Gadgetory

hello again ladies and gentlemen I'm Joe handy the Android authority app guy and in this video we're gonna compare Cortana Siri and Google now before we get started I wanted to tell you a little bit about what I'm about to do here I could have post-processed this and made it look all pretty but you know what real life isn't pretty and what's the point of testing these things if I'm gonna keep trying until I get the perfect responses if it seems a bit rough around the edges it's supposed to be that way you don't get the opportunity to try 20 times in real life and pick the best one so I didn't give them that opportunity here okay folks this little test is going to go down in five rounds round one is academics where we ask some questions regarding things like stats math and history round two with some quick real life questions like asking about food percentages of prices and the news round three is real-world interactions with music identification directions and vents round four is real-world tasks including reminders emails notes and calendar usage finally round five is a personality test where we ask a few random questions to get something akin to a human response alright folks let's get right into it okay folks this is Google now round one okay Google what is the population of Los Angeles California the population of Los Angeles was three point eight eight four million in 2013 there we go it actually shows the source their sources include United States Census Bureau so that's kind of nice you know showing the source and all that jazz I mean the stats are a couple of years old but it couldn't have changed that much okay Google what is planck's constant-- no showed it for a second but I don't know what it's doing right now keep in mind I am running the developer whatever software what is Planck's constant and there it is okay who discovered the United States according to CNN iReport who first discovered the United States of America was Christopher Columbus an illegal alien so if the question is then who discovered what is now known as North America then the question needs clarification holy that's a really good answer all right well done Google now round wyman alright folks here is Syria one how many home runs did Mark McGwire hit in 1998 let me check on that it looks like the answer is 70 all right there we go nice easy sports related statistics question and it also shows a source there from a Wolfram Alpha for those who can't read that alright question 2 what is the Pythagorean theorem here's some information ok so I feel like Google probably would have just told me this because this is not something that's difficult to do it's you know a squared plus B squared equals C squared so that should not have been something that Siri needed to go to Wikipedia to find out ok so for the third question I was gonna ask a random history question but given how good Google now's answer was I'd like to hear what Siri has to say about it who discovered the United States okay give me a moment here's weather who discovered the United States alright and uh it's weird cuz Google now literally just gave us all a history lesson took us all to school but Siri you know brings up the the good old Wikipedia you know yeah who answers and stuff like that although it does say another question is flawed you know but a little blah so um you know discovery history United States a subject concentrate on remaining story so it does eventually give you the same information though it makes you read it yourself as opposed to you know as opposed to doing something else so alright so it's not too terrible it's the end of round one for Siri okay and here's round three with Cortana now I don't have a Windows 10 phone but I am given to understand that Cortana works on all platforms evenly so I'm just using my laptop here so we're gonna give this a shot all right first question what is the population of Moscow Russia eleven point nine eight million in 2013 awesome alright so that was a better start than expected lets us get a math problem what is the Pythagorean theorem alright I guess we're opening up a beam website for that and yeah I know you're gonna have to enter in a website to actually see anything so that was kind of disappointing about the same as Siri did though so I guess I can't say too much all right who discovered the United States okay so it's about the same kind of stuff that Siri gave just some Wikipedia links and stuff like that nothing too fancy there a Google now definitely won that question out of the three of them Google now had the best answer without a shadow of a doubt so that is round one and let's continue to round two ok so round two is a some real life stuff and I still have it from the last test up there see you guys can see that I record this frontal Ashly okay Google what is twenty percent of forty seven dollars nope alright so again I'm willing to developer something what is twenty percent of forty seven dollars the answer is nine point four US dollars now this can be used for a wide range of things you know you got 20% off a sale at a store or you're looking to give a decent apparently a very decent tip little things like that you can see right there is the tip calculator right there includes a tip and the total afterwards so that's kind of nice show me some recipes for dinner all right nothing to a special just to web search they're showing some some various places show me the latest news on the Columbus Blue Jackets there we go they gave me a web search which is good enough you know you can go to the Blue Jackets official site or we go whatever have you alright so not too bad for round two now goo again I'm running a beta software so Google now might be a little screwy but it you know it is getting all the way there it is showing me good results okay round two for Siri let's take a what is twenty percent of sixty seven dollars let me have a look it looks like the answer is about thirteen point four zero u.s. dollars okay