This ad that Microsoft uses to compare Siri to Cortana, to supposedly showcase Siri's shortcomings, will mean nothing when Apple executes its plan for Siri.
Siri is a technology that Apple will slowly integrate into its entire ecosystem throughout its hardware, software, and services; where the user will interact with everything naturally through Siri.
Microsoft is nowhere near that level of integration.
And to compare the HTC M8 to the iPhone?
Siri-ously?
HTC M8 - "We got two speakers to your one speaker."
Having used both Cortana and Windows Phone quite heavily, I find these adds pretty humorous. The truth, at least in my opinion, is that Cortana unfortunately has a long way to go before it catches up with Siri. Any comparison between the two that seems to end up in Cortana's favor is a bit of a joke.
I don't say this from a perspective of simple bias; I used Cortana for about a month in the developer beta releases... which was only about 3 months ago. And I found Cortana to be so frustrating to use that it bordered on being a useless feature. Among the annoyances of Cortana was the fact that there was no equivalent function in Windows phone to asking Siri a question from sleep. With win phone, you had to wake up the phone, enter a passcode (if you had one set), and then tap the Cortana or search icon in order to ask a question. And that series of actions made the feature almost useless when engaged in any activity (driving, walking, etc) where one might expect to actually gain value from it. The lack of a real button on windows phones can be seen as a true liability here, since Apple has been able to leverage it for so much.
One positive for Cortana is that it is not simply a voice assistant - Cortana doesn't have to speak at all, and is wired into almost every search activity the OS presents. But that feature spurred two more annoying issues. First, when Cortana was active (e.g. configured to be enabled), every search enacted by the user is routed through Cortana, and if Cortana is down (which it was a LOT), then you just plain couldn't do a search with Bing at all - you had to open a browser, navigate to Google, then do your search. And Cortana would not work across WiFi - only using the phone's cellular connection. Which made it pretty useless when you were deep in the bowels of some building and wanted to know if there were any good places around there to eat. Now, if a developer had these issues, can you imagine what Grandma would do with these issues?
Basically, I think the Cortana implementation is flawed, and lacking in attention to detail... and unfortunately the details that were missed are the ones that take features like this from the gimmick to the useful category. That is of course my opinion.
Maybe MS will fix these issues - maybe they have already. But at the time, I came away from Cortana thinking it had really no chance at all of competing against Siri.
As for SIRI, I've mentioned this before, but you should check out the female brit SIRI, that's the one that I use and like. I prefer it more than the US female SIRI. It just sounds better to me.
Most people know that the iPhone is superior overall in terms of ease of use, build quality and so on. These ads are fooling very few people. Most advertising is really about re-affirming to the customers who have already bought the product that the purchase they made was a good one. The intent is to get repeat buys. Most companies do this. All those BMW ads on TV are not directed at new buyers really, but at current BMW owners to make them feel good. No, the problem, especially for Microsoft, is it's pitiful market share which has dropped from a massive 4% down a point. HTC is in a similar predicament. Don't get me wrong the HTC phone is a great phone, but the Android competition is killing HTC. It's not Apple they should be comparing themselves with at all.
You assessment is spot on, however their is an element of the advertising directed at the user who never owns the product before, it make them sit back and think maybe the next time I am in the market for a new product I should look at their product. This work for BMW and Apple as well, they are both seeing the number of people buying their products increase.
Apple can not do this now with the IOS products they are already on top so if they attempted to do this it looks like they beating up the little guy. This is why apples ads not talk about what their products can do for you verse how they are better then everyone else.
Any language software is going to have different performance in different contexts so it's going to be a point companies use in marketing. Siri doesn't perform very well here for example:
[VIDEO]
[VIDEO]
Cortana here has some pretty funny responses - the user asks about Ballmer about halfway through:
[VIDEO]
But then, Siri has come in useful here:
[VIDEO]
The new iOS voices sound much more human so that's not really a plus for Cortana. The only true comparison for performance is for multiple people to say the same things to both and see which has the best replies - even one person isn't enough as different engines will handle dialects differently. Until they reach a point where they never screw up, they aren't good enough. As the above videos show, there was some poor understanding of context there. Siri interpreted sentences that would make no sense. There should be an assumption that people are making comprehensible statements and interpret them that way. If there is an incomprehensible statement, it should be corrected to the nearest comprehensible statement and an appropriate response given. If it's wrong, people will ask again anyway but hearing 'I don't understand' or 'I didn't get that' is more frustrating than an incorrect answer because it gives no continuity to the conversation. If the user knows what Siri thought they meant, they can give Siri a corrective follow-up that further helps Siri understand them.
