How To Enable Cortana On the Xbox One Experience Preview (hothardware.com)

MojoKid writes: Part of Microsoft's strategy to unite different devices to a single ecosystem means offering the same services and features across the board. One of those features is Cortana, Microsoft's digital assistant, which is available on Windows 10. It will also be available for the Xbox One, though not until sometime next year, at least officially. Don't feel like waiting? You might not have to. Here's a quick and dirty guide on how to unlock Cortana on the Xbox One, provided you're running the latest Xbox One Experience Preview.

Comments

Am I missing something?

[Bozzio]

There are four comments so far claiming Cortana is spyware but none of them offer any evidence of this. Is this just typical Slashdot irrational MS hatred, or am I missing something?

Re:Am I missing something?

[bloodhawk]

It is actually getting pretty bad here now. Slashdot has always been fairly anti MS, but usually with good reason and people that had some basic skills in explaining why. the amount of crap posts you see nowadays is really a little unfathomable. I personally associate it with the next generation of users that don't seem to have any social skills to argue their case beyond spewing hate.

Re:Am I missing something?

[fyngyrz]

The fact that something like Cortana can be attacked from both angles makes it even more appealing to attack.

Is that your angle?

Re:Am I missing something?

[MacTO]

I suspect that it is because Cortana allegedly sends data back to Microsoft's servers for processing. For people who don't trust Microsoft, it is easy to equate this to spying even if there is no evidence of Microsoft using the transmitted data for anything other than fulfilling user requests and to improve the functionality as well as reliability of their products.

That being said, those Microsoft haters are useful. While their information may be unreliable, they are helping to inform people of Microsoft's data gather practices. Once people know about those practices, they can search for more reliable sources of information to determine how Microsoft's data gathering affects them.

Re:Am I missing something?

[fyngyrz]

Same as Amazon's Echo/Alexa.

Although I hope to heck it's smarter than "Alexa" is. The way Alexa deals with human language is... pitifully simplistic. The speech recognition itself is good, but from there on, it's a morass of completely naive "if THIS IS SPOKEN then DO THAT" statements. No smarts whatsoever.

IOW, if the recog is...

"turn on the lights" ...but the user says...

"turn on my lights" ...you get nothing.

So you add it...

"turn on the lights"
"turn on my lights" ...but the user says...

"lights on, please" ...you get nothing.

Developing an application is literally an exercise in guessing everything a user might say that is relevant to your thing, and then providing an appropriate response for that voice input. Anything you didn't "can" in advance won't work. There is no provision for any kind of actual understanding of what is being said, no grammar handling, no understanding of anything, really. It just matches speech-to-text input with canned phrases.

Re:Am I missing something?

[FlyHelicopters]

I suspect that it is because Cortana allegedly sends data back to Microsoft's servers for processing.

Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa both do the same thing...

News flash, both services are popular...

Re:Am I missing something?

[Osgeld]

this is slashdot, we think you should be smart enough to find basic information if you cant keep up, otherwise we are not here to babysit you

Re:Am I missing something?

[FlyHelicopters]

Be careful, that tinfoil hat is on really tight...

Re:Am I missing something?

[Bozzio]

I don't think it has been adequately covered. I still find people on here who confuse the Windows 10 release with the Insider Preview (which was designed to collect usage data).

There's a lot of FUD going around and very little fact.

Re:Am I missing something?

[Sasayaki]

I'm getting pretty sick of this too. What happened, Slashdot? We used to be all about the tech, right or wrong. Now it's just "M$ suxx and are evil!!!" in every thread that Microsoft's mentioned.

It's annoying, and even self-defeating for Microsoft haters; it makes it a lot harder to take their serious points, well, seriously. If they're always going to be critical of Microsoft no matter what, and are willing to go total ad hominem when nothing else works, how can an uneducated observer take anything they say seriously?

Re:Am I missing something?

[jandersen]

There are four comments so far claiming Cortana is spyware but none of them offer any evidence of this. Is this just typical Slashdot irrational MS hatred, or am I missing something?

I don't think it is 'irrational MS hatred', and you do youself as disservice to describe those whp have a view different from yours when you use this sort of language.

Looking back over history, I think it is very understandable that there are many who distruct Microsoft. Back in the early days, Microsoft was actually seen as cool and on the forefront, but we then seen to betray the ideals of their admirers, when they seemed to become increasingly greedy, anti-competitive etc. For a very long time they resisted implementing even basic security, they kept making claims that were obviously wrong (like 'the mainframe is dead' etc), thereby appearing to be either incompetent or dishonest - or possibly both. They have improved many things in recent years, that's true, but often at gun-point and often their improvements seem to include unwanted extras, like the forced upgrades that you apparently need to be a Windows expert to stop (Yes, I know there is an 'easy' option somewhere, but I doubt the average user would even know enough to look for it).

So, as for Cortana: if you have had any experience with speech recognition (like the automatic telephone systems that you speak to) and understanding natural language (try Google Translate), then you know just how hard a time they have understanding spoken words, especially if you are dialect speaker, and you'll know that computers have difficulty understanding the meaning of ambiguous statements that real people would pick up without difficulty. The obvious solution to these problems is to put a staff of real people in a call center and let them understand and answer, when the computers have to give up.

