Gadgetory

android owners have google now iphone and ipad users have Siri and now windows phone owners finally have a voice assistant of their own i'm dan graziano i'm going to show you how to set up and start using microsoft's brand-new cortana voice assistant Cortana comes as part of the Windows Phone 8.1 update which will begin rolling out to devices in late 2014 to access Cortana press the Search button or click on the Cortana icon in the phone's app drawer if you long press the Search button Cortana will launch in listening mode you can use the voice assistant to set up reminders check the weather or find the score and schedule of your favorite sports team but before we do that let's get more personal and get Cortana to refer to you by name inside the app click on the three line icon in the top right corner of the screen this will open the notebook scroll down to settings check the box that reads have Cortana call me by my name and click on the set my name option Cortana learned from you over time and will eventually figure out where you live and where you work but you can actually tell her these things sooner enter the notebook and click on interest to let Cortana know what kind of information you would like to receive for example I love the new york sports teams so i'm going to tell her to give the information on the yankees and the jets in the notebook you can manually set time and location-based reminders enable the windows phone quiet mode and set your favorite places such as your home or your work you can also enable traffic updates in the daily routine section get information for upcoming trips in the travel section and one of my favorites get suggestions for finding places to eat at meal times in the eat and drink section the next time you open Cortana you will be greeted with a stream of relevant information such as stocks and news among other things over time she will begin to ask you even more questions like what do you do during the evenings what kind of food do you like and what you're most interested in Cortana will then use this information to enhance the suggestion she makes to you so now that we have Cortana tailored to your specific needs it's time to start using her just like Siri you can use Cortana to search for pretty much anything whether it's on your phone or on the web you would have her open the settings menu turn Wi-Fi on or even text or call a friend for example after asking how tall a Braun James is you can then ask what team does he play for Cortana will remember that you're talking about LeBron James when will give you an answer rather than executing a web search for the command what team does he play for another cool feature is Cortana's ability to listen to your music and tell you the artist who's playing this can be done by clicking on the music icon and playing your favorite tune of course there's a lot more Cortana can do so be sure to check out my article on how to dot cnet com you can also reach out to me on Twitter with any questions or comments i'm dan graziano prasina thanks for watching