iThinkDifferent » Bing

Bing App for iPad Updated with new Lasso Copy and Paste!

David — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 22:24:47 +0000

Bing App for iPad Updated with new Lasso Copy and Paste!

Microsoft has released it’s latest update of Bing this afternoon for the iPad. The major enhancement in the new version is the new way of copying and pasting inside the app using the Lasso feature.

With the new version of Bing, all you need to do now is just circle a word or phrase you want to search on instead of using the built in copy and paste in iOS. According to Microsoft, you can now “Search the way it was meant for the iPad.” This new feature takes over from the ways of iOS, where you need to hold your finger down, and drag the blue dots to copy and paste. Now, once you Lasso a word, it immediately does a search on the word or phrase you have selected.

With my experience with the app, I could “Lasso” a word, and it would search in less than 2 seconds, where the iOS way would take up to 5 seconds to copy and paste into the search box in Safari. It will also take some getting used to as well, as some of my searches were not on the correct word. I still think this will come in handy and may give Apple a run for it’s money with gesture based features in future apps.

Download your copy of the app here.

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iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

New Xbox LIVE Metro UI With Bing Integration Demo! [VIDEO]

ICEMAN — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 21:56:48 +0000

New Xbox LIVE Metro UI With Bing Integration Demo! [VIDEO]

Yet another overhaul to the Xbox LIVE UI is going to drop in the fall of 2011 and this time, its going to be based on the same Metro UI as seen in Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 and the upcoming Windows 8, consisting of live interactive tiles. The new UI will also include a live TV option along, an integrated Bing search and a fully Kinect controlled dashboard which would allow users to make a voice search, both systemwide and online.

What Microsoft’s calling “You say it, Xbox finds it” is basically the deeply integrated voice search functionality inside the new Xbox LIVE UI. Just recently, Microsoft’s Marketing Director Craig Davison demonstrated this feature in a YouTube video saying, “We’re bringing in the intelligence of Bing into the search process”. Bing on Xbox will initially be available only in English in the United States, Canada and UK. Lets take a look at the small demo below:

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[via WinRumors]

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

Microsoft Releases Bing App for iPad [Review]

Imran — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:18:25 +0000

Microsoft Releases Bing App for iPad [Review]

Microsoft has released a Bing app for iPad. This isn’t their first Bing app for iOS, as they had already previously released a Bing app for iPhone. If you’re a Bing user with an iPad, this is the perfect app for you and it actually shows Google how to make a good search app.

The Bing app lets users search for websites, images, browse news, search for movies, businesses and much more! The popular Bing home page backgrounds are featured in the app as well as quick shortcuts and overviews of information you care about such as weather, news, maps, movies, trends and finance.

Web search shows off top searches which mostly includes sports or celebrity searches. Search suggestions are also available once you start typing.

Microsoft has also taken brought Bing Maps to iPad through the app. It contains the really awesome bird’s eye view as well as aerial and traffic. Real time traffic data is also available for US.

Searching for images is extremely easy using the Bing app as it shows the filters right in the app as well as the search results. It doesn’t load a web page in the app which makes for an un-optimized experience. I’m looking at you, Google.

Apart from these features, voice activated search is also included so you can just speak to your iPad to find what you’re looking for.

Here’s the complete feature list:
• Swipe through our touch enabled movie listings, news articles, trending topics, local businesses and other rich, immersive search results.
• Stay current with the latest news, traffic, weather, stock quotes, movies and popular searches from the main screen.
• Bing Local and Map integration to help you find the places you are looking for from directions with real-time tracking to immersive road, traffic, aerial and “bird’s eye” views.
• Follow the latest news and trending topics with beautifully iPad optimized results with rich images and magazine inspired layouts.
• Tell Bing what you are searching for with voice activated search.
• Wonderful touch friendly, grid view of image searches, with source site details and full page preview.
• Easily navigate between Bing results and websites as Bing frames the site to make it easy to return the search or to launch a new one.

