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Tag: Cortana

  • Windows 10 Includes Improved Cortana

    Windows 10 Includes Improved Cortana

    Cortana has received some nice upgrades in Windows 10, with a focus on helping users be more productive.

    Cortana is Microsoft’s “personal productivity assistant,” and the company is doubling down in its efforts to make the assistant as helpful as possible. With an unprecedented number of people working from home, Microsoft sees an opportunity for Cortana to help users juggle the plethora of demands on their time.

    Cortana in Action
    Cortana in Action

    “To help you save time finding what you need and stay focused, we’re releasing a new chat-based Cortana experience in Windows 10 focused on enhancing your productivity,” writes Andrew Shuman, Corporate Vice President, Cortana. “With this, you can ask Cortana using natural language to quickly check your schedule, connect with people, set reminders, or add tasks in Microsoft To Do. You can also find local information, get definitions, and keep track of the latest news, weather, and finance updates with Bing as a Cortana optional connected service.”

    Microsoft is also upgrading the Play My Emails feature in Outlook for iOS, giving Cortana new abilities, such as scheduling a meeting based on the contents of an email, or adding an email to your task list.

    The company is also bringing a new Briefing email to your inbox, courtesy of Cortana.

    “This personalized brief will appear automatically in your Outlook inbox near the start of your workday, providing intelligent, actionable recommendations of documents for you to review ahead of the day’s meetings and drawing your attention to pending requests or commitments from prior emails that you may want to follow up on,” continues Shuman. “This email will also make it easy for you to reserve “focus time” during your workday for uninterrupted focused work with Microsoft Teams notifications silenced.”

    The new features are nice additions, and will likely be a big hit with customers.

  • Patent Filing Sheds Light on Microsoft Cortana’s Future

    Patent Filing Sheds Light on Microsoft Cortana’s Future

    Microsoft has been making big changes with Cortona, including the impending shutdown of the iOS and Android apps. A new patent filing, however, gives some insight into Microsoft’s plans for the AI assistant.

    First reported on by WindowsUnited (German text), Microsoft has filed a patent showing a person jogging while Cortana summarizes their email and text messages. The person then asks for clarifying information about one of the emails.

    The patent is designed to address the dangers of trying to read emails and messages while engaged in other activities, as well as the difficulty people experience concentrating and processing a long message when it is read to them in its entirety.

    “It is much harder to process messages ‘read’ to someone than simply reading the messages, because it takes the brain much more focus to listen to messages than to read them,” the filing says.

    “For example, if a user is jogging, it is not easy to read a display, however the user is able to listen for messages. Unfortunately, some messages (e.g., email messages) may be long and simply having an electronic device read these long messages may take a long time and a large amount of concentration. Further, trying to read a display while jogging may have disastrous consequences, such as having an accident or dropping and damaging the phone.”

    Microsoft’s patent application looks like a practical use for AI, especially if Cortana can deliver succinct, relevant and informative summaries. This should be a welcome feature once Microsoft implements it.

  • Baidu Takes AI Crown, Achieves New Level of Language Understanding

    Baidu Takes AI Crown, Achieves New Level of Language Understanding

    The ability to talk with an artificial intelligence (AI), be it a computer or robot, has been a staple of science fiction for decades. Despite modern advances, anyone who has used Siri, Alexa, Cortana or the Google Assistant knows we’re still a ways off from what’s portrayed in science fiction.

    Chinese tech giant Baidu has just taken a big step in that direction, however. According to the MIT Technology Review, Baidu has leapfrogged Microsoft and Google in helping AI better understand language.

    General Language Understanding Evaluation (GLUE) is the industry benchmark used to gauge an AI’s language comprehension skills. For perspective, most humans manage a score of 87 out of 100. Baidu’s model, however, scored a 90—a first for AI models.

    The team attributed their breakthrough with ERNIE (Enhanced Representation through kNowledge IntEgration) to the steps they needed to take in order to help it understand Chinese. The most advanced AI language models use a technique called “masking,” where the AI randomly hides words in order to predict the meaning of the sentence. Because of the differences between Chinese and English, Baidu “researchers trained ERNIE on a new version of masking that hides strings of characters rather than single ones. They also trained it to distinguish between meaningful and random strings so it could mask the right character combinations accordingly.”

