Cortana alpha launches in Australia next week

Microsoft have announced that Australians will be able to get their first look official look at Cortana next week through an opt-in program. While the program is intended for Windows Phone Developers, non-developers should be able to try out Microsoft's new digital assistance without too much difficulty.

By Alex Choros

Microsoft have announced that Australians will be able to get their first look official look at Cortana next week through an opt-in program. While the program is intended for Windows Phone Developers, non-developers should be able to try out Microsoft's new digital assistance without too much difficulty.

The opt-in early adopter program will give users the ability to try an "alpha version" of Cortana using "English language models from the US and UK". This means Cortana won't yet have any Australia-specific accent recognition, but in tests with the US version, we didn't have any problems. Cortana requires Windows Phone 8.1.

In addition, Microsoft also announced a couple of new features for Cortana, including "new natural language scenarios", snooze times for reminders, personality updates, and tighter integration with in-car Bluetooth.

Source: Microsoft Blog