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Windows Phone 8.1’s Cortana voice assistant makes an appearance in leaked screenshots

Though she may sound the part, Windows Phone 8.1’s “Cortana” voice assistant won’t have the blue hair and ethereal glow of a video game character. She will, however, be intelligent, context-aware and full of information.

According to screenshots leaked to The Verge, Cortana will replace the regular Bing Search action on Windows Phone devices, and will work in similar ways to both Siri and Google Now, ostensibly combining the best of both. For example, it will plug into Foursquare for location data and Bing News, Weather, Sports, Search and more for everything else.

Users will be able to set a name and have the assistant address him or her, likely quipping with dry humour like Apple’s Siri. According to the leaked information, Cortana will also store important user data in a “notebook” of sorts, allowing them, like Google Now, to set a home or work address, and to specify certain personal preferences. Unlike Siri, Cortana will also proactively provide information when necessary, like Google Now does with driving or transit directions and weather alerts.

Cortana looks to be one major feature addition in a new build of Windows Phone 8 that is shaping up to be as transformative as the previous transition from Windows Phone 7. Other rumoured features include extensive enterprise support, a unified development platform between Windows RT and Windows Phone, and a notification centre with quick toggles like Android.

[source]The Verge[/source]

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