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Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

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Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#61

Post by ghughes »

sigkill wrote: post #55
Igglyboo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So this is one thing that puzzles me. Why can't phones have modular drivers like a PC? Phones of today are way more powerful than PC of the past, but it seems that manufacturers still want to keep an appliance like structure for the phone. In my ideal world, I'd download (say) Android 4.4 and install it on my phone. After that, I'd hunt around, download and install the drivers for my phone like mic, camera, gyro, etc…

Because it makes for a terrible user experience.

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#62

Post by sytelus »

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.

What we need is to simplify our lives, not to make so complicated to the extent that we feel lost without personal assistant on our wrists, pockets and in front of our eyes. This whole trend is in reverse direction. We are slapping more complexity on top of more complexity. This is only going to make people's live more complex, requiring even more smarter personal assistants. It's a vicious cycle.

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#63

Post by untog »

knodi123 wrote: post #59
garretraziel wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cortana will work offline? I didn't think something like this was possible, because I was sceptical whether standard smartphone was capable of all that natural language processing...

google now's voice recognition has worked offline for a while now

Voice recognition, yes. Language processing, no.

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#64

Post by sliverstorm »

sigkill wrote: post #55
Igglyboo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So this is one thing that puzzles me. Why can't phones have modular drivers like a PC? Phones of today are way more powerful than PC of the past, but it seems that manufacturers still want to keep an appliance like structure for the phone. In my ideal world, I'd download (say) Android 4.4 and install it on my phone. After that, I'd hunt around, download and install the drivers for my phone like mic, camera, gyro, etc…

You are in a much better position to wrangle with a half-working PC than your phone. No hardware keyboard or mouse, for starters.

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#65

Post by rdudek »

ladzoppelin wrote: post #54
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…

Actually they offer an app that lets you install updates directly from Microsoft , months before Nokia releases the update. Once Nokia releases its version of the update, it automatically uninstalls the "beta" MS updates. It allowed me to run Windows phone Black update like 4 months before Nokia released them. The app is called "Preview for Developers" and it makes you sign into your live account. http://www.windowsp…

Don't you need a dev account or unlocked dev phone in order to use this?

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#66

Post by sliverstorm »

sytelus wrote: post #62
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.

What we need is to simplify our lives, not to make so complicated to the extent that we feel lost without personal assistant on our wrists, pockets and in front of our eyes. This whole trend is in reverse direction. We are slapping more complexity on top of more complexity. This is only going to make people's live more complex, requiring even more smarter personal assistants. It's a vicious cycle.

requiring even more smarter personal assistants. It's a vicious cycle.

As a member of the computing industry, you should be happy about this :)

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#67

Post by y2bd »

rdudek wrote: post #65
ladzoppelin wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually they offer an app that lets you install updates directly from Microsoft , months before Nokia releases the update. Once Nokia releases its version of the update, it automatically uninstalls the "beta" MS updates. It allowed me to run Windows phone Black update like 4 months before Nokia released them. The app is called "Preview for Developers" and it makes you sign into your live account. http://www.windowsp…

Don't you need a dev account or unlocked dev phone in order to use this?

Yep. Obtaining a dev account isn't terribly difficult (you can get one for free if you use MS's "App Studio" program) and dev unlocking your phone directly follows from that, but it's definitely not a perfect solution.

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#68

Post by nivla »

garretraziel wrote: post #56
nivla wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

Cortana will work offline? I didn't think something like this was possible, because I was sceptical whether standard smartphone was capable of all that natural language processing...

If I remember correctly they did mention the Offline part when they first revealed about Cortana. I think their plan is to do offline language processing with possible online cross checks where cellular internet service is either terrible or nonexistent. So in parts of Asia where cellular internet is slow, it wouldn't appear laggy.

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#69

Post by nivla »

rdudek wrote: post #65
ladzoppelin wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually they offer an app that lets you install updates directly from Microsoft , months before Nokia releases the update. Once Nokia releases its version of the update, it automatically uninstalls the "beta" MS updates. It allowed me to run Windows phone Black update like 4 months before Nokia released them. The app is called "Preview for Developers" and it makes you sign into your live account. http://www.windowsp…

Don't you need a dev account or unlocked dev phone in order to use this?

You can go here [1] and select "Register as a developer with App Studio" - Free, and create apps to run on your own Windows Phones

[1] http://developer.windowsphone.com/en-us/featured/devpreview

Re: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 8.1 with personal assistant Cortana

#70

Post by dangrossman »

Days like this make me sad that I can't have the best of Windows Phone, iOS and Android at the same time. A "Cortana for Android" would be great. Some day perhaps phones will be standardized enough that, like the web, we can develop once and run anywhere without major sacrifices.
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