Microsoft has recently announced that its Windows Phone 8.1 Cortana intelligent voice assistant is coming soon in select countries.
Marcus Ash, the lead developer of the Cortana project, reportedly confirmed that the voice assistant arrive in the UK and China soon: "Making Cortana available in the UK and China will happen very soon. Weeks not months", he said.
Cortana, which is like Microsoft's version of Siri, was launched in the United States in April.
There have been rumors that Microsoft is talking about bringing Cortana to other platforms--like iOS or Android. Ash, however, pointed out that their top priority is Windows.
"Our top priority is to make Cortana great for Windows Phone customers. Get her out to more countries, continuing to push innovation ... Real plan is about Cortana on Windows Phone. Make it so good that Windows Phone customers get everyone they know on Windows Phone," he said.
CNET reported that the new 4G Nokia Lumia 635 (priced at £145) will be released on or around July 3.
Another report by GSMArena also said that Canada might also be the next country where Cortana will be released. It was demonstrated at the Canadian Telecom Summit and reportedly worked well.
The name Cortana was derived from the fictional AI character in the Halo video game series. Like Siri, it's like a personal digital assistant that could help you make you life a little easier--you could ask her questions about things like the basketball scores, a family member's birthday, perhaps even some math problems. You could either type or use its voice function.
It will also reportedly be a socially-intelligent OS. For instance, you set a reminder to ask a friend about something--this reminder will pop up the next time you interact with them on your phone.
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