Microsoft is busy at work with making its personal digital assistant, Cortana, competitive; and recently, they gave us a sneak preview its capabilities. Thanks to The Verge, we now have a bit more information about Cortana.
As we mentioned before, Halo fans will probably be disappointed to see a blue circle instead of the female version in the game. The blue circle will let you know when Cortana is thinking or doing something for you.
And, not unlike Siri, Cortana is rather flexible – in terms of how to address its user. I’m sure iPhone users have had their fair share of kicks from having Siri call them “The Dragon Warrior” or something just as awesome. Well, Windows Phone users are going to have that pleasure as well.
In a manner which is more similar to Google Now, Cortana saves key data and information in what is called a Notebook system. So, from the locations you frequent to reminders to other personal information you input, Cortana will be able to access that data and help you manage your life in a more efficient manner.
Additionally, Cortana can tap into your emails and track important details mentioned in them – like flights and meetings.
As can be expected, Cortana will be powered by Bing. And, for more contextual computing power, other services are going to be used as well, including Foursquare.
After learning of these new details, I think I might have to backtrack on what I said in my initial Cortana post (that it probably can’t hold its own against Siri). If Cortana can actually combine the features of Siri and the power of Google Now, it might just become THE digital personal assistant that we all have always wanted.
Do you think Microsoft will be able to rise up to the challenge?
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