The results of Loup Ventures annual “smarkt speaker IQ” test has now been published, and the surprise winner is Google Home.  According to the results, Apple’s HomePad and Siri bested Alexa and Cortana, which is quite a surprise. 800 questions was asked to the virtual assistants, and then graded based on whether the question was understood […]

Microsoft’s vice president in charge of Cortana, Javier Soltero is leaving the company in December.  Javier came to Microsoft in 2014 through an acquisition. Soltero, before being placed in charge of Cortana, created update versions of Outlook for iOS and Android.  He was then chosen to lead the Cortana team since March.  Currently, it’s not clear what made […]

Last week, Microsoft came out with a version of Cortana for the iPad.  Cortana is already out for iPhone, but now, it has been optimized and released for the iPad screens.  Not only that, it is reportedly “20 percent faster,” according to the release notes. Compared to Google Assistant and Siri, Cortana can do essentially everything […]

Google is rolling out the Assistant to more devices.  Soon, it’ll be available on Android tablets that run Nougat and Marshmallow, as well as smartphones running Lolliop. The folks in the US who are running English will be the first to get access.  But, there will be a wide array of Android 5.0 smartphones (Lollipop) getting the […]

On the morning of August 30, Amazon and Microsoft announced that their virtual assistants are going to be working together.  The two devices will have the ability to access each other: Alexa customers will be able to access Cortana’s unique features like booking a meeting or accessing work calendars, reminding you to pick up flowers on your […]

A new update has been released for Android version of Cortana, which allows users to make it the default assistant on Android devices, effectively displacing the Google Assistant.  A prompt hen Cortana is initiated takes users through the quick setup process. After the update has been installed, a long press on the home button will bring […]

Microsoft wants to make AI available to all developers through its “intelligent cloud” and accessible to devices at the “intelligent edge.”  At the Build developer conference in Seattle on May 10, the Microsoft explained its vision, which is centered around the interaction of the cloud, data and devices. It offered a media preview of its keynote […]

A new marketing channel has been emerging over the last year or so, and this channel revolves around bots and intelligent agents. These bots and agents includes voice-based intelligence like Google Home’s Assistant or Amazon’s Alexa, and chatbots that will interact through text conversions.  Marketers are starting to plan their conversational strategies and logic for this channel. […]

When it comes to Microsoft’s mobile operating system, it doesn’t really have much of a market share in the smartphone market.  Because of this, the company has been put to task to get creative about distribution.  The company recently announced a third-party SDK strategy for developers and device makers. Now, a forthcoming update will make the virtual […]

Following in the footsteps of Microsoft and their Cortana product, Amazon is making Alexa available to third-party developers and hardware makers to voice-enable their connected products.  Another thing that is being brought to developers is Alexa’s several thousand “skills” (voice apps). A few weeks ago, there was an announcement made for Cortana’s developer strategy, and there, we […]