Google Now shows cards from Spotify, Zipcar, Runkeeper and more

Google Now shows cards from Spotify, Zipcar, Runkeeper and more

Helpful information and quick actions from your favorite Android apps will now show up in Google's personal assistant dashboard.

Google

Editors' note, April 28, 2015: This post has been updated with details on new cards added to the Google app.

Your favorite Android apps have teamed up with Google Now. The Google-powered personal assistant, built into the Google app, now shows special cards from the apps installed on your phone. In a recent update, Google added support for 70 new app-based cards, bringing the total to 110.

The Google app not only lets you search the Web, it also serves as a dashboard where you can check sports scores, stock numbers, weather forecasts and more, each with their own card. Now it also serves up cards from popular apps you likely already have installed on your device. Those cards can show helpful information or give you quick actions that you'd normally have to open the app to do.

A particularly interesting card for US users is from retailer Walgreens, which displays your rewards card barcode. That's very similar to Passbook on iOS, where you can already keep store loyalty cards.For example, the new Zipcar card shows when your reservation ends and provides a map of the drop-off location. The Spotify card recommends playlists for you, based on your recent listening history. Another example is the Airbnb card, which shows suggested listings for upcoming trips, or reminds you to book a rental if you've searched listings for a specific date.

All in all, Google has teamed up with 110 apps to bring these special cards to the Google Now dashboard, including Runkeeper, OpenTable, ABC News, Feedly, Airbnb, Instacart, Lyft, Mint, Kayak, Ford and the newly relaunched Gett. Check out all of the integrated apps on Google's website.

If you have these apps installed on your Android phone or tablet, the cards will appear automatically when they're relevant. At any time, you can turn off cards from particular apps from the settings in the Google app. You can expect them to show up in the coming weeks.

While this is hardly a groundbreaking feature, it does help beef up the Google app, which is already quite helpful for getting directions, finding your parked car, checking calendar reminders, checking TV listings and, of course, searching the Web.

Instacart's Google Now card helps you reorder groceries.Google

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Microsoft's 2015 Build developer confab: Join us Wednesday (live blog)

Microsoft's 2015 Build developer confab: Join us Wednesday (live blog)

This week Microsoft aims to convince consumers, businesses -- and especially developers -- to make the jump to Windows 10. The company's future depends on it.

Beyond a more classic look and feel that did away with the missteps of its predecessor, Windows 10 is designed to run on devices of all shapes and sizes.Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET

It's time for Microsoft Build, the software maker's annual developer conference where it serves up a glimpse of the future along with guidelines for building products and services for the estimated 1.5 billion Windows users in the world.

Microsoft's objective for this year's Build is pretty straightforward: convince the world that the newest version of its Windows operating system, Windows 10, adds enough new features and technology to push the software forward and gain mainstream acceptance -- not become another detour.

Build, which starts Wednesday, April 29, will offer a glimpse at the future of Windows, Microsoft's smartphone ambitions and the HoloLens augmented reality headset.Microsoft

Build, which lasts three days starting Thursday, has typically been a place for in-the-weeds discussions about cloud computing and software architecture. We'll see a lot of that. But the summer release of Windows 10 -- along with promised new info on Microsoft's ambitious HoloLens augmented reality headset -- makes this year's Build a make-or-break event for the Redmond, Wash., company and its CEO, Satya Nadella.

Everyone gets that there's a lot riding on what happens this week, with interest high in watching an industry titan try to regain its swagger. Tickets, priced as high as $2,100 in January, sold out in 45 minutes. In 2014, Build tickets didn't sell out for a full day.

Nadella's keynote presentation starts at 8:30 a.m. PT on Wednesday, and we'll be bringing you all the news and commentary from inside San Francisco's Moscone Center. I'll be live blogging along with Nate Ralph, who will be providing commentary and photography from the event.

"Windows 10 will be a service across an array of devices and will usher in a new area...where the mobility of the experience, not the device, is paramount," Nadella told investors last Thursday after Microsoft announced earnings and said that its profit topped Wall Street's expectations.Windows 10, which Microsoft will offer as a free upgrade for a majority of Windows users for the first time, has the potential to solve some of Microsoft's most pressing problems.

One of the biggest differentiators for Windows 10 is the ability for developers to write to a single code base, allowing them to create a so-called universal app that will work across any device so long as that device runs Windows 10. Those devices can include phones, tablets, PCs, the Xbox One game console, TVs and even the new HoloLens headset.

"There will be one way to write a universal application, one store, one way for apps to be discovered, purchased and updated across all of these devices," Terry Myerson, Microsoft's executive vice president of operating systems, said at the September unveiling of Windows 10.

