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Microsoft Shutting Down Cortana App for iOS and Android
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Cortana was great for the first few years.
Too bad, I tried switching to all MS defaults on Android. Some products were good. Others mediocre to bad. Even set as the default assistant. Cortana didn't integrate as well as Google whatever (they keep changing the voice assistant name). The launcher was pretty good but didn't offer Gesture navigation. Which I got used to in Android 10. The keyboard was less accurate at guessing my words than Google's was.
Outlook is better at e-mail. But it has some issues. Every couple weeks I have to log back in to my Google accounts. Which leads to another issue of it syncing calendars from accounts I set to not sync. I have to have Google accounts added to the phone and also to Outlook. Which leads to duplicates.
Really a lot of the issues they have with apps isn't the premise or overall design. They just need some spit and polish. They feel more like beta products.
Outlook is better at e-mail. But it has some issues. Every couple weeks I have to log back in to my Google accounts. Which leads to another issue of it syncing calendars from accounts I set to not sync. I have to have Google accounts added to the phone and also to Outlook. Which leads to duplicates.
Really a lot of the issues they have with apps isn't the premise or overall design. They just need some spit and polish. They feel more like beta products.
Clippy enters the conversation.
"Hi, it looks like you're trying to shift toward a transformational AI-powered assistant experience."
"Would you like help?"
Kind of like those days when we needed to get up and walk over to the TV to change the volume.
Like Windows Phone, this software had a rabid fanbase of about 6 people who spammed tech forums constantly about how superior it was. Good riddance.
All the digital assistants are crap. Let’s face it. You can launch an app hands free. Why? You can awkwardly transcribe a message. Why?
They’re all a decade away from being reliable and useful for more than just simple actions like asking the time, setting an alarm or calling someone.
They’re all a decade away from being reliable and useful for more than just simple actions like asking the time, setting an alarm or calling someone.
"shift toward a transformational AI-powered assistant experience" LOL that's hilarious. They took Cortana out back and put her out of her misery, thank god! Bixby your next! Honestly Alexa could go too.. not sure why people still use it, I mean I do, people already bought into it.. but still think its either Siri Or Google at this point if I were to pick.
Really? You would put Siri above Alexa?
I used Siri when it was a 3rd party app.
Apple bought it, hobbled it, chased away the employees that made it, and has barely advanced it.
While I don't use Alexa a lot, it is clearly more accurate, and even better... it has a huge library of 3rd party skills whereas Apple is locked down, and thus is much more useful.
I gave up on Siri a long time ago
Honestly, do people use any voice assistant that much? All I use Siri for is to set timers. A few days ago i dictated the reply to a message on my Apple Watch. That's it. I never use it on macOS.
The only place where it mostly makes sense is the HomePod, as you could be very well cooking or doing something else and just want to control music.
The only place where it mostly makes sense is the HomePod, as you could be very well cooking or doing something else and just want to control music.
I’ll take the trade of removing Cortana from the Invoke speakers for $50 gift cards. I only paid $50 a piece for my pair of Invokes, so it‘s like getting two Bluetooth speakers for free.
95% of the time we still have to do that. Seriously, asking Siri a question is mostly just it fetching Google/Bing/DuckDuckGo results. Occasionally the odd easter egg question.
I use it to
-control music
-check weather
-send and read messages
-set timers
-set alarms
-set reminders
-send money between friends and housemates
-get directions
-look up photos i took from certain places and times
-calculations
-random trivia curiosities
-control my lights and air conditioners
I didnt know you could look up photos, thats great. Thanks for sharing