Gamers who have played Halo on the Xbox console will probably fondly remember the Cortana character. Given the character’s role in the Halo franchise, we guess it wasn’t a complete surprise to think that Microsoft would give their upcoming voice assistant feature the Cortana codename. However we had initially expected it to be just a codename, as suggested back in 2013 when news about the feature broke. However thanks to the Windows Phone 8.1 SDK and the MUI files that were extracted from the emulator, it seems that Microsoft could indeed be sticking with the Cortana name for its voice assistant feature, a move which will no doubt put a smile on Halo gamers’ faces.
According to text extracted from the MUI files, it reads, “Your speech language settings doesn’t match your display language settings. Speech language must match display language for Cortana to function.” Microsoft’s apparent decision to name the feature Cortana is probably helped by the petition that users launched when they asked Microsoft to name the feature Cortana for real. In fact to top things off and to add a bit of authenticity, rumors are suggesting that the original voice actress for Cortana, Jen Taylor, will be lending her voice for the feature as well. Cortana’s release is unknown but it is expected to be part of the Windows Phone 8.1 update, and if the rumors are to be believed, a July-August release date will be likely.
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