Google Now vs. Cortana vs. Siri: Ultimate Showdown

Smartphones are becoming more smarter day by day, one such example is the constantly improving  personal voice assistant or virtual assistant.

Till now Android's Google Now and Apple's Siri were pretty much dominating the virtual assistant game, but Microsoft is catching up with Cortana on Windows Phone 8.1 which is in Beta stage as of now. Cortana is named after the artificial intelligence system in Microsoft's Halo game series.

Apple's Siri which had a lot of issues and felt sort of inferior to Google Now has been improved a lot in the new iOS 8 and covers many of it's drawbacks from the previous version. Google Now with all new features seems more better than ever.

Apple's Siri is more fun to use mainly because of it's comeback answers and recommendations. Whereas Google Now almost nails it when it comes to providing information even before you ask, to an extent Google Now clearly does the job of a personal assistant better.


Cortana seems like it has inherited the elements of both Siri and Google now. Though this does not means that Cortana is better than the two. Despite some distinguishing features like identifying the song's name which is absent in both Siri and Google Now, it still feels inferior to its counterparts when it comes to providing needed information and taking commands.
Although we should not forget that its still in beta stage and is constantly improving and being upgraded.

In a series of videos, Phonebuff tested each virtual assistant individually and recorded their response on a set of 50 commands.
Take a look at the videos and find out how each of them responds to these commands.

Google Now 

Siri

Cortana

The Ultimate Flagship Smartphone War : Lumia 930, iPhone 6 & Nexus 5

I know all these are great smartphones and every single person in this world would love to have one of them or all of them ;)

So let’s start with the Microsoft’s latest flagship phone Lumia 930. Lumia 930 is certainly a well designed device with an aluminium frame and polycarbonate back. It features some of the Microsoft’s latest hardware and latest version of the Windows Phone OS. It also features the Lumia Cyan firmware, which enables some advanced features like Miracast, Living images, Bluetooth 4.0 and more.

Specifications : Lumia 930 boast Windows Phone 8.1 and there is a 2Ghz Quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor under the hood. A 5-inch beautiful AMOLED 1080p display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, which produces stunning graphics. For playing games without any lag it is equipped with 2GB RAM and 32GB internal storage (though no micro SD support), a 20MP PureView rear Camera with ZEISS optics and dual LED flash which produces great low light images adn . Lumia 930 also supports wireless charging and is backed up by 2420 mAh battery.

Now heading to the Apple’s section. Apple is ready with its iPhone 6. Apple says “iPhone 6 isn’t simply bigger, it’s better in every way”.

Specifications : The iPhone 6 features the latest iOS 8 and have metal surface that seamlessly meets the new Retina HD display. It has a 4.7-inch screen with crispy display. Built on 64-bit desktop-class architecture the new A8 chip delivers more power. The M8 motion coprocessor efficiently gathers data from advanced sensors and new barometer and with increased battery life, iPhone 6 let’s you do more and for longer than ever. The storage capacity have been bumped up to 128 GB at the top end, 1 GB RAM, 8 MP camera with better autofocus and 1.2 MP front camera with face detection and improved LTE and Wi-Fi speed.

Now comes into picture the Google Nexus 5.  The Nexus 5 does everything right for a very reasonable price. It caught everyone’s fancy from the time it was first leaked in a video.

Specification : The Nexus 5 sports a very understated look and there’s nothing like striking in the phone’s design. Despite a 4.95-inch screen(full HD display)  you won’t face any issue operating it with one hand. The soft touch matte finish makes Nexus 5 pleasant to hold. It was the first smartphone to ship with Android kitkat. It boasts 8 MP main camera with LED flash and a 1.3MP front facing camera, 16/32 GB of internal storage. Under the hood is Quad-core 2.3 Ghz krait 400 processor with 2 GB RAM.

Its really a tough task to tell which smartphone is the best. Considering the specifications, all the 3 phones boast latest OS, good processors and battery life. The off contract version of the iPhone 6 price is set at $650, Microsoft’s Lumia 930 is priced at $590 while Google’s Nexus is priced around $349.

According to me, Nexus 5 looks a better option considering the specifications and the number of apps available on Google PlayStore and its price. 

What are your thoughts? Which smartphone you think is the best among these 3. Do share your views in the comments below.  

And yes keep visiting techzoot.com for more tech stuffs J

Windows Phone 8.1 or Android L : The Ultimate OS War.

Both Microsoft and Google have brought big updates to their mobile operating system to strengthen their market. In this article we will be focusing on Microsoft's latest mobile OS Windows Phone 8.1 and Google's Android L.

Both the operating systems have enjoyed quite some attention and users are excited and buzzing around to know which one is better or which one is catching up.

How do Android L and Windows Phone 8.1 compare? Which one is better? What are similarities between them? are some of the questions that every user is eager to know. So without wasting some more time (giggle :p) lets start with what these two amazing operating systems offer.

