back to article iPhone, Windows 10, lonely nights – sound like you? Dump Siri and have a date with Cortana

Microsoft is preparing for the rollout of its Siri alternative, Cortana, on Apple devices. In a post on its Answers website, the Windows giant has asked for beta testers for the service on iOS devices. But you have to apply and be accepted, and the company appears to be looking for people in the unusual subset of iPhone users …

  1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    Intelligence, artificial or otherwise?

    If Microsoft are so good at this AI stuff why is it that they can't trap "click here or your Hotmail/Live/Outlook/Whatever account will be closed" spam when sent to their Hotmail/Live/Outlook/Whatever customers? The number of these that get through would be good evidence that they're not defending their trademarks if they ever tried to get a passing off case into court.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Intelligence, artificial or otherwise?

      You are confusing an email spam scanning system with a digital personal assistant or whatever the current buzz word is . An easy mistake to make, I'm sure. Have you ever tried to do either?

      I'll go out on a limb and say that spam scanning is still difficult. We've been doing it for years. I can generally keep mailboxes clear of the worst but not all. I have been doing this on and off for 15 years or so, for quite a few people.

      Now, the AI digital assistant thing is really tricky - way harder than simple email filtering. The day that an IT system understands how to respond in some appropriate way to or even understand something like the sentence "1 apple plus 1 orange over fruit is something to discuss over a bottle of red" then I might consider AI justifying the I component.

  2. P. Lee

    Replicating core Apple services?

    Do Apple allow that?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Replicating core Apple services?

      I switched AWAY from Microsoft, so four horses couldn't drag me back into that quicksand.

      Nice try, though. Subversion is at least a bit more creative than the usual bullying (Win10 springs to mind).

  3. The Average Joe

    Will the boobs attract us????

    Will the cleavage get us to try out Cortana and keep using her?

    Not sure that Microsoft is so cool that normal people will know they can get Cortana on the iPhone. Heck I bet those people don't even know Siri is built in and how to use it. I think the marketing at MS thinks all the users of smart phones are Computer Science PHD's...

    1. 404
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Will the boobs attract us????

      Anybody can get boobs, even old Olympic Gold Medal winners... better question is will she make me a sandwich?

      ;)

      Truth be told, I'd be more impressed with a Patrick Stewart or Sean Connery personal assistant - a voice that has character, not robot sex toy voices.

    2. jzl

      Re: Will the boobs attract us????

      You know that women are people too, right?

  4. Daniel B.
    Boffin

    I wonder...

    How many users are actually interested in switching out Siri for Cortana? If you are going to use a voice-activated AI, you might as well use the one already baked into the OS. I don't see Google offering OK Google on iOS and WinPhone.

    1. graeme leggett Silver badge

      Re: I wonder...

      Presumably someone thinks the numbers are in their favour. And others don't - for now.

      Number of iphone/ipad users with a windows box versus number of iphone/ipad users with an android phone? There's a big spreadsheet somewhere that claims to have the answers.

      Or perhaps its a case of being seen to be doing something your competition isn't.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why would anyone do this?

    I'd like to see a rational discussion (yeah I know) as to why anyone with an iPhone would want all their commands to be sent to MS (and beyond???).

    Cortana might be better than Siri but I wouldn't know coz I have Siri disabled on my company iPhone and I have no inclination to use either tool.

    From reports I've read (don't know about the truth of them though) is that Cortana sends everything back to the MS Mothership like search on W10 sends everything to Bing even if it can be answered locally.

    I have seen very few Windows Phones in the wild but on the train the other day a woman was using Cortana a lot. The whole car knew about it and the fact that she was trying to book a restaurant for her boyfriends birthday surprise. Why? Now people will know that her pad will be empty for that evening. etc etc etc

    My only conclusion is that she was going cold turkey on using Facebook/Twitter.

    But hey, what do I know eh?

    1. GX5000

      Re: Why would anyone do this?

      Why people still don't get that these assistants are just a better versions of Big Brother is beyond me.

      We were supposed to be forced into this, not having to pay for it....this is just nuts, and all for "Convenience"....

      Yes, they both serve to track everything you say and do (and your Smart TV has learned how as well)

      and if they don't understand why this is a bad idea and think we've already lost all of our privacy and freedoms then there's no talking to them.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh noes!

    The MSFT evil is metastasising!

  7. ZSn

    Onedrive

    Odd to see. They've just shot themselves in the foot over the one drive allocation so now they're sucking up to the phone big boys instead. What *is* their plan - or do they have one?

  8. jzl

    Hmmm

    The advantage of Siri is that it's baked in. It runs by holding down a button wherever you are, or saying "Hey Siri". It has access to the device's core functionality.

    Cortana is going to be an app that you'll have to open. Basically, a voice web search app.

  9. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    Announcing the 'Siri-Cortana Conversation' contest

    Goal: achieve the longest possible Siri-Cortana conversation with one human utterance to initiate. Two devices permitted of course.

    Extra points for an endless loop... Cortana: "Isn't!" Siri: "Is too!" Cortana: "Isn't!" ...

    Prize is one e-Beer as shown.

  10. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    "Number of iphone/ipad users with a windows box versus number of iphone/ipad users with an android phone? There's a big spreadsheet somewhere that claims to have the answers."

    This calls for a Venn diagram!

    Apart from that, putting Cortana on iOS feels a bit like trying to divide by zero.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ICouldBeABetaTester!ICouldBeABetaTester!ICouldBeABetaTester!

    ...I gotta have Windows 10 and an iPhone?

    Nevermind.

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