Probably the best thing about this app, after being disappointed by the Google app, is that Microsoft hasn’t tried bringing the complete Metro UI to this app but instead they’ve managed to make a really beautiful app that follows the platforms guidelines but still manages to be unique in terms of design. Navigation in the app has been inspired by the Twitter app for iPad and sections of the app open up in layers or panels which can be swiped forward or backward for navigation hence maintaining a sort of history of your searches. This is really useful when you are actually doing some research through the app.

Bravo Microsoft!

Bing app is only available for US App Store users at the moment.

Download Bing App for iPad

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

What Is IPv6 and Why Does It Matter?

Austin — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 06:25:17 +0000

What Is IPv6 and Why Does It Matter?

A major hype on the Internet lately is that we are running out of IP addresses. An IP address is used by every device that connects to the Internet, whether it be a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop, a desktop, you name it. An IP address is “a numerical label(basically a string of numbers) assigned to each device” that uses the internet. The current version of IP addresses, IPv4, had about 4.3 billion addresses possible. This sounds like a lot, but there are almost 7 billion people on the planet, plus there are many who use more than one Internet-enabled device.

IPv6, the new version of IP addresses that features letters in addition to numbers, will have approximately 340 undecillion[1] IP addresses at its disposal, and is expected to be the last major upgrade. On June 8, 2011, which has been labeled “IPv6 Day,” Bing and some other major sites will be transitioning to IPv6. How does this affect the typical user? Honestly, many won’t notice a difference. This upgrade has been in the works since 1999 and will go unnoticed by the average user over a period of years. However, this transition is an historic mark in the history of Internet growth.

For more information about IPv6 click here.

[1] via Winrumors:

Internet Protocol 6 supports 340282366920938463463374607431768211455 addresses (340 undecillion, 282 decillion, 366 nonillion, 920 octillion, 938 septillion, 463 sextillion, 463 quintillion, 374 quadrillion, 607 trillion, 431 billion, 768 million, 211 thousand and 455) addresses.

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

Microsoft’s New Commercials Promote Windows Phone 7 and Windows Live Services

Imran — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:22:39 +0000

Microsoft’s New Commercials Promote Windows Phone 7 and Windows Live Services

Microsoft advertisement has taken a U-turn ever since Windows 7 launched. There ads have meaning now and actually make sense to the average consumer. They show off why you should use the product and what its benefits are. The latest round of commercials from Microsoft does just that; show off the wonderful features of digitally connected devices and services in Microsoft’s ecosystem.

The first ad, spotted by LiveSide, titled ‘The making of a flash mob’, shows off Windows Live, Windows Phone 7, Internet Explorer 9, Kinect and Windows 7 on PC and tablets. It shows how friends, choreographer Bobby Bonsey and producer Egan Orion, design and launch a flash mob in Seattle. All the planning, communication and coordination is done via Microsoft’s product mentioned above.

The second ad, spotted by WMPoweruser, again tells a story of friends going on a trip and using Windows 8, Windows Live, Windows Phone 7, Kinect and Windows Media Center on a tablet to stay entertained through out. The part where the guy buys a song on Zune and just picks up his Windows Phone 7 and leaves with the song is really impressive. Only if Zune was available all over the world..

The story telling of these ads is really good. What do you think?

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iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

Download Windows Live Online Services sidebar gadget by Microsoft

Imran — Mon, 17 May 2010 14:53:05 +0000

Download Windows Live Online Services sidebar gadget by Microsoft

Microsoft doesn’t release official sidebar gadgets too often. They actually managed to remove a few handy sidebar gadgets that were shipped with Windows Vista, from Windows 7 such as Notes Gadget and Contacts Gadget. Recently, Microsoft released a new gadget for Windows Vista and 7 named Online Services gadget.

This gadget is very useful for those who use Windows Live services regularly. It shows a mini ‘What’s new’ news feed, which you also see on the Windows Live Home page, to keep you updated with the latest happening in your social circle along. News snippets are also shown in a side scrolling fashion and of course, Bing search is also included. All this is completed with quick links to various Windows Live services, which sadly open up in Internet Explorer by default (I couldn’t find any option to change this behavior).

The gadget works in a narrow mode (shown above) and a wide mode as shown below.

To setup the gadget, you only need to login once.

News can also be subscribed to. By default Top News are shown, but many other categories can be selected. All these news are streamed from MSN websites.

