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Microsoft Announces Siri Competitor Cortana, Coming With Windows Phone 8.1

brianvictor7 said:
LOL! Best joke of the day! Well, I'm willing to give Microsoft a chance here. Let's see what they come up with.
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Wasn't exactly a joke. That's pretty much what happened this morning. Cortana had major issues working and return proper results, then as a "Save" the Microsoft guy said, "Cortana will be released in Beta for now". That would've been acceptable but he said it during the middle of the Cortana presentation rather than the beginning. He was just saving face. It's not perfect and it should've been brought up as a beta before he began to demo it.

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jeremysteele said:
Well, competition is always good.

If it works better than Siri, I'm all for it. At least for me, Siri works great for simple commands like "Call Mom" "Call Dad", but anything past that it totally messes up. Just the other day I asked for the temperature, which 9/10 works fine, but it pulls up a recipe for a chicken dinner. Like... the heck? :rolleyes:
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Then you must have a very strong accent because I can ask Siri an abundance of things in a long sentence and she returns the proper results at least 90% of the time.
 
dBeats said:
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...
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There we go....
 
HenryDJP said:
Wasn't exactly a joke. That's pretty much what happened this morning. Cortana had major issues working and return proper results, then as a "Save" the Microsoft guy said, "Cortana will be released in Beta for now". That would've been acceptable but he said it during the middle of the Cortana presentation rather than the beginning. He was just saving face. It's not perfect and it should've been brought up as a beta before he began to demo it.
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Actually I'd rather have that than the perfect demo Forstall did that did not mirror reality at all.
 
Rogifan said:
What amazes me is how much Apple products get rubbished by the media and tech press yet when they need clicks these same products find their way into headlines. Most of the headlines around the Amazon STB call it an Apple TV competitor and never mention Roku (even though I keep hearing about how it's so much better than ATV). The New York Times had an article on Cortana and Google Now was never mentioned in the article. Yet Google Now supposedly wipes the floor with Siri. Really pathetic. If Apple products/services are that inferior then quit using them for click bait.
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100% agree and to add to it, had this been Apple who just came out with a personal assistant after MS and Google had one then many in this forum alone would be bashing Apple saying, "Come on Apple, You can't Seem to Innovate, you're late to the game".

Funny how when Microsoft brings out Cortana (that had multiple mess ups this morning) this forum seems to shake the pom poms for MS as if they revolutionized the personal assistant, like it's the first time it's been done.

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Rogifan said:
Actually I'd rather have that than the perfect demo Forstall did that did not mirror reality at all.
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That's ridiculous and you just proved my point I made a moment ago.
 
Siri has improved significantly for me over the last year. My only issue is when I'm in a noisy environment, I occasionally have a problem.

I encourage everyone to download The Siri Handbook from the iBookstore. It is free. You can also Google it and find a PDF. I found out lots of things that I didn't know Siri was capable of. :)
 
The biggest part of this post may be the sentence at the end:

Microsoft also announced that it is making Windows licenses free for mobile phones and tablets that have screens of less than nine inches, putting it on par with Google's Android, which is offered to device manufacturers for free.
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Anyone wanna talk about this?
 
HenryDJP said:
Nice. You should be working for Microsoft.
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Why would I do that?
pittpanthersfan said:
Anyone wanna talk about this?
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Its quite in line with their recent free-windows on sub 250 USD devices policy.

As for Phones, keep in mind its basically a Nokia monopoly so far. Its just a simple way to make WP more attractive to OEMs such as Samsung/HTC/Sony, without really sacrificing any actual money. They could always revert the policy in the future.

Theres also been work on WP8.1 to make it much more compatible with typical android hardware. The point there being to allow minimal or no changes in hardware (saving costs) beyond changing the underlying OS. The menu key is really the only 'obvious' OS branding on many phones, but thats being replaced with a soft key on many devices these days.