    Not only did this method allow ERNIE to better understand Chinese language, but those lessons also improved its English processing, enabling it to achieve the highest GLUE score yet. Hopefully, this breakthrough will help pave the way for the type of AI interactions that have, so far, existed only in the realm of science fiction.

  • Microsoft Shutting Down Cortana Apps For iOS and Android

    Microsoft Shutting Down Cortana Apps For iOS and Android

    Individuals who rely on iOS or Android Cortana apps will have to find a different option. On January 31, 2020, Microsoft will be shutting down the Cortana apps for iOS and Android.

    Instead of dedicated apps, Microsoft will be integrating Cortana into the Microsoft 365 productivity apps. As a result, any content created on Cortana, such as lists and reminders, will not be available on the iOS and Android versions, although it will be accessible via the Windows version.

    In addition, according to the Microsoft support article, “Cortana reminders, lists, and tasks are automatically synced to the Microsoft To Do app, which you can download to your phone for free.

    “After January 31st, 2020, the Cortana mobile app on your phone will no longer be supported and there will be an updated version of Microsoft Launcher with Cortana removed.”

    Cortana has been lagging behind its rivals from Apple, Google and Amazon and Microsoft has been working to close the gap. These changes, while disappointing for iOS and Android users, will likely help Microsoft streamline its efforts and make Cortana more competitive.

  • Microsoft Plans to Bring Cortana to Skype

    Microsoft Plans to Bring Cortana to Skype

    Prepare for your Skype experience to be a little more productive. Microsoft has started integrating its digital assistant Cortana into Skype.

    However, don’t be surprised if Cortana is not showing in any of your Skype sessions just yet. Apparently, Microsoft is rolling it out gradually which means that the digital assistant may not be available to all Skype users simultaneously, The Verge reported. However, integration will be made available for both iOS and Android devices in the coming weeks.

    So just how helpful will Cortana be once fully integrated into Skype? You can think of it as your invisible—but hopefully, not-too-intrusive— smart friend that supplies you with the information you need to keep the conversation going with your real friends. You know, things like movie times, restaurant hours, movie reviews and pretty much everything you can find out for yourself if you bother looking it up on the web, according to PC Mag. The integration of Cortana will allow users to perform a search engine query without stalling their conversation on Skype.

    “Looking for information often requires interrupting the conversation, even if briefly, and switching apps to find what we’re looking for and bring it back into the conversation,” explains Skype’s blog post. “But shouldn’t technology make our lives easier and truly bring the answers we need to our fingertips?”

    Cortana’s integration into Skype is not exactly news; Microsoft already revealed the plan more than a year ago. While Skype users will no doubt find the integration useful, it was not explained why it took so long to implement the plan after it was announced.

    Meanwhile, there are reports saying that Microsoft may soon be challenging Amazon’s highly successful Echo, an established product in the smart speaker niche. Unveiled earlier this year, Microsoft’s Cortana-enabled smart speaker may hit the markets soon, according to a Business Insider report.

    The latest hint comes from an early Microsoft store listing which shows the smart speaker priced at $199. The speaker is developed in a partnership with Harman Kardon, an audio equipment manufacturer which Samsung acquired earlier this year.

    [Featured Image via YouTube]

  • Voice Commerce: The Next Wave in eCommerce

    Voice Commerce: The Next Wave in eCommerce

    There was some skepticism over the idea that voice commerce would be the future of retail. This wasn’t surprising, given the limitations that AIs like Cortana and Siri exhibited. However, recent improvements made to the technology hinted that big changes are on the horizon and that it will affect customers’ retail interaction.

    Rise of Voice Commerce

    The number of Alexa-powered devices at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was a testament to how quickly voice commerce is changing. Guests to the event were treated to an LG smart refrigerator that used Alexa to order food items. Car giants Ford and Volkswagen had the AI integrated into their vehicles, allowing drivers to do some voice shopping while driving. Alexa was also built into Dish consoles so that users can utilize their voice to look for their favorite channels, search for good shows, and to shop.

    Amazon has also gotten into the act by coming out with the Alexa Voice Service, an API. The company has also introduced the Alexa Skills Set – self-service APIs and tools that make it easier to develop voice-driven abilities for the AI. The attention that Amazon is giving to Alexa clearly indicates the eCommerce giant is betting on voice commerce to deliver big in a few years.

