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Cortana Can Now Replace Google Now On Android Devices

Posted by timothy on from the heterodox-approach dept.

The Verge reports that Microsoft's Cortana can now be used (at least for beta testers) as a drop-in replacement for the Google Now assistant on Android devices; that means users can select launching Cortana as their default on-board assistant, and launch it by holding down the device's home key. However, notes the article, "The update version still doesn't include 'Hey Cortana' support, largely because of hardware limitations that prevent Cortana from always listening for the command."

155 comments

  1. Yay! by binarylarry · · Score: 4, Informative

    Now I can have a voice assistant that works even less than Google now does!

    Microsoft innovating the future by copying the past. (TM)

    --
    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
    1. Re:Yay! by Dracos · · Score: 0, Troll

      How much you wanna bet Cortana is just a branded front end for Siri? You know, like how Bing used to scrape Google for results?

    2. Re:Yay! by jader3rd · · Score: 3, Funny

      You know, like how Bing used to scrape Google for results?

      Bing never scraped Google for results.

    3. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft innovating the future by copying the past. (TM)

      Google has certainly proven that people prefer free/cheap + advertising and spyware over more expensive software without advertising, Microsoft is giving people what they want. They're going the free-of-charge OS route, they're releasing stuff under open source licenses, they're acting on user feedback (both windows 10 and xbox), they're actively supporting cross-platform development and they're making their key applications (Office for example) available on competing platforms (you can even run Office365 on Linux!). Not to mention the criticisms of their products are getting ever more nitpicky (the start menu component of the GUI shell? geeks can't install litestep or classicshell? really?).

    4. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So if we're going to follow this analogy to conclusion, Cortana uses plugins installed on user's phones to scrape siri for results instead of doing it directly? :)

    5. Re:Yay! by cheater512 · · Score: 5, Informative

      http://searchengineland.com/go...

      They got caught red handed.

    6. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're copying the past while pretending your desktop is a phone, no less. I for one isn't interested at all. Even Siri/Google Now for Win10 sounds more appealing. I don`t want of it, but at least the search results would be worth something!

    7. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, doesn't DuckDuckGo do the same thing?

    8. Re:Yay! by guruevi · · Score: 2

      DuckDuckGo never claimed to be something else. They've always been a Google proxy that (as they claim) anonymizes the traffic.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    9. Re:Yay! by sexconker · · Score: 5, Informative

      Wrong. They got "caught" doing the same thing every other search engine does with toolbars (or now, what Google does with Chrome). They were simply monitoring what a user clicks on and adding a +1 to that site's weight in their crazy algorithm.
      They weren't copying Google's results, they were copying users's clicks, just like everyone else. If a user clicked on a Google search result, the referrer and the page were fed to Bing, just like with any other user navigation.

      Google ran a smear campaign and clicked on extremely specific results thousands of times from many IPs in their offices n order to poison the result set and show Bing was copying Google. They only had a handful of successes in altering Bing's search results, but the "BING COPIES GOOGLE" campaign was very successful, because people believe it to this day despite the fact that it was debunked several times.

      I hate both companies, but let's at least be correct when talk about them being shitty.

    10. Re:Yay! by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      Was there something particularly wrong about seeing how others do something to improve your own work?

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    11. Re:Yay! by freeze128 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I would much rather have Google Now on my Windows 10 desktop instead of Cortana.

    12. Re:Yay! by cheater512 · · Score: 1

      'Seeing' is Bing devs doing a few Google searches.

      'Copying' is programming IE to report back what results Google is showing, then displaying the exact same results.

    13. Re:Yay! by jader3rd · · Score: 1

      The idea presented implicates that the Bing search engine servers were sending queries to Google search engine servers and storing the results. But that's not what happened, even in the article you linked to. What happened there is that users who had the Bing toolbar, and opted in to have their behavior tracked, did have an influence on the Bing search engine. Given that's the point of the opt in behavior, that's no surprised. And it had nothing to do with Google. The Bing toolbar was looking for situations where a user would enter text into a text box, and then click on a link. It didn't matter whether the text box was from a Google website or another website. The idea is that Bing was trying to learn from users behavior, and perhaps learn a way it could save users steps in the future.

    14. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No they didn't you fucking liar. The Bing toolbar app used mappings between searches and clicks in any search including Google to improve results. Common sense way to improve results.

    15. Re:Yay! by cheater512 · · Score: 0

      The Bing toolbar scraped Google search pages, copying the results verbatim.
      Just because user's browsers did the scraping rather than Bing servers is fairly irrelevant.

    16. Re:Yay! by jader3rd · · Score: 1

      The Bing toolbar scraped Google search pages, copying the results verbatim. Just because user's browsers did the scraping rather than Bing servers is fairly irrelevant.

      But that's not what's implied by your claim (or sense of righteous anger). I still get the sense that you feel that Bing went out of its way to copy Google search results. When really Bing bar tracked users behavior the same way that Google does. And the user behavior learning had nothing specific to do with Google. It applies to all web pages that the users ever used. If no users of the Bing bar went to www.google.com, the "copying of Google" couldn't have ever occurred.

