While people question the usefulness of Siri – especially if you have an accent – it is without a doubt a revolutionary piece of technology brought forward by Apple, enough for developers as well as Google and Microsoft to attempt replicating the feature in a form or another. While Google Now is admittedly useful (depends on how much you allow Google to pry into your emails, calendars, locations, and web history) – and the voice search is better, to be honest – one cannot deny that Siri does provide some humour, and that makes Siri more of a character rather than a passive service like Google Now.
Microsoft’s ambition is to take this to the next level by naming their service Cortana – named after the AI found in the Halo games. As reported by The Verge, Cortana will have a notebook where she keeps your information, behaviour, location, flight information, as well as pulling in data from Bing and Foursquare.
Of course we would have no idea how she’d function unless she’s rolled out to the masses, but with GameSpot reporting that she’s be voiced by Cortana’s actor from the games, we might be looking at something special.
