Siri may have been the original digital assistant, but other than a rumored feature that would let it transcribe voicemails in iOS9, it has been a while since it has gotten a significant upgrade to its smarts.
There are always rumors Siri is coming to Mac OS X, but nothing has materialized thus far.Īnd looking forward, both Google and Microsoft are better at the crucial machine-learning technologies needed to make smart digital assistants even smarter. Meanwhile, Siri and my MacBook don't really get along at all. It is getting better all the time, thanks to complicated math behind the scenes that is supposed to teach Cortana my preferences. This means that until Cortana comes to iOS and Android, it just doesn't have that much of a chance to learn from me.Īll the same, though, I find myself pulling up the Cortana interface pretty regularly to check stuff including my next meeting or the weather, or just to find a file on my computer.īasically, I have been using Cortana as an amped-up version of Apple OS X's Spotlight search, and I know it can do more. I mostly use my laptop at work - you have to unplug sometimes - which means I don't really want to talk to Cortana, out loud, within earshot of my coworkers. Generally speaking, I feel as if I've only just scratched the surface with Cortana, Microsoft's personal-assistant app that is basically the company's answer to Apple's Siri and Google Now. On a Mac mini with two SSD drives, David Gewirtz compares upgrades: an in-place version of OS X on one drive, and an in-place Boot Camp.
Meanwhile, if I spend too much time poking at the screen of my MacBook, all I get is the exciting opportunity to make an appointment at the Apple Store's Genius Bar.Ĭortana shows off her love of movie trivia. It's no wonder Microsoft is pushing the first-party Surface Pro 3 laptop/tablet hybrid into the market so hard. Plus, it makes me feel like a nuclear submarine commander when I write a really good Facebook comment and punch "Post" on the screen.Įither way, I'm surprised that adding a touchscreen has made my working life just a little more pleasant.
On the Linux side, Fedora 23 was used with all stable release updates as of this weekend. The compiler on OS X El Capitan was the latest X Code release providing LLVM Clang. Maybe it's just preconditioning from all my time on the smartphone, but maybe not.Īnd I have started using the included stylus ( sorry, Steve Jobs) to take story notes with Microsoft OneNote in my own handwriting. OS X 10.11.1 El Capitan was tested with all available updates as of this weekend. Grabbing windows and dragging them and switching tabs in the Edge browser work beautifully.
It is great to see what Microsoft has done so far, and how they are out-pacing Apple in a number of ways with the new operating system.Not every Windows 10 computer will have a touch screen like the Yoga 12's.īut on this Lenovo, Windows 10 and those scant few apps designed to take full advantage of it are a pleasure to use with my fingers. In macOS Sierra, however, Apple allows users to. We had to use apps like Bartender to achieve that. Before macOS Sierra, users could move the default menu bar icons around on the menu bar, but the third-party icons couldn’t be moved. He scored them in nine categories and declared. These are just small portions of the comparison, but you should take some time and check the full thing out. Notification Center: OS X El Capitan (left) vs macOS Sierra (right) 8. He pitted Windows 10 against the Mac's OS X El Capitan, using the near-final version of Windows 10 and the public beta of El Capitan for a few weeks. You can then save the marked-up page, add it to OneNote or share it with others
These include a digital pen and highlighter for marking up pages (best with a pen or touch screen, but it works fine with a touchpad), as well as a way to insert typed notes on the page. With the new Edge browser in Windows 10, Microsoft cleared away the clutter while adding clever new tools.Where the heck is Siri for the desktop, Apple? OS X El Capitan: Why Microsoft Wins By Mark Spoonauer published 29 July 15 Microsoft says Windows 10 is fresh yet familiar, which is a nice way of saying it's a do-over for people. Cortana gets smarter the more you use it, but you can personalize it right off the bat via the Notebook settings. Like Google Now, Cortana provides cards that give you a quick glance at the weather, news, sports scores, restaurant recommendations and more. Cortana, a voice-enabled personal assistant that does more than just answer questions, is the star of the show for Windows 10.
The good news for Mac owners is that El Capitan brings a new Split View feature that lets you view two apps at once side by side.