Wow, microsoft is almost as bad as samsung in my eyes now! I can't believe they would stoop to this level and using a voiceover artist and comparing it to an actual AI assistant! If steve was alive he would probably not be friends with bill gates anymore.
Having used both Cortana and Windows Phone quite heavily, I find these adds pretty humorous.
Me too. I think this is the first time I actually like one of their ads. Of course, I have only seen a few as I do one thing only in life; read this site.
Marvin put up a few videos, the 3rd one is funny, but does show that a large phone is totally useless as it requires both hands. Proves there won't be a 5.5" from Apple I guess.
If you think about it, prior to the smartphone, which is really a computer. MS had 95% of the OS market. Now it is down to under 50% in 5 years. That is the reality for Microsoft and is the reason it is moving in the direction of cloud and business services just like IBM before it.
IBM retreated completely from B2C itself, but sells services to help other businesses do B2C. Microsoft had a pretty solid smartphone OS business after defeating Palm OS for the title. Then the iPhone wiped that smirk off Ballmer's face.
Me too. I think this is the first time I actually like one of their ads. Of course, I have only seen a few as I do one thing only in life; read this site.
Marvin put up a few videos, the 3rd one is funny, but does show that a large phone is totally useless as it requires both hands. Proves there won't be a 5.5" from Apple I guess.
I pretty much hate the large phones. The windows device I have is a Nokia 1520, which has a 6 inch HD display. And personally, I think using it sucks; it is way too large to handle effectively. I found myself constantly being afraid I would drop it. And holding it in one hand, it was really difficult to interact with the device to do things like unlock it so I could get to search for Cortana.
Whether or not Apple will bow to pressure and provide a 5.5 inch device or not I don't know... but I personally am puzzled by the favor these devices get in the press. I'd like to see sales figures for these large devices.
As for the add... I found it humorous mostly for the wrong reasons - because I know from personal experience that Cortana needs work, and is simply not a competitor for Siri right now.
I pretty much hate the large phones. The windows device I have is a Nokia 1520, which has a 6 inch HD display.
Wow, 6". That simply cannot be considered a usable phone. Personally I think a 4.7" is already way too large for me, but I will need to feel it, try it out in my jersey (cyclist here), pants and whatnot. See this video on the supposedly 4.7" iPhone
[@]Tallest Skil[/@] have you seen this??
[VIDEO]
Whether or not Apple will bow to pressure and provide a 5.5 inch device or not I don't know... but I personally am puzzled by the favor these devices get in the press. I'd like to see sales figures for these large devices.
Excellent point! Even numbers shipped would do it for me. Well, maybe not, but I cannot believe people actually think this is a workable size. Then again, if they think they are better of with one device instead of a phone and tablet then I guess I'm simply using my brain in a better way and understand that devices like these are meant to be used for what they are made for. No compromise, no large phone whicis too large for phone use and too small for tablet use. IMO, which is actually shared by many, not just here.
As for the add... I found it humorous mostly for the wrong reasons - because I know from personal experience that Cortana needs work, and is simply not a competitor for Siri right now.
Didn't know that, though I presume the same can be said for Siri.
I was referring to the earlier video where they turn it on. The one made by something & something. That’s an Android phone. This? Who knows; he doesn’t turn it on. Might even be the same guys.
EDIT: woo! This post beat the update restart by a single second!
The moron thinks the Apple was ever going to be illuminated, and he calls the Apple LiquidMetal without providing any evidence for that. He could prove it conclusively by just dropping the thing and having it bounce. It’s only the logo insert!
As for SIRI, I've mentioned this before, but you should check out the female brit SIRI, that's the one that I use and like. I prefer it more than the US female SIRI. It just sounds better to me.
I use the male British Siri. He sounds like a dignified villain. It's very commanding.