    17. Re:Yay! by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Actually that would be fraud. What M$ is actually doing is pumping up bing hits by an order of magnitude in order to sell it too advertisers. So how many Bing searches are fake, a fraud to pump up Bing market rates, how active is Bing in reality once of the faked searches have been eliminated, what market share does it really have.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    18. Re:Yay! by teh+dave · · Score: 3, Informative

      That is dishonest because it is not the complete story.

      From the same article you linked, is a link to this one which reveals that it barely factors into most search result rankings. Furthermore, whilst Bing gets some information on result rankings from Google, they get that info from any search certain IE users make anywhere on the web, not just Google.

    19. Re:Yay! by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 1

      Thank you for that link, that was interesting, as was the companion article. (I had not heard of this before so it was a fascinating read)

      http://searchengineland.com/bing-why-googles-wrong-in-its-accusations-63279

      Interestingly enough, MS doesn't deny that it uses Googles 'signal' sometimes and even Google puts it at around 9% tops, and it took nearly two weeks for similar results to resembling Googles honeypot to show up on Bing. If it was as nefarious as Google tried to make it I would think it would happen faster. They do deny wholesale scraping (I use both frequently, as they do tend to be quite different for the most part, and occasionally one or the other picks up something totally unique.) and even Google doesn't accuse them of that.
      I wonder how many other search engines do a similar thing under the radar? The only real beef seems to be whether it's ethical to do so. Considering this comes from two companies who's ethics are at best suspect, I don't see that it matters much.

      As the author of both articles says :
        "If I could go back and change only one thing in my original story, Iâ€(TM)d have made the headline â€oeGoogle: Bing Is Cheating, Copying SOME Of Our Search Results.†I explained at length in the article itself that most of Bingâ€(TM)s results were unique. But the headline was taken by some to mean that Bing copied all of Googleâ€(TM)s results."

      --
      Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
    20. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now all they need to do is make Windows 10 actually work.

      Seriously, they're so worried about these wars they've forgotten who they're fighting for.

    21. Re:Yay! by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      And Siri was bought by Apple from an SRI spin-off, which developed the technology as part of a DARPA project. Lots of the components already exist in open source form (as the Sirius project has shown).

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    22. Re:Yay! by davester666 · · Score: 1

      Really? Because I used DDG for a month or two, and found the search results MUCH less relevant than doing the same search in Google, and I never am logged into google for doing my searches.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    23. Re:Yay! by gnupun · · Score: 1

      To be clear, before the test began, these queries found either nothing or a few poor quality results on Google or Bing. Then Google made a manual change, so that a specific page would appear at the top of these searches, even though the site had nothing to do with the search. Two weeks after that, some of these pages began to appear on Bing for these searches.

      It strongly suggests that Bing was copying Google's results, by watching what some people do at Google via Internet Explorer.

      Wait a sec... does this mean IE spies on your google page and sends your google search queries to Microsoft servers?

      http://searchengineland.com/go...

    24. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not a voice assistant. It's a spying device. So are most of the other apps that nobody really needs.

    25. Re:Yay! by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

      That's because you are missing out on the tailored search ranking based on your search history (and browser history, social security records, data on your Android phone, etc). See? All that data harvesting *is* good for you.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    26. Re:Yay! by ch0knuti · · Score: 1

      Come on mods. There is no -1 "How dare you criticize Google" or -1 "For defending Microsoft" mod. This guy deserves at least a +3 insightful IMHO.

    27. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And if nobody bought drugs, drug lords would not have so much power. Doesn't change a thing, they (drug lords or Microsoft) are still guilty.

    28. Re:Yay! by geoskd · · Score: 1

      Bing never scraped Google for results.

      Yes they did. They pretty much admitted they were doing it.

      --
      I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
    29. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      From the bottom of the article you linked to:

      Postscript: Bing: Why Google’s Wrong In Its Accusations is the follow-up story from talking with Bing. Please be sure to read it in addition to this story.

      Link: http://searchengineland.com/bing-why-googles-wrong-in-its-accusations-63279

      Basically a Google staffer went rather off on one to game the Bing toolbar (which looks at the sites visited and reports them back to Bing/MS) he stuck a few links into Google and then visited them with an browser with the toolbar installed. Surprise, surprise they later appeared in Bing. It's pretty shameful that Google made so much of this and that they haven't retracted their claims.

    30. Re:Yay! by asylumx · · Score: 1

      Why is this -1? It's clearly not a troll and it's not flamebait -- just informative. I get that Slashdot leans heavily in one direction in the MS vs. anyone debate but come on. This appears to be more like censorship than moderation.

    31. Re:Yay! by guruevi · · Score: 1

      You don't have to be logged into Google in order for Google to track you. Same goes for Facebook and LinkedIn etc., I am fairly careful about my searches and private information, yet targeted ads follow me not just on my computer but also on my phone and sometimes even devices I just started to use.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    32. Re:Yay! by Rob+Y. · · Score: 1

      The fact remains that an audience for Bing would not even exist had it not been made the default search engine on Windows - and had not millions of Windows users not been savvy enough to change it. Even today, many Windows users get to google by typing www.google.com into IE - since they're too intimidated to even try to change the default. That Bing relied on Google rankings on top of this just underscores that, while there may be some need for competition in search, Microsoft has done little to earn it's 2nd place position.

