Now updated with parking detection, offline mode, more

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Published 1 May 2014

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The new st-alone Docs, Sheets, Slides apps  a refreshed ay Games weren’t all had in store for Android lovers on dnesday, as it turns out. The search giant also added a slew of features to Now users, as well one big change to Music.

googlenowparking

Now can automatically remember where you park.

t’s dive into Now first. At the top of the list is automatic parking detection that marks where you parked you car so you can always get back to your vehicle. -owned ze has let you manually set your parking location for some time, but automated parking in Now is a nice addition.

Voice search is also getting a bump, as first reported by Android lice, which lets you navigate to some phone settings with your voice. If you tell your phone to “turn off -Fi,” for example, your phone will open to the -Fi screen in the Settings app. The same goes for other features such as turning on or off airplane mode or location detection, sound volume settings.

screenshot 2014 05 01 15 50 40

The search app refresh now lets you navigate to specific screens in the Settings app with a voice comm.

Arguably some of those features are not entirely useful, since toggling -Fi Airplane mode is always available from the notification pull-down. But if you need to navigate to your volume settings or change your display brightness you’ll find this feature a little more useful.

Next up is a new reminders list that makes it easier to differentiate upcoming past reminders by setting them off in different blocks. eviously, your Now reminders were just one long list with “st” “Upcoming” headers in bold.

has also created a centralized location to view your names from the Now screen under Settings > Accounts & ivacy > names.

so, going into Airplane Mode no longer wipes out all your Now cards. Instead, you get a notification at the top letting you know that your Internet connection is out how long ago your Now content was updated. Cards for news stories, weather, your monthly activity summaries remain.