Microsoft’s voice assistant Cortana is coming to Android and iOS devices soon

Microsoft will soon make its voice-activated digital personal assistant Cortana available as a standalone app for Android and iOS devices, reports Reuters.

Cortana is currently exclusive to Windows Phone devices, but will come to Windows 10 for desktops this autumn, and subsequently arrive on mobile devices powered by Google and Apple.

Microsoft will beef up Cortana’s capabilities before rolling it to other platforms. The company is working on an advanced version of its voice assistant, incorporating research from an artificial intelligence project called Einstein.

There’s no word yet on just when Cortana will launch across platforms. We’ve contacted Microsoft to find out more and will update this post when we hear back.

➤ Microsoft’s digital assistant to head to Android, Apple devices [Reuters]

Microsoft’s voice assistant Cortana is coming to Android and iOS devices soon

Microsoft offers Windows 10 as free upgrade, even to pirates

Microsoft is feeling generous with its Windows 10; it will be offering this upcoming operating system as a free upgrade to every user of Windows 7 or later. Even pirated copies of Windows are eligible for an upgrade too.

The reason for this is the rampant piracy in China, although the Philippines has its fair share of users that aren’t using genuine Windows too. Microsoft is doing this in its effort to “re-engage” the millions of users back to its ecosystem. This should also encourage stalwarts of Windows XP to switch to a more modern version and help them get the best security features they need. The company will certainly lose revenue in the process, but it will make up for it through its Office productivity suite, Skype and other online services.

Microsoft previously announced that Windows 7 and 8 users would receive the new OS for free, but it hadn’t mentioned about non-genuine users at the time.

Aside from resolving piracy issues, Microsoft has also confirmed that Windows 10 will launch this summer, with 190 countries and 111 languages to be covered in the initial launch.

[Source: Reuters]