Indeed, who knows. But from the speedy reply I take it you haven't seen the video? Seems unusably large to me...
Post edited now; I’d seen it elsewhere before. This teardown is certainly high quality and everything matches the more realistic leaks we’ve seen. It’s a gorgeous device, but there’s still no proof that this is it. That first video was an Android and it looked the same. Then again, it IS Android we’re talking about…
I think the size is fine. It’s a 4.7, so that’s the absolute upper range. Even with the size increase, I don’t like at all that they moved the power button. That immediately tells you the size forced a compromise in the design and utility of the phone.
I think the size is fine. It’s a 4.7, so that’s the absolute upper range. Even with the size increase, I don’t like at all that they moved the power button. That immediately tells you the size forced a compromise in the design and utility of the phone.
It seems way too large for a phone. I agree that putting the sleep/wake button to the side is a compromise. If this thing is real, or the real size, I won't be buying it.
Edit: problem is, if everyone else is buying it they won't resurrect the 4" model, never mind the 3.5". What has the world come to?
It seems way too large for a phone. I agree that putting the sleep/wake button to the side is a compromise. If this thing is real, or the real size, I won't be buying it.
Hey, do what I did. Go hold that HTC thing that runs Windows Phone. Changed my mind about the size. But you’re right: it can’t be any larger than 4.7” and be usable. Then again, I have piano hands.
Having used both Cortana and Windows Phone quite heavily, I find these adds pretty humorous. The truth, at least in my opinion, is that Cortana unfortunately has a long way to go before it catches up with Siri. Any comparison between the two that seems to end up in Cortana's favor is a bit of a joke.
I don't say this from a perspective of simple bias; I used Cortana for about a month in the developer beta releases... which was only about 3 months ago. And I found Cortana to be so frustrating to use that it bordered on being a useless feature. Among the annoyances of Cortana was the fact that there was no equivalent function in Windows phone to asking Siri a question from sleep. With win phone, you had to wake up the phone, enter a passcode (if you had one set), and then tap the Cortana or search icon in order to ask a question. And that series of actions made the feature almost useless when engaged in any activity (driving, walking, etc) where one might expect to actually gain value from it. The lack of a real button on windows phones can be seen as a true liability here, since Apple has been able to leverage it for so much.
One positive for Cortana is that it is not simply a voice assistant - Cortana doesn't have to speak at all, and is wired into almost every search activity the OS presents. But that feature spurred two more annoying issues. First, when Cortana was active (e.g. configured to be enabled), every search enacted by the user is routed through Cortana, and if Cortana is down (which it was a LOT), then you just plain couldn't do a search with Bing at all - you had to open a browser, navigate to Google, then do your search. And Cortana would not work across WiFi - only using the phone's cellular connection. Which made it pretty useless when you were deep in the bowels of some building and wanted to know if there were any good places around there to eat. Now, if a developer had these issues, can you imagine what Grandma would do with these issues?
Basically, I think the Cortana implementation is flawed, and lacking in attention to detail... and unfortunately the details that were missed are the ones that take features like this from the gimmick to the useful category. That is of course my opinion.
Maybe MS will fix these issues - maybe they have already. But at the time, I came away from Cortana thinking it had really no chance at all of competing against Siri.
I am going to have to call BS on that. I'm an iPhone user from the first one and still use a 5s, but also use a Windows Phone (recently upgraded to the HTC One M8). Siri vs Cortana isn't even close, with Cortana easily beating Siri on functionality and understanding, as well as contextual responses. This is the one area where WP really blows iOS out of the water. Not only is Cortana extensible ("Cortana remote desktop connect to XYZ Computer" to launch an RDP session to my desktop or server"), but also predictive and not creepy at all (like Google Now, which I dabbled with when I used an HTC One M7). I've been using Cortana since the developer preview was released in April (on a Lumia Icon) and it wasn't buggy at all. The voice was quite computer generated back then, but it's gotten specifically better with time as they seem to be recording more and more with Jen Taylor (voiced Cortana from Halo). The developers are also really open to feedback, I emailed them because it couldn't pronounce my girlfriends name half way decently (she's Iranian), and within a week I noticed Jen Taylor had recorded her name.
