Upcoming Windows Phones 2014: A lot of people are waiting for the next Windows Phone version, 8.1 because of a number of rumored features and changes - one of which is its voice assistant named Cortana.

If you are a fan of gaming franchise Halo, you would surely recognize the name of the protagonist's 3D sidekick, minus the geeky appearance. 

In a recent report by GSM Arena, several screenies of the upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 update was spotted, mainly focusing on a few functions of Cortana. 

As you can see from the first image, the voice assistant would not appear as a 3D image of the Halo character, but instead a circular icon, or a halo if you may. 

The next image shows how Cortana does work after being asked something that requires internet connection. There are also a handful of settings for the voice assistant which includes turning on Cortana suggestions, and even changing the way the assistant calls you. 

The report says that Cortana would be able to store data in a Notebook system so you don't have to wait for an answer after you've asked a question you already asked her in the past. 

Like other similar software, the voice assistant would be able to use some apps such as Bing and Foursquare. Cortana is expected to make an appearance at Microsoft's Build conference next month.