so it does give you the answer again through Wolfram Alpha um now Google now actually did a little bit better because it did put it in context like say you wanted to leave a tip or something like that it does give you that kind of context but you know if you're shopping around you see 20% off sixty seven dollars you know you're going to a $13.40 so good enough can you please find me some recipes for dinner okay give me a moment here's what I found on the web for some recipes for dinner okay pretty much right it's almost exactly what Google would have given us so there we go can you show me the latest news about the Detroit Red Wings the Red Wings Blackhawks preseason game is September 22nd 2015 at 8:30 p.m. it's kind of cool I did not know that it doesn't give me any news but it does at least show me the next game so I guess that's kind of something not exactly what I was looking for but it's not terrible either okay this is round two for Cortana we are going to ask some sort of real-life scenarios what is 20% of $83 all right well it does give the answer I've had to open up a web page in order to do it but that is the correct answer and again like Google now still gave the tip thing in case you wanted to use it as a tip and I guess if you're like out shopping or whatever you're just going to subtract $16.60 from 83 but in either case it still did give the answer show me some recipes for dinner all right same kind of stuff just some websites that show some recipes you know all recipes have shown up in all three search results so that's nothing new and uh alright on the last one what is the latest news on the Columbus Blue Jackets alright and once again we are opening up a website although the first web link there is the latest headlines from the Blue Jackets as per their NHL their official NHL page so that's at least good you know Siri just gave me a game date for the troit red when asked about that so you know Cortana did about as well as Google now did and Siri you know didn't do as well there okay folks we are in the third round now this is the extra function just little things that it can do that are outside of his general purview so let's get started all right so for the first one I'm gonna ask it to identify a song and I'm gonna ask it to give me lyrics that song give me one sector to find a universal verse in 311 that's always a good there you go alright so I might take a couple of tries ok Google ok Google all right so I guess I have to find me the lyrics to beautiful disaster by 311 and they are fantastic alright question number two okay Google find me a restaurant that is nearby here are the listings for restaurant within 5 miles okay Google get me directions to Hunan house on 161 Hunan house is six minutes from your location by car and light traffic here are your directions and there it is so I found me some place to eat and then waited all right so final question let's back out of here ok Google show me some events that are happening nearby alright so it doesn't have anything built into that but it does have a couple of websites that can help me including a life hacker article on how to do exactly what I just asked Google now to do so um you know two out of three ain't bad and I guess we'll see how the other ones do ok this is a round three four series some real-world application stuff people might actually use this service for what is this song listening I think my mother all right it did get it right that is the correct answer it was in fact dig by Mudvayne it is giving me the option to buy it I assume as through iTunes all right so let's up on lyrics for it can you find me the lyrics to dig by Mudvayne let me check bad ok I found URLs on the web for lyrics to dig my muddling Siri talks a lot but yeah same thing that google gave us when we when we did that show me restaurants near me searching ok here is what I found holy crap alright so this is actually way better than what Google now did I'm sure Google now you know has a thing to show me more than what it showed me but this is still way more right off the bat than Google now did show me all right let's pick one here uh tap speed so there we go can you please give me directions to taps Pizza getting directions to taps Pizza all right and then it opens up the Maps application um I don't want that too but it's going to show me directions to it you know I'm sure it's done it around in here somewhere by the way this does scrolling is actually kind of nice but hey go just opens the maps app straight out and give it to you I mean Google now it just show me the directions although I did tap that it would have opened up maps exactly the same way all right final test what are some events that are happening nearby let me check bad here's what I found on the web for what are some events that are happening nearby all right more or less what uh Google would have given us so there we go that's the end of round three for Siri can you please identify a song for me all right so round three is not opening up rather well for Cortana that functionality is I guess not built-in yet so that is something that the other two do have the Cortana does not have I was going to go with the Bad Religion song actually so I'm going to ask for the lyrics anyway and see if the lyrics come up what are the lyrics to bad religions punk rock song I will note I know it's probably kind of hard to see in this camera angle but it did get all of the words right you know bad religions with apostrophe s denoting ownership and there is the lyrics to punk rock song right there so at least I got that part right can you find me some restaurants nearby all right this is expected opening up the Bing search and there are some restaurants that are nearby it's got some Yelp ratings here in there wow I really live next to some really crappy restaurants huh all right so we're going to take a China buffet we're going to ask for directions to that at three o'clock in the morning please give me directions to China