      The original article is about Cortana/Bing on Android. Again, something that Android users have no practical use for, and only makes some marginal sense for Windows 10 users that now have Cortana baked in to their desktops. Having utterly lost the race for relevance in mobile computing, Microsoft has engineered Windows 10 - which will still enjoy essential desktop monopoly status - as a trojan horse to allow them to build a parallel MS-dominated version of Android to deliver MS services to mobile users. For all of the silly bluster from Cyanogen about taking Android away from Google, it's Microsoft that's really attempting to do it. And I guess the open source nature of Android allows for this - though why consumers would accept a Microsoft take-over of Google's work eludes me. Perhaps they won't...

      --
      Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
    33. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have no mod points, but wanted to point out this is correct.

      People that continue to complain about bing stealing google's search results once they learn the correct story are simply irrational and emotional, and would rather believe lies they are comfortable with than truths they don't like.

      Hate Microsoft for valid reasons. You can find many.

    34. Re:Yay! by vhogemann · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You don't know how right you are about this,

      I can't use Cortana even if I wanted to, not even if I owned a Windows Phone device. See, I'm from Brazil, and Cortana doesn't understand Portuguese. It also refuses to work even it I switch my system language to English, because it's only enabled for US and UK. Compare that with Google Now language support.

      It's kind of frightening actually how ahead Google is. That means that Google not only have a greater reach internationally, but means that they can extract information that Microsoft/BING doesn't have access to, since it's not limited to english. All this translates to better services, better local support, better AD targeting, and more dominance online.

      --
      ---- You know how some doctors have the Messiah complex - they need to save the world? You've got the "Rubik's" complex
    35. Re:Yay! by jittles · · Score: 1

      Now I can have a voice assistant that works even less than Google now does!

      Microsoft innovating the future by copying the past. (TM)

      Supposedly Cortana is much better at speech recognition than either Siri or Ok Google. It's also supposed to be much more capable. I've never used it myself, but it does seem to allow much more complex commands than Siri does.

    36. Re:Yay! by kqs · · Score: 1

      "You're copying Google!"

      "No, no, we're copying everyone."

      "Oh, well, that's okay then."

      Seriously, though, the tone about this has generally not been outrage or condemnation. Mostly amusement and derision. After the "Scroogled" campaign, Microsoft cannot really whine about baseless accusations for a while...

    37. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Re-read the post you responded to. It was saying that Google was working better, not worse. Your posted reasons indicate why Google's results aren't at peak performance. It looks like you looked at the wrong side.

    38. Re:Yay! by dwpro · · Score: 1

      I haven't used Cortanta, but MS speech recognition technology that's used for the parsing of voicemail in Exchange seems extremely good. In the last few messages I've gotten I haven't even felt the need to verify that the parsing was correct (that will probably bite me in the ass soon).

      --
      Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. -- Susan Ertz
    39. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your' right, they scrape pornhub and xvideos

    40. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People most often click on the first page results. And even more likely on the top link. When's the last time you went further to the next page?
      Whatever you call it, the goal and end result was to gain a weighted database identical to Google's.

    41. Re:Yay! by KGIII · · Score: 1

      No, it involves the Bing toolbar and specifically opting in to allow usage tracking.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    42. Re:Yay! by allo · · Score: 1

      Yandex and Bing are the main contributors, then an own crawler (trying to build up a search engine) and specialized engines like wikipedia, a definition dictionary, wolfram alpha, etc.

    43. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Get yourself a Raspberry PI and Be A Free Man. Run it 24/7 at your DSL modem. Use is as your Personal Cloud Server.

      RPI is for free wolves while Goo* and M$ services are for fat, leashed dogs.

    44. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Again, no, it wasn't. It wasn't targeted to Google at all.

      What Google did was targeting what Microsoft did, at Google, and *then* blaming Microsoft for it.

    45. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft isn't the drug lords in your analogy, Google are. Fortunately for you, the analogy was also stupid.

      Your argument is tantamount to "learning is morally wrong".

    46. Re:Yay! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What kind of CPU, GPU and RAM does Raspberry Pi have again? Isn't it some dinky little shit that's weaker than most phones?

    47. Re:Yay! by Daetrin · · Score: 1

      Possibly because he is (at least one of) the cow spammers, and people felt like punishing him for it? (Though it looks like it's been modded back up since then.)

      http://news.slashdot.org/comme...

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
  2. Hey Google, you evil bastards! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It sure is nice for you that you can make billions of dollars by exploiting a Linux kernel made for free by volunteers and rebrand it Android, but where's my Bash shell, Google? Why do you have to use Free Software to deny me my Freedom, Google? Hey!! FUCK YOU, Google.

    1. Re:Hey Google, you evil bastards! by mcrbids · · Score: 2

      Bash shell is not a tool for the masses. However, at least one app that lets you have your shell. In fact, there's more than one.

      For me, Linux is the OS, and the "Android" part is somewhat analogous to X11 on "normal" Linux.

      --
      I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
    2. Re:Hey Google, you evil bastards! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      For me, Linux is the OS, and the "Android" part is somewhat analogous to X11 on "normal" Linux.

      It would seem more closely analogous to KDE or GNOME plus Wayland. But then it's got a VM too...

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Hey Google, you evil bastards! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It sure is nice for you that you can make billions of dollars by exploiting a Linux kernel made for free by volunteers and rebrand it Android

      Nothing wrong with making money from free software. And so long as the changes are contributed back Linus himself is in favor of Tivoization with respect to the Linux kernel.

      but where's my Bash shell, Google?

