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Cortana available on iOS and Android

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Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#51

Post by jbigelow76 »

danpeddle wrote: post #25
probably_wrong wrote: post #10

I want to like Cortana, I really do. Unfortunately, it's linked to my phone's default language. So even though I could speak English, Cortana will not talk to me because my phone's interface is in Spanish. That is something I can understand - maybe there are development reasons why second language voice recognition is not possible. However, every time I update my OS, Cortana is added to my main screen again, perhaps…

Sigh, that's sad. It baffles me that there are still so many services that try to 'automagically' intuit which language someone wants to have a service in, instead of just simply .. asking. Google play is a prime culprit, for example, showing a mixture of language content on the play store. See also subtitles, dubbed content, books.. Another one - Sony's Playstation store, where if you choose a country, then the lang…

It baffles me that there are still so many services that try to 'automagically' intuit which language someone wants to have a service in, instead of just simply .. asking.

They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they don't automatically intuit users will call them lazy or declare it bad UX for not using the same language the phone is set to.

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#52

Post by nucleardog »

danpeddle wrote: post #25
probably_wrong wrote: post #10

I want to like Cortana, I really do. Unfortunately, it's linked to my phone's default language. So even though I could speak English, Cortana will not talk to me because my phone's interface is in Spanish. That is something I can understand - maybe there are development reasons why second language voice recognition is not possible. However, every time I update my OS, Cortana is added to my main screen again, perhaps…

Sigh, that's sad. It baffles me that there are still so many services that try to 'automagically' intuit which language someone wants to have a service in, instead of just simply .. asking. Google play is a prime culprit, for example, showing a mixture of language content on the play store. See also subtitles, dubbed content, books.. Another one - Sony's Playstation store, where if you choose a country, then the lang…

Worst one for me is Google Now's voice service (simply because that's the only one I've ever really used).

Many features and recognition roll out to English (US) first and remain unavailable to me for a long time. I'm in Canada. It's the exact same language, just with some extra "u"s scattered around in the written form.

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#53

Post by celticjames »

reitanqild wrote: post #20
probably_wrong wrote: post #10

I want to like Cortana, I really do. Unfortunately, it's linked to my phone's default language. So even though I could speak English, Cortana will not talk to me because my phone's interface is in Spanish. That is something I can understand - maybe there are development reasons why second language voice recognition is not possible. However, every time I update my OS, Cortana is added to my main screen again, perhaps…

On PC it refuses even if my user interface is English.

I couldn't get it to work because my region is Canada but my speech language was set to English (US). I had to install the speech recognition pack for English (Canada). In a way I sort of flattered that Cortana recognizes my distinct cultural identity.

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#54

Post by Joeri »

Maarten88 wrote: post #30
reitanqild wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On PC it refuses even if my user interface is English.

Indeed. I think Cortana does not have the knowledge and data it needs as an assistant (such as restaurants, shops, transportation) for many countries even if you set the language to English.

Cortana also does reminders, why can't they offer the locale independent parts of Cortana everywhere?

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#56

Post by simonh »

jbigelow76 wrote: post #51
danpeddle wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sigh, that's sad. It baffles me that there are still so many services that try to 'automagically' intuit which language someone wants to have a service in, instead of just simply .. asking. Google play is a prime culprit, for example, showing a mixture of language content on the play store. See also subtitles, dubbed content, books.. Another one - Sony's Playstation store, where if you choose a country, then the lang…

It baffles me that there are still so many services that try to 'automagically' intuit which language someone wants to have a service in, instead of just simply .. asking. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they don't automatically intuit users will call them lazy or declare it bad UX for not using the same language the phone is set to.

If only it was possible to automatically determine sensible defaults, but override default settings in applications.

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#57

Post by AgentME »

Domenic_S wrote: post #36
danpeddle wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sigh, that's sad. It baffles me that there are still so many services that try to 'automagically' intuit which language someone wants to have a service in, instead of just simply .. asking. Google play is a prime culprit, for example, showing a mixture of language content on the play store. See also subtitles, dubbed content, books.. Another one - Sony's Playstation store, where if you choose a country, then the lang…

> It baffles me that there are still so many services that try to 'automagically' intuit which language someone wants to have a service in, instead of just simply .. asking. My experience is that language/locale implementation for a big project is so complex that PMs like to handwave the language selection part away. On a recent project I had to go back and ask, "What if an english-speaking user is traveling in Germa…

When I was in China for a while, a frustrating thing was that many websites I've visited often started assuming and practically insisting that I knew Chinese. There was more than one site that I couldn't figure out how to switch back to English. I checked that my browser was still giving the "Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.5" header, but clearly websites know better than me.

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#58

Post by junto »

probably_wrong wrote: post #10

I want to like Cortana, I really do. Unfortunately, it's linked to my phone's default language. So even though I could speak English, Cortana will not talk to me because my phone's interface is in Spanish. That is something I can understand - maybe there are development reasons why second language voice recognition is not possible. However, every time I update my OS, Cortana is added to my main screen again, perhaps…

I have similar experiences living in a country where the dominant language is not my own. I hate the assumption that location should determine language preference.

I've worked with several really smart programmers from the US during my career. However, I've noticed that their geographical knowledge of anything outside the US is extremely poor (generalisation I know).

I assume this is due to the education system. Could this be the reason why large global players like Facebook and Google have such a poor acceptance and understanding concerning language, location and locales? Simply because many of the programmers are American?

I often give the example that there are vastly more Catalan speakers in the world than those that speak Norwegian. However Catalan speakers are treated like second class citizens because most of them live in Spain, and programmers assume that Spain equals Spanish. And we are talking millions of people more. It isn't a small number.

I'm often reminded of the urban tale of the man who approached a well known seller of washing-up liquid. He promised them a 25% increase in sales and he's receive 5% of the 25%. They agreed since they had nothing to lose and he told them to make the hole in the squeezy bottle 25% bigger. The people still squeezed the bottle for the same amount of time and the genius went home happy.

So I say to Facebook and Google, "use the language of the user, as defined in their browser language s settings primarily, but offer the user a choice to change it. I'd like 25% of the increased sales" .

The user's location should never be used unless you have legal obligations that are tied to geography. In which case, don't show an ad, since they'll not only be ineffective, but they make your company appear incompetent to the end user as well. Especially when I've registered to use your service and selected a preferred language!

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#59

Post by Mahn »

dave5104 wrote: post #35
danpeddle wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sigh, that's sad. It baffles me that there are still so many services that try to 'automagically' intuit which language someone wants to have a service in, instead of just simply .. asking. Google play is a prime culprit, for example, showing a mixture of language content on the play store. See also subtitles, dubbed content, books.. Another one - Sony's Playstation store, where if you choose a country, then the lang…

I don't think there's a problem with automagically inferring the language. It sounds like the problem lies in not being able to override that decision.

That's exactly the thing, in an ideal world it would try to infer the language automatically, but still let you change it if you are not happy with it.

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#60

Post by vagelim »

dave5104 wrote: post #35
danpeddle wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sigh, that's sad. It baffles me that there are still so many services that try to 'automagically' intuit which language someone wants to have a service in, instead of just simply .. asking. Google play is a prime culprit, for example, showing a mixture of language content on the play store. See also subtitles, dubbed content, books.. Another one - Sony's Playstation store, where if you choose a country, then the lang…

I don't think there's a problem with automagically inferring the language. It sounds like the problem lies in not being able to override that decision.

Well then you open up the possibility of being unable to override the language because you cannot interpret the one inferred.
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