Your reaction over new passive voice activation of Cortana

[SpaceyO]

On Cortana: can you tell me of one single function/operation you can't do without it?

Location based reminders.

While Driving - Push button on steering wheel - "Call Cortana" - "Send my son a text - Come outside and help with the groceries". - "Send".

Just used both of those features less than an hour ago, and I'm not aware of any other WP app that does location based reminders, nor completely hands-free txting.

 

[EC Translating Services]

Somewhere I agree, somewhere not, but it depends on personal needs.

1. People reminders
2. Geofencing/location reminders.
3. Quiet hours.
4. Driving with hands-free phone use.

Silviu, do you realize all the functions you mentioned EXCEPT the free hands are bundled with Cortana but you could easily use them with another input method? They are bundling things and forcing you into Cortana (I'd need quiet hours for example...can't use it because i don't need/want Cortana) but it's not like people didn't use smartphones before Google Now, Siri and Cortana (And BB may follow soon just not to stay behind).

It's just one more service that drains battery and, for me, has a very limited use in real life. But that's me. Doesn't have to be like that for everyone.

 

[EC Translating Services]

Location based reminders.

While Driving - Push button on steering wheel - "Call Cortana" - "Send my son a text - Come outside and help with the groceries". - "Send".

Just used both of those features less than an hour ago, and I'm not aware of any other WP app that does location based reminders, nor completely hands-free txting.

Hands-free texting isn't an exclusive of WP......there are also third party apps. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.socaldevs.hft
There isn't much WP has as an exclusive that someone else didn't do already (often better and with multiple choices). But the bottom line for me is that you can't add so much crap on top of such a weak platform. You first build the basics that everyone (as in GLOBALLY) needs, then expand with the other toys.

 

[Silviu Bogusevschi]

Silviu, do you realize all the functions you mentioned EXCEPT the free hands are bundled with Cortana but you could easily use them with another input method? They are bundling things and forcing you into Cortana (I'd need quiet hours for example...can't use it because i don't need/want Cortana) but it's not like people didn't use smartphones before Google Now, Siri and Cortana (And BB may follow soon just not to stay behind).

It's just one more service that drains battery and, for me, has a very limited use in real life. But that's me. Doesn't have to be like that for everyone.

Might be, but currently it's not. I'm fine with it, you are not. Again, personal needs. If you don't like it - nobody is forcing you to make a specific choice.

 

[Silviu Bogusevschi]

Hands-free texting isn't an exclusive of WP......there are also third party apps. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.socaldevs.hft
There isn't much WP has as an exclusive that someone else didn't do already (often better and with multiple choices). But the bottom line for me is that you can't add so much crap on top of such a weak platform. You first build the basics that everyone (as in GLOBALLY) needs, then expand with the other toys.

Nobody is talking about exclusivity.
The difference between Android and WP/iOS is customization, the first one being an open source, while the latter are strictly closed, so it's technically not possible to make everything. If you miss some customization - you need to make a different choice, but all I see is ranting and whining.

 

[EC Translating Services]

Somewhere I agree, somewhere not, but it depends on personal needs

A personal need is related to an app that's missing, or to a function like Cortana. When you make an OS full of proprietary software that cannot be exchanged with third party apps as default app (Keyboard, Skype, Bing, Office, Outlook, Onedrive etc.) and none of these is able to compete with what others have been offering for years then you have an issue. It's not about different needs anymore. It's that you are selling an OS that lacks really basic things. It's been going on for 4 years and it's been supported by apologists that, perhaps, fail to see that the market share keeps dropping, to the point that each time there is an increase of a 0,xx% it makes the news.
The OS is incomplete. We can say some are satisfied with an incomplete OS because the portion that's done is good for them and it's fine. But before calling WP an accomplished OS ready for global markets (keyword GLOBAL where global doesn't mean US, UK and EUROPE but means GLOBAL), it will take maybe another 5 or 6 years (at the current pace Microsoft has). Of course they can speed up, and come up with ONE SINGLE update (as opposed to 10 different ones in one year) that fixes all shortcomings in one single shot.

