Microsoft uses Apple's Siri to prop up Windows' new 'Cortana' virtual assistant

Posted:
in General Discussion edited August 2014
In a new ad released on Monday, Microsoft highlights the apparent inadequacies of Apple's Siri virtual assistant, which is pitted unfavorably in a head-to-head feature test with "Cortana," its Windows 8.1 analog.




Titled "Happy Anniversary," the commercial is done in Microsoft's recent style of leveraging Siri to denigrate Apple products, which usually puts an iPad or iPhone up against a comparable Windows device to point out their contrasting feature sets.

For its first spotlight on the Cortana virtual assistant, Microsoft chose to focus on contextual reminders, pitting Apple's latest iPhone 5s against the low-end Nokia Lumia 635 smartphone.



In the ad, Cortana is asked to set various reminders for an upcoming wedding anniversary. For example, a man asks for a reminder to tell his wife "happy anniversary" the next time they talk. Another reminder is set to buy roses when he's near a flower shop.

After each reminder is successfully set, the camera cuts to Siri, who says, "Oh no, I cannot do that," and "I can't do that either."

Finally, when it's time for the man to leave for dinner, Cortana pulls up a traffic alert showing the best route.

"Now that is a smart phone," Siri says.

Apple's Siri is capable of creating geo-fenced reminders, but the feature is limited to current iOS restrictions of "home" and "work." Microsoft's solution can pull from third-party services to inform users when they near a particular landmark or point of interest.

A report earlier in July said Apple is putting together a team of speech recognition experts for a neural network-powered Siri, which could bring faster and more accurate voice-to-text translation, as well as enhanced system-level functionality.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 86
    Might hurt if it wasn't coming from a phone with less than 2% of the market.
  • Reply 2 of 86
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member

    Sad, sad Microsoft.

  • Reply 3 of 86
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member

    I just had Siri set a reminder to tell my wife Happy Anniversary tomorrow. Worked perfectly. Not sure what Microsoft is smoking. Must have Balmer trying to speak into it... Siri only understands human, not monkey.

  • Reply 4 of 86
    redhotfuzzredhotfuzz Posts: 313member

    LOL, Windows Phone...

  • Reply 5 of 86
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member

    Won't be long before Bing is unceremoniously dropped... LOL!

  • Reply 6 of 86

    No Microsoft you are doing it wrong...

     

    If Samesung has taught us one thing to get ahead in the market it's copy the complete look of the iPhone including case and OS, then let Apple sue but keep it in the courts until the original copied phone is no longer valid.

     

    Actually, I am pretty sure your old photocopy machines are still working, you should grab them from out of storage.

  • Reply 7 of 86
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    How many people here have actually used Cortana? I haven't so I can't speak to it. But I do like that 3rd parties have access to it (wish Siri has that). Competition is good, especially if it ends up improving Siri in the end. I'd love to see a true competitor to Google Now and would rather it be Siri than something else.

    Edit: offline processing would be nice (where possible). I think Google Now has this capability.
  • Reply 8 of 86
    gumbigumbi Posts: 148member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jkichline View Post

     

    I just had Siri set a reminder to tell my wife Happy Anniversary tomorrow. Worked perfectly. Not sure what Microsoft is smoking. Must have Balmer trying to speak into it... Siri only understands human, not monkey.


     

    That's not what was done in the commercial...  He said to tell me to remind him next time he talked to his wife.  That means if he or she, call, text, or email each Cortana will pop up a reminder.  Siri most definitely can't do that. 

  • Reply 9 of 86
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by gumbi View Post

     

     

    That's not what was done in the commercial...  He said to tell me to remind him next time he talked to his wife.  That means if he or she, call, text, or email each Cortana will pop up a reminder.  Siri most definitely can't do that. 


     

    I think we'll be seeing some very surprising updates to Siri soon.

  • Reply 10 of 86
    wigbywigby Posts: 692member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by gumbi View Post

     

     

    That's not what was done in the commercial...  He said to tell me to remind him next time he talked to his wife.  That means if he or she, call, text, or email each Cortana will pop up a reminder.  Siri most definitely can't do that. 