User Interface and Customization  

Both these OS provide a completely different User Interface. Android L have a home screen with apps shortcuts, widgets, folders that can be completely customized. A user can pick between static or live wallpaper, add widgets, shortcuts as per their liking or even use a third party theme to completely change how your Android smart phones looks.

Now talking about Windows Phone 8.1, the operating system has a unique UI with the neat and clean tiles organised all over the screen. The Windows Phone allows you to change the size of the tiles or completely remove a tile from the home screen. In place of widgets in Android you have live tiles that updates very minute (In WP 8.1 update 1) to give you latest information/notifications like weather, mails, messages etc. You can select between white and black theme and also set wallpapers which appears behind the live tiles(tiles which are transparent). They just look gorgeous and completely changes your WP look.

Notification Center/ Action Center

Both Android L and Windows Phone 8.1 have a similar approach to the notifications. Just swipe from the top to access the notification bar or say the action center(in WP) to see all your recent notifications. There you see all your mails, messages, updates available and everything else the OS thinks you should have a look on. Both let us dismiss a notification with a swipe to left while a tap to trigger the respective app. 

Yes, Android L is more mature in this department while Windows Phone is new to it. Android L pushes non important notifications to the bottom while high priority ones on the top. It also allows users to reply to texts, mails from the notification bar without opening the respective app. What's not cool is that in Android L we don't have a way to clear all notifications at once while Windows Phone 8.1 allow us to do so. WP 8.1 has a more clean and well organised action center with more functioning expected in the future updates.

Google Now and the Cortana

If you are not aware of these, both are the names of the personal digital assistant which you get on Android L and Windows Phone 8.1 operating system respectively. 

Android's virtual assistant is an intelligent tool that attempts to provide relevant information at the right time. It does that by analyzing the user's search habits and integrating them with the Android's core apps and other services.

In Windows Phone 8.1 Microsoft have introduced Cortana, your very own personal digital assistant that responds to natural languages like Google Now. Cortana sounds more natural and is much more interactive with users and have a good sense of humor too. It also provides you with relevant information from all your mails, texts and applications you have on your phone. It does almost everything and I consider it much better than Google Now. Microsoft is still working on it and improving it to make it even more better.   

What to Expect?

Windows Phone is catching up, once regarded as the underdog in the smartphone arena is now much more bolder, better and more functional and should give some worry to other platforms to look after. It has reached this state by adopting a number of features from its competitors, and improving on them. At the same time, Windows Phone 8.1 does not stray away from the platform's roots. It is still that simple to use and minimalist OS that adds some welcome variety in a market dominated by Android and iOS. 

Yes its true that we can’t consider WP 8.1 superior to Android L. We'd rather call it different. It isn't as customizable as Android, but it has a unique, modern look. It isn't as functional as Android, but all that it does, it does it well. There are still areas to improve.

Those were some of the features (not all) that both these amazing mobile OS provides.

Personally, I love Windows Phone. i love the flipping of live tiles, the new action center and well organised apps on your homescreen.

What’s your preference. What are those features you consider best on either of the platform. Do comment :)

and Keep visiting Techzoot.com for more tech stuffs.

QUAD CORE V/S DUAL CORE PROCESSOR

After analyzing the physical dimensions of any smartphone what we compare is it's performance.
Performance of any smartphone basically depends on two factors
(a). Processor
(b). Memory
We will mainly focus on Processor in this post.
Smartphones nowadays come with DUAL CORE or QUAD CORE processor.
According to any normal person,more is good.But that's not true always.
Take a look at following points.

PROCESSING SPEED:

QUAD CORE processor means more processing speed and that's true.But most of the apps aren't programmed keeping quad core processors in mind,and hence not utilizing the power of quad core.
You can switch between more applications simultaneously and smoothly by using QUAD CORE processor.But for normal usage DUAL CORE processor won't disappoint you at all.In fact unless you are playing a high end game you will not recognize the difference.

BATTERY USAGE:

Quad core processor use battery lavishly even if you aren't multitasking because the unused cores are kept on standby.So,if you want to have a good battery backup,then do avoid Quad core processor.While
in comparison Dual Core will do a good justice to your battery back up.

HEATING:

Quad-core processors, even when optimized, threaten to use more energy than their dual- or single-core predecessors. This is due to more electricity-consuming technology packed into the same size package as a dual-core processor.Mobile devices,don’t have the room for large copper heat sinks, liquid cooling pumps or fans. As a result, tablets and smart phones may experience significant heating issues when overworked.

PRICE:

The price of any smartphone packed with quad core processor instead of dual core processor will have higher price despite having the same features.And the reason is but obvious.

But some smart phone manufacturers are giving away Quad core processor packed smart phones at cheaper rates,but be aware nothing comes for free.Those manufacturers are giving away cheap architecture.In short it's a sort of trade off.

DO COMMENT YOUR REVIEWS AND QUERIES.