 

[EC Translating Services]

Nobody is talking about exclusivity.
The difference between Android and WP/iOS is customization, the first one being an open source, while the latter are strictly closed, so it's technically not possible to make everything. If you miss some customization - you need to make a different choice, but all I see is ranting and whining.

No what you see is customers unhappy with things you like and think others should like too. The next thing you see is that the OS does have shortcomings you had not thought of. . Let people the choice of decide what they want on their OS. I appreciate you love Cortana and love talking to her. I respect that. At the same time, respect the fact some users may be annoyed or may not need and extra app sucking battery and data they never use. I never used Google now either. It's deactivated and i live happily.

 

[Silviu Bogusevschi]

A personal need is related to an app that's missing, or to a function like Cortana. When you make an OS full of proprietary software that cannot be exchanged with third party apps as default app (Keyboard, Skype, Bing, Office, Outlook, Onedrive etc.) and none of these is able to compete with what others have been offering for years then you have an issue. It's not about different needs anymore. It's that you are selling an OS that lacks really basic things. It's been going on for 4 years and it's been supported by apologists that, perhaps, fail to see that the market share keeps dropping, to the point that each time there is an increase of a 0,xx% it makes the news.
The OS is incomplete. We can say some are satisfied with an incomplete OS because the portion that's done is good for them and it's fine. But before calling WP an accomplished OS ready for global markets (keyword GLOBAL where global doesn't mean US, UK and EUROPE but means GLOBAL), it will take maybe another 5 or 6 years (at the current pace Microsoft has). Of course they can speed up, and come up with ONE SINGLE update (as opposed to 10 different ones in one year) that fixes all shortcomings in one single shot.

It's all about overall personal needs, not necessarily apps. There are millions and millions of people who don't even own a smartphone, just a simple phone (check for the latest financial report of MS to see how much phones did they sell), because they don't need all this mess with apps, customization, Cortana etc.
Even though, there are even more people who own a smartphone, but far from latest OS version. For example, Android 2.3, which does not support all the apps in the Play Store. Question: why? Because people don't care, and they don't need, and they are fine with what they have.
Another obvious example: Windows XP.

 

[Silviu Bogusevschi]

No what you see is customers unhappy with things you like and think others should like too. The next thing you see is that the OS does have shortcomings you had not thought of. . Let people the choice of decide what they want on their OS. I appreciate you love Cortana and love talking to her. I respect that. At the same time, respect the fact some users may be annoyed or may not need and extra app sucking battery and data they never use. I never used Google now either. It's deactivated and i live happily.

Customers are unhappy if they don't find what they need. Again, personal needs.
I don't talk to Cortana, I mostly use it for searching, but I'm not saying that it's a useless feature that MS is forcing me to use.
Another problem is privacy concerns, as your first post in this thread suggested. If you are afraid of spying and other privacy stuff, you should not even use a phone, or PC, or anything else.

 

[EC Translating Services]

It's all about overall personal needs, not necessarily apps. There are millions and millions of people who don't even own a smartphone, just a simple phone (check for the latest financial report of MS to see how much phones did they sell), because they don't need all this mess with apps, customization, Cortana etc.
Even though, there are even more people who own a smartphone, but far from latest OS version. For example, Android 2.3, which does not support all the apps in the Play Store. Question: why? Because people don't care, and they don't need, and they are fine with what they have.
Another obvious example: Windows XP.

Maybe you're missing the point between BASIC FUNCTIONS (Keyboard inputs missing, mail apps working as expected, browsers offering security and add ons, encryption..stuff all devices have and people need) and apps you may or may not need. There is basic set of functions a phone has. Dumb phones (especially top ones) already had all keyboard inputs preloaded. WP doesn't. They had in their most evolved forms, a working Office app (WP doesn't have a really working Office app).
They are nice toys for taking pictures (to the point i am not carrying a photocamera anymore because the pictures especially in low light are just extraordinary out of the box) and do a few other things. If you need a phone to work you don't buy a WP. I can take the time (when i have time) to make a video and show you how the workflow goes on Android and how it goes on WP. Past that i am sure you won't have much left to say.