buffet here are five locations for China buffet all right which one do you want the first one all right getting you directions to China buffet all right that is actually really fantastic well done and this opens up Microsoft's Maps application wants to know my location and it's a there it is caution please be safe always pay attention to the road and obey posted traffic signs that is so nice thank you so much Cortana see at least one of these damn things cares about my safety well done can you show me some events nearby all right we are opening up the web page same kind of thing one direction with a kona pop on August 18th actually this is better than the other two did because I'm actually getting web results for some events that are near me you know you see my zip code right there and that's that's not something kind of different right up here these things right here these were not present in the other searches so this is actually done rather well and that would be the end of round three okay folks this is brown 4 this is kind of like the app integration to see the kinds of things that Google now can do in other applications on top of what it can do normally so all right let's get started with this okay Google take a note to remind me to do a video okay saving alright as you can see that saving and Gooper in Google keep so I can access that through the Google keep application and through its interface online for those who don't remember that's a drive.google.com slash keep so I do have multi-platform access to this note if I need it okay Google send an email to my friend Eric all right friend Eric not found that's because it's spelling his name wrong his name is actually a Ric so I not surprised that that couldn't be found but you can send emails directly through Google now assuming that you have your contacts that don't have weird spellings of their name okay Google I have a doctor's appointment in one week okay do you want to save this yes yes saving event all right well it took a second but it does have the event saved in calendar now on Android most calendar applications have access to Google Calendar and then you can also access on the website or on the website too so this is saved everywhere it does have cross-platform support you can access it in the calendar application of your choice assuming it supports Google Calendar which like I just said most of them do so pretty much anything you do in Google or in Google now you can actually do in other applications also and that's kind of nice alright guys this is a round for for Siri this is kind of real-world functions part to accept was going to deal with applications outside of Siri we're going to see how that works take a reminder to remind me to eat in 20 minutes and it's really I'll remind you all right there it is and it's going to remind me right there look so there you go Bing Norah Jones really oh is I'm going to show that again right yeah there it is reminder okay folks and there's the reminder right there you know you can play with it and do stuff with it right there you know show completed I don't know what tapping that's going to do cuz I don't know iOS that well but there is the reminders you can in fact find them outside of Syria okay next up we are going to ask Siri to send an email Siri send an email you don't have an email account set up yet just launch the mail app it will guide you through the setup process all right so she would have sent an email if I had bothered to set up the email account first that's Mia Copa but you know she would have sent the email had I not been so short-sighted and stupid all right let's up her ask Siri to take a note and see if we can find it anywhere Siri take a note shawshank redemption' with it I can take that note for you just tell me what you wanted to say Shawshank Redemption was a hell of a movie here's your note well it was wrong but it does take a note or do see if we can't find that note and there's the note right there in the notes application so it does save it although I wish it did say shawshank redemption' was a hell of a movie because josh a production is not a movie at all bad serie okay we are in round four for Cortana first thing we do is ask it to take a reminder remind me to go to bed when would you like to be reminded 4 a.m. sure I'll remind you to go to bed at 4 a.m. today sound good yes great I'll remind you you can also see it in your reminders list anytime that was really nice actually that was really well done I am very impressed with how well that went um really personable but still got the job done maybe a little bit more talking than was required but that's not too bad okay we're gonna go right into the second one um send an email to my friend John who's the email going to Joe handy at gmail.com who did you wanna email joe hindi at gmail.com who did you wanna email alright so I guess I'm have to type this one in um it's still something yeah alright so I'm gonna type that in same thing that kind of happened with uh oh I really need this to stop I'm talking not getting sobbing you're ruining my video Cortana below sorry guys but yeah same problem I had with Siri you know I don't have anybody in Mike Microsoft contacts but if I did they probably would have popped up right there and I would've been able to send an email okay final one they're going to take a note and see how it goes but you know what it did the reminder which is kind of like a note so we're going to just go try to add something to the calendar this time I have a doctor's appointment next week okay what time does it start 9:00 a.m. all right I can add doctor's appointment to your calendar for Monday at 9:00 a.m. sound good yes great all right now that is actually available in my Outlook calendar and something really cool about this is it Outlook is available on all platforms like literally um you can get to it on the web on Chrome OS it's on Windows and iOS and Android and all that jazz so you know I can pop this open yeah I don't have