I despair of the geekdaddy at times, I really do. Over the last couple of months he’s been gradually turning his back on his lovely Apple products and embracing the Android way. It started when he bought a Nexus 7, and his assimilation was completed a week or so ago when he purchased the brand new Samsung Galaxy Note 2. We’ve done a lot of talking about this on our new podcast, Parental Geekery, so I won’t go on about it too much over here as well, but we have had some funny experiences with the Galaxy Note 2 over the last few days that I wanted to share…

First of all there’s the voice dictation. Rather like Siri on the iPhone, the Galaxy Note 2’s voice dictation is very hit and miss. Oh the fun we had the first evening the geekdaddy got this phone, when we pitched it against Siri on my iPhone 5 to see which of us could set a two-minute timer for the kids to clean their teeth with the quickest. Suffice it to say that the two minutes were already up by the time the iPhone deigned to give me a timer, and he was still struggling with his Android thing at that point!

Undeterred he then decided to show off his phones’ voice dictation features whilst I was at work and he was with his Mum and sister. I think the screen capture below of the messages that I received really speaks for itself…

We’ve been noticing a slightly alarming trend with the geekdaddy’s Android devices – they’re definitely helping Google learn more about him. This is something that started on the Nexus 7 and has carried through onto the Note 2. If he searches for directions on his Mac (using Google’s Chrome browser) and then opens Google Now on his phone it will inevitably give him directions to the place he’s just searched for, along with current traffic conditions. Useful, I grant you, but just a little bit creepy too. And even more alarming than that, it’s starting to learn his movements. This means, for example, that every Tuesday when he switches the phone on it shows him directions to his Mum’s house, because it’s learnt that he always visits his Mum on a Tuesday. The good news is that now he can’t hide anything from me – when I was working at home on Monday this week I noticed that his phone was trying to direct him to Frankie and Benny’s – he had to confess that he usually goes there for breakfast on a Monday!

However his most recent experience with Google on the Note 2 has us both amazed at what Google knows about him, and rolling around with laughter. We went to the BlogCamp blogging conference in Manchester on Saturday, and the geekdaddy took several photos with his phone, including a picture of an iPhone accessory that Tom Arber told us about during his photography workshop. When we got home the geekdaddy went into his Google Goggles app to find out more about the accessory, only to discover that Google had been analysing all his photos without him knowing, and already had an idea of what it was in the photo…

 

We were impressed – it was correct. And then we became slightly alarmed that Google was analysing his pictures without him knowing. On balance though we were more impressed than alarmed. However we didn’t remain impressed for long, when we looked at what it had made of the next picture, the room in which BlogCamp was held…

Yes, it’s identified it as a Ford Capri! No, we don’t have any idea how or why. But we thought it was amusing 🙂

I’ve been surprised at how well the geekdaddy is getting on with Android – I still find it a lot less intuitive than iOS, and I’m not giving up my trusty iPhone or iPad in a hurry. But the geekdaddy is definitely proving it is posisble to move from iPhone to Android if you really want to, even if we are having a bit of a giggle along the way.