A couple of other points. There is an option you can tick to have Cortana work above the lock screen (I can even launch it through my phones case with a swipe of my finger). Additionally, I don't think I have seen the Cortana service down more than once for a few hours since I started using it. Cortana also works perfectly fine with a Wi-Fi only connection, so not sure what is going on with your phone.
I've been reading AppleInsider for years and never made an account to comment because I never felt it necessary, but on this one, I had to stand up for Cortana. It's an awesome service and I can only hope they bring it to iOS one day (hopefully after Windows has established itself as a big enough ecosystem - feels crazy writing that - so that we are assured 3 platforms that keep pushing each other).
Comments
This ad that Microsoft uses to compare Siri to Cortana, to supposedly showcase Siri's shortcomings, will mean nothing when Apple executes its plan for Siri.
Siri is a technology that Apple will slowly integrate into its entire ecosystem throughout its hardware, software, and services; where the user will interact with everything naturally through Siri.
Microsoft is nowhere near that level of integration.
And to compare the HTC M8 to the iPhone?
Siri-ously?
HTC M8 - "We got two speakers to your one speaker."
iPhone - "We have a true 64bit OS with Touch ID."
HTC M8 - "???"
Having used both Cortana and Windows Phone quite heavily, I find these adds pretty humorous. The truth, at least in my opinion, is that Cortana unfortunately has a long way to go before it catches up with Siri. Any comparison between the two that seems to end up in Cortana's favor is a bit of a joke.
I don't say this from a perspective of simple bias; I used Cortana for about a month in the developer beta releases... which was only about 3 months ago. And I found Cortana to be so frustrating to use that it bordered on being a useless feature. Among the annoyances of Cortana was the fact that there was no equivalent function in Windows phone to asking Siri a question from sleep. With win phone, you had to wake up the phone, enter a passcode (if you had one set), and then tap the Cortana or search icon in order to ask a question. And that series of actions made the feature almost useless when engaged in any activity (driving, walking, etc) where one might expect to actually gain value from it. The lack of a real button on windows phones can be seen as a true liability here, since Apple has been able to leverage it for so much.
One positive for Cortana is that it is not simply a voice assistant - Cortana doesn't have to speak at all, and is wired into almost every search activity the OS presents. But that feature spurred two more annoying issues. First, when Cortana was active (e.g. configured to be enabled), every search enacted by the user is routed through Cortana, and if Cortana is down (which it was a LOT), then you just plain couldn't do a search with Bing at all - you had to open a browser, navigate to Google, then do your search. And Cortana would not work across WiFi - only using the phone's cellular connection. Which made it pretty useless when you were deep in the bowels of some building and wanted to know if there were any good places around there to eat. Now, if a developer had these issues, can you imagine what Grandma would do with these issues?
Basically, I think the Cortana implementation is flawed, and lacking in attention to detail... and unfortunately the details that were missed are the ones that take features like this from the gimmick to the useful category. That is of course my opinion.
Maybe MS will fix these issues - maybe they have already. But at the time, I came away from Cortana thinking it had really no chance at all of competing against Siri.
I don't think Apple needs to attack anyone. What do they have to win? They are already comfortably on the throne.
In Game of Thrones, sometimes the king gets to execute and have people beheaded.
I would like for Apple to get more aggressive sometimes.
As for SIRI, I've mentioned this before, but you should check out the female brit SIRI, that's the one that I use and like. I prefer it more than the US female SIRI. It just sounds better to me.
Most people know that the iPhone is superior overall in terms of ease of use, build quality and so on. These ads are fooling very few people. Most advertising is really about re-affirming to the customers who have already bought the product that the purchase they made was a good one. The intent is to get repeat buys. Most companies do this. All those BMW ads on TV are not directed at new buyers really, but at current BMW owners to make them feel good. No, the problem, especially for Microsoft, is it's pitiful market share which has dropped from a massive 4% down a point. HTC is in a similar predicament. Don't get me wrong the HTC phone is a great phone, but the Android competition is killing HTC. It's not Apple they should be comparing themselves with at all.
You assessment is spot on, however their is an element of the advertising directed at the user who never owns the product before, it make them sit back and think maybe the next time I am in the market for a new product I should look at their product. This work for BMW and Apple as well, they are both seeing the number of people buying their products increase.
