Microsoft Corp on Monday said its Cortana virtual assistant software was available to users of Android mobile devices.
Cortana is Microsoft’s answer to Apple Inc’s Siri and Google Inc’s Google Now, which respond to voice commands on mobile devices.
The launch is part of an effort by Microsoft to expand its mobile presence despite a weak showing for its Windows Phone devices.
“The Cortana app can do most of the things Cortana does on your PC or on a Windows phone,” Microsoft’s Susan Hendrich said in a blogpost.
“With the app, you can manage your hectic lifestyle by setting and getting reminders, searching the Web on-the-go, tracking important information such as flight details, as well as starting and completing tasks across all of your devices,” Hendrich said.
A beta version of Cortana was made available on Monday to users of Android devices in the US, and “we are planning to roll it out to other markets,” she said.
Microsoft in May said it was working on the Android version and another for Apple devices.
According to research firm Gartner Inc, Windows had just 2.5 percent of the global smartphone market in the second quarter, compared with 82 percent for Google’s Android and 14.6 percent for Apple’s iOS.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
RSS