    I just tried exactly what the guy in the commercial asked Siri and Siri responded with my reminder. I can't be sure if it works until my wife calls me but Siri did not reject or misunderstand my command like in the commercial.

  • Reply 11 of 86
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by wigby View Post

     

    I just tried exactly what the guy in the commercial asked Siri and Siri responded with my reminder. I can't be sure if it works until my wife calls me but Siri did not reject or misunderstand my command like in the commercial.


     

    Post a YouTube rebuttal. You'll get millions of hits.

  • Reply 12 of 86
    karmadavekarmadave Posts: 369member
    I think they have Cortana running on some of the Lumias at the local MS Store, but I yet to check it out. As many others have noted, it's now really a two horse race, between Samsung and Apple, with Microsoft a distant third. And to think Windows Phone was once the market leader. Well at least Ballmer will finally own the LA Clippers ;)
  • Reply 13 of 86
    wigbywigby Posts: 692member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post

     

     

    Post a YouTube rebuttal. You'll get millions of hits.


    Like 99% of smartphone users, I don't have a Cortana enabled device handy. And besides, it's not my anniversary ;-)

     

    Actually I tried all of the examples and they all seem to work. But if I dig deeper it's unclear if it really will work. I tried the flower store and it just repeated my command and put it in my reminder list but only when I go to the remind by location does it lets me specify a store and a radius to trigger the command. So who knows what Siri or Cortana would ultimately do in the real world. Obviously, MS wasn't forthcoming in the real responses that Siri would give from these commands.

     

    Maybe Siri isn't as automatic but more granular in the options you have. Seems backwards to me. You would think that MS would be more granular and Apple's would just do it automatically without the need to dive deeper into menus and maps.

  • Reply 14 of 86
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    I think we'll be seeing some very surprising updates to Siri soon.
    About time.
  • Reply 15 of 86
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    Siri! what operating system do you run?

    "I live inside your iPhone, which runs iOS."

    Cortina, does your phone run iOS?

    "No, I'm sorry, it doesn't. Does that mean I don't get the job? I hate that question."

    [End commercial]
  • Reply 16 of 86
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jkichline View Post

     

    I just had Siri set a reminder to tell my wife Happy Anniversary tomorrow. Worked perfectly. Not sure what Microsoft is smoking. Must have Balmer trying to speak into it... Siri only understands human, not monkey.


    Unless tomorrow actually is your anniversary, I would recommend you delete that reminder asap. She might get the wrong idea and telling her that someone on the Internet was wrong is not going to cut it.

  • Reply 17 of 86
    Siri isn't limited to Home or Work. I set reminders all the time for when I'm at a particular location.
  • Reply 18 of 86
    benfgbenfg Posts: 4member
    Any Men should remember the Anniversary, and don't use his Mobile to remind him...
    3 reasons to this logic:
    1- if he don't do it at wake up: He is going to be in trouble
    2- if his wife discover he is using his mobile to remember: He is going to be in trouble
    3- If he wait for his wife to call to say Happy anniversary: He won't have a nice evening!!!
  • Reply 19 of 86
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member

    The fact that Samsung and Microsoft feel they have to attack Apple shows how dominant and powerful Apple really is. Way back in dinosaur days I was in sales (big tickets items involving dealing with large committees). My boss sent me to a number of professional sales seminars and Dale Carnegie courses. In every case it was made perfectly clear that the minute you mention your competitor you have lost. To mention your competitor gives them legitimacy, makes the customer think twice, indicates you are worried about them, and puts doubt in the mind of the customer who wonders why you are mentioning the competition at all. The customer doesn’t want to hear how bad the competition is from you. They want to hear how good your product is and how it will help them and solve their problems.  

  • Reply 20 of 86
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by RadarTheKat View Post

    Cortina, does your phone run iOS?

    "No, I'm sorry, it doesn't. Does that mean I don't get the job? I hate that question."

    [End commercial]

     

    “Wait! I’ll... I’ll sell you my body! Granted, it’s still just a virtual body, but...”

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