Windows Phone 8.1 is coming, and it’s going to bring with it a whole host of improvements to Microsoft’s OS. While nothing concrete is known just yet, it’s been suggested today that one key features of the rollout will be a virtual assistant to guide you through your experience, and he/she/it will come in the form of Cortana, the co-star of Microsoft’s Halo series.
In the games, Cortana acts as an AI assistant to players, so it doesn’t take much imagination to work out how she could translate to a smartphone. It’s likely that the system will utilise Microsoft’s own voice recognition systems that have been in development for the past year or so. A tweet from Xero, which specialises in leaks, suggested that the feature will be heading to the US in early 2014 as Windows Phone 8.1 rolls out, while the rest of the world will have to wait until the later months for the year for access. Using Bing, it will support more than 44 languages.
It won’t be the first example of Microsoft bringing the Halo brand to its Windows Phones – an exclusive game by the name of Spartan Assault launched earlier in the year. It’s undoubtedly one of the company’s most popular and coolest franchises, so expect this to be a feature that iOS and Android users envy come 2014.
Source: Phone Arena via My Nokia Blog
