Gadgetory

windows phones are getting some new personality I'm Bridget Carey and this is your CNET update move over Siri there's a new girl in town and her name is cortana she's Microsoft's version of a voice-activated virtual assistant for Windows Phones she's got brains and personality and she's arriving soon to Windows Phones in a software update Microsoft gave us a preview during the company's developer conference in San Francisco which is going on now she was named after the sexy computer assistant from the Halo video game but she's not as sexy on your phone because she's just a circle but Microsoft did try to give the Windows Cortana a certain bit of charm in her answers and the company hired a team of writers to craft her dialogue if you asked who is your daddy she'll say big deal but aside from jokes she's designed to get smarter the more you interact with the phone by picking up on your interests she can warn you if traffic is bad on the way to an appointment in your calendar and she can set reminders for very specific things for example you can ask to be reminded of something the next time your mom calls you and some apps also work with voice commands like you can ask Hulu to add a show to your queue or play a show Cortana is still in beta to work out all the kinks but Microsoft promises Cortana will be more intelligent than Siri don't make a girl a promise you can't keep but there's more coming to Windows phones than Cortana you'll be able to turn on the enhanced layout of tiles no matter what your screen sizes previously only larger phones got that perk also among the changes is a new Action menu that you pull down to quickly access notifications and settings changes are also coming to the main Windows 8.1 operating system Microsoft is making it easier to navigate its system that bounces between tiles and a desktop style screen now you can have your computer show the desktop when it turns on if you don't like dealing with those tiles and there's the glorious taskbar to pin your programs or as they call them now programs also have new clothes and minimize buttons like you're accustomed to and in tile mode there's a power down icon on the top so you don't have to swipe or hover a mouse in a corner to find it there's a settings tile that's easier to find as well those updates will be available Tuesday April 8th as a free download as for the mobile stuff with Cortana Microsoft didn't give a date all we know is that it will roll out two phones in the coming months but new phones will have the changes starting next month that's your tech news update heda's cnet.com for more details on these stories from our studios in new york I'm Bridget Carey