We all do get the one thing on our mind hearing the name, Cortana. Remember the XBOX game, Halo. But today it’s even more!
Why Cortana Now?
We’ve seen a plethora of leaks about WP 8.1 over last few months , finally it is now official. Cortana is the new digital personal assistant for the Windows Phone. Unlike Apple Siri and Google Now,the Cortana has many add-on feature,it is a mix of Speech-first approach of Apple’s system as the contextual background, added along some location based cleverness and a little AI snark.
Launching as a beta when WP 8.1 hits devices over the next few months
Windows Phone 8.1 will roll out to devices over the next few months. Any Windows Phone currently running version 8 of the operating system will get the update. Brand new devices will launch with it in late April and early May..
Let’s talk backend
Cortana uses fuzzy logics ,natural language and performs a set of algorithms before giving us the result.It takes the work of your own personal assistant with core-functionality of making your works easy.
The first time you use Cortana,it has a virtual version wherein it fires a number of questions to have deep understanding of our key-interest and also ask you to give permission to swift through your e-mails to gather up information on flights and appointments.
Microsoft conducted surveys with actual assistants of celebs,found that they are still glued to the good old book fashion and asked what was their actual requirements and what their regular use were. Keeping all the attribute in Mind, the heart of Cortana is filled with the idea of living notebooks – a complete record for all works.
What’s in Pack?
With the back-end support of Bing’s “Understanding of the whole Internet” it would get better in time. However, the struggle to understand the natural language has never gone down and it didn’t seem entirely related to obvious hindrances like background noises and disturbances that caused the struggle. The Accent recognition was the great task to overcome,the European accents were no issues wherin the British Accent were never really understood.
Microsoft tells it would be better in time as the back-end gets more experience with different speech styles.
Say, We ask for a Indian restaurant ,we get loads of response from our digi-assist not just considering the point-of-interest but also with user rating and Yelp ratings. Extra filters can be added as to customize the search.
She’s snappy, with little to no lag between inquiry and answer. And she organizes. The Cortana Notebook acts as a hub of vital information, including reminders, quiet hours (when you want only a select few, if any, to be able to reach you), places, interests, settings, music searches and your inner circle.
Acting Similar to Siri and Google Now,its processing is done in the cloud,not all the activities need internet active.Setting an alarm or calling someone wouldn’t really ask you for an active data connection.
Is it done with this?
Absolutely NOT! The Cortana Live Tile animates the news or information it thinks would be of interest to the user making it more lively and attractive as the user wouldn’t really be bored to view it.
It’ll actually take a living with “Cortana” to figure out if she’s a useful addition or just a gimmick.