Microsoft has found its Siri, and her name is Cortana.
The forthcoming Windows Phone 8.1 will be equipped with a digital personal assistant akin to Google Now and Siri, arguably two of the most popular tech secretaries on the market.
Unnamed individuals close to Microsoft's inner workings told The Verge that Cortana will use Bing and Foursquare, whose search engine comes automatically equipped on Windows Phone 8.1, to gain information.
The unidentified insiders also revealed to The Verge that Cortana will not look like the female character from Halo who she's named after, but will appear as a circular graphic instead.
According to The Verge, Cortana can build its own personality, much like Apple's equivalent, Siri. When the digital assistant is thinking or speaking, a moving image will pop up.
Cortana can call the phone owner by any name, including nicknames like "Master Chief."
One Cortana's highlight aspects is her capacity to store info using a Notebook technique. With Notebook, Cortana can look up personal and contact information, gain knowledge on location and quirks, give reminders, and more. Using keywords mentioned in emails, Cortana can track flights and update scheduling accordingly.
The Verge reported that it's unclear at this time whether Microsoft will use the name in the software's final system.
The tech giant is slated to reveal Cortana at the Build conference, which is scheduled for April 2- 4 this year.
PC World said on Monday that Microsoft has been working to bolster Bing quietly over the past couple of years by coming up with a so-called "knowledge engine" named Satori. Tech officials with the company said they hope Satori will soon be the "world's largest repository of knowledge," that Bing, and perhaps Cortana, will use to find information.
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