Microsoft Announces Siri Competitor Cortana, Coming With Windows Phone 8.1

[melendezest]

i'm an apple guy but it's hard not to have a crush on cortana. if they could make her appear...yum.

nice move on their part...with this and with the free windows. finally...someone is thinking over there. at least they didn't copy apple like crazy with their mobile os.

Agreed.

I feel Windows Phone is the better looking of the mobile OSes (after iOS 6). They made "flat" work, without it looking too trendy. It has class (although I like stock Android too).

If only it worked as smoothly as iOS, had a comparable app store, and MS put it in more hardware (the Lumia phones are too big overall for me, bezel-wise), I'd consider it.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

(Message deleted by user)

 

[Boosf]

Great, now I can say "Cortana, Ctrl, Alt, Delete please."

 

[flur]

I am talking about the Windows Mobile OS in general, not the nitty gritty details of each. The fact taht unlike Android, they did not copy the icon grid.

You mean that grid that Apple copied from Palm and Blackberry? Who probably copied it from somewhere else? LOL.

 

[olowott]

Cortana, when will i get Microsoft word on iPad for free ??

 

[HenryDJP]

Siri is voice control only. Cortana you can use voice and keyboard input.

That's better already.

I honestly don't see the point. If you have to type it then what the hell do you need Cortana for? You may as well use Google on your phone.

 

[erzhik]

I have a Lumia 920 and this is a gimmick. Siri is a gimmick, Google Now is a gimmick and now Cortana is a gimmick. A necessary gimmick I guess, but gimmick nonetheless.

 

[DavidG328]

Are you implying that that's all I use it for?

Did I say that anywhere? I said those that I've seen using Siri, merely demonstrated they had it (then the novelty wore off).

 

[aristotle]

Did you read the post I replied to or just farted the first thing that came out of your brain??? Read the thread so you would understand what's going on before you post irrelevante information.

How is it irrelevant? Do you always resort to a personal attack when you have nothing important to say?

Should I use smaller words? Iceman, you go to google. You ask right question, you get right answer. You ask wrong question, you get wrong answer. Same with Siri. You ask what you need, you get what you need.

All good Iceman? You understand now?

If you order a latte at starbucks, then you get a latte even if you actually wanted a mocha instead. They cannot read your mind and neither can Siri.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

How is it irrelevant? Do you always resort to a personal attack when you have nothing important to say?

Should I use smaller words? Iceman, you go to google. You ask right question, you get right answer. You ask wrong question, you get wrong answer. Same with Siri. You ask what you need, you get what you need.

All good Iceman? You understand now?

If you order a latte at starbucks, then you get a latte even if you actually wanted a mocha instead. They cannot read your mind and neither can Siri.

Sorry for being rude. I'll delete my post after I finish with this one.
My reply was to someone who asked that same generic phrase ("I want to adopt a pet") to Google Now and then to SIRI, and was trashing SIRI for not being able to answer that question while Google Now did answer properly.

I did try asking the same question later and SIRI was able to respond what was expected. That's why I posted my comment. I do agree with you that the
I know it's a generic phrase and not a defined question. Here is when AI needs to come into play, just as if you mention this to a friend and then he offers information about Pet Adoption just because you expressed your wish to adopt a pet while no question was asked.

My post was to let the previous poster know that SIRI did handle my sentence properly just like Google Now.

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Great, now I can say "Cortana, Ctrl, Alt, Delete please."

You know that CTRL ALT DELETE will just lock the system. It used to reboot back I the DOS days, decades ago.

 

[aristotle]

If someone were to tell me "I want to adopt a pet", I would say good for you. It would not immediately occur to me that they were asking for help in discovering their first steps in accomplishing that desire. I would just simply view it as a statement.

You need to ask a question and not make a statement. The same thing applies to both humans and search engines.

 

[r3m1]

Where's a good place to find Thai food around here?

"Just a sec......


....hmm that's strange....


....uh oh....


A fatal exception OE has occurred at 0028:C0011E36 in VXD VMM(1) + 00010E36. The current application will be terminated.

* Press any key to terminate the current application.
* Press CTRL+ALT+DEL again to restart your computer. You will lose any unsaved information in all your applications.

Press any key to continue _ "


I knew this Windows phone thing was a bad idea...

Dont worry iOS apps just break down without any message - wham, bam thank you mam

 

[deluxeshredder]

I have a Lumia 920 and this is a gimmick. Siri is a gimmick, Google Now is a gimmick and now Cortana is a gimmick. A necessary gimmick I guess, but gimmick nonetheless.

Siri is a gimmick, the others are definitely not as they are useful and reliable enough.

 

[rdlink]

I just wish they'd get rid of Siri all together. I was probably one of the first people to turn it off on the iphone 4S.

How about you just leave it turned off, and let those of us that find it useful continue to use it? Would that be okay with you?

 

[spinedoc77]

Great, now I can say "Cortana, Ctrl, Alt, Delete please."

"Cortana, Alt F4"

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Siri is a gimmick, the others are definitely not as they are useful and reliable enough.

Why is Siri a gimmick? I use it every day and it works very nicely. Cortana looks like it will take it to the next level and I'm excited about that.

 

[quickcalibre]

It's a bit annoying to see apple copied all the time, but maybe this clone will push apple to improve Siri more.

It's much needed, while Siri has a nice voice it lacks personality.

