Google Now for AOSP based ICS ROMS

Certainly on of the best features of the new Jelly Bean operating System is Google Now. It can do a bunch of cool and intelligent things like weather reports on your current location, route and time taken to reach work from your current location and also various modes of transport that can be taken. Not only this, Google Now also comes with a voice assistant much like Siri. However the only difference between Google's voice assistant and Siri is that Google's voice assistant is much faster and a million times more powerful than Apple's Siri. Trust me its not an overstatement. Check out the video for features of Google now.




 Thanks to XDA Recognized Developer febycv and dave7802 , it is now possible to have Google Now on AOSP based ICS ROMS. I have tried it on CM9 and it works pretty smoothly with some issues as listed below.

What works:

• Search with the text box.
• Location services.
• Information cards like weather report.
• Notifications.

What doesn't work:

• Back button to exit app.
• Voice search and assistant (Needs Jelly Bean)

Its worth installing this, just follow these simple steps:

1. Do a Nandroid backup!
2. Download the file from here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ln5g4bub91kgaa4
3.  Rename GoogleQuickSearchBox.apk in system/app to GoogleQuickSearchBox2.bak
4. Rename the downloaded file to "GoogleQuickSearchBox.apk".
5. Place the renamed .apk in the system/app folder and set the permissions to rw-r-r
6. Reboot the device and enjoy!

You can always leave a comment if you have a problem with the installation or any other query.