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

Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

thenextweb.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 118 posts

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#41

Post by y2bd »

WrkInProgress wrote: post #38
y2bd wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope that as developers we're able to take advantage of this conversational style. At the moment, WP apps can hook into the rather limited "Tell Me" system that lets the user open various endpoints of an app via voice commands, and only using pre-defined parameters. It would be awesome if the user could pass in any arbitrary data via voice commands (devs could make custom scheduler/todo list/note-taking apps that c…

They just did a demo of exactly what you requested for sending a new tweet. Conversational style instead of pre-defined phrases and it just sent a tweet instead of opening the twitter app.

I think that Twitter might be entwined enough into the OS such that it'd get permissions that other third-party devs wouldn't. I would totally love to be wrong though.

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#42

Post by gecko »

nivla wrote: post #39
m_mueller wrote: post #13

- How well can it handle natural language, compared to Siri? - Can it handle an interaction such as: -- "Michael, you've got a new message from Paul" -- "Read it for me" -- 'Ok, Paul wrote: "Where should we meet today?"' -- "Answer with "in the Starbucks, at noon as we discussed". -- 'Ok, here is what I understood: "In the Starbucks, at noon as we discussed". Shall I send it? -- "yes" -- "Ok, your reply has been sent…

Watch the presentation: http://channel9.msdn.com/?wt.mc_id=build_hp It starts around 1:12:00

(And for people who don't want to watch: it appears, based on the demo, that it handles conversation flow dramatically better than Siri does, but I'll need to actually play with the real thing to know whether that's just presentation veneer.)

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#43

Post by nivla »

untog wrote: post #3

Kudos to MS for making their personal assistant extendable by third party apps. Neither Apple nor Google have managed to do that yet.

Since you have access to Cortana's notebook, you can set boundaries as to what she tracks about you. This and what I heard about them making Cortana work offline, I just hope Apple and Google would follow suit. Honestly, I am just tired of storing every bit of information about me in the "cloud".

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#45

Post by at-fates-hands »

gecko wrote: post #42
nivla wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watch the presentation: http://channel9.msdn.com/?wt.mc_id=build_hp It starts around 1:12:00

(And for people who don't want to watch: it appears, based on the demo, that it handles conversation flow dramatically better than Siri does, but I'll need to actually play with the real thing to know whether that's just presentation veneer.)

Wow, they're rolling this out globally next week.

I just recently switched back to Android (Motorola Razr Maxx) and will be switching back this weekend when I upgrade to the Nokia Icon. This latest update is coming out a lot sooner than I thought. Unreal.

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#46

Post by acron0 »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #21

I am slowly becoming convinced that the next killer app is the personal assistant app. My life is sharded between contact books and voip apps and IM and email that hardly if ever talk to each other or make my life easier. Its a huge market, but space for a lot of niches.

You need to watch 'Her', the Spike Jonze film ;)

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#47

Post by JonFish85 »

What baffles me is why the hell Microsoft didn't follow Apple's route of controlling their own distribution? Now Windows Mobile users have to figure out when their network is going to distribute the update[1]? That is hideous from a user standpoint.

Microsoft has the money to convince the carriers, and probably a lot of weight as well. Why wouldn't they avoid that nightmare?

Granted I don't have a windows phone so it doesn't affect me, but my brief foray into the Android world frustrated the hell out of me in this regard. With Android it was an extra step: Android released, phone manufacturer needed to build their own version of it, then my carrier needed to decide when I could access it.

When Apple announces an update, I can download it whenever I want it.

[1] http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/micros...

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#48

Post by baddox »

JTon wrote: post #4
facorreia wrote: post #2

Named after the fictional Halo character: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortana

I think it's a fascinating move on Microsoft's part to integrate a video game character into a users day-to-day reality. I can imagine some nostalgia fueled sales happening as a result. But moreover, I can't help but be reminded of the movie Her. Where the lines between our physical reality and our digital reality start to blur

The reference to Her is especially relevant, since in the Halo series Cortana was clearly designed for sex appeal, and romantic tension between Master Chief (the player character) and Cortana was strongly implied.

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#49

Post by Igglyboo »

JonFish85 wrote: post #47

What baffles me is why the hell Microsoft didn't follow Apple's route of controlling their own distribution? Now Windows Mobile users have to figure out when their network is going to distribute the update[1]? That is hideous from a user standpoint. Microsoft has the money to convince the carriers, and probably a lot of weight as well. Why wouldn't they avoid that nightmare? Granted I don't have a windows phone so it…

Well there are only 8 different phones that run iOS, and they are all made by the same company. While there are hundreds of phones that run android made by tens of different companies, it's not that easy to do the same with android.

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#50

Post by WrkInProgress »

y2bd wrote: post #41
WrkInProgress wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They just did a demo of exactly what you requested for sending a new tweet. Conversational style instead of pre-defined phrases and it just sent a tweet instead of opening the twitter app.

I think that Twitter might be entwined enough into the OS such that it'd get permissions that other third-party devs wouldn't. I would totally love to be wrong though.

I actually started watching the live stream after they demoed Cortana but going back now and seeing Belfiore demo Cortana:

- He added a show to his queue in Hulu but it stayed in the app - He said "what's up with Terry Meyerson" and it went straight to Terry's facebook profile.

And I realize that FB has some deep integration within the OS (just like Twitter)

Post reply on HN