And of course, the computing power needed to implement even basic speech recognition and natural speech analysis means that it wouldn't fit into the average laptop, let alone a Windows mobile. All of which leads to the obvious conclusion, that Cortana, Siri and the like must communicate with one or more call centers, and it would be surprising if that traffic was not collected and used 'to improve services' - ie, target users with adverts. I'm sure, if somebody were to read the small print, it would be implied that you give them your permission to do so, simply by brething in the vicinity of a Windows or OSX system.

Re:Am I missing something?

[Bozzio]

Man, you don't need to talk down to me.

I'm a regular on here and I have been reading all the Windows 10 coverage. That's how I know it's been light on facts and heavy on FUD.

It surprises me just how many of today's slashdot readers gobble that up without questioning the source.

I know it's almost a tradition here to not read the article, but it used to be that the readers at least applied some critical thinking.

Re:Am I missing something?

[drinkypoo]

I still find people on here who confuse the Windows 10 release with the Insider Preview (which was designed to collect usage data).

You're the one who's confused. The hullabaloo about the Windows 10 release is that in fact they did not remove the windows spying instrumentation from the release OS, that in fact that stuff defaults to on in the release OS, and that in fact you can not physically disable all the phoning-home even by setting the preferences options which claim to do so.

There's a lot of FUD going around and very little fact.

Thanks for your contribution.

Re:Am I missing something?

[Bozzio]

Thanks, I'll take a look at that article tonight.

And I find it funny that you immediately jump to the "MS shill" angle when someone chooses to wait for hard facts before hating MS.

Again, I miss the old slashdot. Kids today.

Re:Am I missing something?

[Bozzio]

Source or it didn't happen.

Re:Am I missing something?

[drinkypoo]

Source or it didn't happen.

Source: We've discussed it here on Slashdot extensively, including traces, mitigation, etc. Where were you? If you'd been here, you'd know.

Re:Am I missing something?

[Bozzio]

I guess it didn't happen then because "trust me" and "you suck" aren't sources.

Re:Am I missing something?

[drinkypoo]

I guess it didn't happen then because "trust me" and "you suck" aren't sources.

I'm not doing your homework for you. If you want to appear knowledgeable, you're going to have to go forth and become knowledgeable. I already have the knowledge, and I'm not getting paid to point you towards it. My life will not be impacted in any way by you thinking less of me, except that I have one more fun new target to insult when you cross my path. I will not spare you even though you are unarmed with wits.

Those of us who actually care about the correct answer to the question of whether Microsoft is intentionally spying on its user base and lying about whether you can disable telemetry already know, because the information is readily available. And then there's you, a shill spreading FUD about people. You're a liar, and there're already many of those on Slashdot so you are redundant and uninteresting.

Re:Excuse me....??

[bloodhawk]

most of the world don't give a shit about the MS telemetry (wrongly or rightly), they care about functionality. What you are missing is you can't see past your own concerns to look at what consumers actually care about.

Re:Excuse me....??

[bloodhawk]

geez if you don't understand basic words then at least learn to google. customers and consumers can be the same or a consumer may actually not be a customer. Not sure what sader, that you posted that or that you spent the time posting it rather than spend 5 seconds doing a google search.

Get on board

[fyngyrz]

It's more like "give me convenience or your competitor will"

Siri. Cortana. Echo. S-voice. Google voice. etc.

Pretty sure that at this point, it's either get with it, or be left behind. And yes, "behind" is the right word. Services will begin to be delivered by default this way, count on it — if you don't have access, you won't have the services, either.

Re:Get on board

[fyngyrz]

Well, unless you like being dead, yes, it is. :)

Re:Excuse me....??

[PopeRatzo]

Why would someone *want* to knowingly enable this?

Cortana is spy-ware, and it takes considerable effort to *disable* it???

What am I missing???

What better way to get otherwise tech-savvy people to run spyware on their systems than by making them feel that by using this "leaked" method to enable Cortana on their systems they are cool doing something that's not exactly sanctioned by MS?

"Hey look, I've enabled Cortana on my XBone Experience Live system without Microsoft's persmission!"

Microsoft: * laughter *

Re:Excuse me....??

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

No, those terms are not inter-changeable.

Re:Excuse me....??

[FatdogHaiku]

what consumers actually care about.

"Give me convenience or give me death!"

Would you settle for convenience and death?

Re:Excuse me....??

[drinkypoo]

I see a future where our houses are setup with remote mics and speakers so we can talk to Siri/Cortana/Alexa anywhere in our homes.

Well, no. Your home, fine. My home, no. On the other hand, when I can get a Free and open source natural language recognition system which I control and for which I write the rules (including firewall rules) then I might consider doing something like that. Probably, though, I'll want to just wear the microphone, perhaps with a Trek-like combadge. That does raise problems when trying to use the computer while naked, but one could install a button/switch to enable full-room audio. I'm not particularly thrilled about all the intelligent devices that I already own which contain microphones which I cannot disable. Damned if I'll add more to my house of my own accord.

Re:Excuse me....??

[FlyHelicopters]

Well, no. Your home, fine. My home, no.

And that's ok, I would never suggest you have to do that, it should be optional.

On the other hand, when I can get a Free and open source natural language recognition system which I control and for which I write the rules (including firewall rules) then I might consider doing something like that.

I'm ok with that as well. Choice, it's a good thing.

---

That being said, don't be shocked if the outside public world ends up with microphones and speakers at some point all linked to central servers. Maybe the various servers will all use the same public mic system, but answer to their own names.

So you can say "hey Siri", and she'll respond, you could have someone else say, "hey Alexa", and she'll respond, and so on.