14 ms·

Microsoft’s Cortana Gets Baked into Cyanogen’s Forked Version of Android

109 points by digital_ins 11y ago

digital_ins 11y ago
I've used Cortana and apart from a little minor anthromorphic work to give her a 'personality' (like Siri), I wouldn't say that it's too far ahead of Google Now in terms of features and functionality. Baking Cortana into Cyanogen OS seems a little like overkill in terms of deviating from Google's version of Android
- eitally 11y ago
  I agree completely. I don't see any justification for doing this, and it just further confuses and adds complexity to the user experience. MS/Cortana will never be able to offer as deep integrations across Android as Google does with Now, and that gap's only going to continue to grow as more 3rd party devs create Now cards and Now intents within their apps. I don't see that happening at all with Cortana.
  - Maarten88 11y ago
    I'm using an Android Phone with mostly Microsoft apps: Outlook, OneDrive, Skype, OneNote, Account App, Health, Excel, Word. For me Cortana integrates better compared to Google Now, as it can access my information.
  - s73v3r 11y ago
    Why not? Remember, this is Cyannogen's distribution, so they could change it up so that the things that would be answered by Now are answered by Cortana. Now cards might not carry over, but that shouldn't be a big deal. And Cyannogen should be able to make Cortana respond to the Now intents.
    - ocdtrekkie 11y ago
      Indeed, Cortana's integration with Windows Phones is quite similar to Google Now's with Android. At least as far as the APIs which are open components of Android, rather than proprietary Play services, Cortana should be able to pick up the same intents and all.
- tracker1 11y ago
  I think there are a few things at play here. First, is people want this functionality. Second, they're likely getting some funding from MS for doing this (Cyanogen OS, similarly is about making a living, or profit for that matter). Third, Google's integration from Apps, to the Play Store comes with a lot of strings attached, and it makes sense for Cyanogen to avoid as much of that as possible. Personally, I want as close to a pure android experience as possible, and may move from the OnePlus One to whatever the next smart phones from Google/Nexus at the end of the year are (or current if my phone drops). The only thing I really like about my OPO over others, currently is my back cover is the bamboo option, and I really appreciate natural/wood when it's available for a product.
RyanZAG 11y ago
Hang on, wasn't the whole point of Cyanogen about removing bloatware in standard Android distributions and adding more privacy measures? How can adding a large app that sends data to Microsoft help with bloatware or security..? I've used Cyanogen a little before on certain Android devices that had tons of built in bloat and themes to slim it down a bit. I definitely wouldn't want to swap one type of bloat for another. Time to use a different slim rom from XDA I guess?
- gvurrdon 11y ago
  IIRC this only affects Cyanogen OS and not CyanogenMod. http://www.androidcentral.com/difference-between-cyanogen-os-and-cyanogenmod http://www.androidcentral.com/difference-between-cyanogen-os... So, you should be able to avoid Cortana by using CyanogenMod instead.
- x1798DE 11y ago
  I'm not 100% sure, but I think cyanogen is different from cyanogenmod. One is the rooted power user rom, the other is some more standard style rom without root.
- frik 11y ago
  Microsoft literally bought the company behind Cyanogen mod. Why would Microsoft do that? Now we know it. Shady tactics. Don't use Cyanogen OS. "CyanogenMod Dumped by Major Partner Shortly After Funding From Microsoft Revealed": http://techrights.org/2015/02/02/ms-cm-cyanogenmod/ http://techrights.org/2015/02/02/ms-cm-cyanogenmod/ -> Summary: Now that Cyanogen acts more like a Microsoft attack dog than a real independent entity there is backlash from many and OnePlus dumps CyanogenMod* "Cyanogen Announces Strategic Partnership with Microsoft": https://cyngn.com/press/cyanogen-announces-strategic-partnership-with-microsoft https://cyngn.com/press/cyanogen-announces-strategic-partner..., "5 things Microsoft's Android-powered CyanogenMod Lumia needs for success": http://betanews.com/2015/01/29/5-things-microsofts-android-powered-cyanogenmod-lumia-needs-for-success/ http://betanews.com/2015/01/29/5-things-microsofts-android-p... "Cyanogen announces partnership with Microsoft that will bundle their apps on Cyanogen OS": http://phandroid.com/2015/04/16/cyanogen-microsoft-partnership/ http://phandroid.com/2015/04/16/cyanogen-microsoft-partnersh...
jeremy7600 11y ago
Uhm, why does techcrunch not mention that Cortana's deep integration in Android sounds a lot like Google Now's deep integration into Android? And I agree with others, how can adding a large app that sends data to MS help with bloat or security?
- jeremy7600 11y ago
  I had a good laugh reading the article about how Cyanogen is trying to steal Android from Google, as well. Too funny!
  - JustSomeNobody 11y ago
    How can anyone steal an open source OS?
    - dyladan 11y ago
      It's not really "stealing" but you could theoretically fork it and gain enough market share on your fork that your version becomes what people think of when you say Android.
      - JustSomeNobody 11y ago
        But, Google open sourced it so they're cool with that. I still don't see the issue here.
        wolfgke 11y ago
        Allowing forking (by the license) does not mean that Google likes forking.
        JustSomeNobody 11y ago
        That is how these things work. If an org isn't willing to allow forking then they forking shouldn't have open sourced it. The FACT that Google open sourced it tells me THEY DON'T MIND.
dreen 11y ago
What is currently an alternative to Cyanogen, that would be relatively easy to install and provide a fairly minimal but comfortable environment?
- herbst 11y ago
  AOKP, if that is what you want AOKP was always the actually right choice.