      Right here.

      Why do you have to use Free Software to deny me my Freedom, Google? Hey!! FUCK YOU, Google.

      Here is your freedom, go nuts.

    4. Re:Hey Google, you evil bastards! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It sure is nice for you that you can make billions of dollars by exploiting a Linux kernel made for free by volunteers and rebrand it Android, but where's my Bash shell, Google? Why do you have to use Free Software to deny me my Freedom, Google? Hey!! FUCK YOU, Google.

      I really wish you Free Software folks would stop trying to subsume other projects under your own ideology. Yes it uses the GPLv2 but the Linux kernel was never about Free Software ideals, Linus has made it quite clear that the license choice was purely to ensure "quid-pro-quo" source code contribution and that Tivoization is *good*.

    5. Re:Hey Google, you evil bastards! by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      Don't forget Termux (http://termux.com/), which gives you the shell and a whole buncha tools, including gcc, python, ruby and more.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    6. Re:Hey Google, you evil bastards! by c · · Score: 1

      This was my standard shell/Unix tool environment. At least until I upgraded to L...

      --
      Log in or piss off.
    7. Re:Hey Google, you evil bastards! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It sure is nice for you that you can make billions of dollars by exploiting a Linux kernel made for free by volunteers and rebrand it Android, but where's my Bash shell, Google? Why do you have to use Free Software to deny me my Freedom, Google? Hey!! FUCK YOU, Google.

      You're an idiot. The major contributors and donors to the Linux foundation are corporate employees and the companies they work for.

    8. Re:Hey Google, you evil bastards! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that you RMS?

      Because just as a reminder, there's nothing wrong with making money, even profit off Free software, even GPL free software.

      There's also nothing wrong with branding your own distro of free software.

    9. Re:Hey Google, you evil bastards! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Get yourself an RPI and become a free man.

  3. Do not evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    P3erz G00gle BSD lin4x, ->>>>> Thtml: Business apper apps cow. I'm king you suckers!

  4. No voice assistant for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm still not on the talk-to-my-phone bus. I have an Android (so no siri) and never got Google Now. Anyone have a compelling reason why I should? I don't see what the use of them is when it takes the same amount of time to just tap out your query.

    1. Re: No voice assistant for me by binarylarry · · Score: 1

      Being someone who's riding the talk to your phone/watch bus, its so much faster than typing for many things.

      Until you try to demo it to someone, that's when schroedingers cat mode activates.

      --
      Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
    2. Re: No voice assistant for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's useful when you're driving. It's safer.

    3. Re: No voice assistant for me by Fwipp · · Score: 1

      I like it for when I'm cooking - "okay Google, set a timer for fifteen minutes" or "what's 500 milliliters in cups?" Don't have to get the phone dirty with whatever meat juices I've got on my hands.

    4. Re:No voice assistant for me by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      i use it when im driving, or when i see something and i just want a quick answer like "hey google when did so and so end"

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    5. Re: No voice assistant for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      This sentence also still applies if you replace the word cooking with masturbating.

    6. Re: No voice assistant for me by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      I like it when I discover my neighbor is trying to control my thoughts through my cutlery and I need to do search of ways of dissolving body parts while I'm mixing chloroform.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    7. Re: No voice assistant for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously, who uses the phrase "meat juices" outside a culinary BBS and doesn't expect this.

    8. Re: No voice assistant for me by GNious · · Score: 1

      or "what's 500 milliliters in cups?"

      That would be 1x 500millilitre cup, or 500x 1milliliter cups, or 35,7x 14mililitre cups ...

    9. Re:No voice assistant for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These things are good for playing and for party tricks. And little more. They do fine for basic queries (e.g. what is the biggest lake on Earth?) but they reveal themselves as thoroughly unintelligent assistants once you try something ever so slightly sophisticated.

  5. It used to be a sure diagnosis... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    when people talked to inanimate objects, now becoming standard

    1. Re:It used to be a sure diagnosis... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Talking to inanimate objects is called idolatry, heathen. Enjoy everlasting damnation in the fiery pit of hell.

    2. Re:It used to be a sure diagnosis... by amiga3D · · Score: 2

      Truth, people walking around talking into the air is the new normal.

    3. Re:It used to be a sure diagnosis... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People have been talking into phones and speakers long before the internet. If you want people off your lawn, you must have grown up in the 1800's.

    4. Re:It used to be a sure diagnosis... by pslytely+psycho · · Score: 1

      "People have been talking into phones and speakers long before the internet. "

      True, but they didn't walk around in public apparently talking to themselves until the advent of the cellular phone.

      Now, it is not uncommon to hear something that appears to be a conversation between two people that turns out to be two people talking on their phones and oblivious that they sound like they're talking to each other, especially at the grocers where they both may be talking about milk, eggs or some other foodstuff they are standing near.

      So yeah, the borderline crazies no longer talk to themselves, it's become pointless for getting attention. The real crazies never did talk out loud, the voices in their heads were far too paranoid about getting caught!

      --
      Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
  6. voices in my head are my assistants by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'd rather talk to myself because every voice in my head is smarter than my phone.

  7. I'm okay with this to an extent by MasseKid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Honestly, I'm kinda happy that third party software can't continuously listen to my microphone.