    What Voice Commerce Can Mean to Retailers

    Voice commerce can introduce many benefits to both retailers and consumers. For one, the technology can definitely streamline and improve customer experience. These days, people can check the availability of a product or order their coffee from Starbucks just by clicking on their smart devices. With voice commerce, those clicks would be eliminated. 

    A more personalized shopping service is another thing that voice commerce could improve on, as brands can collate and utilize data more effectively with each customer interaction. This possibility was underlined in an Adobe prototype. The Alexa-backed application could recognize guests and ask particular questions about their stay and preferences so that it could give customized information, promotions, and recommendations.

    Not only will this information lead to personalized experiences for every customer, it also gives companies valuable data about consumer behavior that will help them come up with more effective product strategies and marketing plans.

    Future of eCommerce

    Voice-activated virtual assistants are present in a lot of devices and while their functions overlap, they all have their own isolated and defined ecosystems. But a collaboration between Amazon and Microsoft will not only change that, it will potentially have a big impact on the future of eCommerce.

    The collaboration between the companies will allow Alexa and Cortana to talk to one another, giving Windows 10 users the capacity to access Alexa’s skills by giving voice commands to Cortana. Meanwhile, Alexa will be able to assist Amazon Echo users to stay on top of all the appointments and reminders that Cortana has gathered.

    The partnership will also allow the two AIs to combine their specific capabilities to enhance voice-controlled purchases. Cortana is great for finding and securing information while Alexa has the most defined skills that can be used for specific cases. In short, Cortana can be used to search for a particular product while Alexa can be utilized for ordering.

    The technology behind voice commerce is gaining ground and can open new opportunities for both retailers and consumers. And with the promise of partnerships between the different virtual assistants, voice-controlled commerce isn’t far off.

    [Image via Amazon]

  • Microsoft and Amazon’s AI Assistants are Teaming Up

    Microsoft and Amazon’s AI Assistants are Teaming Up

    Usually, tech companies keep each other at arm’s length, unwilling to share new technologies with the hope of besting their competitors. However, it appears that Microsoft and Amazon, two of the major players in the AI digital assistant arena, are bent on bucking the trend. Apparently, both companies want their respective assistants, Cortana and Alexa, to get friendly with each other.

    Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed that pretty soon, consumers who are currently using Alexa will be able to link with Microsoft’s Cortana and gain access to useful tools like calendars and emails, the New York Times reported. On the other hand, Cortana users will soon be able to link with Alexa to gain access to its unique set of functionalities such as shopping on Amazon and controlling home gadgets.

    The partnership between Microsoft and Amazon actually started back in May 2016 when Bezos breached the idea to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the CEO Summit. Since then, the two companies have been working behind the scene to make the integration a reality.

    But there is the exciting possibility that more AI digital assistants from other companies could be joining the mix. While Mr. Bezos has not yet approached competitors Google and Apple to join their collaboration, he revealed that he welcomes the idea.  As Bezos puts it, “I want them to have access to as many of those AIs as possible.”

    Microsoft’s, Satya Nadella is likewise open to the idea of expanding the collaboration to include other players. “Hopefully, they’ll be inspired by it,” Nadella confirmed.

    However, some analysts are betting that Google and Apple will likely decline any collaboration to protect their own turf. Jackdaw Research analyst Jan Dawson explains, “There’s no reason Google or Apple would offer it because they’re trying to drive their own ecosystems.”

    Ultimately, the Microsoft-Amazon collaboration will be good news to consumers. The rising availability of digital assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Samsung Bixby, Google Assistant, Alexa, and Cortana, will make your home a virtual chaos if they do not know how to communicate with each other. Imagine coming home and, after saying “Hello,” you’ll be greeted with a chorus of different voices. While it may not run as smoothly at first, the Cortana-Alexa collaboration could be the answer.

    [Featured Image via Microsoft/Amazon]

  • Historic Breakthrough: Microsoft Reaches Virtual Parity With Human Speech

    Historic Breakthrough: Microsoft Reaches Virtual Parity With Human Speech

    In an historic breakthrough, Microsoft’s AI team has developed technology that recognizes speech as well as humans. Their research team published a paper (PDF) showing that their speech recognition system makes errors at the same rate as a professional transcriptionists, which is 5.9%.

