Windows Phone 8.1 Cortana Image Leaked
As we already reported not long ago, one of the most interesting additions that will debut with upcoming major update, Windows Phone 8.1, is Microsoft’s own an intelligent personal assistant and its name is Cortana (a fictional artificially intelligent (AI) character in the Halo video game series). Cortana’s initial role will be to act as a search function (Windows Phone 8 smartphones come with Bing as the default search engine and Cortana is going to replace it) but similarly to Apple’s Siri Google Now, Cortana will be more than just a search engine. Instead of appearing like the similar A.I. from the Halo video game series, the Windows Phone 8 intelligent personal assistant will be an animated icon and it will be given a personality (Siri anyone?).
You will be able to choose how you want Cortana to call you and you can either use your real name or a nickname – you will be able to do so via an option in the settings screen. As we mentioned in our recent article, Cortana will use a Notebook feature: “Cortana will integrate a feature that will allows users to choose exactly what they want to share with the intelligent personal assistant named after an AI from Halo; the feature’s name is Notebook. It will let users decide if Cortana can access the following: location data, behaviors, personal information, reminders, and contact information. The Notebook feature is basically intended to be a privacy setting so that as Cortana learns more about the user, it only stores in the Notebook what the users allow her to store. More than that, you will be able to edit or delete information from the Notebook whenever you like to. Just like Google Now, the information stored by Cortana in the Notebook will be used as a way to give it contextual awareness that will allow her to make suggestions, alerts and reminders“.
Cortana will use Bing and Foursquare so it can be able to achieve the contextual awareness we mentioned above. It will also try to learn more about the user: “as the user searches for things and uses his smartphone for various activities, Cortana will store the data and learn about the user’s preferences and habits. Cortana will then store what she learned in the Notebook and it will start reacting to emails or messages according to the user’s plans. Cortana can also offer contextual information on music, weather, appointments or directions based on what she knows or on the user’s location“. As you can see in the leaked image, Cortana will be able not only to give you suggestions, reminders, alerts and ides, but it will also be able to track flights or other things mentioned in your email.
Microsoft’s intelligent personal assistant leaked online (you can see the leaked image showing Cortana’s settings screen, in this article) and it is set to make its debut in the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 update that will be released earlier next month to registered Windows Phone developers, at the company’s Build conference. However, we don’t know for sure if Microsoft will actually go with the name Cortana for its upcoming intelligent personal assistant, or if it will use another name. What do you think about Microsoft’s upcoming intelligent personal assistant, Cortana? Leave your comments in the dedicated section below
