Gadgetory

with ios7 and changes to android Siri and Google now have grown up a little bit so it's time to put them head-to-head in a live battle we'll keep an eye out for speed usefulness and accuracy first I'll ask these guys questions I know they can handle it's not if they can complete the tasks but how they do it we'll go from easy to difficult ready what's the weather like in San Francisco so they can both answer that question no problem although Siri things it's a little bit colder than Google nodos what time is it in New York they're both pretty quick where's the nearest gas station aha so we already have our Google Maps serious still thinking and we have 15 results I do like how there's a map interface here on Google now call Chris Parker Google now will automatically start calling and because I have two phone numbers for that contact in my iPhone I have to choose it first let's turn up the difficulty a little bit new appointment at 12:00 p.m. tomorrow lunch with Chris Parker Google now is pretty fast I can select Chris Parker's email and he'll receive an invitation pretty me here's the feature I really love new note rememberthemilk so on Google now I hit save note and I have a couple options I can save it to Gmail or to Google keep in this case I'll go with Google keep and then of course on Siri the note gets saved to your Notes app these virtual assistants also let you access content on your device so play rolling in the deep' they both start playing that song here's one that's new to Siri open Chrome really useful both of these virtual assistants let you launch apps convenient for when you're driving let's see how they handle email email Chris Parker would you like to go to the Warriors game tonight once you ask that question the processes here are a little bit different but the point is they both got it the email will go to Chris here's a handy feature remind me to check the mail in three hours so here on Android those reminders get saved to the Google now interface whereas with Siri the reminders get saved to the reminders app either way you should receive a push notification reminding you here's what I use all the time navigate me to Chronicle Books in San Francisco so we'll choose the right ones from the list of course on Android Google Maps launches whereas on iOS it launches Apple maps now if you normally use Google Maps there isn't a way to change that default setting so those aren't all the questions that these virtual assistants can handle but now we have a taste of what they can answer and how well they answer it now let's take a look at the things that only Siri can do for example enable bluetooth you can enable any top-level settings using Siri again really convenient for when you're in the car do I have any emails from Chris Parker so you can find out if your buzz has sent you any emails Twitter integration is also new with Siri what's CBS News saying this is great because you get a list of the most recent tweets of course you'll need to be logged into Twitter in order to use this feature but once you're there you can get tweets from just about anyone you're following you can also interact with your social networks post a Facebook today is a beautiful day again you'll have to be connected to your Facebook account and you can't control the privacy settings from Siri but if you need to post a quick message you can do it right here make a reservation at zerozero pizzeria in San Francisco so I'll choose the right restaurant from here I can choose the time I want and make the reservation using open table so Siri is great because it can really handle all of those productivity questions but now let's take a look at the things that only Google Voice Actions can do for example I'll play some music then ask Google what's this song and just like Shazam it'll show me which song is playing now you know that both virtual assistants can give you directions but check out what only Google now can do give me walking directions to Chronicle Books in San Francisco select the store and I'll get directions on foot or how about this YouTube cute panda sneeze I get YouTube search results pick one and just like that YouTube launches and finally United four six five so I get my flight status in the form of this card plus the next time I launch Google now it'll show up right here in many ways Siri still has a leg up on productivity but if you compare it to the entire package that Google now offers Google now is much more convenient so you can't get Siri on Android but if you want to give Google now a try you can get it through the Google Search app on iOS of course these virtual assistants are always being updated so expect some of the results to change and when they do we'll bring them back for another comparison for cnet.com I'm Sharon Vaknin you