Microsoft Windows Connected Home?
Microsoft Cortana ‘officially’ was released in 2015, and for Australians using Windows 10 there is mixed reviews. For navigating your PC it’s a handy little search too,. but as far as the Cortana we have access to, she can’t really do a whole lot, and is DEFINATELY optimised for use in the states. A lot of what Cortana can do can be customized or enabled through the Cortana Notebook, a sort of settings menu where you can tell Cortana what to keep track of for you as well as enable integrations with different services. New to the menu in AMERICA is a recently added “Connected Home" section, where users can now sign in to different smart home services to allow Cortana to control smart devices around their house. So Far only five services are available: Wink, Insteon, Nest, SmartThings, and Hue but it is likely that Microsoft will add new services as time goes on.
To get started, simply navigate to Cortana (if you have it enabled), click on the notebook (Or just start typing Cortana notebook) to navigate to settings, and you will see the menu now included ‘Connected Home’ on the list of integrations, toggle it on and once you’ve activated the feature, you’ll be able to sign into your various accounts and allow Cortana to manage them.
Besides using Cortana on Windows PC, the Connect Home feature is also accessible for Cortana on Xbox console, Raspberry Pi and Windows Mobile. Although there aren’t too many Windows Mobile users out there. Still, it’s nice that Microsoft is continuing to support those customers. You can read about that news HERE
Tech Company Harman Kardon will be releasing a voice activated assistant speaker, Invoke, which will be powered by Microsoft Cortana and will release October 22nd in the US. (RUMORED)
The idea of both Invoke and Windows 10 PC’s working as a Home Hub.
It appears Windows will have not only Google Home, or Alexa in their sights, but the entire market. They want to revolutionise it, the power of a screen and computer behind them makes the options almost limitless.
An exclusive interview with an unnamed Microsoft worker has told Windows Central.