Microsoft unveils Cortana, its answer to Siri and Google Now
At Microsoft’s Build 2014 developer’s conference, it has just announced Cortana, a new voice search tool for Windows Phone 8.1 powered by Bing. It fully replaces the search function in Windows Phone, and you’ll be able to access it (her?) through a special Live Tile. On top of finding thing, it can make calls, send texts, take notes, give reminders and set alarms. Microsoft said it’ll work with third part apps as well, and has been working with select developers to integrate it. So far, it’s showed Hulu Plus and Facebook operating in the app, though there’s no official word about that yet.
Microsoft also said that Cortana will get smarter over time, learning based on your search requests or other actions. It’ll even function as a pseudo-secretary, making sure you’re not disturbed during quiet times but still letting people from your inner circle get through. To do that, it’ll ask questions such as whether it should track a flight it found in your email, for instance — a decidedly Google Now-type touch. Once trained, it’ll function using using casual language questions, and respond with a casual “sounds good?” when it confirms. Another trick is Hulu Plus integration that’ll let you tell Cortana to queue up a show, for instance. You can perform similar tricks with Facebook, by asking “what’s up” with somebody, and being led straight to there profile page. It seemed to work well during the demo despite a couple of hiccups, but Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore reminded us that Cortana is still in beta at the moment.
Developing…
AIVAnet 