Cortana

As expected, Microsoft today discontinued its Cortana mobile app. As a result, the company has ended all support for third-party Cortana skills and eliminated the Cortana app for iOS and Android devices. For those unfamiliar with Cortana, it is Microsoft's version of Siri or Alexa, an AI-based personal assistant that can answer questions and complete small tasks. The eponymous mobile app was ...

Microsoft today announced plans to "shift toward a transformational AI-powered assistant experience" in its Microsoft 365 apps, which will involve refocusing its "areas of innovation and development." As a result, Microsoft is ending all support for third-party Cortana skills and eliminating the Cortana apps for iOS and Android devices. Third-party Cortana skills will be deprecated on...

Alongside a slate of announcements made this morning, Microsoft has launched a new text-to-speech feature for Cortana in the Outlook app for iOS devices. With this feature, called "Play My Emails," the Outlook app uses Cortana's natural language interactions and AI to read out your latest emails. Microsoft is aiming this feature at users who want to catch up on their inboxes while doing...

Apple analyst Gene Munster of Loup Ventures recently tested the accuracy of digital assistants on four smart speakers by asking Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana a series of 800 questions each on the Amazon Echo, HomePod, Google Home Mini, and Harmon Kardon Invoke respectively. The results indicate that Siri on the HomePod correctly answered 74.6 percent of the questions, a dramatic ...

Microsoft today released an updated Cortana app for iOS, which features an overhauled interface and new features like music and podcasts support. For those unfamiliar with Cortana, it is Microsoft's version of Siri or Alexa, an AI-based personal assistant that can answer questions and complete small tasks. Microsoft has been testing the revamped version of Cortana since October. The new...

Microsoft is testing a version of its Cortana app for iOS and Android devices that features a major interface overhaul and new features, according to Windows Central. The updated app, which is being tested by beta testers, features a user interface that's focused on conversational experiences with Cortana, along with support for music and podcast suggestions, and a focus on setting reminders,...

Microsoft is giving users of its Cortana virtual assistant another way to activate it with their voice. As reported by The Verge, owners of the first Cortana-integrated Invoke speaker can now summon the assistant using just "Cortana" rather than the typical "Hey, Cortana" phrase, although that continues to work as well. The alteration is expected to trickle down to Cortana for iOS in the near...

Microsoft is planning to integrate its AI assistant Cortana directly into the Outlook mobile apps on iOS and Android, according to people familiar with the company's plans speaking with The Verge. Cortana currently offers various email-related actions and commands on supported devices, but the assistant can not be called up within Outlook on smartphones. Image by Tom Warren via The Verge With ...

Microsoft today updated its Cortana app for iOS with native iPad support. The design looks essentially the same as the iPhone version, but with an interface optimized for the larger 7.9-inch to 12.9-inch screen sizes of Apple's tablets. The release notes also mention that Cortana now opens 20 percent faster:What's new: Introducing a brand-new Cortana for iPad design. Enjoy an exclusive...

Microsoft today updated its Cortana app for iOS, improving the way the AI assistant works on iOS devices. Designed to compete with Siri, Cortana is a personal assistant that can do things like set reminders, schedule calendar appointments, answer queries, and offer up information you're interested in through machine learning techniques. Today's iOS app update introduces a revamped look that...

Amazon and Microsoft today jointly announced that Alexa and Cortana will soon be able to communicate with each other. Microsoft said the collaboration will allow access to Alexa via Cortana on Windows 10 PCs later this year, and via the Cortana app for iOS and Android at an unspecified point in the future. Similarly, users will be able to access Cortana on Alexa-enabled devices like the...

Harman Kardon has teased its upcoming Cortana-integrated connected smart speaker with a product page that revealed a little more about the device's design and features. The web page for the Invoke speaker appears to have been removed since it was spotted by Thurrott.com this morning, but it offered a better glimpse at the device's sloping cylindrical design, which appears to fall somewhere in...

Microsoft today updated Cortana for iPhone with a significant redesign that has been available to Android users since December. As noted by Paul Thurrott, version 2.0 of the app is more responsive with redesigned calling, texting, and reminders and more immersive full-page answers with quicker page transitions. Cortana's mobile redesign launched on Android in December Cortana is Microsoft's...

Microsoft has announced it is making its Cortana voice assistant AI available to third-party device makers, with third-party developers also set to get access to the platform for integrating into their services on Cortana-powered devices. The company's approach is based on two software kits currently available for preview: A Skills Kit that allows developers to build apps that can be called up ...

Microsoft has announced that Cortana for iOS is coming to the U.K. and that the company is readying a significant design overhaul based on user feedback. Cortana is to Windows what Siri is to macOS, but Microsoft's voice-activated virtual assistant has been available on iOS in the United States for precisely a year now, allowing PC users with Apple devices to sync their reminders,...

Researchers at Microsoft claim to have created a new speech recognition technology that transcribes conversational speech as well as a human does (via The Verge). The system's word error rate is reportedly 5.9 percent, which is about equal to professional transcribers asked to work on the same recordings, according to Microsoft. Microsoft researchers from the Speech & Dialog research group ...

VMware today announced Fusion 8.5, Fusion Pro 8.5, Workstation Player 12.5 and Workstation Pro 12.5, the latest versions of its visualization software for running Windows on a Mac without using Boot Camp. Fusion and Fusion Pro 8.5 come with macOS Sierra support while both Fusion and Workstation suites come with Windows 10 Anniversary support. Windows 10 Anniversary is a large upgrade to...

Microsoft today officially launched its virtual assistant Cortana as a downloadable app for iOS and Android platforms (via Business Insider). Similar to Apple's Siri personal assistant, Cortana allows Windows users to set reminders, preview the weather, and answer basic questions thanks to integrated internet search abilities. Other Cortana for iOS and Android features include the following: •S...

Microsoft this week began the sign-up process that will let a few iOS users test out an early beta version of its Cortana personal assistant ahead of its wide release sometime next year (via The Verge). Specifically, the company said it's looking for a "limited number of people" in the United States and China, with updates rolling out over the next few months to tweak features and provide any...

Siri and other voice-activated systems can cause potentially unsafe mental distractions lasting several seconds while driving, according to a new research study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Siri's score of 3.4 on the five-point scale is considered more distracting than Google Now's 3.0 score, but less distracting than Microsoft Cortana, which received a 3.8 rating. AAA's mental...