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Microsoft's Digital Assistant Cortana May Be Heading to iOS and Android

Interesting to read the comments in this thread. I had always thought that the "consensus" was that Siri was awesome, not gimicky and performed well. That it was the reason for upgrading.

This isn't sarcasm - I'm actually surprised in reading some of the comments. NOT that these same posters posted contrary to this before lest anyone accuses me of calling anyone a flip-flopper.
 
samcraig said:
Interesting to read the comments in this thread. I had always thought that the "consensus" was that Siri was awesome, not gimicky and performed well. That it was the reason for upgrading.

This isn't sarcasm - I'm actually surprised in reading some of the comments. NOT that these same posters posted contrary to this before lest anyone accuses me of calling anyone a flip-flopper.
Click to expand...

I think that most of the complaints are not due to Siri's malfunctions, rather to Apple's lack of actual improvement of Siri.
We are at the iPhone 6/+, almost iPhone 6S, and Siri works as it worked years ago. If you drive a car and try to use it, it's a big distraction as you never know how Siri reacts to your commands.
 
This is good news. It's a shame that Cortana is stranded on Windows right now where it's potential can't be reached.

Siri does some things quite well but chokes on a lot of other things and isn't forward looking at all.
 
LordVic said:
can think of a couple reasons:

Data aggregation, with the small market of Windows Phone currently, the data coming in from Cortana can't be very useful, or profitable. Going cross platform might give them a larger installation base.

Another possible option is as a "sampler" for what Microsoft is doing, and maybe if people are happy enough with Cortana, they might be willing to give Win10 phones a try when they come out.
Click to expand...

Pretty weak strategy. Microsoft would demonstrate to be the first not to trust its own operative system
 
Don't you wish Apple would stop pissing around with things like a possible car or even launching the iWatch in April and instead concentrate of things like Siri, battery life on the iPhone, an updated Apple TV?

I think they need to concentrate on core improvements before they launch into new areas. Otherwise I feel a crash of increasing and mounting software problems.
 
Max(IT) said:
Pretty weak strategy. Microsoft would demonstrate to be the first not to trust its own operative system
Click to expand...

Not necessarily true. While you don't see Apple products and software on other platforms, you do see other platforms services available on cross platform.

Google has many of their service available for iOS, including Google Now (though I dont know if they have the voice feature).

BlackBerry has rolled out BBM to Android and iOS quite successfully.

For everyone but Apple, they want their software and services to be available in some limited fashion cross platform for a multitude of reasons. Data collection, sampling of services.
 
Cortana is one of reasons to buy a Windows phone. I would say she is my favourite "assistant" Be awesome to have her on an iphone, Siri is just lacking!

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Max(IT) said:
Pretty weak strategy. Microsoft would demonstrate to be the first not to trust its own operative system
Click to expand...

What's the default search engine on iphone?

I think microsoft are clever. They are not going to compete with Apple on sales, but this way they get a slice of the cake.
 
Wow, Microsoft is getting desperate these days:
  • No one uses bing.....what do we do? I know, let's bribe them with Bing Rewards.
  • Still no one is using it, what do we do, let's offer them Swagbucks to get them to sign up for Bing Rewards.
  • No one will buy a Windows phone, what do we do? Let's make a mobile version of Microsoft Office and put it on Windows Phone only.
  • No one is using the mobile version of Microsoft Office, they are using Google Docs instead, which is driving them away from the desktop version of Office, what do we do? We will make Microsoft Office available on iOS and Android, but require them to buy Office 365.
  • Still no one is using the mobile version....let's make a basic version free and offer more features if they pay for Office 365.
  • Still no one is buying Windows phones, let's create a competitor to Siri and Google Assistant (name varies by phone) called Cortana.
  • Still no one is buying Windows phones or using Bing! Let's bring Cortana to iOS and Android, that should fix it.
  • No one is upgrading to Windows 8 because of the lack of a Start Menu, let's give them 8.1 and put a Start Menu that just brings up the Start Screen, that will fix it.
  • Still no one is buying Windows 8, ok we'll put a real Start Menu back into Windows 10 AND we'll give Windows 10 away for free to anyone using Windows 7 or newer, at least for the first year, after that we go back to selling licenses to anyone that didn't upgrade during the first year. This should force rapid adoption of Windows 10.

