Cortana News (Coming from the inside) (OP being updated)

[Lumiamike]

not Cortana Related: doing an apple training and it is so cute that they are now coming out with swipe and family rooms.. now who is playing catch up.

Apple always took existing ideas and made them better, my old Nokia N95 symbian phone did everything and more better than the first Iphones, do we see symbian today, Apple gave it all a fresh new look and a bigger screen, the fact that the Iphone was total garbage to begin with was almost irrelevant, and now as you say they are being unashamedly influenced by a product from WP you can bet your bottom dollar it will be good, its not so much catch up as take whats done and improve

Cortana related... back at ya Apple :grin::grin::grin::grin:

 

[Lumiamike]

I can understand your view here.

Cortana development on the back-end for localization is being done in the country of the localization with local developers who know the local situation. Yes, there are things that needs certain approvals, but most of that is all done locally with the reports coming up stream.

Any global company like Microsoft that is worth a salt can't expect US Corporate HQ to have to approve EVERYTHING before things can get done when it comes to localization and understanding local culture. That is why we have leadership people in local areas that we are operating.

Thank you Talderon for the reply, i do hope for Cortanas future the international heads are allowed some freedom, Cortanas future depends on it

 

[Lumiamike]

Been having issues with Cortana news and live tile recently, the news items I had asked Cortana to keep me updated on would never show, the live tile insisted on telling me my journey time to work with relevant details all the time, it was stuck basically

So I turned Cortana off in its settings which reboots the phone, the live tile was still where I left it on the homepage, tapping it restarted Cortana and after allowing her to access my life on the phone it now shows my news items properly and the live tile is now clear off the journey details

So if Cortana is playing you up, switch it off, reboot and restart

 

[Patric.Z]

Talderon, thanks for teasing us

From the front page, looks like there's a poxy hack to get Cortana to speak Chinese but I heard it's still buggy. Looks like it's probably a few months away. Do you know if Cantonese (a dialect of Chinese) support will come out along with Chinese (Mandarin)? Also, I think one issue with voice recognition in non-English speaking countries is that we often use our languages mixed with English words/phrases/names in a sentence, but none of the voice assistant programs can handle this kind of sentences, i.e. if I set my language to Chinese, it will only recognize Chinese, if there's a name in English (a person's name or a place's name) in the sentence , it won't recognize it. Do you think this is something can be looked by the team for localization? It would be great if we can speak to Cortana just the way we speak normally.

 

[Talderon]

Talderon, thanks for teasing us

From the front page, looks like there's a poxy hack to get Cortana to speak Chinese but I heard it's still buggy. Looks like it's probably a few months away. Do you know if Cantonese (a dialect of Chinese) support will come out along with Chinese (Mandarin)? Also, I think one issue with voice recognition in non-English speaking countries is that we often use our languages mixed with English words/phrases/names in a sentence, but none of the voice assistant programs can handle this kind of sentences, i.e. if I set my language to Chinese, it will only recognize Chinese, if there's a name in English (a person's name or a place's name) in the sentence , it won't recognize it. Do you think this is something can be looked by the team for localization? It would be great if we can speak to Cortana just the way we speak normally.

Let me ask them and get back to you!

 

[azcruz]

Google gives me the services (US English) without requiring I change the region. What Cortana can't do and might not be able to do...

 

[Joe920]

In other news: 200,000 views. How is this thread not stickied yet?

 

[LSDigital]

Hi Talderon,
Let me start by saying thank you for your time. I've been reading this thread mostly from my email for quite some time now. I'd like to reply more often but, I know you have your work to do and I wouldn't like earing your boss complaining about your work productivity
Today, I've come up with a question that every once in a while keeps popping in my head: Why oh why doesn't Cortana ever shows her pretty face? I know there's some battery issues, available screen space, maybe even performance, but... every once in a while...
Don't get me wrong, I do like it the way it is. I just know that someone on your team should have already asked this question before, I'd just like to know what the answer was
By the way, I'm glad to know that there is already local teams working with Cortana
Thank you.

 

[rockstarzzz]

In other news: 200,000 views. How is this thread not stickied yet?

From past experience - Talderon's thread relating to Cortana that was stickied, "was hard to find" and views dropped. I've been noticing this thread since the day it was born and it has NEVER gone below top 20. It is always afloat. It's like most users come here in Cortana forums to post in this thread.