 

[knewsom]

I think there's actually a potential good reason a three-syllable name that is unconventional - it'll pick up a trigger among other sounds much more accurately.

If Cortana is half as good as she's cracked up to be, I'll be thrilled.

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I have a Lumia 920 and this is a gimmick. Siri is a gimmick, Google Now is a gimmick and now Cortana is a gimmick. A necessary gimmick I guess, but gimmick nonetheless.

I do too, but there are a couple things I miss about Siri - namely being able to set a timer without fiddling with the phone while I'm cooking or mixing epoxy or something. Also the whole "tell my wife I'll call her back" thing was nice. Looking forward to a few of those basic functions again. Oh - and the geofence. "remind me to make the car payment when I get home".

 

[smoledman]

Cortana will release in beta, just like Siri was for 2+ years. I wouldn't have HUGE expectation right out of the gate. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised by what it can do on Day 1. I'm reluctant to speculate how good it can get, given the data/algorithm deficit on Bing/Satori compared to Google's Knowledge Graph. Excited to see innovation from Microsoft for a change.

 

[Max(IT)]

I'm quite excited about WP 8.1, including Cortana ...

Actually WP has become my second favorite mobile os, not so far from iOS. And WP 8.1 seems to address most of the flaws I'm experiencing with my Lumia.
I really like the way Microsoft decided to design an os without taking inspiration by others.

 

[Max(IT)]

I love ironic humour. Oh dear. It wasn't humour was it?

You really think fingerprint seniors are futuristic and ...

Next!

Since there is someone who can't implement it in the right way in 2014, yes, TouchId is as futuristic as it needs to be ....

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I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Microsoft has had it's time of dominance and monopolizing the world. It's good that Apple and Google dominate the mobile media world. People can't have choice if we constantly live in a Microsoft-dominated world.

Three choices are better than two ....

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Don't like windows phone UI. Too much black/white and too much bold and different font sizes.

Here's what I got from Siri when I asked her to "show me places to adopt a dog".

Well ... Siri interface is black and white too

Actually WP UI is very well designed. It's very different from iOS (especially iOS 7), but very coherent , unlike android and its dozens interpretations ....

 

[Max(IT)]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gimmick

Gimmick

And you clearly don't know what you are speaking about ....

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Are you nuts???

Android has the BEST personal assistant. It's called Google Now, which is even better than Siri on the iPhone.

On an Android device, Google Now is freely integrated into the OS (unlike the IOS version) and it works with most apps.

Whats even better about GN than Siri is that Google takes notice of questions people ask and creates info cards for them. You get much more accurate answers, and fast.

Download Google Now for IOS if you don't have it. You have to open the app because of Apple's restrictions but it's so much better than Siri.

The only edge Apple may have is location based reminders. "Remind me to buy shampoo when I'm at Target." Google Now isn't so good with that... but if I remember, it almost never worked on my last iPhone either. Well, maybe when I was two miles away from target after having finished my shopping...

Personal tastes .... For me Siri >>>>>>>>> Google Now ....

Let's see this Cortana on my 925.

 

[Max(IT)]

I have a Lumia 920 and this is a gimmick. Siri is a gimmick, Google Now is a gimmick and now Cortana is a gimmick. A necessary gimmick I guess, but gimmick nonetheless.

So you have a 920 that doesn't use Siri nor Google Now but you decided that those are gimmick ....

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Siri is a gimmick, the others are definitely not as they are useful and reliable enough.

Here another .... An android user I would bet on it.
Last time you have tried Siri on your Samsung ? And Cortana is so reliable that .... you actually have never seen it working since it isn't yet released.
But surely it has to work because isn't apple ....

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Why is Siri a gimmick? I use it every day and it works very nicely. Cortana looks like it will take it to the next level and I'm excited about that.

Don't you know the answer ? Because it's Apple ! Easy !


Ps: a little suggestion : when you cannot explain an answer, make a little research on the user who posted it. Sometimes it's very funny ...

 

[phoenixsan]

Basing my opinion.....

only in this article and the features set outlined here, this Cortana girl can give a fight to the Siri woman.....

Still, Microsoft have the potential to either make a big blunder or a homerun with this Cortana project....

Tangential related, why the software must be/have a femenine characterization?....Some marketing or psicologycal explanation must be in place....

 

[smoledman]

only in this article and the features set outlined here, this Cortana girl can give a fight to the Siri woman.....

Still, Microsoft have the potential to either make a big blunder or a homerun with this Cortana project....

Tangential related, why the software must be/have a femenine characterization?....Some marketing or psicologycal explanation must be in place....

Explain to me how Cortana could possibly be a blunder? It could be less useful than Google Now because Google's Knowledge Graph is superior to Microsoft's Satori entity engine but that's another discussion. There is no way Cortana will ever be perceived as another Microsoft Bob.

 

[penplotter]

Naming a software feature after a character in a game that NOT everyone has played (we don't all play games; remember that - we're individuals, not just part of a statistics chart) is a little obscure, and slightly too nerdy to even matter to most people. I suppose it's part of the (very irritating, sometimes smug) nerd "in the know" feeling that many geeks enjoy feeling, because it makes them feel special and acknowledged... but that aside... it still doesn't quite stick in the mind.

CorWHO? Yep, still never heard of it/them, and it still sounds awkward and rather contrived.