Microsoft is in London this week sponsoring the third-annual Star Trek conference. Instead of just splashing its corporate logo all over the conference, Microsoft has gone a step further by changing its Cortana digital assistant to speak Klingon, the language spoken by Klingons in Star Trek. It’s activated simply by asking cortana to "speak Klingon," and the software maker has added a number of other Star Trek themed responses. Beam me up, set phasers to stun, and do you know commander data all work, along with simply saying "engage" to trigger Star Trek responses.
Microsoft’s chief envisioning officer, Dave Coplin revealed today that Cortana’s Star Trek responses were mainly made possible because engineers working on Cortana are fans of Star Trek. It’s the latest in a series of improvements to Cortana that add functionality and features instead of just gimmicky responses. Cortana will now tell you when your favorite musician is playing nearby, and Microsoft is working to bring delivery tracking to Cortana in future. Windows 10 will also include deep Cortana integration when it ships next year.