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Her name is Cortana [Pretoria News (South Africa)](Pretoria News (South Africa) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Microsoft has finally unveiled its own digital assistant Cortana, a rival to Apple's Siri, named after an artificial intelligence character from the video game series Halo. Cortana will replace the search function in the latest version of Microsoft's cellphone operating system Windows Phone 8.1 and can handle natural voice commands for tasks. Google and Apple offer similar features through Android's Google Now and Siri on the iPhone and iPad, with users able to ask specific questions such as "How tall is the Eiffel Tower?" without having to type out a search. All of these programs also analyse users' browsing history, contacts and calendars in order to anticipate their needs, although Microsoft stresses that Cortana will ask for permission first. Microsoft showed off a number of features unique to Cortana including the option to take "people reminders", notes for individuals which offer reminders, the next time the user talks to them. Microsoft hopes to lure people to their mobile operating system, but so far Cortana does not appear that different from Siri or Google Now. The software was unveiled - with a few glitches - at Microsoft's developer conference, Build 2014, in San Francisco. All this may be a long way from the convincingly human artificial intelligence in Spike Jonze's movie Her, but it's certainly another step to a future where our smartphones will act as digital personal assistants. - The Independent Pretoria News (c) 2014 Independent Newspapers (Pty) Limited. All rights strictly reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info, an Albawaba.com company |