As rumored for months now, Microsoft’s voice assistant for Windows Phone 8.1 will be called Cortana. This means Windows Phone can compete with Android’s Google Now and iOS’s Siri.
Halo fans may be disappointed to learn that Cortana in Windows Phone takes the form of a circle, not a blue (or purple) female. Cortana is the name of the Artificial Intelligence in the Halo series of games. The circle is animated when Cortana is talking or thinking about your request.
Cortana will talk to you, just like Siri does. You can choose how she addresses you, by your real name, or a nickname of your choice. It will use data from Bing, Foursquare and other services to give you similar results to Google Now.
Cortana uses a ‘Notebook’ where it can access data about location, personal information, contacts and more. This will allow Cortana to make suggestions, and give you reminders and alerts. Cortana will learn about you from your questions and requests, and you can choose to let personal data it accesses be stored in the Notebook.
According to The Verge, which has seen the current version of Cortana in action, while Microsoft is still using the name it’s not clear the voice assistant will still be called Cortana by the time Windows Phone 8.1 is released. It might be a good idea to stick with Cortana, given the company’s recent history of having to change names due to trademark disputes.
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[Source/image: The Verge]
