Found that part interesting, "i've no time for something silly like cortana." I used to think the same thing about all of them, Cortana, Siri, and Google Now. After using them for awhile, however, I think it's the future of computing. There's so much machine intelligence being developed that feed those systems that it'll not be too long before they start becoming _really_ useful. Even now, I'm finding uses for them that I never expected, even simple stuff like asking Siri when a restaurant is open and from that single question getting tons of useful information.
I think Cortana is the dark horse in Windows 10. By the time it rolls out, that's going to be a huge advantage that nobody else has. Apple will regret failing to roll Siri into OS X (and are probably working feverishly to do so know) because Cortana is going to offer some real advantages in how it access information throughout the OS. In my opinion, Microsoft should be doing as much as possible to bake Cortana everywhere into the OS (and Office). It'll pay real dividends eventually.
I don't deny it will be useful to most people, but just not me. I've had google now for yonks, used it as much as i could, never saw a reason to continue using it. It just isn't that much effort for me to do the search myself. Same goes for voice dictation. I know i could just input a to-do list into google keep using voice, and it is remarkably accurate, but i just never see the need, it only takes a minute to do it by hand. It is worth mentioning that i live the kind of lifestyle which really negates ay need for this kind of thing though. I am never in such a rush as to not be able to sit down and leisurely research what i want to research. In the same way that i will refuse to pay £1.50 to get on a bus when i can just do the 30 minute walk for free, i'm in no rush, why bother. But from the day siri came out on ios, and everyone was running around using it, i never saw one justified use for it for me. As much as i love technology, i hate the way it is used these days. It's turning us into lazy detatched expletives. Even my gf will sit next to me on the train and just pull out her phone, i might as well have just stayed at home! I like to make the time in my life to just enjoy things at a leisurely pace (so naturally i live in the hustle and bustle of London).
It's also worth baring in mind that while i have internet at my parents house, i do not have internet at my own flat in London, and a miniscule mobile data allowance (basically solely for viber and htc blinkfeed while in the lavatory) so these internet-based things are of literally no use to me.