    The IBM Watson research team published a word error rate (WER) of 6.9% earlier this year. They noted that their previous WER was 8%, announced in May 2015 and that was 36% better than previously reported external results.

    Clearly, artificial intelligence technology is on a pace that will make machine word recognition superior to human word recognition in just a matter of months. Of course WER is only one way to measure and the technology must continue to improve for perfect comprehension and to prompt human level responses.

    Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Google, Amazon and a host of other companies are on a mission to use AI to integrate speech recognition technology into virtually every device. In order to truly make the IoT meaningful to people, we will need to be able to communicate with them in our language. By 2020, there will be over 30 billion things connected to the internet, according to Cloudera.

    “We’ve reached human parity,” said Xuedong Huang, who leads Microsoft’s Microsoft’s Advanced Technology Group and is considered their chief speech scientist. “This is an historic achievement.”

    Microsoft says that the milestone will have broad implications for consumer and business products including consumer devices like Xbox and personal digital assistants such as Cortana.

    “This will make Cortana more powerful, making a truly intelligent assistant possible,” notes Harry Shum, the executive vice president who heads the Microsoft Artificial Intelligence and Research group. “Even five years ago, I wouldn’t have thought we could have achieved this. I just wouldn’t have thought it would be possible.”

    “The next frontier is to move from recognition to understanding,” said Geoffrey Zweig, who manages the Speech & Dialog research group.

    The holy grail according to Shum is “moving away from a world where people must understand computers to a world in which computers must understand us.”

    At the rate the technology is advancing, that goal now seems within reach.

  • Microsoft Adds Reminder, Calendar Features to Cortana

    Microsoft announced that it has added some features to Cortana, which should prove helpful to Windows users who wish to get things done on time.

    Included are more ways to be reminded of things and improved calendar management.

    “People often make promises to do things in email but may forget about them as the days go by and emails pile up,” says Cortana group program manager Marcus Ash. “Microsoft Research (MSR) was pursuing an intriguing and powerful idea around this challenge—automatically recognizing when people make commitments to one another in email messages and providing reminders. We collaborated very closely with MSR to bring this new ability to Cortana to help people better keep track of their commitments. Helping you to keep tabs on your commitments is just one of the ways Cortana will get more proactive about managing your schedule.”

    “We also want to make it easier for you to manage your calendar. Cortana, like a true personal assistant, is intelligent enough to understand how you may uniquely like to work – including the hours you like to set meetings and those in which you are most productive,” says Ash. “So if you are a morning person like me, and you get a meeting request come through for 7pm, Cortana will alert you that you have a meeting outside of your regular times so that you can take action quickly to move it to a better time. The same for last minute meetings – say it’s 8pm and your boss has sent you an urgent meeting request for 7am the next day – Cortana will alert you that there’s a meeting that may need your attention, so you can adjust your alarm and morning routine accordingly and stay on top of your day.”

    The features will first be available to those in the Windows Insider Program. Eventually, all Windows 10 users will be able to take advantage.

    Image via Microsoft

  • LinkedIn Announces New Cortana Integration

    LinkedIn announced that it has partnered with Microsoft to get LinkedIn data integrated into Microsoft’s digital personal assistant Cortana on Windows 10.

    LinkedIn’s Bob Rosin explains, “If you’re already using Cortana and have your calendar connected, you’re probably used to getting meeting reminders from Cortana. Now with the LinkedIn integration, when Cortana reminds you of your next meeting, you will see a richer set of information about the people you’re meeting, including their LinkedIn profile photo, job title, and company. If you want to dig in more, with one click you can see their full LinkedIn profile to find who you know in common or where they went to school, so you can start the meeting with something other than the weather.”

    “All you have to do to get started is add your LinkedIn account to the Connected Accounts in Cortana’s Notebook and you’re ready to go,” he adds.

    Screen Shot 2015-10-01 at 4.01.15 PM

    In other LinkedIn news, the company is reportedly rolling out employee content curation tool Elevate, which it announced earlier this year.

    Images via LinkedIn

  • Microsoft Edge Browser Adds Cortana Coupons To Improve Online Shopping

    Microsoft Edge Browser Adds Cortana Coupons To Improve Online Shopping

    Microsoft announced the pilot of a new Cortana feature for online shopping in its new Microsoft Edge browser. It’s called Cortana Coupons, and it leverages Cortana functionality to help users find coupons while they’re shopping online with Edge.

