12 TECH ADVISOR • JUNE 2020WINDOWS 10
I ask Google the height of the Eiffel Tower, then follow
up by asking ‘where is it’, Google understands that I
mean the same tower. Cortana doesn’t.
On the other hand, if I ask Cortana to send
an emailed note to my wife, Cortana will ask for
confirmation before it’s sent. Replying ‘no’ prompted
it to ask me what I wanted to change: the recipient,
the message or something else. That’s the sort of
conversational interaction Microsoft seems to be
shooting for, but examples of this seem to be few and
far between. Cortana’s ability to understand is also
improving, as it parsed “What did the Dow Jones do
today?” correctly.
While I know separating Cortana into its own app
allows for improvements to be made independently
and at their own pace, our current testing shows (and
Microsoft confirms) that Cortana is failing to meet the
basic requirements of a digital assistant.Fresh new icons signal the future
I’ve always been of two minds on cosmetic updates: I
tend to strongly favour function over form, but I despise
Brutalist architecture. Aesthetics does play a role.
Microsoft’s begun rolling out a stable of updated
icons to Windows, and it looks like those will be
appearing in the 2004/20H1 build, too. They provide
a new, cohesive design language to Windows 10 and
it looks like they’ll be a unifying element for Windows
10X and possibly subsequent versions of Windows 10.
Any new icon updates have the advantage of
looking fresh, and they’re consistent with Microsoft’s
Fluent Design principles. (For more, see Microsoft’s12 TECH ADVISOR • JUNE 2020WINDOWS 10
I ask Google the height of the Eiffel Tower, then follow
up by asking ‘where is it’, Google understands that I
mean the same tower. Cortana doesn’t.
On the other hand, if I ask Cortana to send
an emailed note to my wife, Cortana will ask for
confirmation before it’s sent. Replying ‘no’ prompted
it to ask me what I wanted to change: the recipient,
the message or something else. That’s the sort of
conversational interaction Microsoft seems to be
shooting for, but examples of this seem to be few and
far between. Cortana’s ability to understand is also
improving, as it parsed “What did the Dow Jones do
today?” correctly.
While I know separating Cortana into its own app
allows for improvements to be made independently
and at their own pace, our current testing shows (and
Microsoft confirms) that Cortana is failing to meet the
basic requirements of a digital assistant.Fresh new icons signal the future
I’ve always been of two minds on cosmetic updates: I
tend to strongly favour function over form, but I despise
Brutalist architecture. Aesthetics does play a role.
Microsoft’s begun rolling out a stable of updated
icons to Windows, and it looks like those will be
appearing in the 2004/20H1 build, too. They provide
a new, cohesive design language to Windows 10 and
it lookslikethey’llbea unifyingelementforWindows
10Xand possibly subsequent versions of Windows 10.
Any new icon updates have the advantage of
looking fresh, and they’re consistent with Microsoft’s
Fluent Design principles. (For more, see Microsoft’s