Cortana: Tips and Tricks (Halo Questions in OP)

[Reebs Reebs]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Ok, I tried the umbrella part a few different ways and she was not able to understand this (I will file a feature request though). I did ask "Will I need an umbrella tomorrow?" and was given the weather forecast for tomorrow and a response of "I am not sure about that, here is the forecast for tomorrow"

Ok, as for the reminders, they pops those up in the notification center, so she won't blurt it out on your phone when you arrive. You will get a message tone and a toast as well as an option to mark this complete or snooze.

Great thanks! I am extremely happy to see my comment/any comment make it to a "feature request". I'm not a person to carry an umbrella though, but thought that would take it to the next level.

One follow up question, can the reminders be re-occurring? For example, remind me to call my mom on my way to work "every Monday" or simpler as "remind me to call my mom on Monday when I come back home"

 

[Talderon]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Great thanks! I am extremely happy to see my comment/any comment make it to a "feature request". I'm not a person to carry an umbrella though, but thought that would take it to the next level.

One follow up question, can the reminders be re-occurring? For example, remind me to call my mom on my way to work "every Monday" or simpler as "remind me to call my mom on Monday when I come back home"

Date/time specific reminders are ones that won't go into Cortana's Notebook (yet, I think) but you can always set up a calendar reminder, however, that will not be used with Geofencing.

 

[Reebs Reebs]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Thanks again. I'm all hope in the "yet, I think" statement and will certainly take it optimistically. It seems that the functionality is there and it's a matter of connecting them together.

 

[Talderon]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Let Cortana get to know your family.

Say: "Text my <family member type (Dad, Mom, Brother and so forth)>

Cortana will ask you for your family members name

Say the family members name

Cortana will verify with you and ask to confirm.

Now, you can tell Cortana "Next time I talk to my brother, remind to me ask him how is arm is doing."

This is how on the demo, they were able to use that type of language.

Note: At this time, Cortana cannot distinguish between Older or Younger sibling or step parents. However, you can set this manually by adding them to your inner circle and giving them a "Nick Name" with the correct label.

You can store up to 3 Nick Names for each contact in your inner circle. (this is essentially what Cortana does for you in this regard).

My brother has 2 nicknames, for example. One is Brother and the other is "The A**hole" (we get along fine, I just think it's funny that I can tell Cortana to text The A**hole a message and he gets it).

OH! If you want to add a Nickname to a contact without putting them in your inner circle, just edit their contact and add one to the field. However, with this method, you only get one nick name.

 

[FAHMI BASSEM]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

I want to ask if it works without an internet connection like Tell me service?

 

[Talderon]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

I want to ask if it works without an internet connection like Tell me service?

I did this with my phone in airplane mode.

When you are not connected to the internet, she will do some functions hat only require her to look on the phone.

Such as: "Show me all email from David"

The issue is, when you ask for more of a complex question (via voice mainly) it requires an internet connection.

Basically, she's pretty crippled without the internet.

 

[Dustin Hodges]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

I did this with my phone in airplane mode.

When you are not connected to the internet, she will do some functions hat only require her to look on the phone.

Such as: "Show me all email from David"

The issue is, when you ask for more of a complex question (via voice mainly) it requires an internet connection.

Basically, she's pretty crippled without the internet.

Not even personal/conversational questions such as "How are you"?

 

[Talderon]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Not even personal/conversational questions such as "How are you"?

Sadly, no. Well, I will say this... At least on the build I am running. Thing may change for GA.

 

[MARKjotep]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

exciting features of cortana!
it is still in Beta and microsoft will further polished the capability of cortana! One day she will be known by her capabilities as the best voice assistant into any platforms!

anyways. I believe cortana is cloud based. If you will ask her some personal question. does she have a lot of different responses? let say "cortana, blah blah blah" "what to eat?" "what to wear?" "what is your opinion about global warming" etc.

hopefully microsoft team automatically receives those questions from people who use cortana to further extend cortana's library and responses.

so excited to experience her myself! 920!!

 

[Guytronic]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

As Cortana grows as in knowing your habits, family etc ...
Does the space needed on the phone inflate?
I guess I'm asking how much local information space does she need?

 

[Talderon]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

As Cortana grows as in knowing your habits, family etc ...
Does the space needed on the phone inflate?
I guess I'm asking how much local information space does she need?

