Microsoft has put its digital assistant front and a little left of centre, embedding it into every Windows 10-running device, and anyone who feels like downloading the app. Cortana’s getting some new tricks to go with her popularity, including a little extra nagging.
As part of a series of updates now in beta testing, Microsoft has made Cortana “more proactive when it comes to reminders”. So, Cortana will read your emails, see when you’ve made a promise to do a thing (“I’ll send you the pictures by tonight”) and then remind you mercilessly until you do it.
Unfortunately, none of these things will work if you’re using a web email client, so for the time being, Google has the upper hand in rifling through my junk. But it’s interesting to see the speed at which Microsoft is improving Cortana: it’s gone from being a running joke to something that will summon me an Uber, all in the time it’s taken Siri to understand my accent.