An update for Outlook on iPhone adds voice commands powered by Microsoft’s Cortana assistant.
Now Outlook users with an iPhone or iPad can rely on Cortana’s voice capabilities to schedule meetings, search for emails, and read out a reply to an email. Outlook users can hold down the Google-like plus sign icon on iOS (and soon Android), and then tap the microphone icon to “Use Voice” to tell Cortana what to do in Outlook.
App Store: Outlook
As of March 31, 2021, Microsoft’s Cortana app on iOS and Android will no longer be supported.
As of March 31, 2021, the Cortana content you created–such as reminders and lists–will no longer function in the Cortana mobile app, but can still be accessed through Cortana in Windows. Also, Cortana reminders, lists, and tasks are automatically synced to the Microsoft To Do app, which you can download to your phone for free.
John Martellaro and Charlotte Henry join host Kelly Guimont to talk about the leaked TV+ Pricing and the latest AI hire at Microsoft.
The Big Tech gang is complete. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and now Microsoft were caught listening to user audio queries.
Microsoft‘s recent 2019 Voice Report shows that usage of Google Assistant and Siri are tied at 36%, while 41% of survey respondents are concerned about privacy.
Microsoft no longer sees its Cortana digital assistant as a competitor to the more popular Alexa and Google Home. The company’s CEO, Satya Nadella, said that it should be further integrated with its rivals’ platforms instead, The Verge reported. Microsoft and Amazon already partnered for some Cortana/Alexa integration, and this is clearly where Microsoft intends to take the product next – more of an app or service across multiple platforms, not hardware to be sold.
CEO Satya Nadella revealed that Microsoft no longer sees Cortana as a competitor to Alexa or Google Assistant. “Cortana needs to be that skill for anybody who’s a Microsoft 365 subscriber,” explains Nadella, referencing Microsoft’s new consumer subscription push. “You should be able to use it on Google Assistant, you should be able to use it on Alexa, just like how you use our apps on Android and iOS so that’s at least how we want to think about where it’ll go.”
Check out this infographic from SEOTribunal.com on voice search that traces the history of the concept of voice search, and also has lots of stats on how people are using voice search today.
In this episode, Bryan Chaffin and Jeff Gamet discuss the current limitations of AI, and what real AI in the future might be like. They also talk about Apple’s T2 kernel panic issue and follow up on Bryan’s dual-HomePod TV experiment.
Loup Ventures conducted its annual test to see how popular voice assistants perform, and Apple’s Siri came in second behind Google Assistant.
The subject of how tempted we are to treat artificial intelligent entities as real human beings has some up once again.
