College campuses are coming back to life as students settle back in for the new school year. It’s a time full of choosing the right classes, studying for exams, meeting new people and navigating tricky roommate relationships, and it can be overwhelming.

Cortana*, Microsoft’s personal digital assistant, is designed to help you quickly manage your life and easily get things done on your Windows 10 PC, tablet and phone. Currently Cortana is also available as a beta app for Android in the US with plans to come to Xbox and iOS later this year.

Cortana is the perfect sidekick and even has a few tricks up her ‘sleeve’ to help make the back-to-college transition smoother.

• Never Miss a Class…or Party: When you ask Cortana to remember something like that early 8am class, or to bring cupcakes for your friend’s birthday, you’ll receive a reminder at just the right time or place, on any of your Cortana-enabled devices. Have a full class load all over campus on Wednesdays and need to keep track? Cortana will add them to your calendar and set reminders so you don’t have to. Cortana organizes useful information and reminders at key points in your week to help you plan your day and weekend so you never have to miss anything important.

• Break down Barriers: Give yourself a leg-up and use Cortana to help study for your Spanish 101 test or use it to finally get the courage to introduce yourself to the good looking French exchange student. Cortana, with the help of Microsoft Translator, places powerful translation technology at your fingertips by instantly translating words, phrases, and sentences from English or Chinese (depending on your edition) to almost 40 other languages.

• Research Made Easy: Hate having to open another tab on the web or worse, opening up your dictionary to understand a definition or reference? With Cortana in Microsoft’s new browser, Microsoft Edge, you can look up a word or phrase without leaving the page you are on. The next time you’re writing a paper or studying for that Econ 101 exam, simply highlight the word you need more details on and right click to select Ask Cortana. You can look up any word you would using a dictionary, and also places, phenomenon, people and much more. Cortana will even display audio and video files if available.

• Work Hard, Play Hard: In between the busy class schedules, long lectures and late night study sessions, you have to find time for fun too. Cortana helps keep track of events near you for the latest concert, theater showing, sporting event and more. Ask Cortana what’s going on near campus this weekend and you’ll get a list of upcoming events with time, location and even ticket pricing.

*Cortana available in select markets.

Source: Cortana's College Survival Tips | Blogging Windows

Posted By: Brink
10 Sep 2015