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Microsoft’s Cortana Headed to iPhone and Android Phones

blogs.wsj.com

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Re: Microsoft’s Cortana Headed to iPhone and Android Phones

#41

Post by BinaryIdiot »

yohui wrote: post #27
jfuhrman wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Realistically Microsoft could strike a deal and make an Android phone use Cortana by default (which might be really good) which would be quite interesting (especially if it could integrate with third party apps on Android, too). Is there no way for the user of a Android phone to set Cortana as default? That seems strange given Google's and other folks' claims that Android is open. If this is the case then it looks A…

The user can. BinaryIdiot means striking a deal with a manufacturer, the same way PC manufacturers make agreements to preinstall software on Windows machines. But while manufacturers such as Samsung can and have agreed to preload Microsoft apps on Android devices, I don't think Google would allow manufacturers to change the search provider. Though that still doesn't prevent them from preinstalling Cortana, or replaci…

> I don't think Google would allow manufacturers to change the search provider.

I don't see why not; Samsung devices come with SVoice enabled as the default voice interaction.

Re: Microsoft’s Cortana Headed to iPhone and Android Phones

#42

Post by BrianEatWorld »

spoiledtechie wrote: post #26

I dont know how many of you are windows phone users but I think Microsoft missed a few very important features with Cortana. Most notably the qr scanner and Bing backgrounds that they had with the previous search feature. It diminished my experience soo much that I disabled Cortana entirely from my phone only to go back to the default search, which is just as good if not better than Cortana. I wasn't a power user wit…

You can still get access to the QR feature/Bing Vision, you just have to look under Lenses.

I was also bummed about this change, but used it infrequently enough that I don't mind it being located under Lenses.

If you check the Store, you can even pick up an app called QR for Cortana that can be pinned as a shortcut to get quick access to the Lenses menu.

Re: Microsoft’s Cortana Headed to iPhone and Android Phones

#43

Post by yohui »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #41
yohui wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The user can. BinaryIdiot means striking a deal with a manufacturer, the same way PC manufacturers make agreements to preinstall software on Windows machines. But while manufacturers such as Samsung can and have agreed to preload Microsoft apps on Android devices, I don't think Google would allow manufacturers to change the search provider. Though that still doesn't prevent them from preinstalling Cortana, or replaci…

> I don't think Google would allow manufacturers to change the search provider. I don't see why not; Samsung devices come with SVoice enabled as the default voice interaction.

I assumed Google's requirements for allowing the Play Store on devices would include making Google the default search engine, but I may be mistaken, since it seems Android devices with Bing or Yahoo as the default have appeared in the past.

Re: Microsoft’s Cortana Headed to iPhone and Android Phones

#44

Post by userbinator »

jfuhrman wrote: post #25
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #3

One of the biggest advantages of Cortana was its ability to interface with third party application pretty much at launch (something Siri and Google Now still don't do much of). Going cross platform is awesome though I'm not sure if it'll be quite as useful. Realistically Microsoft could strike a deal and make an Android phone use Cortana by default (which might be really good) which would be quite interesting (especi…

>Realistically Microsoft could strike a deal and make an Android phone use Cortana by default (which might be really good) which would be quite interesting (especially if it could integrate with third party apps on Android, too). Is there no way for the user of a Android phone to set Cortana as default? That seems strange given Google's and other folks' claims that Android is open. If this is the case then it looks A…

If this is the case then it looks Android is more closed than a Windows PC where it would be trivial for a developer to create such a service without the platform owner's permission. How is Android more open than Windows again?

Windows (desktop) is more open in the sense that the platform has fewer constraints on what the user can do by default. Android is more open in the sense that most of the source code is available. These points are not exclusive and do not conflict with each other. It's possible to have a very "hackable" platform without any source code at all - if there is enough interest in RE - and also a very limited platform of which all the source is available, but crypographic signing and other measures get in the way of being able to modify the software.

Windows (phone) is far less open though, and in general this has been the case with mobile devices.

But Windows (desktop) is slowly getting more locked-down too, as a consequence of the "war on general purpose computing".

Re: Microsoft’s Cortana Headed to iPhone and Android Phones

#45

Post by devsquid »

jfuhrman wrote: post #25
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #3

One of the biggest advantages of Cortana was its ability to interface with third party application pretty much at launch (something Siri and Google Now still don't do much of). Going cross platform is awesome though I'm not sure if it'll be quite as useful. Realistically Microsoft could strike a deal and make an Android phone use Cortana by default (which might be really good) which would be quite interesting (especi…

>Realistically Microsoft could strike a deal and make an Android phone use Cortana by default (which might be really good) which would be quite interesting (especially if it could integrate with third party apps on Android, too). Is there no way for the user of a Android phone to set Cortana as default? That seems strange given Google's and other folks' claims that Android is open. If this is the case then it looks A…

You can do all these things.

