Microsoft's Siri contender Cortana shows its smarts in extensive leak

Microsoft's Siri-alike voice controlled personal assistant will take the form of a blue circle according to the latest leaks.

The Verge got its hands on some shots of Cortana in action on a handset, revealing that you'll be able to set a nickname for Cortana to call you - so if you prefer to be known as Little Slice instead of just regular old Kate then that can be accommodated.

On to more useful features, and Cortana will save information in Notebook that it can easily draw on to provide notifications - similar to Google Now, it'll also monitor things that are mentioned in emails and data you've told it to track, such as flight information.

Badabing

It'll nab its information from Microsoft-friendy services like Bing as well as Foursquare and others.

The name Cortana, which is taken from Halo, may or may not change before the feature debuts, probably at Build in April.

Like Siri, Microsoft has imbued Cortana with some "quirky" (read: annoying) turns of phrase like "I'm absorbing the entire internet" and is no doubt on the look out for someone "quirky" (read: annoying) to advertise it too.

• Here's everything you need to know about Cortana