How To Use Google Voice Search On Your Pebble Smartwatch

    Have a Pebble smartwatch and feel a little left out as all the Android Wear folks rock the cutting edge?  Sure, Android Wear smartwatches look awesome & have touchscreens.  Some even have a built in microphone, which allows you to perform various voice tasks such as a Google search or tell your mobile device to play some Korn.  But what if I told you that you can have nearly the same thing using your Pebble & an app called AppLauncher?  Although Pebble doesn't have a built in mic, as long as your mobile device is nearby (which it most likely is), you can easily do this and here's how...

First, go to Google Play Store and install AppLauncher.

Next, under Pebble settings tap Install Watch App on Pebble.

Allow it to install the Pebble app onto your Pebble watch...

Go back into the main app on your mobile device and select Applications.

Choose Google Voice Search.

On your Pebble watch go into Settings and select Quick Launch.

Here is where you can preset the top or bottom button on your Pebble watch to trigger any installed Pebble app.  Select either top or bottom button and then choose AppLauncher as the preset app.

Now, just long press the button you selected to trigger AppLauncher.  When it pops up on your Pebble watch, select Google Voice Search (microphone icon).  This will trigger the app on your mobile device.

When you hear that distinctive "chirp", speak your command.  

Example:  "Play Korn."

I've been using this method for quite awhile now and it works almost flawlessly.  To be honest, it's going to depend on the proximity of your mobile device and background noise, as normal.  I find it comes in very handy.  I don't have to pull out my phone so often and am able to more fully utilize the abilities of my Pebble watch.  

Best of luck.  Also, let me know how you would use this.  Give me some ideas!

Links:

Pebble

AppLauncher

[APP] Scan Documents With Google Drive App | PDF

Google Drive:  Eliminate Clutter and Scan Documents With Your Phone


Perhaps one of the easiest way to cut down on clutter and excessive apps installed on your devices is to consolidate.  What I'm referring to is discovering apps that do more than one thing.  Recently, I used an app called "Camscanner" to scan documents to PDF & save to Google Drive.  What I discovered is that Google Drive does this, too... and very well.  Simply follow the directions below...

From the app:
Just open the Google Drive app (Android) and hit Menu > Add New > Scan > Snap photo > Save to Drive

From the widget:
Tap the camera icon > Snap photo of document > Save to Drive

Can be done using the camera icon on Google Drive widget

Choose Add New

Choose Scan

Snap a photo of the document

Automatically saves document to Google Drive as a PDF

Direct Link: Google Drive

[Tip] Receive All Messages In One App | Hangouts, Google Voice, SMS, MMS

  

+  SMS, MMS

    Hangouts, Google's answer to unifying all of their various messaging services/apps has been updated recently.  To date, it merges Google Talk and G+ Messenger into one app.  It's a great beginning to what will most probably become the defacto messaging app across multiple platforms including, but not limited to Android, Chrome, and Apple's iOS.  

    Although it doesn't support SMS at the moment, there is a workaround to receive Hangouts messages as SMS when idle.  Below are instructions for setting this up as well as how to route your Google Voice messages to the same app as well, if you are one of the many Google Voice users like me.

How To Route All Messages To One Place

1. On your device, open the Google Voice app > Settings > Sync and Notifications > Receive text messages: (choose Messaging App).
2. Next, go HERE 
3. Look for SMS for Hangouts > Edit Settings > Enter your standard carrier phone # and hit SAVE.  (Don't worry about the country drop-down box above the phone number field; it doesn't show USA, but it works regardless.)
4. On your device, you should be able to receive all your text messages from carrier number, Google Voice number, and Hangouts as well as MMS from both carrier # and Hangouts.  Remember, Google Voice still doesn't support MMS at this time (5/17/2013) unless you're on Sprint.
5. (Optional)  Add the Messaging widget to one of your homescreens.  From here, you'll be able to view your messages at a glance, scroll through them, place a phone call, and even attach a file.

This is confirmed to work, although messages sent from the Messaging app on Android didn't always appear correctly on the iOS Hangouts app.  Not sure why, but be aware of this glitch up front.  

Be sure to comment and +1 this post.  Thanks guys!

Edit:  Don't want to route Hangouts messages to the Messaging app?  Simply substitute your carrier number with your Google Voice number in Step 3.  Be advised, by doing this, you will not be able to send MMS, as GV doesn't currently support MMS unless you are on Sprint.
Also, remember that this is merely a workaround until Google fully implements everything.  So do the above at your own risk or sit tight & wait it out.  Either way, at least they're working on it now;-)
-Dan

UPDATE:  As Google has integrated SMS into Hangouts, the link in Step 2 no longer available.  It links to a page that cannot be found.  
This is a good thing, however, as it means this work around is no longer needed=D

Will You Switch To Google+ ?

Hey guys, so now Google has (sorta) unveiled Google+, their all new social networking site (beast) that may very well be the most competition Facebook has seen in at least 2 years.  My question is do you plan on making the leap over?

It's something of an understatement to say that Google doesn't have what it takes to (eventually) overtake rival Facebook, being as how they've built up a very healthy & productive portfolio of services over the last 10+ years & now seem poised & determined to pull all of these "weapons" together to concoct a super-social networking site.  Only time will tell.  But, till the site actually opens for business (it's still in invitation-only beta stage) to all potential users, let's take a look at one other shell in the barrel that no serious social networking site considering going head-to-head with the Great Facebook should forget: the mobile app.

Can you guess which mobile platform will receive the app first?? Yup... ANDROID:)

Surely you didn't think the iPhone was gonna win yet another app rolled out for it first, did you?  Yes, Android has this app exclusively but I suspect that Google will eventually roll out more apps for the "other" guys very shortly.  They will if they wanna compete, that is.

Click the link to check out the details thus far about Google+ for Android.