I’ve enjoyed having a digital assistant on my Mac since Parallels Desktop started supporting Windows 10. Now that I’m digging into the macOS Sierra beta, I have been using Siri for a lot of tasks as well. Time for a head on match (knock-out round won’t come until after Sierra is out for general release) of Siri vs Cortana on your Mac – what can each digital assistant do?
Microsoft Cortana is your smart personal assistant. She helps you keep track of your most important stuff, across all your devices. Cortana responds to your voice and has an answer for what you need. Cortana wants to know your favorite things. Tell Cortana your favorite artists or sports teams, and she will give you timely and relevant updates.
Siri vs Cortana on your Mac
The biggest difference you’ll notice between the digital assistants is that while Cortana has the option to have your mic always listening for you to summon her, (an option I eventually turned off because she kept hearing dialogue in my RPG games as “Hey Cortana!” and taking me out of full screen mode) Siri does not. You have to click the Siri buttons to summon her, while you can click on Cortana’s bar and mic or you can just type your question directly to Cortana. Both digital assistants are waiting to talk to you, but no matter what, you’ll look like George Jetson talking to your computer in public.
Not wanting to recreate the wheel, I started from a fantastic comparison Lance Ulanoff did on the two digi assistants over on Mashable. He did a great job showing what each would do natively in their own OSes, but I wanted to know what exactly they could do both running on my MacBook.
Let’s start with were you can find them. In your VM’s, you’ll see that you can reach Siri in two places, rather than the stationary start menu for Cortana.
Let’s get into where some of the differences are a little more apparent for the two digital assistants.
“Change my screen brightness”
I had the same results Lance did with Cortana and Siri with this question. While Siri was pretty helpful and actually performed my task for me while bringing up the slider for me to adjust, Cortana Bing’d an answer for me. (That was as painful for me to write as it was for you to read, I assure you). Though Siri didn’t walk me through a “getting to know my voice” set-up, so my first attempt at “change my screen brightness” turned into “Ice cream brightness” – which she at least responded with a joke that made me laugh rather than cringe at misunderstanding me!
Not what I was asking, but I suppose I am curious, how DO you make a dinosaur float?
“Turn off my Wi-Fi”
Here’s where things got a little tricky. Unlike Lance, my Cortana is running in a virtual machine, and she didn’t respond well to my request to turn off my Wi-Fi – likely due to the internet connection being a shared network from my host macOS. (though at first she seemed to think I was asking her to “turn off my Wife I” which is a totally different sort of request) Cortana ended up telling me that this setting isn’t supported on my device. Siri, when asked to turn off my Wi-Fi did warn me that doing so would stop me from being able to user her afterwards.
Siri and Cortana – turn off my wi-fi!
“Move my lunch meeting with Megan to tomorrow”
This ask didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped. In many cases each digital assistant played pretty well in the other OS! We’ve had Cortana open Mac applications, and Siri is opening up my Windows programs like a champ. But when it comes to the nitty gritty- not just open up my programs, but interact with the files within – this became a problem. I tried my best to force the issue – set the default files for .ics to Microsoft Outlook, default .msg to Calendar – all to no avail. When you go to your resident program manager / engineer who says that the AI for the digital assistant should respect the OSes settings (which I took as “Megan, will you please stop trying to break the AI”), I decided to give up. Siri is awesome in your Mac Calendar, and Cortana is a rad assistant for your Outlook calendar, but they are just not interested in working cross platform in this zone (yet).
“How fast is my computer?”
Cortana once again opened up Bing (I can’t bring myself to say she “Bing’d” something again) to answer my question of “How fast is my computer?”, while Siri was a rockstar at bringing up my specs. (I didn’t even bother asking Cortana how much iCloud storage data I had left).
I’m struggling with trying to find my way to only one digital assistant right now. Both Siri and Cortana have their strengths – but as it stands with Siri in beta, and how Cortana plays with macOS in a virtual machine, it’s clear that for the time being I’m going to need both of them. Cortana is my calendaring wizard since I am stuck with Microsoft Office as my required email program, and Siri will be my life saver when I have to search for something like “find the file I named “computer kitten” last week.
(btw, this is the computer kitten file I was looking for)
It was alright I guess. Also, didn’t really give a shit about the special sauce. You’d think that with all the people flipping their stools over the Big Mac’s special sauce that it’d contain something like crack or uranium in it, but nope! It tasted like Thousand Island dressing.But what do I know? Mcdonalds big mac sauce for sale. The whole menu at McDick’s is basically squishy beef so if that’s what they were going for then I have to give them an A+ for hitting their goal.
You can manage your subscriptions in your App Store account settings.This app is provided by either Microsoft or a third-party app publisher and is subject to a separate privacy statement and terms and conditions. Data provided through the use of this store and this app may be accessible to Microsoft or the third-party app publisher, as applicable, and transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States or any other country where Microsoft or the app publisher and their affiliates or service providers maintain facilities.Please refer to the Microsoft Software License Terms for Microsoft Office. Microsoft updater for mac. See “License Agreement” link under Information. By installing the app, you agree to these terms and conditions.
I hope you’re all enjoying your Parallels Desktop 12 virtual machines so far. If you’re doing something rad with your virtual assistants that make you even more productive, leave a comment below and let us know!
Cortana for Android on PC: Cortana for Android is a Free App, developed by the Microsoft for Android devices, but it can be used on PC or Laptops as well. We will look into the process of How to Download and install Cortana for Android on PC running Windows 7, 8, 10 or Mac OS X.
With the “Cortana for Android” APK you install the smart voice assistant from Microsoft and already use exclusive features of Windows 10 on your Android smartphone. Cortana, the clever language assistant for Windows 10, is now available for Android too – at least in China and the US. With CHIP you already get the official APK-file for the download in Germany.
Cortana for Android APK: Use Cortana on Android
Since it is a US-American pre-release version of the Cortana app, the language assistant is so far only available in English. Cortana expresses itself however very understandably, also users with average English knowledge should therefore have hardly understanding problems.
The app itself presents itself on the home page – similar to Google Now – as a list of your personal memories, your appointments, the weather in your area as well as some other data, facts and news. It is a pity that the units in the current version can not be switched yet, so for example you currently only get the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.
Cortana Android: voice control for Android
The core feature of Cortana is, of course, the opportunity to ask the language assistant questions – and here the app already shows its strengths. Cortana reacts very cleverly to most questions, and inquiries on the same topic are correctly assigned and answered. Cortana is now far ahead of Google Now – even though you can only ask English questions at the moment.
Cortana For Mac Os
Conclusion: The “Cortana for Android APK” shows how strong Cortana can work mainly thanks to the connection between smartphone and PC. Unfortunately, the app is currently only available in English. With the APK, you can already download Cortana to your Android device before the app officially becomes available in Germany.
Note: In our practice article, we’ll show you how to install an APK file on your device.
Also Read: Facebook on PC (Windows & Mac).
Download Links For Cortana for Android
How to Download: BlueStacks For PC
Download and Install Cortana for Android on PC
Cortana For Apple Watch
Download Emulator of your Choice and Install it by following Instructions given:
- As you have Downloaded and Installed Bluestacks Emulator, from Link which is provided above.
- Now, After the installation, configure it and add your Google account.
- Once everything is done, just open the Market(Play Store) and Search for the Cortana for Android.
- Tap the first result and tap install.
- Once the installation is over, Tap the App icon in Menu to start playing.
- That’s all Enjoy!
That’s it! For Cortana for Android on PC Stay tuned on Download Apps For PCfor more updates & if you face any issues please report it to us in the comments below.