    1. Re: I'm okay with this to an extent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...that you know about
      (Hi, NSA/GCHQ!)

    2. Re:I'm okay with this to an extent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not even google should have that but since they own the platform they can make exemptions for themselves

    3. Re:I'm okay with this to an extent by beakerMeep · · Score: 1

      Any app with the mic permission can listen -- it does not need to be signed by the OEM/system/rom. What they can't do is leverage a lower power dedicated processor such at that on the Moto X. But any app can turn on the mic with the correct permission granted.

      http://developer.android.com/r...

      --
      meep
    4. Re:I'm okay with this to an extent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's ok, Larry Page's butler told him to do it. Besides, it's for a good cause: Heath Ledger must be stopped!

    5. Re:I'm okay with this to an extent by fph+il+quozientatore · · Score: 1

      Can they do it also when they are running in background? (honest question: I am not an Android expert, I am just curious).

      --
      My first program:

      Hell Segmentation fault

    6. Re: I'm okay with this to an extent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With an RPI, you have to connect listening devices explicitly.

      With the Goo stuff, it is built in. Go figure.

      Your RPI run/can store all your stuff, your private discussion board, your files, your todo lists, your chat server. It can do that 365 days a year, 24 hours.

      Folks, can you get off your fat Coke Arses and work a tiny bit for your freedom ? Turn off the Kardashian soft porn and BE A REAL MAN.

    7. Re:I'm okay with this to an extent by beakerMeep · · Score: 1

      Yep -- I have worked on apps that did exactly that. (Although not for listening in and the data was never saved). Certainly someone could though.

      --
      meep
  8. I have by rossdee · · Score: 1

    a non-american accent you insensitive clod

    1. Re:I have by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 1

      Something like this, then, perhaps?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    2. Re:I have by Trepidity · · Score: 1

      I'm afraid legacy accents are no longer supported; the supported 20-year transition period expired on January 1 of this year.

      --
      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  9. Hardware limitations? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My Moto X has Google Now support in hardware so it is always listening so assume it could work for the Microsoft version just as well.

    I hate the fact that my phone is constantly listening to everything but it's looking for the key phrase in hardware so it's not sending anything over the network. Plus, it's not like the microphone on a normal phone can't be turned on without you knowing so what's the difference really.

    1. Re:Hardware limitations? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      The hardware assist is a very small amount of signal processing to identify sibilants and plosives (something that a 2MHz 6502 could do in real time) and flag things that have the same pattern as a certain phrase ('Okay Google', I think - not used it) to wake up another core. I think in the Moto X, they use a small ARM core for it, though they may have a two-phase process where a hardware implementation wakes up a small ARM core that does a better job and wakes up the application cores if there's something interesting. In either case, it's probably quite difficult to change the pattern of sibilants and plosives that it looks for whatever Cortana wants, either because it's hard wired or because there's no software API for changing it.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    2. Re:Hardware limitations? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With Lollipop you can change the recogniztion pattern even on my OG 2013 MotoX

  10. Re:Hey Google, you... contributor to Linux? by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    exploiting a Linux kernel made for free by volunteers

    Corporations like Red Hat, Suse, IBM, Texas Instruments, Linaro, Samsung, Oracle, and yep, even Microsoft, all contributed to Linux. In fact, corporate contributions now stand at about 80% of all submissions, according to the Linux Development Report. The notion that Linux is made exclusively by a bunch of unpaid volunteers is simply not true. It started out that way, but it has a lot of corporate support these days.

    In case you're wondering, Google was the 8th most prolific Linux kernel corporate contributor in 2014.

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  11. Meanwhile, in Canada by msobkow · · Score: 2

    Meanwhile Cortana is not available in Canada because Microsoft would have to provide French support as well as English in order to be legal here.

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    1. Re: Meanwhile, in Canada by semilemon · · Score: 2

      I'm in Canada, been using Cortana on my phone since I got it in December.

      --
      Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?
    2. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seeing as Cortana is available in France, I suspect it has more to do with MS having a lack of Canada-specific mapping and location info, just like Apple and Google in the past. But thank you for your anti-bilingual paranoia--it's always helpful. Have you tried setting your region to United States, by the way? Works for me...

    3. Re: Meanwhile, in Canada by msobkow · · Score: 1

      Why, then, is it not available for Windows 10?

      --
      I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
    4. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by tepples · · Score: 1

      Is changing the region even allowed once you've bought something on your Microsoft account?

    5. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by Gumbercules!! · · Score: 4, Interesting

      No, Cortana is not available in Canada because Microsoft enjoys giving a massive middle finger to anyone who's not an American. Trust me. I have a Windows Phone and a Surface Pro 3. I couldn't be more in the "Microsoft Ecosystem" if I tried. But I'm not an American - I'm an Australian (and English is the language here). Despite Cortana being the selling point for WPh for years, they still don't have support for it in Australia (they recently offered "alpha" support on the phone only and it's missing most features) and you can't get Cortana on Windows 10, either. I routinely get emails from Microsoft about sales or deals in the "Windows Store" that only apply to Americans (so I can't get the discounts or free offers), despite the fact they can clearly see from the information they have on me that I am not an American. It's just one, never ending middle finger from them, and it's the #1 reason I doubt my next phone will be Windows based.