Apple can not do this now with the IOS products they are already on top so if they attempted to do this it looks like they beating up the little guy. This is why apples ads not talk about what their products can do for you verse how they are better then everyone else.
[VIDEO]
[VIDEO]
Cortana here has some pretty funny responses - the user asks about Ballmer about halfway through:
[VIDEO]
But then, Siri has come in useful here:
[VIDEO]
The new iOS voices sound much more human so that's not really a plus for Cortana. The only true comparison for performance is for multiple people to say the same things to both and see which has the best replies - even one person isn't enough as different engines will handle dialects differently. Until they reach a point where they never screw up, they aren't good enough. As the above videos show, there was some poor understanding of context there. Siri interpreted sentences that would make no sense. There should be an assumption that people are making comprehensible statements and interpret them that way. If there is an incomprehensible statement, it should be corrected to the nearest comprehensible statement and an appropriate response given. If it's wrong, people will ask again anyway but hearing 'I don't understand' or 'I didn't get that' is more frustrating than an incorrect answer because it gives no continuity to the conversation. If the user knows what Siri thought they meant, they can give Siri a corrective follow-up that further helps Siri understand them.
Me too. I think this is the first time I actually like one of their ads. Of course, I have only seen a few as I do one thing only in life; read this site.
Marvin put up a few videos, the 3rd one is funny, but does show that a large phone is totally useless as it requires both hands. Proves there won't be a 5.5" from Apple I guess.
IBM retreated completely from B2C itself, but sells services to help other businesses do B2C. Microsoft had a pretty solid smartphone OS business after defeating Palm OS for the title. Then the iPhone wiped that smirk off Ballmer's face.
Me too. I think this is the first time I actually like one of their ads. Of course, I have only seen a few as I do one thing only in life; read this site.
Marvin put up a few videos, the 3rd one is funny, but does show that a large phone is totally useless as it requires both hands. Proves there won't be a 5.5" from Apple I guess.
I pretty much hate the large phones. The windows device I have is a Nokia 1520, which has a 6 inch HD display. And personally, I think using it sucks; it is way too large to handle effectively. I found myself constantly being afraid I would drop it. And holding it in one hand, it was really difficult to interact with the device to do things like unlock it so I could get to search for Cortana.
Whether or not Apple will bow to pressure and provide a 5.5 inch device or not I don't know... but I personally am puzzled by the favor these devices get in the press. I'd like to see sales figures for these large devices.
As for the add... I found it humorous mostly for the wrong reasons - because I know from personal experience that Cortana needs work, and is simply not a competitor for Siri right now.
Wow, 6". That simply cannot be considered a usable phone. Personally I think a 4.7" is already way too large for me, but I will need to feel it, try it out in my jersey (cyclist here), pants and whatnot. See this video on the supposedly 4.7" iPhone
[@]Tallest Skil[/@] have you seen this??
[VIDEO]
Excellent point! Even numbers shipped would do it for me. Well, maybe not, but I cannot believe people actually think this is a workable size. Then again, if they think they are better of with one device instead of a phone and tablet then I guess I'm simply using my brain in a better way and understand that devices like these are meant to be used for what they are made for. No compromise, no large phone whicis too large for phone use and too small for tablet use. IMO, which is actually shared by many, not just here.
Didn't know that, though I presume the same can be said for Siri.
@Tallest Skil have you seen this??
I was referring to the earlier video where they turn it on. The one made by something & something. That’s an Android phone. This? Who knows; he doesn’t turn it on. Might even be the same guys.
EDIT: woo! This post beat the update restart by a single second!
The moron thinks the Apple was ever going to be illuminated, and he calls the Apple LiquidMetal without providing any evidence for that. He could prove it conclusively by just dropping the thing and having it bounce. It’s only the logo insert!
Indeed, who knows. But from the speedy reply I take it you haven't seen the video? Seems unusably large to me...
Post edited now; I’d seen it elsewhere before. This teardown is certainly high quality and everything matches the more realistic leaks we’ve seen. It’s a gorgeous device, but there’s still no proof that this is it. That first video was an Android and it looked the same. Then again, it IS Android we’re talking about…
I think the size is fine. It’s a 4.7, so that’s the absolute upper range. Even with the size increase, I don’t like at all that they moved the power button. That immediately tells you the size forced a compromise in the design and utility of the phone.