    Retailers like Staples, Macy’s, and Best Buy are participating in the pilot, and Microsoft says additional retailer partners will come in the months ahead via Microsoft’s partnership with Shopular.

    “This new feature leverages Cortana’s functionality to notify you of the best coupons Cortana can find for a retailer without you ever needing to leave the retailer’s site,” Microsoft explains in a blog post. “We are just beginning to roll this out to get feedback.”

    “The feature works similar to Cortana for restaurants we mentioned above,” the company adds. “When you visit the site of a supported retailer, Cortana will alert you that there are coupons available for additional discounts. Once you click on the Cortana icon, these offers will be displayed in the right pane within the same window.”

    Screen Shot 2015-09-16 at 1.43.30 PM

    If you want to see the feature in action, you can visit BestBuy.co in Edge and click on the Cortana icon in the address bar to see available coupons.

    Images via Microsoft

  • Getty Images & Microsoft Bury Hatchet, Partner

    Getty Images & Microsoft Bury Hatchet, Partner

    It appears that Getty Images and Microsoft have buried the hatchet after legal issues last fall, as the two just announced a new partnership, which will see Microsoft taking advantage of Getty’s imagery.

    The two companies will work together to develop “image-rich, compelling products and services” for Microsoft products like Bing and Cortana, which use Getty’s library of images. Both companies’ tech teams will partner to provide real-time access to that library as well as associated metadata “to enhance the Microsoft user experience”. This will take place over the coming years.

    “With our new partnership, Microsoft will use Getty Images’ latest API innovations and our award-winning visual content to take search experiences to a new level,” said Getty Images Senior Vice President of Business Development Craig Peters. “Our technology teams will work together to create beautiful, engaging applications and services for Microsoft users with licensed content and attribution for photographers and other content creators.”

    “This collaboration enables Microsoft users to take full advantage of Getty Images’ speed to market, structured metadata and unrivaled content,” added Microsoft Executive Vice President of Business Development Peggy Johnson. “We look forward to working with Getty Images to provide the next generation of image depth and breadth for our users.”

    Back in September, Getty sued Microsoft over a tool it had launched, which enabled people to embed slideshows of images from Bing Image Search on their websites. The tool was called the Bing Image Widget, which Microsoft described in the following manner:

    Bing Image Widget enhances your web site with the power of Bing Image Search and provides your users with beautiful, configurable image collages and slideshows. What’s more, Bing Image Widget is easy to configure.

    Users could get the code by going to the Bing Image Widget page or via Bing Webmaster Tools. They could simply copy and paste the code onto a page, and adjust the settings to meet their needs, and then get a collage of images. It basically looked like a group of image search results, and probably wouldn’t have even been used all that heavily, but just to make sure, Getty sued Microsoft over it, deeming it a “massive infringement” of copyrighted images.

    In October, Reuters reported that Getty had failed to convince a federal judge to take action against Microsoft as the company had already taken the widget offline voluntarily. Again, the amount of usage it was likely to attract was probably not worth the headache of a legal battle. From the Reuters report:

    Getty asked U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan to slap Microsoft with an injunction on the new product. Even though Microsoft removed the widget the day after the lawsuit was filed, Getty pressed forward with its case. Getty told Cote not to believe Microsoft’s claims that it would not relaunch the widget because it did not rule out creating a new widget that could still infringe on Getty’s content.

    …

    “We would have preferred a judicial mandate for (the widget) to stay down,” said John Lapham, Getty’s general counsel. “But the question of whether or not you’re allowed to take and use somebody else’s copyrighted materials without any attribution or compensation is still live and before the court.”

    As far as I’m aware, Microsoft has not relaunched any version of the tool since, though it had indicated to Getty at the time that if it did, it would do so with filters, attribution notices, and other copyright-related details. The original tool is still offline.

    Earlier last year, Getty had released its own embeddable image tool, enabling bloggers and website owners to use some of their images as long as they did so with the provided embed code that ensured all proper attribution, links, and other requirements.

    While the tool doesn’t give you access to Getty’s entire library, does let you search 50 million photos, and gives you quite a few embeddable options.

    “It’s easy, legal and free,” Getty says on the landing page for the tool.