Speculation is that eventually it could be possible to reflash a device to go from Android to WP, or vice versa. For an OEM, I don't think I need to point out how this can save costs compared to the current scenario.
 
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johncarync said:
I'm surprised by everyone who says they don't use or like Siri. I use it EVERY day for things like...

"Call Jennifer Collins, mobile."
"Set timer for 15 minutes."
"Fast food near me."
"Search web for Tesla Model S."
"What's the weather like tomorrow?"

I also have the "Raise to Speak" feature turned on (Settings/General/Siri) so I can just raise the phone to my ear with a deliberate gesture and Siri is activated.
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Everyone has their own style. What works for you might not work for me and vice versa. I just find that everything on your list I'm more comfortable with, can do more accurately, and more securely by typing. When composing I think more clearly with a typewriter. When scheduling something I trust it more when I open the App and set the timer myself rather than trusting Siri, who never gets my other requests right.

I've just not had much luck with Siri. She's like an old girlfriend that lost your camera, dinged your car, and ran up charges on your credit card. Initially I had high hopes, but at this point I just don't trust Siri to do what I want or expect.
 
Microsoft could announce The Second Coming, and still no one would give a crap. Sell the company and give the money back to the shareholders.

:p:D
 
HenryDJP said:
ORIGINAL??? What was original? Cortana? Exactly because Google and Apple certainly don't have a voice personal assistant. :rolleyes:
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You are aware that Windows Phone had a perfectly adequate voice assistant before Cortana, right? It just didn't have a name or personality. And now with 8.1, it does.
 
Hopefully this will create some real competition and drive quality and feature upgrades and some more funding into research.

In 25 years we will pall be speaking with computers more than clicking at them.
 
iRalph said:
I wonder how accurate and fast it will be.. I'm still amazed sometimes at how fast and accurate Google Now can be.
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100% agree. I use Apple gear but Google Now/voice absolutely amazes me how fast and accurate it can dictate and understand me. I usually have some sort of android device with Verizon LTE capabilities when I go on vacation for directions, maps etc... Google owns this market segment for a long time to come imo.
 
pittpanthersfan said:
The biggest part of this post may be the sentence at the end:



Anyone wanna talk about this?
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IMO, Apple has nothing to fear but if Windows Phone gets a foothold, it will hurt Android more than it will iOS. I've only played with it, but it seems like a decent mobile OS and now that there are a few hundred million Windows 8 pc's out there, some of those people may go for Windows phone over Android. Thoughts?
 
Siri has gotten a lot better with iOS7 and 7.1. I hated it when it first debuted but its much more useful to me now.

I use it to set timers, reminders, calendar events, keep up with sports scores, define words and calculate exchange rates and tips, weather, messaging and calling amongst others.

It also manages to recognise my mixed accent.
 
roadbloc said:
You press the button, a voice prompt appears, you say what you want, it does it. Just like any other voice control software.
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LMAO, I thought you would've at least said something beyond that. If you want to go there then Siri wasn't Apple's first personal assistant either. I think we both know what I meant. I was talking about the type of voice assistants available on current smartphones today and Microsoft certainly did not show anything original or vastly different. They just joined the party. I'm talking about ones that search the web for proper answers to tough questions, read text messages, type your emails, make appointments and manage your calendar. Hope that was clear.

I wasn't referring to assistants that return results when you say, "Call Mom". ;)
 
HenryDJP said:
LMAO, I thought you would've at least said something beyond that. If you want to go there then Siri wasn't Apple's first personal assistant either.
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I know that. I wasn't denying that.

I think we both know what I meant. I was talking about the type of voice assistants available on current smartphones today. Ones that search the web for proper answers to tough questions, read text messages, type your emails, make appointments and manage your calendar. Hope that was clear.

I wasn't referring to assistants that return results when you say, "Call Mom". ;)
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Well it does all of that what you just mentioned. You want me to go through every single command it understands or something? :rolleyes:
 
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