I think they have to get all these ads out of the way now before the 9th, when we will probably see a large upgrade of Siri.
Striking while their supposed advantages still exist.
It seems way too large for a phone. I agree that putting the sleep/wake button to the side is a compromise. If this thing is real, or the real size, I won't be buying it.
Edit: problem is, if everyone else is buying it they won't resurrect the 4" model, never mind the 3.5". What has the world come to?
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Smartphones-to-blame-for-77-increase-in-dining-time-at-one-restaurant_id58378
Hey, do what I did. Go hold that HTC thing that runs Windows Phone. Changed my mind about the size. But you’re right: it can’t be any larger than 4.7” and be usable. Then again, I have piano hands.
Having used both Cortana and Windows Phone quite heavily, I find these adds pretty humorous. The truth, at least in my opinion, is that Cortana unfortunately has a long way to go before it catches up with Siri. Any comparison between the two that seems to end up in Cortana's favor is a bit of a joke.
I don't say this from a perspective of simple bias; I used Cortana for about a month in the developer beta releases... which was only about 3 months ago. And I found Cortana to be so frustrating to use that it bordered on being a useless feature. Among the annoyances of Cortana was the fact that there was no equivalent function in Windows phone to asking Siri a question from sleep. With win phone, you had to wake up the phone, enter a passcode (if you had one set), and then tap the Cortana or search icon in order to ask a question. And that series of actions made the feature almost useless when engaged in any activity (driving, walking, etc) where one might expect to actually gain value from it. The lack of a real button on windows phones can be seen as a true liability here, since Apple has been able to leverage it for so much.
One positive for Cortana is that it is not simply a voice assistant - Cortana doesn't have to speak at all, and is wired into almost every search activity the OS presents. But that feature spurred two more annoying issues. First, when Cortana was active (e.g. configured to be enabled), every search enacted by the user is routed through Cortana, and if Cortana is down (which it was a LOT), then you just plain couldn't do a search with Bing at all - you had to open a browser, navigate to Google, then do your search. And Cortana would not work across WiFi - only using the phone's cellular connection. Which made it pretty useless when you were deep in the bowels of some building and wanted to know if there were any good places around there to eat. Now, if a developer had these issues, can you imagine what Grandma would do with these issues?
Basically, I think the Cortana implementation is flawed, and lacking in attention to detail... and unfortunately the details that were missed are the ones that take features like this from the gimmick to the useful category. That is of course my opinion.
Maybe MS will fix these issues - maybe they have already. But at the time, I came away from Cortana thinking it had really no chance at all of competing against Siri.
I am going to have to call BS on that. I'm an iPhone user from the first one and still use a 5s, but also use a Windows Phone (recently upgraded to the HTC One M8). Siri vs Cortana isn't even close, with Cortana easily beating Siri on functionality and understanding, as well as contextual responses. This is the one area where WP really blows iOS out of the water. Not only is Cortana extensible ("Cortana remote desktop connect to XYZ Computer" to launch an RDP session to my desktop or server"), but also predictive and not creepy at all (like Google Now, which I dabbled with when I used an HTC One M7). I've been using Cortana since the developer preview was released in April (on a Lumia Icon) and it wasn't buggy at all. The voice was quite computer generated back then, but it's gotten specifically better with time as they seem to be recording more and more with Jen Taylor (voiced Cortana from Halo). The developers are also really open to feedback, I emailed them because it couldn't pronounce my girlfriends name half way decently (she's Iranian), and within a week I noticed Jen Taylor had recorded her name.
A couple of other points. There is an option you can tick to have Cortana work above the lock screen (I can even launch it through my phones case with a swipe of my finger). Additionally, I don't think I have seen the Cortana service down more than once for a few hours since I started using it. Cortana also works perfectly fine with a Wi-Fi only connection, so not sure what is going on with your phone.
I've been reading AppleInsider for years and never made an account to comment because I never felt it necessary, but on this one, I had to stand up for Cortana. It's an awesome service and I can only hope they bring it to iOS one day (hopefully after Windows has established itself as a big enough ecosystem - feels crazy writing that - so that we are assured 3 platforms that keep pushing each other).