Microsoft confirms Cortana personal assistant is coming to Android this summer

Microsoft today announced that Windows 10 will support Cortana integration not only with their own smartphone, but also for those using Android phones or the iPhone. The functionality will come as part of the OS upgrade happening later this summer.

Microsoft Cortana is a voice assistant service, not all that dissimilar to Siri or Google Search + Google Now. Cortana is actually pretty good at what it does, with some people willing to give it the throne of best voice assistant.

So what’ll it bring? Here’s a quick look at the feature set Microsoft is boasting:

• You can have Cortana remind you to pick up milk the next time you’re at the grocery store, and then your phone will wake up and buzz with the reminder.


• You’ll be able to ask about the weather.


• Or sports scores.


• Or anything else you would head to a search engine for.


• You’ll be able to track a flight using Cortana on both your phone and your PC, and get the updates on the device that you’re on so you don’t miss anything.


• Everything in Cortana’s Notebook will show up across all your devices and any changes you make on one device will be reflected when you use Cortana on any of your other devices.


• The Cortana companion app will help you complete tasks you begin on your PC wherever you are, on your phone.

Unfortunately Android and iOS users won’t be enjoying some of the other things made possible by owning a Windows phone, such as being able to toggle settings. That sort of stuff requires more open access to system settings which Microsoft doesn’t have. Regardless, it’s better than having nothing at all.

Microsoft also detailed some of the other Windows 10 integration being worked on, including syncing your files across devices with OneDrive and being able to play music stored in OneDrive through the Xbox Music app. It all sounds great and we can’t wait for it to arrive.

So when will it happen? Microsoft says a new preview version of Windows 10 is heading out in a few weeks, and the Cortana apps for mobile should be out by the end of June. That’s not a long wait and you can bet we’ll be checking it out to see if it can’t steal us away from Google Now.

[via Microsoft]

Hands on with SoundHound’s ‘Hound’ Virtual Assistant and comparison with the Google app [Video]

Yesterday, SoundHound announced to the world that they’ve been working on a virtual assistant for 10 years, aiming to take on the likes of the Google app (formerly Google Search), Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Microsoft’s Cortana. SoundHound said that Hound was fast, provided deep results, has the ability to take on detailed query criteria, and has the ability to speak naturally. Hound is supposed to understand both context like the Google app, but also able to understand detail, something Google and other’s do not offer.

How does Hound perform in real a real world test? Watch the video below to find out. (Yes, it’s long. I didn’t want to edit out the failures. I felt they showed real world results.)

For a beta app that’s aimed to take on Google on Android and soon Siri on iOS, Hound isn’t bad. You can tell the app is beta, as the experience can’t handle the competition from time to time. I found found myself having to retry a query because it failed or the voice recognition was just plain horrible. However, all is not lost. Hound can do certain tasks and queries that even the mighty Google cannot handle. Hound is able to answer questions such “show me hotels near Times Square that cost less than 0 per night” or “show me 5 star restaurants in New York City” or “what’s the population of China and the population of Russia and the population of Japan and the population of Germany and the population of Italy”. What Hound can do, it can do pretty damn well.

I’m sure the company will continue to improve their product over time and I’ll be paying attention closely, as will Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and any other corporation that might be interested in acquiring their semi-impressive technology. Hopefully the next beta fixes the voice recognition issues and adds an easy way to access Hound, such as a homescreen widget.

What do you think of Hound? Let us know in the comments.

Amazon Echo’s Alexa becomes an open platform to add a digital assistant to any smart item

It looks like Amazon had bigger plans for Alexa than we thought. The digital voice assistant — which is the star of the show for the Amazon Echo that recently went up for pre-sale — is becoming an open platform which developers can use to add voice assistant features to their products.

They’ll do so through the use of the Alexa Skill Kit and the Alexa Voice Service, a collection of APIs and services that’ll allow you to implement Alexa in your products with ease. The Skill Kit is what will allow developers to support Alexa as if their app is one of Amazon’s own, while the Voice Service is what device makers use to implement Alexa in internet-connected hardware.

To kick things off and spur development, Amazon is also putting up a cool 0 million — called the Alexa Fund — to promote development of Alexa apps, devices and give startups the tools they need to be successful with it.

Amazon’s hope is that the end-result will be a wide range of Alexa-capable products that can make your smart home smarter than it already is, and without the need to buy their homegrown unit to do it.

Exciting times ahead indeed, and we can’t wait to see what comes of it. You can take a look at our Amazon Echo review to learn more about Alexa and how it can help you stay on task and up to date on everything in life.