Cortana - Microsoft's answer to Siri and Google Now

Apple has Siri. Google has Google Now. Now, Microsoft has… Cortana!

So, what is Cortana?

Cortana is your personal assistant, and by assistant I MEAN “assistant”. Siri and Google Now are good for texts, making calls, etc without touching the phone (through voice commands) but Cortana takes it to the next level. She STUDIES you, your daily life, your daily routine and helps you accordingly, without you even asking her. Its like she has a brain of her own!

For instance :

• She knows whether you are at work or at home.

• She will know the way you take to the office and will automatically warn you if there is traffic on the way and whether you need to take a detour.

• She knows what type of music you like and will give you suggestions based on it.

• If you want to set an alarm, just tell her and she will set it for you. Or you can simply tell her ‘wake me after an hour’ and she will do it.

• Now you don’t even have to remember anything! Just tell her and she will remember it for you. For example, if you have to ask your friend John how his holiday was, you simply tell Cortana to remind you the next time you call John and when you do call him, she reminds you.

• Dictate her a text and tell her to send it to the person you want, and its done.

• Cortana will respond silently when you type, and verbally when you speak.

• Unlike Siri, Cortana will be available even to third party apps like Skype, Facebook etc and can integrate with them easily.

Release date :

The beta version of Cortana is already out for Windows phone 8.1 (US only)

The full version is planned for a late 2014 launch. (US, UK and China only)

The remaining countries will get Cortana in 2015.

Cortana might also be released for PC and Xbox, but nothing is confirmed as of now.

Trivia :

Cortana is an artificial intelligence in the Halo games.

So, is Cortana just a new Microsoft Bob, or is this the FUTURE?