Battle Of The Virtual Assistants — Microsoft vs Apple vs Google

As predicted by Star Trek, it looks like we‘ll be talking to our computers soon. Or, more specifically, an AI personal assistant. Roland Waddilove compares the current crop

The digital personal assistant would appear to be one of the next big battlegrounds in tech, and many companies are pouring a lot of money, time, and talent into developing them. These are apps and services that are intelligent, interactive, can perform tasks that make life easier, and keep you updated with the latest information on things that interest you. The names are now pretty well-known: Microsoft has Cortana, a key component of the Windows 10 operating system; Google has Now on Android and iOS, and also Assistant in the latest Pixel phone; Apple has Siri, which is on iOS and also in macOS Sierra, the latest Mac operating system. Other companies are getting into digital personal assistants, too, such as Amazon with Alexa.

Bagging A Bargain

It’s time to whip out the credit card: Black Friday and Cyber Monday are back

If you have snapped up this copy of Micro Mart on the day it made it to the shops – that is, 24th November 2016 – then let us be the first to wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. It may seem odd for us to do that given we don’t actually celebrate this particular American festival here in the UK. But it’s getting to the point where it’s just about the only US event that we don’t mark. Not yet, in any case.