 

[EC Translating Services]

Customers are unhappy if they don't find what they need. Again, personal needs.
I don't talk to Cortana, I mostly use it for searching, but I'm not saying that it's a useless feature that MS is forcing me to use.
Another problem is privacy concerns, as your first post in this thread suggested. If you are afraid of spying and other privacy stuff, you should not even use a phone, or PC, or anything else.

I am not so important to be an object of spying; however the nature of my work and the nature of my other studies teaches me that being careless about this aspect is a mistake i gladly leave to the happy skepticals (the same tomorrow will come back ranting about their basic rights having been violated). This doesn't mean i am happy that a bunch of paranoid maniacs has the tools (with company's blessing) to stick nose in my life. So, while i am aware they can reach anyways, i do avoid the useless. In this specific case, i can grant you i don't need Cortana. If a non US company makes a domotic platform where i can voice control my home appliances, temps and lighting (they are already there indeed but not in an evolved form) then i may be tempted as long as the system is fenced and with no external contact. That may come handy as you do everything while sitting on a sofa on a lazy day. Of course this last part is a very personal take on the topic.
PS: Most of the people working in any sensitive field where i live uses old dumphones supplied by the government or by the company. This allows them to have to control only one platform..3 GSM bands. They are not connected in any other way. They don't use smartphones of any brand except some rare BB. There is no much BYOD in some fields. Smartphones are inherently unsafe for an extreme variety of reasons (from the US made software, to the fact they rely on US companies or 5 eyes-based companies, to the fact that the wide variety of sensors and other devices makes them tracking devices you pay for). Essentially, you don't know what's in your phone.

 

[Silviu Bogusevschi]

Maybe you're missing the point between BASIC FUNCTIONS (Keyboard inputs missing, mail apps working as expected, browsers offering security and add ons, encryption..stuff all devices have and people need) and apps you may or may not need. There is basic set of functions a phone has. Dumb phones (especially top ones) already had all keyboard inputs preloaded. WP doesn't. They had in their most evolved forms, a working Office app (WP doesn't have a really working Office app).
They are nice toys for taking pictures (to the point i am not carrying a photocamera anymore because the pictures especially in low light are just extraordinary out of the box) and do a few other things. If you need a phone to work you don't buy a WP. I can take the time (when i have time) to make a video and show you how the workflow goes on Android and how it goes on WP. Past that i am sure you won't have much left to say.

Are you talking about phones with physical keyboard, or externally connected one? Because what you're talking about doesn't make any sense for me.

As far as I've concluded, you rely much on privacy and there are some missing features on WP for you. Again, it's personal needs.

 

[Silviu Bogusevschi]

I am not so important to be an object of spying; however the nature of my work and the nature of my other studies teaches me that being careless about this aspect is a mistake i gladly leave to the happy skepticals (the same tomorrow will come back ranting about their basic rights having been violated). This doesn't mean i am happy that a bunch of paranoid maniacs has the tools (with company's blessing) to stick nose in my life. So, while i am aware they can reach anyways, i do avoid the useless. In this specific case, i can grant you i don't need Cortana. If a non US company makes a domotic platform where i can voice control my home appliances, temps and lighting (they are already there indeed but not in an evolved form) then i may be tempted as long as the system is fenced and with no external contact. That may come handy as you do everything while sitting on a sofa on a lazy day. Of course this last part is a very personal take on the topic.
PS: Most of the people working in any sensitive field where i live uses old dumphones supplied by the government or by the company. This allows them to have to control only one platform..3 GSM bands. They are not connected in any other way. They don't use smartphones of any brand except some rare BB. There is no much BYOD in some fields. Smartphones are inherently unsafe for an extreme variety of reasons (from the US made software, to the fact they rely on US companies or 5 eyes-based companies, to the fact that the wide variety of sensors and other devices makes them tracking devices you pay for). Essentially, you don't know what's in your phone.

So why the heck on the world are you whining so much about WP, if you are not even allowed to use it? You definitely spend your time.

Are you from China BTW? Because that would make a lot more sense to me.