Honestly, I have no idea, she does not show up in Apps/Games in Storage Sense which makes me think she is under system. At this time, the System is using 3.53GB with about 350mb in Temporary Files.

With her actions being cloud based, I am sure the app isn't that big and the only data it needs to store is in her Notebook, which does not seem like much at all to be honest.

 

[rockstarzzz]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

If you turn off Cortana, can you still manage quite hours manually?

 

[anon(7900571)]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

If you turn off Cortana, can you still manage quite hours manually?

I saw in Daniel hands on video , there was quiet hours in settings , so I guess one can still access quiet hours

 

[Talderon]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

If you turn off Cortana, can you still manage quite hours manually?

I saw in Daniel hands on video , there was quiet hours in settings , so I guess one can still access quiet hours

Here is a screenshot from my settings menu. I turned Cortana off and was still able to set it.

http://i.imgur.com/IGGyDdD.png

 

[ven07]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Yes. That was one of the things Joe said during the keynote yesterday. He created a reminder for when he gets home, cook dinner for his wife. There was a glitch, and it didn't work right, but obviously the functionality is there.

Question: Do I need wifi or data for the reminder to work? or can cortana just tell where I am based on gps?

 

[jpmfan]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Have you had chance to use Cortana with bluetooth for example in a car. I like the current WP8 interface of being able to tell it while driving a car to call someone or text something. With WP8.1 has this voice been replaced with Cortana? or for bluetooth connection is it the same old system?

 

[averagejoe29]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Hi, sorry if this has been asked but can Cortana be accessed via lock screen? And I use siri whilst locked to add items to lists like shopping and hardware. Hoping Cortana can do this? And finally, does it continue a sequence like " here is your reminder, would you like to create it. I use siri mostly when driving so it's great that I don't have to use the phone to confirm things like I have to with Google now. Kind of defeats the purpose. Want to get away from iphone but it is tough with Siri being so much easier to use hands free.

 

[Talderon]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Question: Do I need wifi or data for the reminder to work? or can cortana just tell where I am based on gps?

Honestly, I have not tried it. I will try it today since I have to go to the store and will try and set a reminder and see if it works.

Have you had chance to use Cortana with bluetooth for example in a car. I like the current WP8 interface of being able to tell it while driving a car to call someone or text something. With WP8.1 has this voice been replaced with Cortana? or for bluetooth connection is it the same old system?

I have with my headset and headphones. Unfortunately, I don't have a car with BT in it (but feel free to drop by when you are near Seattle and we can test it.

Hi, sorry if this has been asked but can Cortana be accessed via lock screen? And I use siri whilst locked to add items to lists like shopping and hardware. Hoping Cortana can do this? And finally, does it continue a sequence like " here is your reminder, would you like to create it. I use siri mostly when driving so it's great that I don't have to use the phone to confirm things like I have to with Google now. Kind of defeats the purpose. Want to get away from iphone but it is tough with Siri being so much easier to use hands free.

1. No, Cortana cannot be accessed from the lock screen.
2. Cortana can do what you ask, but have to unlock.
3. Yes, whenever I set a reminder, Cortana verifies it verbally and asks me if I want to confirm (verbally) without having to press any additional keys.

One of my favorite scenarios is when I looked up an address to a store, she returned the result and read the address to me. I then said "Navigate there" and she started up Drive+ and took me there.

 

[jhoff80]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

1. No, Cortana cannot be accessed from the lock screen.

Kind of annoying, but I also get it. Besides, I'm sure I'd most often use the voice part of it while driving, and then the screen would be set to always be on while on the charger and either in the Nokia Car app or navigating anyway.

Edit: Although now that I think of it, and kind of unrelated... have there been any improvements to driving mode? I'd love if it was more powerful... like if it could open an app automatically when it detected I was in the car, for example. Or it would also be nice if, like NFC now lets me, I could choose to turn on a trusted mode so I didn't have to confirm it every time.

Edit 2: That being said, are you sure that Cortana doesn't work with the screen off? While the emulator doesn't have full access to Cortana, if I press and hold search, it comes up there.

 

[averagejoe29]

Re: Cortana: Tips and Tricks

Thank you so much for answering my questions . Really appreciated