      Maybe someone at Microsoft should look around the WPh sales and realise that the vast majority of Windows Phones in the world are actually not in the USA and start offering support to the people who actually did buy their products??

      Considering Cortana is the #1 selling point - you think they'd put some effort into making it work for the 95.71% of the planet who doesn't live in America.

    6. Re: Meanwhile, in Canada by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 1

      Why, then, is it not available for Windows 10?

      It's coming over the next few months, but it seems that there is more to making a localised version than just understanding the language(s). They are obviously attempting to do more with the product on the desktop than they did on the phones.

      I suppose it's understandable that they delayed it. If they made a crappy version available with plans to improve it later, then people would test it with their new Windows 10 setups, find it to be worthless and never touch it again. That said, I'll be turning it off if I do end up upgrading to Win10.

    7. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Maybe someone at Microsoft should look around the WPh sales and realise that the vast majority of Windows Phones in the world are actually not in the USA and start offering support to the people who actually did buy their products??

      Maybe the people who live in other countries should look around and realize that the vast majority of Microsoft products shine them on, and start offering their money to the companies that actually offer them products with full functionality??

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by teh+dave · · Score: 2

      This is because Microsoft want to tailor Cortana to each country's culture. They want her to be more relaxed in Australia and more formal in Japan. This takes time.

      Personally, given Microsoft's position, I would have implemented a generic Cortana earlier and then customised her to each country later, in order to speed up the availability of it. But, that's just me.

      Either way, it's not that Microsoft is giving us Aussies the middle finger, they're just taking their sweet time tweaking her to our country's tastes.

    9. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Cortana is not available in Canada because Microsoft enjoys giving a massive middle finger to anyone who's not an American

      Wow, Microsoft is really buying into the whole 'let's copy Apple's business model as closely as we can' thing!

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    10. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      It's typical to have both a french canadian and a french french dub of a movie, although many a french canadian version may sound very tame to french ears.

      Obviously canadian french people don't speak the same way so there's some work but as you say there's a need of mapping, as well as some administrative and legal trivia I suppose and other.

    11. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's ok. she doesn't speak english, either.

    12. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We have Cortana in the UK. It's language-pack dependent.

    13. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 1

      Cortana is also disabled on my system because I'm using English language OS in Germany. According to Microsoft, that will not do. There is a notification telling me to switch OS language to German if I want to enable Cortana.

    14. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by c · · Score: 1

      It would only have to be available in French to be sold in Quebec or used by some governments (who are unlikely to even allow Android on their networks, making the question of Cortana on Android in French entirely irrelevant).

      And even then, I don't believe most online stores enforce the French-for-Quebec restriction.

      --
      Log in or piss off.
    15. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Canadian French and France French aren't quite the same language.

    16. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by vhogemann · · Score: 1

      Windows Phone 2nd largest market is Brazil,

      And still, no Portuguese support on Cortana until next year. Compare this to the kind of language support you have on Google Now, and how they can mine all kinds of local content because their Bots can understand something other than English.

      I guess Microsoft thinks it can compete with Google by leveraging their services with the Windows Desktop. Take Outlook.com for example, a functional but boring webmail... Want a "better" mail experience? Then buy an Office subscription to use Outlook... Meanwhile Google has Gmail, with tons of features, and Inbox that offers you an innovative take on managing email, no desktop client required, and I can use it both on a Mac and Linux.

      The computer desktop is loosing relevance year after year, and it's dragging Microsoft along with it.

      --
      ---- You know how some doctors have the Messiah complex - they need to save the world? You've got the "Rubik's" complex
    17. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe it just takes more time to get the voice recognition right for other regional accents? I live in the southern United States, and my friends with thicker accents frequently run into issues with various voice recognition products. Could be they don't want to see articles all over the 'net proclaiming that Cortana hates Aussies. They want it to get it right and then release there.

      Just speculation on my part. Maybe you're right and they really do just hate you.

    18. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by HideyoshiJP · · Score: 1

      You should be happy your device lets you change the language. Many Android devices only have a sparse few local languages on them except outliers like the Xperia. iOS also allows language changes.

    19. Re: Meanwhile, in Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have it for windows 10 and I'm in Canada... don't recall doing anything special. My language is probably set to EN-US but setting it to EN-CA gives me odd accents at random times it seems...

    20. Re:Meanwhile, in Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cortana probably isn't available because latency to MS datacenters to do speech processing is too high.

    21. Re: Meanwhile, in Canada by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm in Canada and Cortana bitches about my region on my Windows Phone and does not work.

      Also I wish MS would add a Canadian language option. Do I pick UK for spelling things right, or do I pick US so buttons show .com instead of .co.uk...

  12. Home key? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    and launch it by holding down the device's home key.

    Whose Android device has a "home key"?

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:Home key? by darkain · · Score: 1

      All of them? Either physical hardware button, softkey, or software UI (like on the Nexus devices). Long-press the home button to activate search when you dont want to do it by voice.

    2. Re:Home key? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't they all? My Nexus One and Galaxy SII certainly did...

    3. Re:Home key? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know, maybe the Galaxy? Only the most popular cell phone behind the iPhone, which also happens to have a home key.

    4. Re:Home key? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Long-press the home button

      Is the home button the little triangle, circle or square?

      http://files.tested.com/photos...