Seriously Microsoft, how long before you give up? Really, either make a quality product that people want or throw the towel in.
 
The only thing I want to know here is this: does Cortana have the same voice as Cortana in the Halo games ?
 
MH01 said:
Cortana is one of reasons to buy a Windows phone. I would say she is my favourite "assistant" Be awesome to have her on an iphone, Siri is just lacking!

----------



What's the default search engine on iphone?

I think microsoft are clever. They are not going to compete with Apple on sales, but this way they get a slice of the cake.
Click to expand...

But before Apple bought Siri, the software offered MOST of what Cortana has. I have no idea why Apple removed many of those features.
 
maflynn said:
And that will only hurt MS in trying to increase its marketshare. I know the phone is doing horribly but they don't want to give even more reasons not to buy the phone
Click to expand...

This is the thinking that got them backed into a corner in the first place, using 1 product or service to try to sell another.

By spreading their services to other platforms, I think there is a net benefit for Microsoft. If Cortana is a great service, then why tie it down to a marginal Windows Phone ecosystem? You can end up with a lose-lose. For example, I think Microsoft benefits from releasing Office for iOS, and also generates good PR/goodwill too from doing it. Similarly, Apple making the iPod work with Windows was instrumental in growing the iPod.

I love that they used the name and voice from Halo, I think 'Cortana' was just a working name but it ended up being a pretty good official name (even if you've never heard of Halo.)

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The Mercurian said:
The only thing I want to know here is this: does Cortana have the same voice as Cortana in the Halo games ?
Click to expand...

Yes!
 
samcraig said:
Interesting to read the comments in this thread. I had always thought that the "consensus" was that Siri was awesome, not gimicky and performed well. That it was the reason for upgrading.

This isn't sarcasm - I'm actually surprised in reading some of the comments. NOT that these same posters posted contrary to this before lest anyone accuses me of calling anyone a flip-flopper.
Click to expand...

I don't have much experience with the Google or Microsoft voice services (or Amazon's), but as far as Siri goes I would say it's incredible that it works as well as it does. But the failure rate is still such that it can be problematic in day to day usage, and that how well it works depends on a lot of factors that will vary from user to user.

I don't use Siri much, but there are times when I am amazed it understood me on the first try, and times that I get exasperated at repeating 3-4 times what I think should be a pretty routine query (and then finally giving up and doing it manually with the keyboard.)
 
Siri truly is horrible. It may work one out of ten times correctly. Thankfully, the superior Google Now is also available on iOS through the Google Search app. Thanks to the awesomeness of jailbreaking I have Google Now set up to open when I double tap the status bar. So whenever I need to look up something, I ignore Siri, double tap to open the Google app, speak what I'm looking for and off I go to the correct results the first time.
 
madmaxmedia said:
I love that they used the name and voice from Halo, I think 'Cortana' was just a working name but it ended up being a pretty good official name (even if you've never heard of Halo.)
Click to expand...

There are still people who have never heard of Halo? :eek:

Totally agree with your analysis on Cortana. If it is a good assistant, spread it around.
 
I agree Siri is lacking... wonder why Apple hasn't stepped up the game with it.
 
Jsameds said:
Because Siri isn't all that great.

Don't get me wrong, I use Siri all the time, but it's lacking in a lot of areas that Cortana and Google Now excel in.
Click to expand...

Like what? I'm genuinely curious. Maybe Google Now and Cortana caught up or maybe it's just more internet hearsay but my experience has been that Siri is more intelligent than Google Now.

