settings > Google Now > Traffic then enable "Let them see your commute updates’.

The individuals who have access to your location will be able to see your latest or current locations in the form of Google Now cards like this.

(Image Source: SearchEngineRoundTable)

4. Gmail Cards & Reservations

You have Google Cards, and you have Gmail Cards. If you usually make reservations or bookings and receive the confirmation of these reservations via your Gmail, you can allow Google Now to access your account for these reservations and pull them into more organized cards.

You can enable this feature in the Google Now Menu via Settings > Google Now > Gmail Cards.These include flight bookings, hotels and restaurants, even packages you are expecting among others.

5. Say ‘Google’ to enable voice speech

While enabling the microphone is as easy as a tap, it can get easier — just say ‘Google’. Now for this to work, you will need to activate the Hotword detection first. Go to Google Now menu > Settings > Voice and tick ‘Hotword detection’. After this, to run a search by voice just say ‘Google [your search query]‘.

6. Personal Search For Photos

How’s this for some personal assistant touch? If you regularly upload photos to your Google+ you can search through your photos via Google. For example if you really love going ot the beach and have a lot of photos of the beach, just search for ‘my photos of beaches’ to get the photos you are looking for. Currently, this is only available in the US and if you are logged in to your Google+ account.

7. Google Now TV Cards

Google Now TV Cards is for the movie trivia fans who incidentally own a Smart TV. If Google Now is on a device that is connected to the same Wi-Fi your Smart TV is connected to, you can tap on the microphone then say "Listen to TV" to trigger relevant information with regards to the TV show. You may get information about the production of the show, and trivia about the actors or the cast itself etc.

8. Try Google Now On Chrome

Want to bring Google Now to the desktop? Well if you have Chrome, technically, you can. Start your Chrome then type chrome://flags/ at the search bar. You will get a list of experiments, look for Google Now, and enable the flag.

Relaunch your browser and if you will receive notification to enable Google Now Cards like this, click Yes.

If you did not receive the notification then you have to wait a little longer for the feature to roll out.

Photographers who love to play with the lenses may well be a fan of the art of Bokeh, where blurring and out-of-focus photography takes center stage. We already have a couple of articles featuring the creative applications of Bokeh photography but why stop there when there are a lot more beautiful and alluring bokeh wallpapers to feature?

Whether your love for photography is for the blur and mysterious, or the focused and contemplative, this collection of 12 Bokeh wallpapers may satisfy a whim or serve as a great introduction to the world of blurry photography. We know that Bokeh isn’t for everyone, so if this doesn’t tickle your fancy, please check out our other Wallpaper Wednesdays for one that does.

Recommended Reading: (More) Beautiful & Captivating Examples Of Bokeh Photography

Winter Frost. Wallpaper available in 720×1080, 1600×1200 and 1920×1080.

Grungy Abstract Bokeh Texture. Wallpaper available in 2500×1678.

Standard Bokeh Light. Wallpaper available in 2560×1600.

Just Bokeh. Wallpaper available in 4288×2848.

Infinity Bokeh. Wallpaper available in 2560×1600.

Grass blurred Bokeh. Wallpaper available in 1600×1000.

Flare. Wallpaper available in desktop (2560×1600, 1920×1200, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×800 and 1980×1080), iPhone and iPad sizes.

Cosmic bokeh. Wallpaper available in 1920×1200 and 1366×768.

Bokeh wallpaper pack. Wallpaper available in desktop (2560×1600, 1600×1200), iPhone and iPad sizes.

Bokeh touch. Wallpaper available in 2000×1333.

Bokeh. Wallpaper available in 320×480, 640×960, 768×1024, 1152×720, 1280×960, 1366×768, 1440×900, 1440×960, 1600×1200, 1680×1050 and 1920×1080. [Download wallpapers]

Blue bokeh. Wallpaper available in desktop (2560×1600, 1920×1200, 1920×1080, 1200×800) and iPad sizes.

Apple has without a doubt done the boldest overhaul to its user interface, switching from a skeuomorphic design that has become its identity from the get-go to flat design. Apple’s latest operating system for mobile/touch devices, iOS 7 (the stable release) is due to be available for download in a few hours from now.