The company's cloud businesses are growing fast and on schedule to hit $6.5 billion in sales this year. Growth in that division helped send Microsoft's stock up more than 10 percent last Friday after its latest earnings report.Microsoft also is expected to talk about its Office 365 subscription service -- which delivers its productivity applications now over the Internet for an annual fee -- as well as its Azure cloud computing platform. Software makers now view annual subscriptions and cloud computing as the gifts that keep on giving. Microsoft is no exception -- and has begun a strategic shift away from one-time purchases of its Windows OS and Office application suite.

Microsoft has also promised a flagship Lumia phone this year to replace the Lumia 930, and it might trot the device out at Build. Microsoft released the Lumia 930 last summer after the company's purchase of Nokia's handset division in April 2014 for $7.2 billion.

Though that acquisition has increased sales of Microsoft smartphones, which now hover around $2 billion a quarter, Microsoft's Windows Phone software still holds a paltry 2.7 percent market share. A new flagship phone to rival Apple's iPhone 6 and Samsung's Galaxy S6 may help Microsoft gain more ground, especially if developers can simultaneously release one app for the PC, tablet and smartphone.

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Twitter earnings leaked via tweets, sales disappoint

Twitter earnings leaked via tweets, sales disappoint

The microblogging site inadvertently released its first-quarter financials after posting on its own investor relations Web page. Shares fell after sales missed estimates and Twitter lowered its full-year guidance.

Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco.James Martin/CNET

Oh, the power of tweets.

Twitter experienced firsthand Tuesday how its microblogging service can disseminate news faster than just about any other news organization when one of its users tweeted the company's first-quarter sales and profit about a half hour before the results were scheduled to be announced.

Selerity, a New York market intelligence firm, said in a tweet it found the results on Twitter's own investor relations page. "Today's $TWTR earnings release was sourced from Twitter's Investor Relations website https://investor.twitterinc.com . No leak. No hack," Selerity tweeted.

Twitter's Investor Relations group said in two tweets that it asked the New York Stock Exchange to halt trading on its shares after discovering the earnings numbers had been published. "We are investigating the source of the leak," the company said.

Twitter reported sales of $436 million, missing analysts estimates of $457 million. Profit in the first quarter was 7 cents a share. Analysts had estimated 5 cents a share. For the current quarter, Twitter projects revenue between $470 million to $485 million. Analysts had estimated sales of $537.3 million.

The shares fell more than 18 percent on Tuesday on the early news that it had lowered its full-year 2015 financial expectations.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo's job may once again be jeopardy. Investors had been calling for him to step down as the company struggles to deliver sustainable growth in sales and profits.

"Revenue growth fell slightly short of our expectations due to lower-than-expected contribution from some of our newer direct response products," Costolo said in a statement Tuesday. "It is still early days for these products, and we have a strong pipeline that we believe will drive increased value for direct response advertisers in the future.

"We remain confident in our strategy and in Twitter's long-term opportunity, and our focus remains on creating sustainable shareholder value by executing against our three priorities: strengthening the core, reducing barriers to consumption and delivering new apps and services," he said.

The social network said it now has 302 million monthly active users, meeting analysts' estimates, up from 288 million users at the end of the previous quarter.Costolo has been working the past few months to expand the site's appeal beyond the hipsters, geeks and newshounds who comprise much of the microblogging service's user base. To do that, he's made it easier for new users to sign on and build followers, added video-sharing capabilities, and reorganized the home page to make it more inviting and easier to search. He's also taken steps to counter abusive behavior. At the same time, the company has added new tools for advertisers, such as promoted tweets and targeted advertising.

Twitter also said Tuesday that is has acquired TellApart, a marketing technology company that lets advertisers target consumers as they move across apps and devices. Costolo is an investor in the company; terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company also announced a deal with Google that lets Twitter's advertising customers manage their ad campaigns through Google's DoubleClick Bid Manager. Twitter gets nearly all of its revenue from ad sales.

Twitter is working to find new ways to reach casual users while encouraging existing users to spend more time on the site or in the app. In the past few months, the company added the ability to forward tweets, send messages to groups and receive messages from strangers, without first requiring them to follow each other. Its revamped home page now shows visitors trending topics, even if they don't have accounts, with the goal of enticing them of signing up for the service. And its new Periscope app lets users stream and edit live video.

Additionally, Twitter has made it easier for media companies to include tweets in their stories and broadcasts, creating curated lists of suggested feeds for new users. All of these efforts are designed to attract more advertisers to Twitter and away from rivals such as Facebook.

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