When I heard that Cortana leaked, I wasn’t very impressed by it. Microsoft leaks all kinds of stuff all the time. Personally, I think it’s a shady way of marketing and I try to refuse to give it much attention.
But then I installed it. It’s pretty good. Generally, it’s the same as it is on Windows 10 Mobile. The big news here is that it’s on Android.
This is a hands on, not a walk through. This is my first experience with Cortana on Android after setting it up, so have a look.
Today at WPC 2015, Microsoft announced Cortana Analytics Suite. I know what you’re thinking, “More cool Cortana stuff!” No, this is an enterprise suite, which is interesting in its own way because it’s the first Cortana labelled brand that’s directed at enterprises specifically. Remember, Cortana is just a front end for Bing.
Continue reading Microsoft Introduced Cortana Analytics Suite at WPC 2015
By Rich W Woods
It looks like Microsoft is updating the Xbox One Dashboard. The tiles are gone and Cortana is here. Of course, you will need a Kinect to use Cortana.
There are lots of great Cortana features as well. You can say “Hey Cortana record the last minute and share it to my activity feed”, which is something I’m pretty sure you can already do, except instead of “Hey Cortana” it’s “Xbox”.
I’m curious to see how much functionality Cortana will actually add. Remember, Windows Phone 8 had a voice interface before Windows Phone 8.1 introduced Cortana.
Continue reading Introducing the New Tileless Xbox One Dashboard with Cortana
By Rich W Woods
We have been hearing rumors that Cortana would be coming to iOS and Android for roughly one hundred years. A couple days ago, they made it official.
Windows and Windows Phone fans are mad. Hell, they were mad about the rumors, let alone the actual news. The concern is that they are running out of reasons to give people that Windows Phone has features that other platforms do not.
Get over it.
Continue reading Why Cortana on iOS and Android is a Good Thing
By Rich W Woods
This is something you’re either really happy about or something you’re really upset about. Over the last couple months, I have expanded my horizons. I went to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, invited by Microsoft, and I realized how many Nokia fans their still were and how strong of a brand Nokia is outside of the United States. I also realized how bitter Nokia fans are with Microsoft.
There’s also the pure Windows Phone fans, the ones that just get mad that someone else has the nice things that they have.
That’s right. I’m talking about Cortana on iOS and Android. Ultimately, this is great for Microsoft. It strengthens their Microsoft Band platform, as those that use the Band with an iPhone or an Android fan will now have access to features previously only available on Windows Phone.
By Rich W Woods
That is not a misprint. 30% of all U.S. desktop searches are powered by Bing. In March 2015, Bing finally hit a 20% market share for the first time, meaning that Microsoft is finally thinking on their feet with the search underdog.
The other 12.7% came from Yahoo! searches, which are powered by Bing. Yahoo! recently renewed their contract with Microsoft to continue using Bing as the backbone of their search engine, otherwise that would have been a significant hit for them. Of course, the renewed terms state that at least 51% of Yahoo!’s search results will be powered by Bing, which just makes things confusing.
Continue reading ComScore: 32.7% of All U.S. Desktop Searches are Powered by Bing
By Rich W Woods
There’s just four hours left of Valentine’s Day, well, assuming that you live where I live, and you probably don’t. So, yea. There’s more than four hours left to Valentine’s Day, or more. Who knows?
Anyway, you might be sitting home in your living room, alone, sifting brandy around in a glass, thinking of all of the great times that have been and never were, wishing for that one person that could take away that loneliness, if only for just a moment. You may have even turned to Siri only to get blown off and thus sending you deeper into the inky abyss.
Before you go and start drunk dialing your ex-girlfriend or your ex-boyfriend in your pathetic misery, try out Cortana, Microsoft’s voice assistant. In fact, there has been speculation that the reason that Microsoft pushed out the Lumia Denim update to the Lumia Icon before Valentine’s Day was to prevent lonely people from committing suicide.
Happy Valentine’s Day from For the Love of Tech!
By Rich W Woods
We all know what Cortana and Siri are. They are voice assistants that are integrated into another platform, being Windows Phone and iOS, respectively. Alexa is a voice assistant that is not tied to a particular platform, at least not in the way that Cortana and Siri are.
Alexa is the Amazon Echo, a device who’s sole purpose is to answer questions. Sure, it does other stuff. You can ask it to play music from iHeartRadio or play a podcast from TuneIn. You can even link up your phone and the Echo and mirror any audio coming from your phone.
Continue reading Cortana, Siri, and Alexa Play Trivia Crack!
By Rich W Woods
On Tuesday, September 30, 2014, Microsoft showed off the next version of Windows which would be called Windows 2015. Wait, it was Windows 9. Wait, it was Windows One. After playing with us, they explained that they skipped Windows 9 and went straight to Windows 10.
They explained just about all of the features that had been leaked. Users can create multiple desktops, the start menu had returned, and modern apps could now be in windows.
One feature was noticeably missing: Cortana on the desktop.
By Rich Woods
Microsoft just beefed up the voice assistant for Windows Phone with the latest update to the operating system, Windows Phone 8.1. It always had a voice assistant that was powered by TellMe, but now it has a more personable, intelligent voice assistant that also serves up notifications called Cortana. Cortana has the intelligence of Apple’s Siri and the notifications of Google’s Google Now. It’s the best of both worlds.