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Microsoft Pits Cortana Against Siri in New Ad Showcasing Contextual Reminders, Traffic Alerts

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Microsoft today launched a new video advertisement that compares its Cortana virtual assistant to Apple's own digital assistant, Siri, showcasing Cortana's contextual reminders and traffic alerts, two functions that Siri does not have.

In the ad, entitled "Siri vs. Cortana: Bigger," Cortana and Siri have a "conversation" where Cortana queries Siri about her new abilities in the iPhone 6 and Siri continually responds that she just "got bigger."

Cortana: Hi Siri, looks like you're in a new phone. Congratulations.
Siri: Yes, I got bigger.
Cortana: Oh, are you more like me now? Can you give reminders based on who calls or texts?
Siri: No, I got bigger.
Cortana: How about traffic alerts? Can you tell people to leave early based on traffic reports?
Siri: No, seriously, I just got bigger.
Cortana: That's okay. Happens to everyone this time of year.
Click to expand...
Microsoft first announced Cortana in April of this year. The digital assistant, designed to compete with Apple's Siri, is named after the AI character in the popular Halo video game series and is voiced by actress Jen Taylor. With Cortana, Microsoft aims to emulate real personal assistants, and Cortana will ask questions and monitor user activity to learn more about its users. Cortana, available on Windows devices, can perform a few functions that Siri is not capable of, including scheduling reminders from text messages and mapping out traffic patterns to provide travel recommendations.

Siri may not have received updates specific to the iPhone 6, but the virtual assistant did gain new capabilities with the release of iOS 8, including Shazam music integration, the ability to purchase music in iTunes, streaming voice recognition, and hands-free voice activation with the command "Hey Siri."

Cortana has been starring in a series of anti-Siri advertisements since July, with the first advertisement highlighting context-aware reminders and the second showcasing Cortana's mapping capabilities.

Microsoft has a long history of targeting Apple in its advertisements, comparing its Surface line of products to Apple's iPad and iPhone. Just this week, Microsoft launched a new "Winter Wonderland" ad that pits the Surface Pro 3 against the MacBook Air, highlighting the Surface's kickstand, portability, and touchscreen.

Article Link: Microsoft Pits Cortana Against Siri in New Ad Showcasing Contextual Reminders, Traffic Alerts
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/21/microsoft-cortana-siri-ad/
Dear Microsoft... nobody cares.

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I don't know enough to compare between the two services on any serious level, but all I know is that it's irritating to only be able to use the Hey Siri functionality when plugged in.
 
These along with the MacBook Air vs. Surface ads are actually pretty nice. Microsoft devices would be my next choice if Apple didn't exist and they are seriously pretty nice, too bad they keep failing and scumbags like Samsung are more popular.
 
Wow, Cortina's speech technology does actually sound pretty impressive. Much less "robotic" sounding than either Siri or Google Now.

Then again, she sounds so "perky" that it'll probably get annoying after a while.
 
gaximus said:
So does Cortona really sound that good(her voice)?
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i would be pretty dang impressed if those were truly machine generated phrases.

edit: judging from recent video reviews, it's not really that good.
 
Reason077 said:
Wow, Cortina's speech technology does actually sound pretty impressive. Much less "robotic" sounding than either Siri or Google Now.

Then again, she sounds so "perky" that it'll probably get annoying after a while.
Click to expand...

Well, Jen Taylor does possess that perky vocal quality. Kudos to Microsoft for keeping Apple on its toes. Competition is what keeps the tech giants from getting complacent. :)
 
I respect Apple´s decision to keep quite all this time and not answer the avalanche of ads mocking Apple. But, God, I wish for once Apple shut their mouths with cool comeback ads, which I´m pretty sure would be hilarious.

BTW Cortana sounds pretty nice, Apple should hire Scarlett Johansson for Siri 2.0
 
*YAWN* The real nice thing that nobody talks about is how developers can integrate Cortana to command it to do things in their app.

I wish Siri could do that, especially now that we can use it hands free when docked.
 
Personally, (even as much as I've found halo enjoyable) I'm still not buying a windows phone..
 
SixtyK said:
Dear Microsoft... nobody cares.
Click to expand...

Why?

Considering how messy Apple is at the moment, Windows is becoming more attractive again. If you already pay a premium for a device, you'd expect it to work flawlessly (and not to be as buggy as Yosemite or unfinished as iWork for iCloud for example).
 
isn't that iOS 7 siri? I thought iOS 8 sounded a lot better...

but yes, Cortana is seems more helpful and does sound nicer even then the best version of Siri.
 
The traffic alert does sound useful, but I don't really get the use of the reminders when someone calls or texts. I just have a list of reminders and assign times to get them done. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong? :confused:
 
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