Gadgetory

I'm Tom Warren with the verge Apple has Siri Google has Google now and Microsoft finally has Cortana Cortana is a personal digital system for Windows Phone 8.1 a big update to Microsoft's mobile operating system she takes the form of a circular icon and you can talk or type to Cortana to get her attention she's like your very own assistant and she even has a notebook just like a real one the notebook feature is designed so that only you can share information with Cortana but she'll be learning about your habits and interests all the time before asking you to store anything she learns about you like Google now and Siri Cortana will answer basic web searches using natural voice commands you can ask things like how tall is Britney Spears or what's the nearest restaurant the difference here is that once you completed a query there's a multi-step element with Cortana where you can also say call it and she will understand you meant the nearby restaurant you can also say show me directions Cortana also has a personality and Microsoft has brought in the voice of Cortana from Halo Jen Taylor to answer some queries whether it's you asking who is your father and getting this reply do you like Siri and getting an equally witty result as good toner as a personal assistant she'll also notify you of things like sports calls or flight information but you can also ask her to remind you in clever ways remind me when I next speak to my girlfriend that I need to discuss Kevin Cortana will then create a reminder that triggers when you neck speak to your girlfriend that's useful and super powerful other commands include the ability to ask Hulu to find the latest episode of a TV show or just ways to turn off airplane mode and other system settings Kitana is always review in your pocket and learning about you but the real trick for Microsoft will be when it can offer this type of digital system everywhere in your living room car at work and on every device you own Cortana is powered by being in it simple possible to imagine her existing without my croissants clever search work and servers crunching data in the background Microsoft is rolling out Cortana to Windows Phone and Bing calm initially one day you'll be able to ask Cortana to sing you a song and a voice will be everywhere