Android is very open, if it wasn't how could other companies take the OS and make their own very successful clones. Such as Amazon or any of the Chinese variants. No one has done that with Windows.

Re: Microsoft’s Cortana Headed to iPhone and Android Phones

#46

Post by bad_user »

Artemis2 wrote: post #11
higherpurpose wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Android is still far more open than Windows Phone/mobile from that point of view, which is why it's possible for Microsoft to do many of these things with Android. Last I checked you couldn't even have another browser other than IE on Windows Phone, and I assume that won't change with Windows 10 mobile. Also you can make Android apps work on Windows or another OS relatively easy but the reverse isn't true (not c…

Android is open, Google is not at all. Google is actually pulling source code off AOSP (the actual open-source Android) to put more of it into their custom, closed-source applications. As a result, a base install of Android without all Google's services is very poor and pretty outdated. [0] Most of the work Microsoft does on Android (and iOS) would easily be replicable by Google on Windows Phone: Office, Skype, OneDr…

That first article is poor and you're giving it as if it's a valid reference.

I have an older Nexus 4 that I keep around, with CyanogenMod installed on it and without Google's services, which is pretty much AOSP. Despite what seems to be popular opinion, it's quite usable. The big thing that is missing and the reason for why Google affords to keep mobile phone makers by their balls are of course Google Play, Gmail and Google Maps. You do have F-Droid and Amazon's app store. It's quite an interesting experience - if you have an Android lying around, try it out.

Re: Microsoft’s Cortana Headed to iPhone and Android Phones

#47

Post by dethstar »

yohui wrote: post #36
jfuhrman wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why does Microsoft say this in their blog post: >Although the functionality will be very helpful, because it’s “just an app” there will be certain things that Cortana does on Windows phones that won’t work on Android devices or iPhones. Some features require access to the system that aren’t currently possible with iOS or Android, so things like toggling settings or opening apps won’t initially be available in th…

Tasker can certainly change settings and launch apps, so I don't see why Cortana couldn't. Maybe Microsoft just means it's more difficult? They do say certain features "won't initially be available", which implies they will in the future, though this contradicts the statement that the features "won't work". Hands-free voice control is tricky because Qualcomm controls hardware support. There are some workarounds if yo…

Doesnt tasker require root? Im pretty sure they mean with a regular not tinkered with phone

Re: Microsoft’s Cortana Headed to iPhone and Android Phones

#48

Post by frik »

"But the release of Cortana and the companion app—as well as other fully featured Microsoft apps like OneDrive, Office and Outlook.com—on iOS and Android is an acknowledgment that Windows phones will likely never be chosen by a significant chunk of even the most diehard Windows users"

Microsoft Excel 1.0 was first on Mac, there was never a 1.0 for DOS or Windows. Windows is still the monopoly on PC with 90+% share due OEM and EFI. For the mobile devices both iOS and Android are big, then comes the smaller rest of Win, Blackberry, Bada, Jelly, Ubuntu, FirefoxOS, etc. WinCE had a head start 20 years ago, but especially the die hard Windows users turned away from WinMobile 6.5 (CE based) as it was dumped with all its app eco system in favor of WinPhone 7 (still CE but with only Silverlight/XAML apps) that was as useful as Android 1 or iOS 1.

Re: Microsoft’s Cortana Headed to iPhone and Android Phones

#49

Post by frik »

maemre wrote: post #10
macspoofing wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Realistically Microsoft could strike a deal and make an Android phone use Cortana by default Zero chance for Google doing it but maybe one of manufacturers or Cyanogen?

They may convince manifacturers (like Samsung) rather than Google and ship Cortana as part of OEM software.

Zero chance for Samsung, the have their own personal assistant since Galaxy S2. (both Apple's Siri and Samsung one are now based on Nuance technology)

Re: Microsoft’s Cortana Headed to iPhone and Android Phones

#50

Post by sib »

josu wrote: post #12
jedberg wrote: post #9

It's interesting that Microsoft seems to be using the same playbook they used with Windows -- make the software run everywhere and sell the software that goes with it. While Apple keeps using their playbook -- make software that goes with their hardware so that people buy the hardware. It will be interesting to see which one wins out this time. So far it's clearly Apple, but time will tell.

>It will be interesting to see which one wins out this time. So far it's clearly Apple, but time will tell. If you want to compare apples to apples (no pun intended) you should take a look at software sales. So far, neither seems to be doing that well on mobile platforms. I have never bought a Microsoft nor an Apple app on my mobile devices.

Not sure that's really a relevant comparison given that Microsoft is (effectively) a software company and Apple (effectively) a hardware company. Apple's relative lack of software sales on mobile does not prevent their software and ecosystem from driving literally hundreds of billions of dollars of high-margin hardware sales.
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