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:Home key? by BradleyUffner · · Score: 2

      Long-press the home button

      Is the home button the little triangle, circle or square?

      http://files.tested.com/photos...

      It's the circle. The mini tutorial that comes up on a clean install points it out and explains it. Even if you skipped the tutorial, 15 seconds of button mashing will reveal it. But you knew which button it was already, you just wanted to be purposely obtuse.

    6. Re:Home key? by exomondo · · Score: 1

      Long-press the home button

      Is the home button the little triangle, circle or square?

      http://files.tested.com/photos...

      If you're struggling at this point you should probably just put it down and forget about it.

    7. Re:Home key? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      One of my four Android devices has a Home key... my SEMC Xperia Play. It has four physical buttons, which used to be common up until the Gingerbread era, from which it hails.

      I miss the physical buttons. They're so satisfying, and they don't hide from me. But they were a bit pocket-pushy.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:Home key? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      It's the circle. It was a house on Android 2.x, but that was considered too obvious an icon for home, so Google changed it. As far as I can tell, from using Android and from talking to some devs on the Android team at Google, everyone in the Android UI team is a drooling moron who could be replaced by a magpie and produce better results.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    9. Re: Home key? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only one that doesnt have it either as button or onscreen button is the nokia x series android phones. There long click on back equals home

    10. Re:Home key? by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      What's happened to slide out gaming controls? I would feel crippled with an Android device, because there's all that gaming hardware and the ton of software (including emulators and dosbox etc.) that is worthless with only the touch screen.
      I'd rather get a 1989 Game Boy because of that (can take a flash cartridge that you write from a PC). Gargoyle Quest is easily better than a generic slow motion zombie FPS controlled with paint-with-fingers.

    11. Re:Home key? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I got no tutorial on my Android.

      Unlike my Windows tablet, which pops up a tutorial that cannot be skipped. Not even after a reinstall / factory reset, where one can reasonably assume that the UI works the same as before.

      With my Android tablet, I ended up having to ask a colleague, after googling "Android tutorial", "Android for beginners" and similar turned up links that started out with "First, you need to install the JDK. Afterwards install Android Development Studio".

    12. Re:Home key? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      What's happened to slide out gaming controls?

      They sucked, and nobody wanted to maintain the drivers. Sony basically killed the whole idea by killing their phone which had them. They promised to upgrade the whole Xperia line at the time to ICS, but literally the only device they didn't upgrade was the Xperia Play. The short story is that you can upgrade to ICS through the community, or you can have properly working gamepads and playstation game support. They also never bothered to bring many PS games to the platform, in spite of it being pretty easy for most titles; there's a community tool for that, too.

      They were actually not that great to use, though. They were too tiny and fiddly, and you had to hold the phone up at the same time. And that brings us back to gaming controllers which hold your phone for you.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    13. Re:Home key? by Kaenneth · · Score: 1

      You don't know how to use the three seashells?

    14. Re:Home key? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My kingdom for a modpoint :)

  13. Why not both? by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    I would like it if we could use both.

  14. I'm surprised... by ndykman · · Score: 1

    I guess Android has the needed hooks to make this happen. That's good. I think that Microsoft would allow Cortana to be replaced as a default on Windows 10 Mobile, if anybody would care enough for it to happen (I doubt it).

    Windows 10? Probably not, but again, if people really wanted it, they'd probably do it, but again, I doubt there'd be a call for it. You can use Google Now via Chrome, and Google has shown little interest in native apps for any platform versus Chrome add ins, and think that's probably all any Google Now user would really want anyway.

    Of course, Apple has no interest or motivation to bring Siri outside of the iOS/OS X ecosystem.

    Oddly, I wouldn't be surprised if Cortana ends up being the most flexible service in terms of third party support and applications, because in a real sense, it has to be.

    1. Re:I'm surprised... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I think that Microsoft would allow Cortana to be replaced as a default on Windows 10 Mobile, if anybody would care enough for it to happen (I doubt it).

      Nothing prevents anyone from implementing something like Cortana on any version of windows which will run on a machine with enough power to do that stuff. That's why PCs are still with us. They're the anything computer. And, of course, why Windows is still with us. Microsoft has played a lot of dirty little tricks over the years, but in general they've made it possible and lately even easy to get your software on their platform.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  15. Google or Yandex? by tepples · · Score: 1

    For some of my searches, Duck has credited Yandex in the results. Or is Yandex also peeking at Google?

  16. Meh. I'll tell you what I want though... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I want Google Now on Windows! Cortana is okay, but Google Now integrates with my email and my calendar and everything JUST WORKS.

  17. Re:Meh. I'll tell you what I want though... by Wycliffe · · Score: 1

    I want Google Now on Windows! Cortana is okay, but Google Now integrates with my email and my calendar and everything JUST WORKS.

    I want google now on my iphone. I wish I could get my iphone to use google and google maps as the default. Even my kids realize how bad siri is. When I ask siri for something even if it's just for directions, they usually say "ask google, don't ask siri, siri is stupid"

  18. Here's a better idea. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Make it so I can use Google now on my desktop. No one uses a windows phone, no one is invested in your ecosystem.

  19. Competition helps EVERYONE! by gavron · · Score: 2

    This is awesome. I'm not a microsoft fan but regardless... having options and choices and being able to evaluate the competition is GREAT.

