I’ll say one thing about the new Microsoft Surface Headphones. They’re pretty, especially if you like the color grey. I’ll tell you a few other things. The Cortana features are frustrating. The noise-canceling tech is basically fine. The ear cups aren’t super comfortable. And the headphones just don’t sound that…
The next VP to leave Microsoft is the current head of Cortana, Javier Soltero, according to multiple reports. The departure is part of an ongoing internal shakeup at Microsoft that has seen execs including 20-year vet Terry Myerson leave the company.
It only took a year, but Cortana is finally coming to Alexa speakers, and vice versa.
Cortana, like all digital assistants, is supposed to make life easier by organizing your data and presenting you with helpful information when you need it. Unfortunately, that inclination to be useful can also pose a security risk, as McAfee found when it discovered a bug in Windows 10 that let hackers use Cortana to…
Microsoft is opening the door to more digital assistants you can chat with on your Xbox One, according to a report from Windows Central. That means the day may come when you can swap Cortana for Alexa, or tell Google to get your pad ready for game night through your console.
At Google I/O 2018, Google announced that its digital assistant was getting upgraded with more natural-sounding speech in addition to six new alternate voices. Then, Google promptly scared the hell out of everyone by using the Google Assistant’s new skills to mimic a real voice so well, people on the other end of a…
Amazon has managed to make Alexa the brand people think of when it comes to digital voice assistants, but the Google Assistant is the smartest of the bunch according to a new study.
Despite its best efforts, Microsoft’s Groove Music service never really caught on. So back in October, Microsoft shut the service down and told its users to switch to Spotify. Unfortunately, that decision had some unintended consequences for Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana, which relied on Groove Music’s library…
Yesterday, a report from Bloomberg came out saying that Samsung will launch a Bixby-powered smart speaker sometime in the first half of 2018. This really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone since DJ Koh already told CNBC back in August that the company was indeed trying to put its digital assistant, which first…
As Google and Apple (and Samsung) scramble to build the smartest, do-anything personal assistant for your phone, Amazon and Microsoft have elected to take a different route: They’re working together rather than competing. The news arrived in the form of a joint announcement from both companies, and the New York Times is reporting
With Microsoft’s Build developer conference just two days away, the company has revealed one of the most anticipated announcements from the event: A new Cortana-powered speaker made by German audio giant Harman Kardon.
The future of city driving—at least in theory—sounds amazing. We’ll have digital assistants in our vehicles to book last-minute restaurant reservations, and we’ll never have to touch a steering wheel again because our cars will drive themselves. At CES, I got a glimpse of how this technology is coming along, and…
Oh dear—not still clicking around with a mouse and keyboard are you? What is this, early 2015? Cortana comes baked into Windows 10 now, so you can shout out commands and control your laptop or desktop using your voice instead. Here are some of the neat ways you can make use of it.
Microsoft is a software company. Despite its more recent push into building impressive hardware, it’s made its name with code and services—not phones and laptops. Build 2016, a couple day’s sojourn in San Francisco, showcases what Microsoft does best, giving a glimpse of things coming for Windows users in 2016 and…
Digital voice assistants, like Apple’s Siri, are really bad at dispensing resources to users facing domestic abuse, depression, rape, or mental health emergencies, a new study finds.
Microsoft has put its digital assistant front and a little left of center, embedding it into every Windows 10-running device, and anyone who feels like downloading the app. Cortana’s getting some new tricks to go with her popularity, including a little extra nagging.
Another year, another couple thousand new apps for you to wade through in a befuddled haze. Which ones should you download? Which ones should you actually pay for? And which ones deserve to take up prime real estate on your home screen? Whether you’ve spent the last 365 days asking yourself those very questions, or…
Every mobile operating system comes with its own digital assistant. iOS has Siri, Android has Google Now, and Windows phone has Cortana. But now, Microsoft is giving all smartphone users some choice, now that Cortana has escaped (the sinking ship that is) the Windows phone and officially migrated to Android, iOS and…
One of Cortana’s capabilities that you might not noticed yet is the quick translation feature. Microsoft’s engineers recently upgraded this part of Cortana’s functionality, so you can now get multilingual help with words, phrases and sentences, assuming Cortana is supported in your part of the world (U.S. English and…
We’re busy preparing for all the new smartwatches, phones, and gadgets that will be coming out of IFA in Berlin next week, but let’s take a moment to remember all the neat software that will fill up those cases of aluminum, glass, and silicon. Here are the best apps from this week.
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