WP 8.1 = YES, Cortana = NO

[anony_mouse]

Cortana offering reminders plus saved locations is fantastic. I set two reminders for things I needed to do when I got home, and the second I walked in the door, they popped up on my screen. Repeat: that is fantastic.

That's great, but it's worth remembering that iOS has had location based reminders since at least version 5 (2011).

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

Don't you think the name 'Cortana' is depressing? Try saying it. Your voice drops for the last syllable. It's like sighing. I think it's something to do with the repeating vowel sound. Even 'Cortina', 'Cortona', 'Cortena' or 'Cortuna' are much better.

I disagree. It doesn't sound depressing to me at all. Actually, it charges me up. Makes me feel better. Guess it's just the way I say "Cortana" as "COR-TAR-NA (short A at the end)."

 

[SwimSwim]

Was on a bit of a road trip yesterday and found Cortana very useful for choosing music while driving. "Play me some Paul Simon". Paul Simon starts playing. "Go to the next song please". Cortana switches to the next Paul Simon song.

I'm a bit disappointed however that I can't address her by name. Anytime I start a command with "Cortana" she doesn't understand the command. I also would like the option of activating her by using the keyword "Cortana" instead of having to long press the search button.

"Always-listening" likely won't come with current generation hardware, with the notable exception of devices like the 1520, Lumia ICON and the new Samsung Ativ SE. That's because always-listening would require the processor to always remain on, so it could constantly listen for keywords to activate. This is absolute murder for the battery.

The only reason the aforementioned devices /might/ get the feature is because they're using Snapdragon 800 processors, which has a dedicated core that can be used for such purposes. However, it'd require both an OS update to enable it in 8.1, plus firmware updates from the OEMs to activate the core and make it usable for such purpose.

So if you have one of those three devices, it's a maybe, but even then: I wouldn't hold my breath, unfortunately.

 

[SwimSwim]

That's great, but it's worth remembering that iOS has had location based reminders since at least version 5 (2011).

I believe it's been well established for quite some time that we've been behind on some basic features for awhile, and 8.1 is the great leap forward to put us on equal footing for the competition?

 

[Uthej Kumar]

change ur lang and region to united stES

 

[Josiah Pinera]

I believe that was a reference to the HAL-9000, from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey".

The generation gap sure shows with the name of this assistant thing. Since I don't play video games, and I have no idea what 'Halo' is like, I'm going to join the camp that says Cortana really doesn't make much sense as a name here. Now I know everyone with an Xbox is lining up to write awful, nasty things about me and how stupid I am, so don't waste your time. You won't change my opinion on the name. That said, it does sound like a functional and useful personal assistant, so I could see myself using it. I just don't like the name is all.

Can I just mention that if you ask Cortana to sing to you she will sing the song the HAL 9000 sings in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do"...