We’ve been playing and exploring this latest iOS ever since its first developer seed was available in the iOS Dev Center. In the following post, we will be looking at all the new features we’ve discovered.

Do drop us a comment if you found anything we missed.

Recommended Reading: Everything You Need To Know About iOS 7

(1)
Spotlight has been moved. Instead of swiping to the left in iOS6 (and before), you now swipe down from any home screen for quick access.

(2)
iPhone-only apps installed on iPads running iOS7 will have its interface maxed out. [iPad only]

(3)
Apps that require updates will now be downloaded and updated automatically. Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > Automatic Downloads to turn it on.

(4)
Your panorama photos and videos will be each have its own folder inside Albums.

(5)
The Photos app allows you to access and navigate through your photos by Years > Collections > Moments.

(6)
Notification Centre adds a ‘Today’ tab, which gives you a summary of everything that has happened or is happening today.

(7)
Photos in Moments are grouped by date and location. You can share all photos in a specific Moment by clicking Share > Share this moment.

(8)
Shared Photo Streams get a new Activity view option.

(9)
The ‘Edit’ function is added to Photos app. You can now rotate, enhance, crop, correct red-eye or add filters to any photo.

(10)
iOS7 added AirDrop, allowing you to share files directly with devices connected to the same WiFi connection.

(11)
Messages app now includes Contact on the top right, allowing you to call, Facetime or even check the caller’s information right away.

(12)
Control Centre allows you to quickly access the following by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. You can also do it on a locked screen. For apps marked with *, the screen will resume as locked when the app is closed.

• Airplane mode
• WiFi
• Bluetooth
• Do not disturb
• Portrait orientation lock
• Screen brightness
• Music navigation (next/previous songs, play/pause, volumn)
• AirDrop
• AirPlay
• Torch Light (camera flash on)
• Clock app*
• Calculator app*
• Camera app*

(13)
You can now block a caller. To block someone, go to Contacts > Select a contact > Block this Caller. Users on the blocked list will not be able to contact you via:

• phone call
• text message
• Facetime

(14)
To check users under your blocked list, go to:

• Settings > Phone > Blocked, or
• Settings > Messages > Blocked, or
• Settings > Facetime > Blocked

(15)
App Store removes Genius and added the Popular Near Me section with recommendation of popular local apps.

(16)
The Camera app adds options to take square shaped photos, Slo-mo photos (only on iPhone 5S) and puts the Panorama option on the same screen for easier accessiblity.

(17)
You can now search through your Purchased Apps, whether they are installed or not on your current iOS7 device. To search for a specific app, go to App Store > Updates tab > Purchased > Search.

(18)
To exit/quit an opened app, double click home screen. Drag the app up to remove it. Apps on the sides (left and right) are draggable too.

(19)
Ladies, Siri now has a male voice option. If you don’t fancy the current female voice, here’s how you change it. General > Settings > Siri > Voice Gender > Male.

(20)
To view conversation timestamp, swipe left from the right side of the chat screen.

(21)
World Clock now tells you how many hours your local time is behind/or ahead of each timezone added. No more timezone headaches.

(22)
Apps with Dynamic Type will adjust its font size to your reading preference. To change this, go to Settings > General > Text Size.

(23)
Camera app now supports Grid to assist photo taking. To turn it on, go to Settings > Photos & Camera > Grid.

(24)
Accidentally archived an email? Shake your phone to bring up the Undo Archive dialogue.

(25)
Password is required to turn off Find My iPhone.

(26)
You can remote erase a lost iPhone via iCloud.com and have it display a message with your phone number on the Lock screen.

(27)
Maps app’s turn-by-turn navigation is now more accurate.

(28)
‘Slide to unlock’ works on any part of the screen, as long as you slide from left to right.

(29)
Radio is added in iTunes, allowing you to add and play radio stations of your choice.

(30)
You can close a Safari tab by clicking on the x button, or simply swipe it to the left.

(31)
The Clock app icon reflects the exact local time.