In January, the news of Halo’s holographic beaut Cortana serving as Microsoft’s answer to Siri crash landed on the web. Today, TheVerge posted a couple of images showing off the Cortana interface, which will be replacing the built-in Bing search feature on Windows Phone 8.1.
Cortana is said to be everything Siri is, with a few extra cool features tacked on, like the ability to have her call you by your real name or nicknames such as “master chief.” She can also track flights and mentions via email, allowing her to produce notifications with Google Now-esque types of results.
There’s no exact release date for Cortana, though there will be more information on the app at the Microsoft Build Developer Conference in April, where they’ll also releasing a developers’ version of the app. So if you’ve been waiting to hear Cortana’s soothing voice infiltrate your eardrums, you can rest assured knowing that the time is nigh.
Check out these screens of Cortana provided by TheVerge:
HT: TheVerge
Am I the only one that wants an actually Cortana character representation of her instead of just a voice?
I like the idea of having every AI from Cortana and EDI, to GLaDOS and 343 on mobile devices. Hell, if Microsoft was smart, they would release this app for iOS (obviously charge for it), to undercut Siri.
But we have to remember, these aren’t AIs, they’re VIs. An AI would run the phone (except in EDI’s case, which would be non-critical functions only), where as a VI is just a personal assistant.
Although I could see people like me having to much fun with this kind of thing.
I’d have 343 Guilty Spark for the full Halo experience
teehee, me love yu long time! <3 ! <3 E:]3
yeah…she’s a little too unstable for me…Windows products crash enough as it is…
As long as her rampancy doesn’t crash all my gadgets. grrrrrr.
Why not GLaDOS? :l
I demand EDI from Mass Effect for android!
Stupid as in: you understand the popularity of Halo for a decade and, much larger right now, Siri? Like, the Siri, and the Cortana in one AI that nerds (and non halo fans) can use every day, on a phone or pc or xbox? So stupid awesome business move for windows phone to compete with Siri, let alone to incorporate a video game icon to functional AI interface.
……..or incredibly awesome.
why not take a character from a huge franchise people already know and love use it. its pretty no-brainer.
Well I would get this over siri, why spend $600 or more for an iphone with a robotic voice? I would rather have Cortana’s voice.
So not only is it using the same pretense as Siri, it’s taking the name and rest from the AI Cortana from Halo? That seems….. Well, that just seems down-right stupid.