Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft’s Cortana Headed to iPhone and Android Phones

blogs.wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 73 posts

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

#31

Post by julianz »

hbharadwaj wrote: post #28
julianz wrote: post #22

How about they actually get around to releasing it on Windows Phone? I bought a Lumia 735 three weeks ago partly based on advertising on the MS NZ site that said Cortana was available. It's not, and now they've removed that page. The most annoying thing about that is the "quiet hours" feature is somehow dependent on Cortana, so the phone doesn't do that either. (Other than that, very nice phone and OS, just hobbled)

You can just set your location as US. That would make it work. (Not ideal)

Thanks - I did try that but I haven't been able to come up with any combination of location and regional settings that works on this phone. Even setting it to US everything doesn't work.

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

#32

Post by yellowapple »

baghira wrote: post #21
yellowapple wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did, once upon a time; IE was available for Mac OS (pre-X, IIRC) and Unix back in the 90's. Bringing back cross-platform IE is probably a lost cause nowadays, but a cross-platform Spartan is possible.

IE was available for OSX all the way through 10.6 IIRC.

Was that native support, or was it based on OS 9 / Classic emulation? I know that the PowerPC versions of OS X (i.e. every OS X up to and including 10.5) supported running OS 9 software in a sort of emulation layer (though I don't remember if this was first-party or third-party; I do recall PowerPC Macs with OS X having a "Classic Mode" that booted into OS 9, however).

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

#33

Post by jfuhrman »

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…

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 the Cortana companions for those platforms. Similarly, the ability to invoke Cortana hands-free by saying “Hey Cortana” requires special integration with the device’s microphone, so that feature will be limited to Windows Phones and PCs.

Is it a design decision or a platform restriction?

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

#34

Post by jfuhrman »

Earlier discussion of the actual source here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9606188

Looks like it was quickly knocked off the front page by the flamebait detector thanks to the offtopic toxic comments accusing MS employees of voting up the the post.

http://hnrankings.info/9606188/

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

#35

Post by abrowne »

yellowapple wrote: post #32
baghira wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IE was available for OSX all the way through 10.6 IIRC.

Was that native support, or was it based on OS 9 / Classic emulation? I know that the PowerPC versions of OS X (i.e. every OS X up to and including 10.5) supported running OS 9 software in a sort of emulation layer (though I don't remember if this was first-party or third-party; I do recall PowerPC Macs with OS X having a "Classic Mode" that booted into OS 9, however).

Carbon, so not Classic, but based on the updated Classic Mac OS layer.

It was PPC only, last updated in 2003.

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

#36

Post by yohui »

jfuhrman wrote: post #33
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…

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 you don't want to license Qualcomm's tech, but I guess Microsoft may not want to use such hacks. Otherwise, without Qualcomm's dedicated always-on voice coprocessor, leaving the mic on would drain the battery.

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

#37

Post by [deleted] »

macspoofing wrote: post #4
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 Zero chance for Google doing it but maybe one of manufacturers or Cyanogen?

[deleted]

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

#38

Post by seanmcdirmid »

julianz wrote: post #31
hbharadwaj wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can just set your location as US. That would make it work. (Not ideal)

Thanks - I did try that but I haven't been able to come up with any combination of location and regional settings that works on this phone. Even setting it to US everything doesn't work.

I have this problem also. Cortana either thinks I'm in America or that I speak Chinese, but I couldn't possibly be an American living in China :p

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

#39

Post by [deleted] »

jfuhrman wrote: post #33
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…

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…

[deleted]

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

#40

Post by jkestner »

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…

Really, you used QR codes? Those two things I never thought about. I don't remember much about the previous experience, but I use Cortana quite a bit. Just having it be smart about suggesting directions, flight tracking, reminders, text messages, all from one point where I can either speak or type, makes it a thing I go to without thought. Voice recognition -> helpful answer is the best overall intelligent assistant I've used.
Post reply on HN