    Shortly after suing Microsoft, Getty launched a mobile app called Stream designed to let users view and share its photos. It was the company’s first consumer app.

    On Tuesday, Getty also announced a new “Boards” feature that it says “sets a new standard for collaboration in the creative industry.”

    The offering lets people curate, share, and discuss Getty’s photos and video content on GettyImages.com and via a new redesigned Getty Images iOS app.

    “In today’s always-on global economy, media and creative professionals collaborate with peers and clients who are just as likely to be across the world, as across the office,” said Getty Images CTO Steve Heck. “A true collaboration tool, Boards create a dynamic platform to bring your projects to life using the world’s best imagery. By establishing seamless workflows, Boards ensure creatives can capitalise on ideas and opportunities at any time, working across various devices, wherever they may be.”

    Boards let users view collections of images and videos according to specific projects or creative interests, without requiring them to sign in to gettyimages.com.

    Getty Images has over 180 million images in its library, as well as video.

  • Microsoft Launches Cortana In More Countries

    Microsoft announced today that it is launching Cortana (its Siri competitor) in four new countries in Europe: France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.

    “When we introduced Cortana as a beta as part of Windows Phone 8.1 in the U.S. this past spring, she generated worldwide interest and excitement which was amazing to see,” says Microsoft’s Marcus Ash in a blog post. “With the Windows Phone 8.1 Update we announced last summer, we extended Cortana’s availability as a beta into China and the U.K. Since then, we have been working very hard to continuously deliver updates including making her available in more languages.”

    “Alpha means that Cortana is new to these countries, most of the features in the beta version are available but some are missing or coming soon,” says Ash. “For example, flight tracking is not available at this time for alpha. Transit data is currently limited to larger cities and will expand as we have more data. Additionally, reference data (e.g. “How tall is Mt. Everest”) is also not available – but we’re working hard to enable this soon! We have also worked hard to tailor Cortana’s personality in each language (with local chit chat and jokes) to make her more locally and culturally relevant (i.e. make sure she fits in!). Cortana will also show European football (or as we Americans call “soccer”) league data, including Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, and La Liga.”

    Availability in the new countries comes with an update that’s currently rolling out. It will be available through the Windows Phone Developer Preview Program first because Microsoft needs help from the community to improve speech and language recognition.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Siri Thinks Microsoft’s Phone Is Pretty Smart (In This Microsoft Ad)

    Typically, Microsoft attacks Google in its ad campaigns (Scroogled, anyone?), especially when it comes to stuff like this, but now, the company has set its sights on Apple.

    The latest Microsoft ad pits Microsoft’s virtual assistant Cortana (via the Lumia 635) against Apple’s Siri (via the iPhone 5s).

    In the ad, Siri even goes so far as to say, “Now that is a smartphone,” in reference to the Lumia. Something tells me that didn’t really happen.

    Also, do people really talk to their phones like this?

    “Cortana, it’s gonna be a great night!”

    Image via YouTube

  • Bing’s Answer To Google Now Comes To The Desktop

    Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it is launching personalized cards on the Bing Homepage, which will let users keep track of news, weather, flights, stocks, and eventually more. Kind of like an early version of Google Now on the desktop, only Bing.

    The personalization utilizes technology that the company uses in its Cortana offering for Windows Phone 8.1. Users can set up their interests in the Bing settings.

    You just need to sign into your Microsoft account, set up the interests, and then Bing will let you know about things when “appropriate”. It uses the examples of delayed flights or stock changes.

    “The best part?” Bing program manager Chen Fang writes. “As long as you’re signed in, Bing will remember your interests and notify you, as appropriate, across a range of Bing-powered Microsoft services, such as Cortana and the Bing Sports app, for example.”

    This is obviously Bing’s answer to Google Now, which recently made its way to the desktop as well. Google has added a lot of features and cards to its offering since first launching, and it sounds like Bing will do the same.

    Remember when Google had a personalized homepage?

    Images via Bing

  • Windows Phone 8.1 Adds Cortana, Various Improvements

    Last year, Microsoft refreshed Windows 8 on PCs and tablets with the launch of Windows 8.1. It added a bunch of new features, including the return of the Start button. Widows Phone users were left without an update though with Microsoft only promising that one was on its way. At Microsoft’s annual developer conference taking place this week, the company announced that Windows Phone 8.1 is finally here.

