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Microsoft is killing its standalone Cortana apps for Android & iOS (in some regions, at least)

Microsoft is pulling the plug on its Cortana apps for Android and iOS according to supports pages on the Microsoft Australia, Canada, and UK websites. It’s possible the app will live on in the US and other markets, but I’m not holding my breath. Does this mean Microsoft is giving up on supporting the smartphone […]

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Microsoft’s new Cortana strategy: Embrace, extend, and if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em

Voice assistants were everywhere at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, where hundreds of new products featuring Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant technology made their debut. You know what you didn’t hear much about? Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant. There’s only a single smart speaker that ever shipped with Cortana baked in (and it’s currently selling for […]

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Facebook’s M assistant finally arrives in Messenger… offers suggestions based on your chats

It’s been almost two years since Facebook unveiled its M digital assistant software for Facebook Messenger. Initially only available to a small group of testers, M is now launching for everyone in the US. So what does that mean? Basically that M will analyze your chats and try to suggest relevant content. It’s basically the […]

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Samsung confirms Galaxy S8 will feature Bixby voice assistant

Apple may have kicked off the recent virtual assistant craze with the launch of Siri. But these days Siri has a lot of company: Microsoft Cortana, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant (which might have the least creative name of the bunch). Soon they’ll be joined by Samsung’s Bixby. We’ve known it was coming for a […]

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Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant is coming to IoT

Microsoft may not be planning to launch its own Google Home/Amazon Echo-style smart speaker. But the company does have big plans for letting you interact with smart home devices using the company’s Cortana voice assistant. The company recently started adding features to Windows 10 for computers that allow you to use your voice to turn off a PC, […]

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Samsung confirms Galaxy S8 will have a new AI digital assistant

Siri, Cortana, Alexa, and Google Assistant, you’re about to get some more company. Samsung has confirmed that it plans to launch a new digital assistant with its next flagship smartphone. Reuters reports that the new software will be baked into the Galaxy S8 smartphone which is probably coming in the first half of 2017. The […]

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Samsung to buy AI platform Viv, from the makers of Siri

Earlier this year two of the developers behind the original version of Siri unveiled a new app called Viv. While Siri was acquired by Apple and baked into the company’s smartphone operating system, Viv was designed to be more of an open platform, capable of tapping into third-party services… much the way Amazon’s Alexa can […]

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Bloomberg: Apple has a Siri-based Amazon Echo competitor too

Earlier this year Google announced plans to launch an internet-connected speaker that would sit in your home, play music on command, and respond to questions or requests that you voice. It’s called Google Home, and if it sounds familiar, that’s because it’s basically the company’s answer to an existing product: the Amazon Echo. But Google […]

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Google Assistant takes on Siri and Alexa, Google Home takes on Amazon Echo

Google has been letting you search the web and get answers to questions using your voice for years, but while rivals Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft have given their digital assistants names like Siri, Alexa, and Cortana, Google’s service has been called… Search, or Now, or something. Now Google is giving its digital assistant a name: […]

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Viv is a new virtual assistant from creators of Siri

Before Siri was a virtual assistant built into the operating system that powers iPhone and iPads, the software was a standalone app developed by a team including Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer. Apple bought the company and the rest is history… except that Kittlaus and Cheyer weren’t finished coming up with new ways for your device […]