 

[Talderon]

In other news: 200,000 views. How is this thread not stickied yet?

Well, not everything needs a sticky.

Google gives me the services (US English) without requiring I change the region. What Cortana can't do and might not be able to do...

I don't refute that at all, but there are things that Cortana can do that Google can't. Apples and Oranges, but the roadmap for what Microsoft wants to do with Cortana is clear. What does Google want to do with Google Now? They may have a roadmap now, but in the years they have had to develop this application/platform, what did they do before Cortana?

Hi Talderon,
Let me start by saying thank you for your time. I've been reading this thread mostly from my email for quite some time now. I'd like to reply more often but, I know you have your work to do and I wouldn't like earing your boss complaining about your work productivity
Today, I've come up with a question that every once in a while keeps popping in my head: Why oh why doesn't Cortana ever shows her pretty face? I know there's some battery issues, available screen space, maybe even performance, but... every once in a while...
Don't get me wrong, I do like it the way it is. I just know that someone on your team should have already asked this question before, I'd just like to know what the answer was
By the way, I'm glad to know that there is already local teams working with Cortana
Thank you.

Funny thing, in the discussions I have been in, never came up really. Who knows... ?

From past experience - Talderon's thread relating to Cortana that was stickied, "was hard to find" and views dropped. I've been noticing this thread since the day it was born and it has NEVER gone below top 20. It is always afloat. It's like most users come here in Cortana forums to post in this thread.

My other thread was more for news up to the release and sharing screenshots and other things. Once released, the thread really was not needed anymore, so I had it un-stickied and let it go to the way of the dino's.

Anyhow, thanks all for the support. I am waiting for something to show up for some great news to come forward and will be sure to post it here before anywhere else. Yes, even my Twitter.

 

[Talderon]

Huh... This is new... Well, at least for me. We don't get many weather events here in WA...

 

[TruPlaya187]

Huh... This is new... Well, at least for me. We don't get many weather events here in WA...

View attachment 71678

Is it me or the Facebook notifications are not the same as mine.... It seems that they have a different format or gives more information...

 

[Silviu Bogusevschi]

Is it me or the Facebook notifications are not the same as mine.... It seems that they have a different format or gives more information...

MS is definitely working on a new Facebook app version, no surprises.

 

[Talderon]

Is it me or the Facebook notifications are not the same as mine.... It seems that they have a different format or gives more information...

That account is using Facebook Beta. I have to check if that is different than regular FB, once I get a notification on the regular FB app.. >.>

Also keep in mind, I do not clear my notifications all that often (internal build of WP 8.x where I need to keep things there for testing things).

 

[rockstarzzz]

Is it me or the Facebook notifications are not the same as mine.... It seems that they have a different format or gives more information...

He "leaked" it on purpose

You can see how Sonia's last name has been blacked out? The screenshot doesn't look like vanilla screenshot. Talderon, are you being naughty?

 

[itzkavin]

You can see how Sonia's last name has been blacked out? The screenshot doesn't look like vanilla screenshot. Talderon, are you being naughty?

He is, for sure..

 

[Talderon]

He "leaked" it on purpose

You can see how Sonia's last name has been blacked out? The screenshot doesn't look like vanilla screenshot. Talderon, are you being naughty?

>.> That's my Wife... just blacked out my last name... well, not that it's a real secret anyway.

 

[Joe920]

Funny thing, in the discussions I have been in, never came up really. Who knows... ?

Well, if it comes to MS adding a humanoid avatar for Cortana, I hope we'll get a uservoice section where we can vote. Personal favorite: the recolored version with natural skin color. Although spouses might get jealous..

 

[Talderon]

I like that, but, for some reason, I find the blue hologram version to be... more pleasing?

Maybe just me.

 

[Joe920]

I like that, but, for some reason, I find the blue hologram version to be... more pleasing?

Maybe we can have her skin tone match the theme color.

This was kind of a joke, but more seriously: I think a blue personal assistant is going to be a hard sell for most non-gamers. So if MS eventually does move to a 'real' avatar, a human looking Cortana default setting might be smart, with a user option to switch to Cortana 'halo mode'.