  - eckza 11y ago
    And what phone can I put it on without irreversibly voiding my warranty? I tried Android a few years ago on an LG G2. Rooting to install CyanogenMod was an EXTREMELY STRESSFUL EXPERIENCE; and flashing back to stock to return the fucking thing every time it broke (every other month) was even more stressful. I'm on an iPhone now because it works well and doesn't shit out every 5 minutes like my G2 did, but I'm becoming increasingly aware of the myriad ways that my personal privacy is being violated by the apps and services that I use, and I'm considering jumping ship again. But I can't handle the constant stress of hardware breaking and having to frantically scramble around, downloading random zips off of weird mirrors from the XDA forums and wiping my phone back to stock so I can return it and go through the same thing again, a week later.
    - herbst 11y ago
      I see your issue, its the choice of phone actually. Also if a lot of people don't want to hear that, but if you plan to actually use your phone there are not that many android devices to actually choose from. I have a G3 currently and it also sucks, before that i always had Nexus phones and with them everything worked perfectly without any issues all the time. Non locked, easy to root, many tutorials and many helping tools. You need to make sure the manifacturer has a open bootloader. I think only Sony does this most of the time, LG promised to but failed it with the G3, not sure about the G4. No idea about the warranty tho, in my country i can do whatever i want (terms of software) with the hardware i bought, they cant take my warranty for software changes. But again nexus does not care for example. Also don't use any crazy roms. Use common ones like Cyanogen or AOKP, no forks from one man teams or shit like that. AOKP is more stable and smooth than Vanilla Android in my experience.
chinathrow 11y ago
What is happening on your smartphone screen is the next battleground for even more data points. Those who will be able to get access to, are only a few (Apple, Google, MS) and mostly only one of them at once. - Google Now can screen scrap your current screen and use it how they wish as processing is done on the server side. - Siri is well embedded within the iOS ecosystem since a couple of years - Since MS' investment in Cyanogen, the try to push Cortana into more devices. Same as with Windows 10. I really don't like it. As long as we can still turn such features off, I'm fine.
- zanny 11y ago
  The irony and joke is that this is just another wave of standardsless spyware. For example, there is no way to do "voice commands" on desktop Linux because all these systems are proprietary and rely on huge processing networks owned by big tech to implement, and they use them as "features" to sell their particular flavor of vendor lock-in. Mycroft is literally the only attempt to remedy this but of course you face brick walls to trying to get any interoperatbility between these cloud networks.
xlayn 11y ago
Cyanogen user on n4 for a long time because I don't want g' bits and bytes on my cellphone I find this unsettling. I see the following points on it (I would refrain from calling them plus or cons). -The reason I did the change is avoid G using MY device as their personal Wifi scanning station, the switch meant battery 2-3x more, I hope Microsoft doesn't mess with Android that way. -If they roll it for all devices I hope they keep a version without it, or an extra package to install like g apps. -Nice to see Microsoft being so flexible and going on so many fronts, the more they diversify the better, if this makes Android better; Android users win. -Could this be the start of Microsoft Android?. -Does "deep integration" offer any kind of advantage?.
- Namidairo 11y ago
  Last time I checked you could turn off the wifi scanning, easily. As for the "deep integration", I believe that just means they configured the screen-off hotword (which uses the Qualcomm hexagon adsp).
- s73v3r 11y ago
  This is only for the commercial offering of Cyannogen. The random roms out there for different phones that you flash yourself are not part of this.
devit 11y ago
This is for Cyanogen OS, not CyanogenMod. CyanogenMod is the "canonical" generic Android distribution, while Cyanogen OS is a derivative created for monetization purposes and installed by default on some devices.
_asdf_asdf 11y ago
And so... Now it becomes clear... Now we know who was truly behind the mammoth effort to produce Cyanogen all along.
symlinkk 11y ago
It's hilarious how many people are confused about the proprietary Cyanogen OS vs. the open source Cyanogenmod. Really makes you wonder what they were thinking when they named it the same thing.
runjake 11y ago
To clarify a lot of the misinformation in the comments: * To my knowledge, Microsoft doesn't own Cyanogen. * The genesis of this is old (public) news: https://cyngn.com/press/cyanogen-announces-strategic-partnership-with-microsoft https://cyngn.com/press/cyanogen-announces-strategic-partner... * Cyanogen OS != Cyanogenmod. Cyanogen OS is a commercial OS. Cyanogenmod is an open source, community-driven OS.
- throwaway7767 11y ago
  Thank you for that clarification. The article didn't explain the difference between CyanogenOS and CyanogenMod, after reading it I thought they were talking about the latter.
roflchoppa 11y ago
It's cool to see that Cortana (feels weird to say that because avid Halo player) would have the capability to access and work with 3rd party applications. It's something that I really wish iOS had, Oh well they need something as part of their n-Amount of "new" features for iOS X.
azevedomarti 11y ago
I think this kind of intelligent personal assistant is quite useless. Especially for people who are non-native English speaker. The voice recognition is bad and always requires internet connection. This kind of software consumes computing & storing resources. I don't think it is a good idea for any company to integrate it in the OS.