For example, I once told Google Now "remind me..." and after a slight pause, it launched the app. Siri would ask me, what would you like to be reminded of. Another time, I asked Google Now to put something in my calendar for tomorrow. It was a little after midnight and it put it in for the following day. Siri is smart enough to ask me which day I meant.
 
cmwade77 said:
But before Apple bought Siri, the software offered MOST of what Cortana has. I have no idea why Apple removed many of those features.
Click to expand...

Siri has huge potential, apple is just letting siri fall far behind Google and Mircosoft.

I hope they are not thinking that siri is on par.......
 
To those who say Siri frustrates them, I hope you have stuck with it. When I first started using Siri, she was borderline useless, but I use her a lot now. Still way more room for improvement, but very handy.

That said, I welcome Cortana.
 
The Mercurian said:
The only thing I want to know here is this: does Cortana have the same voice as Cortana in the Halo games ?
Click to expand...

Very close. Its suppose to be her.

Which makes it cool!

----------
Saucesome2000 said:
To those who say Siri frustrates them, I hope you have stuck with it. When I first started using Siri, she was borderline useless, but I use her a lot now. Still way more room for improvement, but very handy.

That said, I welcome Cortana.
Click to expand...

I broke up with Siri and started dating Cortana ;)
 
cmwade77 said:
Wow, Microsoft is getting desperate these days:
  • No one uses bing.....what do we do? I know, let's bribe them with Bing Rewards.
  • Still no one is using it, what do we do, let's offer them Swagbucks to get them to sign up for Bing Rewards.
  • No one will buy a Windows phone, what do we do? Let's make a mobile version of Microsoft Office and put it on Windows Phone only.
  • No one is using the mobile version of Microsoft Office, they are using Google Docs instead, which is driving them away from the desktop version of Office, what do we do? We will make Microsoft Office available on iOS and Android, but require them to buy Office 365.
  • Still no one is using the mobile version....let's make a basic version free and offer more features if they pay for Office 365.
  • Still no one is buying Windows phones, let's create a competitor to Siri and Google Assistant (name varies by phone) called Cortana.
  • Still no one is buying Windows phones or using Bing! Let's bring Cortana to iOS and Android, that should fix it.
  • No one is upgrading to Windows 8 because of the lack of a Start Menu, let's give them 8.1 and put a Start Menu that just brings up the Start Screen, that will fix it.
  • Still no one is buying Windows 8, ok we'll put a real Start Menu back into Windows 10 AND we'll give Windows 10 away for free to anyone using Windows 7 or newer, at least for the first year, after that we go back to selling licenses to anyone that didn't upgrade during the first year. This should force rapid adoption of Windows 10.

Seriously Microsoft, how long before you give up? Really, either make a quality product that people want or throw the towel in.
Click to expand...

Oh shut up with the M$ bashing. I bet more people are using Win8 than OSX. Hell, I bet some with Macs are running exclusively Win8 on it!
 
LordVic said:
Not necessarily true. While you don't see Apple products and software on other platforms, you do see other platforms services available on cross platform.

Google has many of their service available for iOS, including Google Now (though I dont know if they have the voice feature).

BlackBerry has rolled out BBM to Android and iOS quite successfully.

For everyone but Apple, they want their software and services to be available in some limited fashion cross platform for a multitude of reasons. Data collection, sampling of services.
Click to expand...
Google isn't an hardware nor a software company.
Google business is data mining through services, so it's absolutely coherent for them to give services to Apple's users also.
BlackBerry is getting extinction, that's the reason why they are offering services.
But Microsoft ? They should try to gain customers for their own hardware and software platform...

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MH01 said:
Cortana is one of reasons to buy a Windows phone. I would say she is my favourite "assistant" Be awesome to have her on an iphone, Siri is just lacking!

----------



What's the default search engine on iphone?

I think microsoft are clever. They are not going to compete with Apple on sales, but this way they get a slice of the cake.
Click to expand...
Apple hasn't a proprietary search engine....
 
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