this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Microsoft shuts down Cortana, Apple should do the same with Siri::Cortana is Microsoft’s virtual assistant, which was introduced in 2014 back when Windows Phone was still a thing. Similar to...

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[–] [email protected] 72 points 1 year ago (3 children)

nah

Siri, while not great, handles timers, reminders, and dumbshit like that just fine without typing. I have yet to find another good use for these assistants.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Hey siri, set a timer for 50 minutes" (time my dryer takes). "Timer set for 15 minutes". Every god damn time. I say 49 minutes now.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Meanwhile, Google Assistant has no issues with anything like this. You can even set multiple timers. Which, for some inexplicable reason, is not possible in iOS.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

It's not a big deal if you setup a spreadsheet showing when you need each timer to go off and then simply tell Siri to set a timer for the interval between each as they complete one by one. Easy peasy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

But stupidly time is a not synced between your various devices.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah but it suuucks for some other things. On iOS I can say cancel my alarm and it does it. Android says something and then opens the clock app to make me do it manually. Also things like saying nevermind change that timer to xx minutes works considerably better on siri imo. They both have their strengths and weaknesses but I personally think Siri is much more optimized with iOS than any assistants ever manage to be on Android.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My android phone doesn't do that at all. The nest devices definitely don't either.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I mean... Yes it does? What device do you have because I'm using stock? Actually nevermind. This is some highschool android vs iOS stuff and I just realized I don't actually care if you agree with things I know to be true anyway so I'm out.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Agreed. I find myself using Siri on walks via AirPods quite a bit. Siri what’s the weather going to be like tonight . Siri what’s in my calendar tomorrow. Siri what’s the latest news. (That opens up podcast app and plays local news I love it. ). Siri let me know when it’s 12:30. I just wish it got better at answering simple questions. A few articles mentioned Apple started looking at incorporating a GPT style AI with Siri.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yep. I’ve used my Google assistant for timers, alarms, weather, and music. Anything more complex is a headache. Even music is half the time.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Asking the thing to handle music in another language was terrible. Asking it to play a French song to an assistent set in English gives stupid results for example. "Que sera, sera" becomes "Oh Sarah".

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This will make the 3 people who actually used Cortana mildly disgruntled.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I've always hated it as it took a decent amount of my ram without ever having used it

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I spent hours trying to get rid of it, only to have it come back a few weeks later after an update.

One of many reasons I abandoned Windows entirely.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Nice cut, Memmy.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

..similar to what? SIMILAR TO WHAT!?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Nah, I use Siri daily for simple tasks. Turning on lights, setting timers, adding things to my groceries list. She’s simple, but perfectly fine for simple tasks.

Please leave her the fuck alone :’)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I shut off asuch of Cortana on my desktop as I could. Not a wanted feature.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Please not Siri, it ain’t smart but it does everything I want - the basics and reasonably easily.

I remember Cortana fondly when it was a great blend of Siri and Google Now but naturally it and Windows Phone got left to rot, and made her useless on desktop Windows since they forfeited my pocket.

I tolerated Google Assistant for a bit but ditched Android when Google pushed updates to remove the “okay Google with the screen off” feature from my Moto Z Play and gaslit the internet - stating it was never supported in closed support threads, the chipset didn’t support it and promoted it as a (then new) Pixel 1 feature. I figured Apple wouldn’t remove “Hey Siri” and so far several years in it’s still holding true.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Okay google works fine when the screen is off for me. On S22+ with latest Android

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

I miss the squeeze to activate Google assistant. I used that all the time, but since I upgraded my pixel and it's no longer an option, I just don't use it ever.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

This article sounds like it was written by someone who barely understands what a voice assistant is, let alone how a corporation works. Very dumb. Is 9to5 using GPT instead of paying journalists?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s too embedded into their services at the moment. Like you can’t even use CarPlay unless you enable Siri. I like the idea but in contrast they could also just try to make it good lol.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Whoa, you need Siri enabled for CarPlay?! I refuse to have any voice things turned on any devices and I’ve been considering upgrading my horribly slow double DIMM radio to a CarPlay radio. I guess I’ll skip that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yep. I don’t own a car, but I rented one and wanted to give CarPlay a spin for the first time. It was like please enable Siri. I ended up doing it, but became very annoyed with Siri not long after I brought the car back. Would definitely be an issue for me if I owned the thing instead of renting.

If you do any car shopping, just ask the dealer if you can try it. Would be a good way to verify if what I’m saying is still true.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Should've killed Cortana in Halo 4

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I don't understand why the author sees AI as an alternative to Siri rather than a potential upgrade.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

M$ was banking on horny teenagers to use Cortana. Thing is, they forgot the sexy bits.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

God no. I use it when I can’t reach the phone. It isn’t perfect, but it still is valuable

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I’m kinda glad it’s over. Cortana killed the very useful voice commands on Xbox (alongside the size and price of the Kinect).

Instead of “Xbox On” you had to actually instruct Cortana to turn it on. The same for the quick screenshot or changing the channel on TV or whatever. It was so good, my whole family was using it and this was in 2014ish when voice control was still fairly new. Cortana ruined all of that for a virtual assistant that barely worked and made Siri look like AI.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

aw shucks i wanted to see how sh*t cortana was

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Not the same thing. Even though Siri is not great, I still use it for basic tasks.