back to article Microsoft's Cortana booted off yet another service while Google and AWS get a bit catty over licensing shakeup

Welcome to your midweek Microsoft roundup – stories you might have missed amid another seven days of Nadella action. Cortana gets another kicking It was all supposed to be so different for Microsoft's assistant. A healthy push from the company's mobile platform coupled with a variety of smart speakers and clever devices should …

  1. Chris King

    The burning question has to be...

    "Cortana, what did you do to piss everybody off ?"

    Shortly followed by:

    "OK Google, what device am I supposed to ask her on ?"

    1. simonlb Silver badge
      Paris Hilton

      Re: The burning question has to be...

      I thought it was, " Cortana, what are you for?"

      Paris, because she doesn't do much work either.

  2. IGnatius T Foobar !

    SpySpeakers

    geez ... it's amazing that people are still willing to put SpySpeakers in their homes ... regardless of who is providing the spyware. Cortana, Alexa, Siri, and OK Google are all doing the same dis-service to your household.

    1. 0laf
      FAIL

      Re: SpySpeakers

      It's not just that they spy I find all of these assistant frankly crap at what they are supposed to do and using them takes far longer than any traditional way of tapping the screen.

      1. Timmy B
        FAIL

        Re: SpySpeakers

        "It's not just that they spy I find all of these assistant frankly crap at what they are supposed to do and using them takes far longer than any traditional way of tapping the screen."

        For some people, perhaps, but not for the elderly in-law that uses my setup.

        1. BGatez

          Re: SpySpeakers

          Yes for the less abled they can help but they still spy- doctor conversations perhaps, banking info/passwords, etc. etc. etc.

      2. hoola Silver badge

        Re: SpySpeakers

        Or just turning the bloody knob or flicking a switch.

        It is all tech for the sake of tech and people are mindlessly buying into the idea, mostly because it is cool. There is no concept that this is not actually for your benefit but rather for the people selling the tat in the first place.

        1. Timmy B

          Re: SpySpeakers

          "Or just turning the bloody knob or flicking a switch."

          What if you can't do those things easily? What if you can't do them at all? For some people these devices are a massive benefit.

          1. 0laf

            Re: SpySpeakers

            But do disabled people deserve to have their privacy diluted just because they need to use the functions these devices can carry out? Surely there is a way to make and sell these devices without leaching people's data to make yet more money.

            1. Timmy B

              Re: SpySpeakers

              99% of the "snooping" is it recording to make the voice recognition better as far as I read it. This is totally fine. The money to be made is still in advertising and that's far more tied to purchases. If you're worried about amazon having access to what you purchase then I am certain you'll never buy anything from them.

    2. Timmy B

      Re: SpySpeakers

      "geez ... it's amazing that people are still willing to put SpySpeakers in their homes ... regardless of who is providing the spyware. Cortana, Alexa, Siri, and OK Google are all doing the same dis-service to your household."

      You don't live with an elderly/disabled relative? Not everyone is young and able. Not everyone can understand or use a tablet. The trade of ease of use and cost against security doesn't worry me one bit. If big corp x wants to listen in on me so be it. They'll hear me watching TV, making things or "conversing" with the other half - feel free.

      1. whitepines
        WTF?

        Re: SpySpeakers

        You don't live with an elderly/disabled relative?

        So ... because someone is elderly or disabled, you think they should have fewer rights than someone that is not? Specifically referring to right to privacy here.

        1. Timmy B

          Re: SpySpeakers

          "So ... because someone is elderly or disabled, you think they should have fewer rights than someone that is not? Specifically referring to right to privacy here."

          They would rather be able to easily use the TV, lights, answer the door. After all who says their banking passwords out loud? We don't have any privacy. We simply don't. Anything we do can be monitored by the wider authorities in a second if they want to. I don't see any of the people here forgoing any of their modern lives to live off grid in the middle of nowhere - where they actually may have privacy. We all compromise. It just depends to what level you feel that you accept that loss of privacy.

          This from someone who regularly does spend days or weeks away from technology in the woods.

  3. SVV

    Johnson Control

    This name is funny on both anglophonic sides of the Atlantic, for entirely different reasons. Although leaders on both sides have problems with the leftpondian interpretation.

    1. Alister

      Re: Johnson Control

      Yes, when you think about it, both of our revered leaders now have surnames which can provoke ridicule across the Atlantic: in the UK a Trump is a forceful release of gas from the nether regions, whilst in the USA a Johnson is a complete prick.

      Ah, what a time to be alive...

  4. BGatez

    Would someone come up with a way to root out this cortana vampire from my Win 10 "Pro" - please

    1. NetBlackOps

      Search "disable Cortana" on the ' net? Here it turns up using Group Policy of RegEdit to do it dirty. My Fire Tablet was quite obliging in that regard ;-).

      To be perfectly honest, whacking Alexa was also first up on my Amazon devices as well. I'll be reversing that in the near future though as I become even further bedridden. Then, yeah, that kind of thing makes just a bit of sense.

    2. Timmy B

      Just ignore it if you don't want to use it. It's that simple.

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