News: Windows 8.1

The new OS pulls on to Nokia’s Lumia 930, with Cortana firmly in the driver’s seat

Windows Phone 8.1’s voice assistant is still in beta, but we downloaded her for a quick interview anyway. But just how does Cortana stack up so far in the help stakes?

Well, she’s certainly very thorough. Cortana wants to know everything about you, from Facebook details to contacts, calendar activities and even your average nap time. Once you trust her with these details – don’t worry, Cortana may be powered by Bing, but she doesn’t share your details with its servers – you’ll realise just how disorganised you were before. Cortana is incredibly good at keeping you on track, reminding you of events and finding contextual info, from traffic jams that may make you late for a meeting to potential restaurants for dinner.

You will have to speak up, though: no mumbling on Cortana’s watch, she wants you to speak clearly and loudly as she learns your accent. Persevere, though, and there will rarely be any minsunderstandings.

More intuitive than Siri, more personal than Google Now, Cortana is WP8.1’s secret weapon. Consider her hired.