    Google Now. I love it.
    Cortana. Maybe it will be as good. Maybe it will be better. Maybe whatever it does better Google will add. Maybe what it does worse both will subtract. In the end, guess whom that helps - ME and YOU and everyone using Android. Which, of course, is the only mobile platform to use, right?

    E

  20. Now Google Now, or Why Title Case is Stupid by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    Cortana Can Now Replace Google Now

    This is why title case for headlines is stupid.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:Now Google Now, or Why Title Case is Stupid by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

      Congraturations! You Have Won One Xbox One. Please Add A Plus One On Google Plus Now To Collect Your Prize And Email Us Your Email. Sent From My One Plus One.

    2. Re:Now Google Now, or Why Title Case is Stupid by kernel_user · · Score: 0

      Most people can parse such a sentence and disambiguate it.

  21. Re:Hey Google, you... contributor to Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Torvalds: "People Who Start Writing Kernel Code Get Hired Really Quickly"

    “I think one reason it hasn't changed things all that much is that it's not so much unpaid volunteers are going away as people who start writing kernel code get hired really quickly,” he said.

  22. Cortana on Microsoft Android .. by nickweller · · Score: 1

    Will Microsoft be suing the Microsoft Cortana division for violating Microsofts' innovation ?

  23. My brief review of Cortana by linuxguy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Me: Set a timer for 30 minutes
    Cortana: Let me search the web for you...

    Me: How far is New York City from here?
    Cortana: I can't tell if you can get there by car

    Microsoft has a lot of work to do before they can play with the big boys.

    1. Re:My brief review of Cortana by mu51c10rd · · Score: 1


      Me: How far is New York City from here?
      Cortana: I can't tell if you can get there by car

      Apparently Cortana has ridden the interstates heading into the city before...

    2. Re:My brief review of Cortana by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just did both on my phone with no problems. Did you even try?

  24. LOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If true, which I doubt, who's problem is that?

    If you're a Quebecua, struggling to answer the question, I'll help you out. The problem is entirely your own.

    LOL

  25. Re:Hey Google, you... contributor to Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It started by volunteers, many got paid for it from the start, but they still were voluntarily done support.

    Then those who didn't get paid, were hired to do what they did without being paid, so the same people is doing the development but instead now they sign things under the corporation name they are working for.

     

  26. Re:Meh. I'll tell you what I want though... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You should consider trading up to one of the new Motorola G/X phones. Near-stock experience with select, useful additions.

  27. Re: Meh. I'll tell you what I want though... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hate to say this but, Siri is probably smarter than your kids are.

    My 64 year old father uses Siri and has no issues. At first it had a problem understanding him, but now she responds with useful results.

  28. Bad idea. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As much as Google is evil, Microsoft is more evil. Their Windows 10 is the most invasive OS yet.

  29. Tin Chocolate Boxes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...can now serve as faraday cages for your mobile phone.

    Protect Germanic freedom by Clamping Down On Collection !

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thing_%28assembly%29

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta

    Total control - that's a concept of the middle east and its brutal ideologies.

  30. Re:Hey Google, you... contributor to Linux? by Your.Master · · Score: 1

    They wouldn't have been hired if the company didn't have an agenda, even if that agenda is as simple as "make sure this guy doesn't have to worry about his day job so he can keep focusing on this work which is critical to us".

    Regardless, they are not unpaid volunteers as the ancestor post asserted.

  31. Re: Meh. I'll tell you what I want though... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Siri is probably smarter than your kids are"

    You drank all the MIT cool aid, did you ?

    These folks are the Banksters of science and you will be able to work out why.

    Here is a protip: ANTS have more neural cells than 99% of those AI machines they use to perform funny stuff. An Ant has in the order of 20k Neurons. Humans have in the order of 100billion. 100*10E9 !

    Most folks are "stupid" because they don't think for themselves, but sit in front of a Brain Programming Device (aka "TV") in order to dumb down themselves. Less dangerous, but still really shitty are Brain Programming Sheets, aka "newspapers". All of those are made by some less than stellar interests in order to MAKE YOU DUMB.

    Actually, most people can "get smart again", as soon as they stop consuming the bullshit from the government and the corporations. Neither should you consume the dangerous communist shite.

    Communicate with the folks of your community, go to a library (beware that some of it is infected by the progressive pest, though), visit Russia. Visit China. Visit Switzerland.

    That's gonna return your intelligence.

  32. Re: Meh. I'll tell you what I want though... by Wycliffe · · Score: 1

    I hate to say this but, Siri is probably smarter than your kids are.

    My 64 year old father uses Siri and has no issues. At first it had a problem understanding him, but now she responds with useful results.

    Yes, siri has more knowledge than my kids and yes, it can give correct responses but I find that it's success rate is closer to 60% while google's is closer to 90%. Simple requests like "what time does store X close" many times it responds back that it doesn't know while somehow google does know. Same with navigation requests, it many times can't find the location while google has no problem understanding my request. So, yes, siri does give answers but once you get used to google's much better answers it is a poor substitute. Even google's voice recognition seems to be better where siri seems to get the words wrong more often than google on the same phone.

  33. For Linux, Like Moonlight? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Any plans to port Cortana to Linux?

    After all, they really shined with their Moonlight plugin.

    HAHAHAHAH!