109 points by digital_ins 11y ago

I've used Cortana and apart from a little minor anthromorphic work to give her a 'personality' (like Siri), I wouldn't say that it's too far ahead of Google Now in terms of features and functionality. Baking Cortana into Cyanogen OS seems a little like overkill in terms of deviating from Google's version of Android

eitally 11y ago
I agree completely. I don't see any justification for doing this, and it just further confuses and adds complexity to the user experience. MS/Cortana will never be able to offer as deep integrations across Android as Google does with Now, and that gap's only going to continue to grow as more 3rd party devs create Now cards and Now intents within their apps. I don't see that happening at all with Cortana.
- Maarten88 11y ago
  I'm using an Android Phone with mostly Microsoft apps: Outlook, OneDrive, Skype, OneNote, Account App, Health, Excel, Word. For me Cortana integrates better compared to Google Now, as it can access my information.
- s73v3r 11y ago
  Why not? Remember, this is Cyannogen's distribution, so they could change it up so that the things that would be answered by Now are answered by Cortana. Now cards might not carry over, but that shouldn't be a big deal. And Cyannogen should be able to make Cortana respond to the Now intents.
  - ocdtrekkie 11y ago
    Indeed, Cortana's integration with Windows Phones is quite similar to Google Now's with Android. At least as far as the APIs which are open components of Android, rather than proprietary Play services, Cortana should be able to pick up the same intents and all.
tracker1 11y ago
I think there are a few things at play here. First, is people want this functionality. Second, they're likely getting some funding from MS for doing this (Cyanogen OS, similarly is about making a living, or profit for that matter). Third, Google's integration from Apps, to the Play Store comes with a lot of strings attached, and it makes sense for Cyanogen to avoid as much of that as possible. Personally, I want as close to a pure android experience as possible, and may move from the OnePlus One to whatever the next smart phones from Google/Nexus at the end of the year are (or current if my phone drops). The only thing I really like about my OPO over others, currently is my back cover is the bamboo option, and I really appreciate natural/wood when it's available for a product.

