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Farewell, Cortana

gizmodo.com

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Re: Farewell, Cortana

#71

Post by jotm »

kgwxd wrote: post #3
js4ever wrote: post #2

I don't know a single person using Cortana, so it's not a surprise I guess. At least the push to use it in Windows will finally go away... A bit too late I have migrated to Ubuntu earlier this year... Puting an end to 20 years of Windows on my computer. Farewell Microsoft.

Does anyone use any voice assistant anywhere? Other than people trying it out for the first time, I've literally never seen it in the wild.

I played with it when you could replace the godawful "OK Google" phrase with your own. It was pretty useless.

I'm never saying "OK Google". Siri, Cortana, etc are a bit better but why not let people personalize that? Gotta remind people who owns them?

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#72

Post by MereInterest »

1123581321 wrote: post #36

I would have been fine using Cortana in Windows 10, but unfortunately, it slowed down the Windows key search UI just enough to be frustrating and worth the time to disable in settings. I don’t at all mind its existence but it really needs to add functionality without introducing new drawbacks, especially for frequently used areas of the OS. (MacOS was little better as it didn’t even try to integrate Siri with Spotlig…

Agreed entirely. In Windows 7, I could hit the Winkey, type the first few letters of a program, then hit enter. The results were instant and consistent, so I could build muscle memory on it. In Windows 10, the search results take several seconds to show up, and change depending on what new files there are, how many starting characters I typed, whether the index is up to date, and the phase of the moon.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#73

Post by jinushaun »

kgwxd wrote: post #3
js4ever wrote: post #2

I don't know a single person using Cortana, so it's not a surprise I guess. At least the push to use it in Windows will finally go away... A bit too late I have migrated to Ubuntu earlier this year... Puting an end to 20 years of Windows on my computer. Farewell Microsoft.

Does anyone use any voice assistant anywhere? Other than people trying it out for the first time, I've literally never seen it in the wild.

Almost everyone I know owns either a Google Home or an Echo. Mostly for checking the weather, playing music and turning on/off lights

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#74

Post by kd913 »

davnicwil wrote: post #10
kgwxd wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone use any voice assistant anywhere? Other than people trying it out for the first time, I've literally never seen it in the wild.

I use Google assistant to set reminders. It's so much more convenient than clicking through and typing the same thing on my phone especially or even my laptop. Literally works in 3 seconds. It's great!

I don't think that is worth the privacy lost by having Google parse voice commands. 15-30 seconds inputting data versus privacy lost by having a profile generated on me by Google.

A Google VP literally said that you should warn guests if you have voice assistants in your home.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#75

Post by coldtea »

pamitm wrote: post #56
coldtea wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using a voice assistant might be less distracting than using your phone, but it's still distracting while driving, having to concentrate on what you say, the right commands, their feedback, etc.

Almost the same level of distraction as holding a conversation then. I can live with that.

A conversation with another person in the car is not the same as a phone conversation (for one, the other person doesn't share the road cues with you to know to stop talking when something requires attention, can't see your face and you can't see theirs, it's easier to get emotionally triggered, etc). And of course another person in the car can also help point to things to watch out on the road, a person in a phone call, not.

Even worse, talking to an assistant is even worse, you need to spend mental effort to phrase things in a certain way (voice interface wise), parse their responses (which could be off), and so on...

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#76

Post by Lewton »

MereInterest wrote: post #72
1123581321 wrote: post #36

I would have been fine using Cortana in Windows 10, but unfortunately, it slowed down the Windows key search UI just enough to be frustrating and worth the time to disable in settings. I don’t at all mind its existence but it really needs to add functionality without introducing new drawbacks, especially for frequently used areas of the OS. (MacOS was little better as it didn’t even try to integrate Siri with Spotlig…

Agreed entirely. In Windows 7, I could hit the Winkey, type the first few letters of a program, then hit enter. The results were instant and consistent, so I could build muscle memory on it. In Windows 10, the search results take several seconds to show up, and change depending on what new files there are, how many starting characters I typed, whether the index is up to date, and the phase of the moon.

There must be a lot of macs or linux machines in the department responsible for the search because there's no way any developer is dogfooding that user hostile mess

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#77

Post by mgkimsal »

pmarreck wrote: post #40
mgkimsal wrote: post #35

try saying "hey cortana" to your siri or google devices.

"Hey Siri" ::double chime:: "Hey Cortana" Siri: "That's like comparing apples and... Not apples."

i think you can ask siri about cortana. i've gotten back something about how siri understands how hard being an assistant is, and has respect for all assistants.

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#78

Post by rcarmo »

kgwxd wrote: post #3
js4ever wrote: post #2

I don't know a single person using Cortana, so it's not a surprise I guess. At least the push to use it in Windows will finally go away... A bit too late I have migrated to Ubuntu earlier this year... Puting an end to 20 years of Windows on my computer. Farewell Microsoft.

Does anyone use any voice assistant anywhere? Other than people trying it out for the first time, I've literally never seen it in the wild.

I use Siri extensively with HomeKit, and have an Echo in my office for development.

Siri talks to a dozen lights, sockets and sensors about the house, but I don't trust Alexa with access to more than a couple (essentially my office lights) since their security model sucks compared to Apple's (Google's isn't much better, IMHO).

For instance, I was forced to open my Plex server to the outside to get Alexa to play music on my office speakers, which is borderline insane (I set up another Plex server on a VM with my "work" music).

Re: Farewell, Cortana

#80

Post by Kye »

TheRealWatson wrote: post #11
kgwxd wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone use any voice assistant anywhere? Other than people trying it out for the first time, I've literally never seen it in the wild.

This is clearly the worst crowd possible, except maybe people with speech disabilities, to ask this question. Just look at how many people don't like it. I really can't make myself talk to a machine. I even abhor the phone answering services that insist that I speak instead of punching numbers. I my household the only person that interacts with the Echo/Alexa is our 3 year-old daughter. She finds it funny. On the oth…

You can persuade most of these to let you use numbers if you respond by hitting 0 every time they repeat the question until they produce a number punching list.
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