[at-fates-hands]

Agreed on Cortana.

There are some things I feel Cortana does that Siri and Google Now does.

Every morning Cortana gives me the weather, appointments on my calendar, news stories and how long my commute will take given the current traffic conditions. It also learns when I normally leave for work, so about 10 minutes before I usually leave, I get an update on how long it will take to get home given the current conditions.

To me, Cortana is more like an assistant. You can set stuff so its off limits and she will ignore, and likewise, tell her to remember certain reminders like you pointed out.

Do either Google Now or Siri have these features that actively learn stuff about your preferences?

[wjoe]

Google Now does the same with commute times, and seems to automatically work out where you live and work. Same with appointment reminders, assuming you added a specific location to your calendar event - it's a bit hit and miss for me whether these reminders actually come up, but sometimes it tells me "Leave now to get to this appointment on time".

Things like these are a much more useful part of it than voice detection, I very rarely interact with it via voice, and tend to just do searches through my normal browser. It also hooks into Gmail and can give you reminders about things like flights you've booked, although that raises questions about privacy, and whether you really want Google to be trawling through your emails.

[com2kid]

> Google Now does the same with commute times

Eh, it also does it at really inappropriate times.

About 30 minutes after I get into the office it starts telling me how long it'd take me to get home, and that card stays up in Google Now until I actually do go home!