Windows Phone’s Cortana is slowly but surely growing in stature, as the users start to discover all of the little details that this digital personal assistant is capable of. In fact, some of the features have been a so-called staple on Siri and Google Now, but this does not mean that Cortana users will have to lag behind. No sir, with Cortana, you too, are able to get a grasp of the worldwide time, and this feature comes in especially handy if you are about to make a long distance call across different time zones, but have not quite mastered the nuances of addition and subtraction just yet.
As Microsoft continually improves their new Cortana voice-assistant, users are discovering more novice features every day. Recently, we covered all the new songs Cortana can either sing (or semi-sing), and today we are learning that she can now tell you the time or convert currencies. Just by asking Cortana “What time is it?” and the assistant fetches you the present time. Although she does not yet read it out loud, making this new find slightly less useful. Actually, asking Cortana the current time itself is redundant since it likely your phone already has an up-to-date clock (especially since with Update 1, the OS can synchronize over Wi-Fi for the current time). However, a more beneficial feature than asking Cortana the current time is asking Cortana the timeelsewhere in the world. For instance, if I am here in the US and want to know what time it is in India or Berlin, Cortana grabs that information. We can think of a situation or two where this is useful (and even faster than maybe launching a world clock app). Another handy feature you may not have known about is asking Cortana to convert your currency from one standard to another. For instance, if I ask Cortana “Convert $32 to UK pounds,” she responds with the correct 19.25 Pounds Sterling, along with and up to date currency graph.
