Early look: Here's how the setup experience for Microsoft's Amazon Echo competitors will work on Windows 10
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Microsoft is expected to introduce new Cortana powered speakers in partnership with some of its partners sometime soon. The company is already working with premium speaker maker Hamon Kardon on a Cortana-powered speaker to take on the Amazon Echo and Google Home. Today, we were able to get our hands on an early version of the setup experience (thanks to Gustave M.) that will work with Cortana-powered devices such as the upcoming Harman Kardon speaker.
Redmond is actually working on a new app called “Cortana Device Setup” that will power the setup experience for Cortana devices. The app will be available for Windows 10 PCs, as well as Windows 10 Mobile devices. Microsoft actually added a new “Devices” section to Cortana with the first Windows 10 Redstone 3 Insider Preview release yesterday, where users would be able to control their Cortana devices and initially set them up:
The setup experience within Cortana has a “Buy now” button which simply links to the Microsoft Store for now, but it will likely link to a dedicated section for Cortana powered devices when the Harman Kardon speaker and other devices are launched. When you click on the “Let’s get started” button, the new Cortana Device Setup will open up and you will be able to set it up from there. We weren’t able to actually get the full experience just yet, as we obviously don’t have any device that is powered by Cortana just yet. But nevertheless, here are some screenshots of the setup experience:
The app even includes some voice commands you can use with the Cortana devices, including things like calling someone on Skype, checking the weather, etc.
The new Cortana Devices Setup is indeed pretty exciting, but we are probably a few months away until the new Cortana devices are actually available for purchase. We will let you know when the new Cortana devices are available — in the meantime, let us know what you think of the setup experience for the devices in the comment section below.