    With Windows 8.1, Microsoft is introducing numerous updates and features to its mobile platform, including the previously rumored digital assistant Cortana. Much like Apple’s Siri, Cortana will use a search engine and natural speech recognition to assist users with everyday queries. As you might expect, Cortana does use Bing, but it’s also powered by software that will learn from users as they continue to use it. Here’s Microsoft’s take on it:

    Powered by Bing, Cortana is the only digital assistant that gets to know you, builds a relationship that you can trust, and gets better over time by asking questions based on your behavior and checking in with you before she assumes you’re interested in something. She detects and monitors the stuff you care about, looks out for you throughout the day, and helps filter out the noise so you can focus on what matters to you. Cortana will launch shortly here in the U.S. first as a “beta,” and then will launch in the US, the U.K. and China in the second half of 2014 with other countries to follow afterwards into 2015.

    Moving on, the Start screen is even more customizable in Windows Phone 8.1. Microsoft already made it so that users with devices sporting 5-inch or larger screens can have three columns on their Start Screen. They can now also use a custom image as the background that’s then broken into all the tiles that Windows Phone users have to come to know. Here’s an example:

    Windows Phone 8.1 Adds Cortana

    Just like the Start screen, the Lock screen has seen improvement as well. In Windows Phone 8.1, users will be able to select from a “wide range of interesting “Lock Screen Themes” which show all kinds of different visuals and animations.”

    As for general improvements, Windows Phone 8.1 has added what it calls the Action Center. In short, it’s a notification center that will let you receive notifications from any and all apps even if they aren’t pinned. It also added a new Word Flow keyboard that uses the swipe typing method seen in pretty much every other mobile device these days. Microsoft claims their keyboard is the fastest though and can even back it up with a kid being able to break the world record for typing really fast via Word Flow keyboards.

    Windows Phone 8.1 also features deep integration with Windows 8.1. For example, you can change the theme in Windows 8.1 and that theme will automatically be applied to your Windows Phone 8.1 device. Apps purchased on Windows 8.1 will also be downloaded automatically to your Windows Phone 8.1 device.

    There are a number of other smaller improvements and additions made to Windows Phone 8.1. To see them all, you’ll want to check out the below 15 minute demo:

    Windows Phone 8.1 will begin to roll out to existing Windows Phone 8 users in the coming months. It will also come preinstalled on new Windows Phone hardware, like the Nokia 930.

    Image via Windows Phone/YouTube

  • Microsoft’s Siri Competitor To Be Named Cortana

    Apple has Siri and Google has Google Voice Search/Google Now. Microsoft is the only one out of the big three that has yet to make its own personal assistant/potential love interest. If recent rumors come to fruition, however, Microsoft may have the most easily recognizable assistant of them all.

    The Verge reports that the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 will ship with new software called Cortana – named after Master Chief’s AI assistant from Microsoft’s successful Halo video game franchise. It’s being built as a replacement for the Bing search feature on Windows Phone, but it will also sport the features users have come to expect from personal assistants like Siri and Google Now.

    What may help set Cortana apart from its rivals, however, is its personality. While one could argue that Siri and Google Now have personality, the presentation is lacking. Cortana will reportedly be an animated icon that bounces around the screen, shows emotion and delivers results in a voice similar to Siri’s.

    Interestingly enough, Microsoft will also be integrating advanced privacy controls into Cortana in the form of a featured called Notebook. This will let users control just how much information Cortana can pull from your personal data, including location data, behaviors, contact information and more. It’s said that Cortana will also pull information from outside services like Bing and Foursquare, but it’s unknown if users can control what information it can pull from these services.

    Microsoft probably hopes users don’t restrict Cortana too much, however, as it reportedly will learn and react to situations through frequent usage. While it probably can’t predict behavior, it will learn when to alert users to specific notifications and texts based upon their content.

    By basing Cortana off of the character from Halo, Microsoft is pulling from the long standing sci-fi concept that interacting with AIs will one day be indistinguishable from interacting with actual humans. While Windows Phone 8.1’s Cortana is unlikely to be that advanced, the name alone inspires that kind of wishful thinking.

    Let’s just pray Cortana doesn’t end up being a modern incarnation of Clippy.

    Image via Halo Nation Wikia