RyanZAG 11y ago

Hang on, wasn't the whole point of Cyanogen about removing bloatware in standard Android distributions and adding more privacy measures? How can adding a large app that sends data to Microsoft help with bloatware or security..? I've used Cyanogen a little before on certain Android devices that had tons of built in bloat and themes to slim it down a bit. I definitely wouldn't want to swap one type of bloat for another. Time to use a different slim rom from XDA I guess?

gvurrdon 11y ago
IIRC this only affects Cyanogen OS and not CyanogenMod. http://www.androidcentral.com/difference-between-cyanogen-os-and-cyanogenmod http://www.androidcentral.com/difference-between-cyanogen-os... So, you should be able to avoid Cortana by using CyanogenMod instead.
x1798DE 11y ago
I'm not 100% sure, but I think cyanogen is different from cyanogenmod. One is the rooted power user rom, the other is some more standard style rom without root.
frik 11y ago
Microsoft literally bought the company behind Cyanogen mod. Why would Microsoft do that? Now we know it. Shady tactics. Don't use Cyanogen OS. "CyanogenMod Dumped by Major Partner Shortly After Funding From Microsoft Revealed": http://techrights.org/2015/02/02/ms-cm-cyanogenmod/ http://techrights.org/2015/02/02/ms-cm-cyanogenmod/ -> Summary: Now that Cyanogen acts more like a Microsoft attack dog than a real independent entity there is backlash from many and OnePlus dumps CyanogenMod* "Cyanogen Announces Strategic Partnership with Microsoft": https://cyngn.com/press/cyanogen-announces-strategic-partnership-with-microsoft https://cyngn.com/press/cyanogen-announces-strategic-partner..., "5 things Microsoft's Android-powered CyanogenMod Lumia needs for success": http://betanews.com/2015/01/29/5-things-microsofts-android-powered-cyanogenmod-lumia-needs-for-success/ http://betanews.com/2015/01/29/5-things-microsofts-android-p... "Cyanogen announces partnership with Microsoft that will bundle their apps on Cyanogen OS": http://phandroid.com/2015/04/16/cyanogen-microsoft-partnership/ http://phandroid.com/2015/04/16/cyanogen-microsoft-partnersh...

jeremy7600 11y ago

Uhm, why does techcrunch not mention that Cortana's deep integration in Android sounds a lot like Google Now's deep integration into Android? And I agree with others, how can adding a large app that sends data to MS help with bloat or security?

jeremy7600 11y ago
I had a good laugh reading the article about how Cyanogen is trying to steal Android from Google, as well. Too funny!
- JustSomeNobody 11y ago
  How can anyone steal an open source OS?
  - dyladan 11y ago
    It's not really "stealing" but you could theoretically fork it and gain enough market share on your fork that your version becomes what people think of when you say Android.
    - JustSomeNobody 11y ago
      But, Google open sourced it so they're cool with that. I still don't see the issue here.
      - wolfgke 11y ago
        Allowing forking (by the license) does not mean that Google likes forking.
        JustSomeNobody 11y ago
        That is how these things work. If an org isn't willing to allow forking then they forking shouldn't have open sourced it. The FACT that Google open sourced it tells me THEY DON'T MIND.

dreen 11y ago

What is currently an alternative to Cyanogen, that would be relatively easy to install and provide a fairly minimal but comfortable environment?

herbst 11y ago
AOKP, if that is what you want AOKP was always the actually right choice.
- eckza 11y ago
  And what phone can I put it on without irreversibly voiding my warranty? I tried Android a few years ago on an LG G2. Rooting to install CyanogenMod was an EXTREMELY STRESSFUL EXPERIENCE; and flashing back to stock to return the fucking thing every time it broke (every other month) was even more stressful. I'm on an iPhone now because it works well and doesn't shit out every 5 minutes like my G2 did, but I'm becoming increasingly aware of the myriad ways that my personal privacy is being violated by the apps and services that I use, and I'm considering jumping ship again. But I can't handle the constant stress of hardware breaking and having to frantically scramble around, downloading random zips off of weird mirrors from the XDA forums and wiping my phone back to stock so I can return it and go through the same thing again, a week later.
  - herbst 11y ago
    I see your issue, its the choice of phone actually. Also if a lot of people don't want to hear that, but if you plan to actually use your phone there are not that many android devices to actually choose from. I have a G3 currently and it also sucks, before that i always had Nexus phones and with them everything worked perfectly without any issues all the time. Non locked, easy to root, many tutorials and many helping tools. You need to make sure the manifacturer has a open bootloader. I think only Sony does this most of the time, LG promised to but failed it with the G3, not sure about the G4. No idea about the warranty tho, in my country i can do whatever i want (terms of software) with the hardware i bought, they cant take my warranty for software changes. But again nexus does not care for example. Also don't use any crazy roms. Use common ones like Cyanogen or AOKP, no forks from one man teams or shit like that. AOKP is more stable and smooth than Vanilla Android in my experience.

