Microsoft has been having quite a bit of fun with Siri in its new Windows Phone ads. Reminiscent in feel of Apple’s old “Mac vs. PC” ads, the Cortana vs. Siri ad campaign shows Microsoft’s digital assistant having fun at the expense of slow, dumb ol’ Siri.
Not afraid to whip a dead horse, Cortana is now back in two news Windows Phone ads, showing just how much more she can do on Microsoft’s new Windows Phone-powered Nokia Lumia 635 than Siri can do on the iPhone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIdf99noLJk
In the first ad, titled “Lost”, Cortaina is able to automatically alert users to leave their house early in order to beat traffic, something Siri can’t even remotely do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfozrCjKHus
In the second ad, “Remind Me,” Cortana shows how she can link reminders with people, so that when someone calls, texts, or emails, it reminds you to, say, wish that person a happy belated birthday, or ask them what the name of that wine they served at their last dinner party was.
I’ve always found Siri a total disappointment, so I don’t mind laughing at these genuinely clever ads. Windows Phone has few enough genuine advantages over iOS that I don’t mind them taking a few potshots at Siri, especially if that leads Apple to improve Siri down the line.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
9 responses to “Cortana bashes stupid ol’ Siri again in new Microsoft ads”
Bashing aside, Cortana has some neat tricks up her sleeve.
And we’re finding new ones all the time.
That’s neat. Apple can simply update iOS to have siri do what Cortana can. Of course that will be the revolutionary new iOS update: iOS10. Unfortunately the iphone 6 will be too slow or not powerful enough to handle the update or that particular feature. The 1GB of ram will not be enough. :)
I have a Windows 8.1 phone, with Cortana. Besides the annoyance of not allowing to use it if you select British spelling – even with a US-based location, I have to say that Cortana kinda sucks. Don’t get me wrong, compared to just a couple years ago it does a fantastic job. But compared to the advertising that hypes its (supposed) abilities, it just doesn’t deliver. First, it doesn’t actually use vooice commands when you start it up (and if it does, it ain’t anywhere in the Settings). You have to open Cortana, then press the mike button. (Huh? I though this was a voice interface!!) Second, it doesn’t do most of the stuff advertised, except perhaps after you’ve used it a few bazillion times.
Worst of all, it doesn’t understand simple, basic commands. My biggest frustration? I have a number of things that occur monthly. But Cortana does not recognize the word “Monthly.” It tries to schedule them EVERY day. So I tried “every 9th.” Amazingly, it understands that. But it won’t schedule the reminder because it can’t schedule into the past. Doesn’t grasp “in the future” or “From today” or “between” or… Why would it even try to schedule something for a past date? Maybe Microsoft has proof that Einstein was wrong?
Other annoyances? Search and Find mean two different hings. It also doesn’t integrate with the keypad, even in Microsoft/Lumia/Nokia apps. So if I’m already in messaging, and decide I need to go hands free, I have to exit, open Cortana, press the microphone button, and then start dictating the message. Instead of just the one-touch of pressing the mike button on the keypad I used to do with my Android Gingerbread (c.2010).
Pretty good speech recognition; but crappy (logical) user interface.
If you wanna boot her up with mic mode, just hold down the search button (the magnifying glass). She’ll start listening.
Hey those features are actually very useful. Why doesn’t my iPhone do that? Siri is just pathetic which is why I’ve stopped using it.
Cortana sounds hot. way hotter than she did in Halo. I wonder what her responses would be if I asked her some….things….
It’s funny, because as an owner of a windows phone, even with Cortana, they still fucking suck and will always fucking suck. God, windows phones are shit. Apple isn’t much better either.
It seems phones in general are shit.