A New Version Of Cortana Rolls Out To Windows Insiders
Microsoft announced today that it is rolling out a new version of its Cortana personal assistant tool to Windows Insiders. The company said that the new version of Cortana will include some new features that it believes will ultimately make our lives a little easier.
The preview build of Cortana introduces automatic recognition of commitments made through email. Microsoft noted that people will commonly make a promise to do something in an email, but will often lose track of it and forget. The company said that the new build of Cortana can automatically detect when such a commitment is made.
Microsoft has also added features that help manage your calendar. Cortana will now intelligently learn “how you may uniquely like to work – including the hours you like to set meetings and those in which you are most productive.” Using this information, Cortana can tell if a meeting request comes in that is outside of your preferred hours and quickly alert you so you can plan around it or quickly request that it is rescheduled.
Microsoft said Cortana can also alert you of last-minute meeting requests, so if you’re not in the habit of checking our email after a certain hour, you won’t miss a late evening request for an early morning meeting.
“As we look at what a real-life personal assistant can do, we know we’re just scratching the surface of how Cortana can help you be more productive. We look forward to bringing you more features and scenarios that help you to achieve more,” said Marcus Ash, Group Program Manager, Cortana.
The new build of Cortana is available today to Windows Insiders, but it has only been released for en-US and en-GB. Microsoft didn’t say when other language versions would be released, but it did say that these features will eventually be available to all Windows 10 users.
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Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years.
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captaincharisma so i guess this means fast ring insiders will get another a 3rd build update in the span of 2 weeksReply -
Max_x2 ReplyI'm still waiting anxiously for a much needed feature: an off button
And I'm still waiting for people to use google more efficiently and know what they're talking about instead of whining for no reason, but I guess that will never really happen. -
Quixit I'm not sure why most people would even want these features, almost everyone has either an Android phone or a iPhone to be their personal organizer already. We don't need our PCs doing the same things as well.Reply -
firefoxx04 Cortana was somewhat useful when I tried it out. I really need a personnel assistant to open ANY application I ask it to. If I say, open Steam.. she needs to know what that is, not do a bing search for me.Reply
I was at a client location today installing a printer driver. She uses Windows 10 and it was running great. Thought about going back to it until I remembered all the BS I had to deal with. SMB performance was junk, Default PDF player junk. Call home functions sending data non stop. No thanks. -
alextheblue ReplyI'm not sure why most people would even want these features, almost everyone has either an Android phone or a iPhone to be their personal organizer already. We don't need our PCs doing the same things as well.
Windows 10 runs on things other than a conventional giant tower PC. Like tablets and hybrid devices. Would it make sense if Apple only had Siri on iPhone but not iPad? Why NOT have it available on all Win10 devices? You can set stuff up with Cortana to remind you of something while you're doing something on your Win10 device, and have it go with you on your smartphone - Cortana is multiplatform.
I'm still waiting anxiously for a much needed feature: an off button
You can already disable it.