chinathrow 11y ago

What is happening on your smartphone screen is the next battleground for even more data points. Those who will be able to get access to, are only a few (Apple, Google, MS) and mostly only one of them at once. - Google Now can screen scrap your current screen and use it how they wish as processing is done on the server side. - Siri is well embedded within the iOS ecosystem since a couple of years - Since MS' investment in Cyanogen, the try to push Cortana into more devices. Same as with Windows 10. I really don't like it. As long as we can still turn such features off, I'm fine.

zanny 11y ago
The irony and joke is that this is just another wave of standardsless spyware. For example, there is no way to do "voice commands" on desktop Linux because all these systems are proprietary and rely on huge processing networks owned by big tech to implement, and they use them as "features" to sell their particular flavor of vendor lock-in. Mycroft is literally the only attempt to remedy this but of course you face brick walls to trying to get any interoperatbility between these cloud networks.

xlayn 11y ago

Cyanogen user on n4 for a long time because I don't want g' bits and bytes on my cellphone I find this unsettling. I see the following points on it (I would refrain from calling them plus or cons). -The reason I did the change is avoid G using MY device as their personal Wifi scanning station, the switch meant battery 2-3x more, I hope Microsoft doesn't mess with Android that way. -If they roll it for all devices I hope they keep a version without it, or an extra package to install like g apps. -Nice to see Microsoft being so flexible and going on so many fronts, the more they diversify the better, if this makes Android better; Android users win. -Could this be the start of Microsoft Android?. -Does "deep integration" offer any kind of advantage?.

Namidairo 11y ago
Last time I checked you could turn off the wifi scanning, easily. As for the "deep integration", I believe that just means they configured the screen-off hotword (which uses the Qualcomm hexagon adsp).
s73v3r 11y ago
This is only for the commercial offering of Cyannogen. The random roms out there for different phones that you flash yourself are not part of this.

devit 11y ago

This is for Cyanogen OS, not CyanogenMod. CyanogenMod is the "canonical" generic Android distribution, while Cyanogen OS is a derivative created for monetization purposes and installed by default on some devices.

_asdf_asdf 11y ago

And so... Now it becomes clear... Now we know who was truly behind the mammoth effort to produce Cyanogen all along.

symlinkk 11y ago

It's hilarious how many people are confused about the proprietary Cyanogen OS vs. the open source Cyanogenmod. Really makes you wonder what they were thinking when they named it the same thing.

runjake 11y ago

To clarify a lot of the misinformation in the comments: * To my knowledge, Microsoft doesn't own Cyanogen. * The genesis of this is old (public) news: https://cyngn.com/press/cyanogen-announces-strategic-partnership-with-microsoft https://cyngn.com/press/cyanogen-announces-strategic-partner... * Cyanogen OS != Cyanogenmod. Cyanogen OS is a commercial OS. Cyanogenmod is an open source, community-driven OS.

throwaway7767 11y ago
Thank you for that clarification. The article didn't explain the difference between CyanogenOS and CyanogenMod, after reading it I thought they were talking about the latter.

roflchoppa 11y ago

It's cool to see that Cortana (feels weird to say that because avid Halo player) would have the capability to access and work with 3rd party applications. It's something that I really wish iOS had, Oh well they need something as part of their n-Amount of "new" features for iOS X.

azevedomarti 11y ago

I think this kind of intelligent personal assistant is quite useless. Especially for people who are non-native English speaker. The voice recognition is bad and always requires internet connection. This kind of software consumes computing & storing resources. I don't think it is a good idea for any company to integrate it in the OS.