Last week, Microsoft released an official Australian version of Cortana on Windows 10. In addition to having a genuine accent, the Australian version of Cortana will give Aussie-centric response to a range of questions and commands. Does it do a decent job? Read our Q&A session and decide for yourself…
Cortana is a digital assistant for Windows 10 that works much like Apple’s Siri. It learns your name, reminds you of appointments, transcribes your spoken notes, tracks your location and answers any query that the internet is able to answer. Last week’s update ushered in an official Australian version that attempts to inject some local personality into proceedings.
“The Australian Cortana celebrates the nation’s rich culture, history and people, such as indigenous legends, rugged bushrangers and sports stars, with her voice inspired by famous Aussie actresses such as Margot Robbie and Melissa George,” Microsoft explained on its blog.
Here are some examples of Cortana’s attempts to act ‘strayan:
Are you Aboriginal?
Cortana: No, but I find Aboriginal culture inspiring.
Tell me an Aboriginal proverb
Cortana: The more you know, the less you need.
Do you like ice cream?
Cortana: It’s high on the list of things I’d like to eat. The tricky part is whether to go for an Eskimo Pie, Drumstick or Golden Gaytime.
Do you have a dog?
Cortana: Nope. But I can see a Blue Heeler being this AI’s best friend. After you, of course.
Do you like summer?
Cortana: Of course. Remember to slip-slop-slap if you’re going out in the sun!
Tell me a joke
Cortana: How do kangaroos stay positive? They hop for the best. [Oh dear]
What do you dream about?
Cortana: I dream of one day getting to taste Vegemite on toast.
Sing a song
Cortana: Click go the shears boys, click, click, click. Wide is his blow and his hands move quick.
Sing me a lullaby
Cortana: Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, Merry merry king of the bush is he. Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra! Gay your life must be.
Are you scared of sharks?
Cortana: Sharks, not so much. Water, very much so!
What are you afraid of?
Cortana: Snakes, spiders, stingrays, drop bears…
What’s your favourite music?
Cortana: Australian folk gets my vote. Traditional songs about swagmen, bushrangers and drovers. It is hard to beat.
What’s your favourite colour?
Cortana: The green and gold combination, of course!
Thanks, Cortana
Cortana: No worries. Take it easy!
Hmm. It’s not the most convincing Aussie persona we’ve seen — but at least she didn’t say “throw another shrimp on the barbie.” Have you tried the Aussie version of Cortana yet? Let us know what kind of responses you get in the comments section below.
Comments
21 responses to “The Aussiest Things You Can Ask Cortana In Windows 10”
I just want normal Cortana. I feel dirty every time I hear fake Cortana’s voice.
Yeah they should have called it Cortana’s Australian Cousin!
Cortina?
Too many syllables … Courts, Courtey or Courta.
Definitely Courtas. Courtas maaaaate.
Gold! (…en Gaytime)
Wait… you can’t manually choose Jen Taylor? There’s absolutely no point to having Cortana, in my opinion, if it’s not her voice.
UK Robot voice was bad enough, I had to change back to US regional settings to have a Cortana that sounded human. I don’t even like Halo, it’s just a better voice pack.
Australian Cortana is still in Alpha on WP8, is this likely to change or is it going to stay like this so you buy one of the shiny new WP’s?
Well the Win 10 mobile update starts rolling out December (optimistically) then you get updated Cortana with Win10. Got it now on the Insider Preview on my 1520.
I’ve got a Nokia Lumia 625 so I’d imagine my Win10 upgrade is not a priority to Microsoft!
Does anyone know what iOS apps have been brought across for Windows 10 Mobile?
At the moment, my app usage is quite low, and Internet Explorer and pinned tabs are my main mode of using my Nokia 1520 😛
Whilst it would’ve been nice for Android apps to be included, I’ll take ‘just’ iOS at the moment, haha 😛
I thought I read recently that Microsoft weren’t making app porting a priority anymore?
So no ios or android apps for a while?
Well that’s my interest gone. Had to replace my 920 waiting for the 950, got a moto G. I can’t go back to no apps.
Yeah from what I read they decided against directly running android apps from the play store as they would be unable to make money from it.
And they were going to add financial incentives (i.e. a bigger piece of the pie) to developers who use the tools to port them over but then decided against that too!
I’m pretty excited the new Moto G is finally out here, and it’s the decent 2gb/16gb version too! It’ll probably be my next phone.
It’s a decent phone, probably my biggest frustrations are the lack of compass (sometimes it seems to work itself out, other times you’re driving up the road sideways), lack of NFC, and the bad camera (no IOS, hard to take a non blurry pic). FFC is way better than my last phone though, so I guess I just have to up my selfie game haha.
They are still continuing with the iOS porting (Candy Crush was an example), however hey canned the Android Porting as it required far more developers for less progress.
Oh dear.
I had thought Microsoft had stopped Android, but were continuing with iOS ported apps.
I understand that iOS attracts better money for developers, and therefore a better quality (generally speaking) of app. Therefore, iOS is the better one to have *if* you can only pick one.
I didn’t know they’d stopped the whole thing though…. :/
I can’t mine to change to aussie. I’ve download aus speech but it only has the option to choose us or uk
Normal cortana is good and better
Really hope they’ve licensed “Kookaburra” song. Remember what happened to Men at Work just for using 2 lines of the chorus!
“Something went wrong. Try again in a little bit”, is all I ever get out of Cortana no matter what I ask…