Microsoft is Working on 'Cortana' Personal Assistant to Rival Siri

Microsoft is working on a 'Cortana' personal assistant to rival Apple's Siri and Google Now, reports ZDNet.

Signs of Cortana were first spotted on a Lumia allegedly purchased on eBay. The phone was running a beta of the Windows Phone OS and had an unrecognized app installed called 'zCortanaApp'. The 'z' indicates a test build.

The name 'Cortana' comes from an artificially intelligent character in the Halo series of video games. Like in the game, Microsoft's assistant will be able to learn and adapt using machine-learning technology such as the 'Satori' knowledge repository that powers Bing, says ZDNet.

Cortana will be more than just an app that lets users interact with their phones more naturally using voice commands. Cortana is core to the makeover of the entire "shell" -- the core services and experience -- of the future versions of Windows Phone, Windows and the Xbox One operating systems, from what I've heard from my contacts.

In Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's strategy memo from July he hinted at "a family of devices powered by a service-enabled shell."

"Our UI will be deeply personalized, based on the advanced, almost magical, intelligence in our cloud that learns more and more over time about people and the world. Our shell will natively support all of our essential services, and will be great at responding seamlessly to what people ask for, and even anticipating what they need before they ask for it."

The shell will "broker information among our services to bring them together on our devices in ways that will enable richer and deeper app experiences," Ballmer said.

The 'Cortana' assistant likely won't appear until 2014-2016, according to Microsoft execs. Bing officials reportedly told CNET that Microsoft decided to wait until it had something revolutionary, rather than evolutionary.





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- Posted using my iPhone 5

How to Make Siri Recognize Your Contact Names

These are instructions on how to get Siri to recognize the names of your contacts. This is especially useful for names that are difficult to pronounce or are said different from how they're spelled.

Step One
Launch Contacts from your Springboard or from the MobilePhone app.



Step Two
Select a contact from your address book.



Step Three
Press the Edit button at the top right of your screen.



Step Four
Scroll down and select Add Field from the list of buttons.




Step Five
Choose Phonetic First Name or Phonetic Last Name from the list of possible fields.



Step Six
Enter the phonetic pronunciation of the name that Siri isn't recognizing then press the Done button at the top right of your screen.






NICKNAME
You can also get Siri to recognize and refer to a contact or yourself using an entirely different name by adding a Nickname field to the contact entry.



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- Posted using my iPhone 4

iPhone 4S, It really is twice as fast, Siri supports Raise to Speak

As Apple announced this morning one million iPhone 4S pre-orders in just 24 hours and some customers began receiving shipping notifications, someone out there already has the handset in their hands and they have a video to prove it (via MacRumors). The interesting bit is the Siri section in Settings which lets you choose between activating Siri by holding down the home button or simply raising your handset to your ear, which 9to5Mac indicated back in August. This feature isn’t simply activated via the iPhone’s proximity sensor sensing your ear (like the Google app for iOS), but also taps motion sensors for accuracy as well. Other Siri options in the Settings interface include language choices (English, French and German at launch, Apple promised more to come at a later stage), Voice Feedback, My Info and enabling/disabling Siri system-wide. According to early benchmarks, Apple wasn’t lying describing iPhone 4S as “twice as fast”. The handset scores 2222.1 milliseconds in the SunSpider benchmark and 89567 in the BrowserMark benchmark. This compares to a BrowserMark score of 44856 on an iPhone 4 with iOS 5.


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- Posted using my iPhone 4

Is Siri coming to your television?

Siri, an intelligent voice-controlled personal assistant which debuted with the iPhone 4S, could come to your big screen television via Apple’s set-top box. The evidence is inconclusive at this point, but clues exist pointing in this direction. For starters, Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross speculated about Siri on the Apple TV in her note to clients last week, observing (via Fortune’s Apple 2.0 blog):

One interesting application of the Siri technology would be with Apple TV (either the existing device or actual TV’s that Apple may launch). We think this would solve the industry’s difficulties with remote controls… We think it would be very compelling to own a TV or a device that could quickly answer the request, “I want to watch the Yankees/Red Sox game,” by changing the TV channel without requiring the user to look at a guide or use a remote control, or even specifying HD or standard definition feeds, since you would want the HD channel if available. Or, you could instruct the device to record all new episodes of a show, without leaving the program you are currently watching. Finally, since you are online, a Siri enabled TV could answer whether your iPhone or computer has received a new message, and let you respond accordingly.
I know what you’re thinking… Analysts, they also predicted flying cars, right? But if Apple were to bring the Siri functionality into their set top-box, they would need to issue a hardware refresh because the current-generation Apple TV powered by the A4 processor lacks oomph to run Siri. As 9to5Mac discovered on Friday, the Apple TV 3,1 reference in the iOS file system indicates a major hardware refresh for the device. While references to devices that have never come to fruition had previously appeared in the iOS code, this one comes from a file that Apple uses to activate unreleased devices in testing. If Apple is testing a new Apple TV with the A5 chip, it would indicate full HD 1080P video playback and – although this is a stretch – the possibility of voice-controlled input powered by Siri. Think telling your Apple TV to search for movies from 2010 starring Tom Cruise, play four stars-rated songs by Bob Dylan, serve up weather information, compare stocks, rate an episode of a TV show you’re watching, asking “who directed this movie” and so forth. And while we’re at it…



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iPhone 4S Wants to Kill You video

Siri, the new virtual assistant installed in every iPhone 4S, is a technical wonder. Powered by vocal commands, users can verbally ask their device questions and request specific tasks, and Siri obeys their every word. Ask, "What's the weather like in Phoenix?" and Siri spits back a forecast. Request a reminder to call your wife when you leave work, and Siri's right on top of that.

But should Siri begin to sound like GLaDOS -- the malevolent, yet even-tempered AI villain in the Portal series -- then it's time to grab your Companion Cube and run!

In this parody video, Siri is replaced with GLaDOS and suddenly, the users' tasks, questions, and life become utterly insignificant. Their weight, however, is subject to much mockery.

Wheatley implementation hopefully forthcoming.



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- Posted using my iPhone 4