a hope hook calendar installed on my phone right now otherwise I'd show you but this is now available in my outlet counter the same way it is with the Google Calendar when you schedule things on Google now so this is right on par with how Google now does it and that concludes round 4 for Cortana all right guys last round is personality we are going to see exactly how personable these things are I mean after all we do talk to them all the time so you know it's kind of nice to have something that maybe talks back to you a little bit isn't so bland and dry so we're in see how Google now does okay Google tell me a joke nope Google now will not be telling us any jokes today I think it knows what to do about that how are you doing today yeah nothing all right last one okay Google what is my name got one more time okay Google what is my name all right so you can see Google now has very little if any personality I mean the voice does talk to you based on which questions you ask it and what have you but when it comes to anything personal like assigning yourself a name or you know telling jokes or interacting with Google now in any way it really is more of an output only kind of thing where it doesn't really take too much input and you know I just sounds ridiculous but it doesn't really care what you say to it it just does things for you so that's kind of the way Google now is and we're gonna see what the other two were like okay so number five round number five four see we're gonna ask it some you know personal questions just to see just to see how it responds tell me a joke I don't think you'd understand a joke in my language they're not so funny anyway whatever the hell that means at least she answered the question now how are you doing Siri I'm fine thanks for asking see you guys nice polite is it so hard for Google now to include that IV nice okay so uh I'm two for two so far my name is Joe I don't know who you are but you can tell me in Siri settings tap on my info and then choose yourself from your contacts okay I don't know what that means but I don't have any contacts because I've not set this up yet so I guess you have to add in your contour huh I'm gonna try something else instead call me Joe I don't know who you are but you can tell me in Siri settings tap on my info and then choose yourself from your contacts okay so here's the thing you know if I had bothered to set up everything in advance I didn't think about adding myself to my own contacts in fact I didn't think about adding contacts at all because you know I was just testing Syria but if I had done that then I would you know be able to do all of this stuff too so you know Siri does Siri did very well you know a lot of Polish a lot of extra stuff and now let's try Cortana alright guys round five for Cortana we were going to see how personable Cortana can be tell me a joke please oh really all right the thing is I actually got her to do an actual joke earlier tell me a joke how do you catch a runaway laptop with an Internet hahaha alright so something I wanted note here is the inflection in the voice like it sounded like she was excited to tell me the punchline there and I know that something small and probably doesn't matter to a lot of folks but when you've been listening to a computer talk to you for 12 hours having a little bit of emotion in there is actually kind of nice so I do appreciate that that's how that went all right let's ask it another question how are you doing today great thanks awesome so you got a little bit of a little bit of Siri polish there so we're nice alright so I'm going to last I'm gonna do is ask it to call me by a different name can you please start calling me Joe nope I believe that's another one of those things I have to do like in the settings i actually have it set right now to call me chief and see you get it cuz Cortana is calling me chief hey Cortana alright so there's no buzzword what is my name alright so I'm not going to get her to do that two out of three ain't bad though and that concludes the test let's take a moment to talk about it okay so clearly if you want the personal assistant that's going to do the most stuff you're gonna want to go with something like Google now it performed admirably and pretty much all of the tests and there's a ton of functionality we didn't go into such as the ability to show you the weather give you reminders based on events and even grab news based on stuff that you search for it's a great option overall even if it lacks a little personality and overall polish Siri on the other hand has a lot more of a refined field thanks to its more natural speech and friendly demeanor it doesn't have as much pure functionality as Google now but it does make up for it with additional polish which does matter to some people and still makes it a very strong option Cortana is kind of a wild card because it is so new and Microsoft hasn't had time to get a lot of that functionality or refinement in place that said it still had a fairly good showing and we imagine that most of the shortcomings will be addressed in future updates it probably isn't topping anyone's list right now but when you take into consideration the cross-platform support for Android and the OS level integration for Windows the world's two most popular operating systems Cortana definitely has a ton of potential if you want to keep talking about it feel more than free to leave a comment telling us what you think which one you think is the best and why once again I'm Joe Andy the Android authority app guidewire here you might as well subscribe to the Android Authority YouTube channel and check out those awesome videos we have linked up right over there and in the video description below also don't forget to check out all of these applications on their various platforms because they are all really really good and I hope you have a better grasp of which ones will work best for you as always thanks for watching everybody and have a wonderful day you