Overall, this is a very handy gadget to have if you’re a Windows Live user. Download it from here.

Also check out these Sidebar Gadgets:

Download the Bing Sidebar Gadget for Windows 7

New Windows Live sidebar gadget, and it’s not that good

Network Utilization Gadget for Windows Vista and 7

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

Download Bing Screensaver – “Bing Around the World”

Tauqeer — Sun, 16 May 2010 18:43:00 +0000

Download Bing Screensaver – “Bing Around the World”

You would have definitely loved Bing’s Best themepacks but those themes were just for Windows 7. Now you can have Bing’s Best too as your screen saver if you are using Windows Vista or Windows XP SP2.

The name of this screensaver is “Bing Around the World” and of course it has some great pictures in it from various beautiful parts of the world. If you had missed Bing’s Best themepacks because you were not using Windows 7 then you don’t want to miss this one. You can download this Bing Screensaver from here.

The System requirements for using this screensaver are:

- Windows 7; Vista or XP SP 2
- Internet Explorer 6 or later; Firefox 3.0 or later
- 512 megabyte (MB) RAM or higher
- 500 megahertz (MHZ) processor or higher
- 50 megabyte (MB) free hard drive space

[via Liveside.net]

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

Bing App Updated for Windows Phone

Tauqeer — Tue, 11 May 2010 20:05:49 +0000

Bing App Updated for Windows Phone

Microsoft has announced new features of their updated Bing app for Windows phones. It has two new cool features in it. First change is that it has new redesigned home page and with better navigation options. These new navigation options will give faster access to users for common searches like Movies and Traffic.

The second major feature is its turn-by-turn navigation feature for Windows Phone 6.x phones powered by Bing Maps. This feature looks great because with this getting directions with Bing maps will become very easy.

Microsoft has used its Tellme team’s expertise in voice application to provide amazing voice experience for turn-by-turn navigation.You can use this voice guided navigation if you have a Windows Phone on Sprint, T-Mobile, or AT&T.

This navigation feature would calculate your route and guide you to find your destination. Apart from showing the route you can also check the fastest or shortest routes. These navigation features are currently just for U.S. and will be accessible for some other countries soon.

Overall these changes are great and the interface is impressive. A must have app for all Windows Phone users.

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

Microsoft releases a new theme for Windows 7 called Bing’s Best 2

Tauqeer — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:08:49 +0000

Microsoft releases a new theme for Windows 7 called Bing’s Best 2

Bing’s Best for Windows 7 was released in October 2009 and it was admired by nearly everyone. It’s one of the best themes available for Windows 7. And now Bing’s Best 2 has been released with great wallpapers.

There are 21 wallpapers in this set of Bing’s Best 2. This set of great wallpapers takes you to some enormous landmarks on the face of the earth like Peaks of the Andes, the Vermillion Cliffs in Arizona, Spain’s Basque region and many more.

You can download the theme pack by visiting Bing’s Best 2.

[via LiveSide]

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

Bing will have some great changes in new spring refresh interface

Tauqeer — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:05:27 +0000

Bing will have some great changes in new spring refresh interface

In a few weeks, all U.S. users of Bing will see spring refresh changes in the UI. Initially the changes will roll out to just 5 percent of users and spread out to everyone in the US. These changes for the time being would be just for the U.S. as Bing maintains different versions of Bing for different parts of the world. The main noticeable change in the new refresh would be of its user interface. Check out the screenshots of the new Bing interface.

One of the biggest changes in the new release of Bing would be of a new “Bing box” which will have real-time results in a single pane. The two screenshots below compare the search results of “Lady Gaga”. In the upper screenshot we have the new upcoming Bing UI and we have the current version of the Bing in the screenshot below it. On searching “Lady Gaga” in the new Bing UI, it shows her photo, official site, upcoming live events and her latest tweet.

Another new feature would be that it will have Quick Tabs of popular query results just below the search box which will help users to find more news, images, videos and other related content types as shown in the screen shot below.

Another new addition that I saw in the screenshots of the spring refreshed interface is that on searching “Lady Gaga”, it shows Related Artists. So Bing automatically identifies that Lady Gaga is an artist. This feature would also help users find out things related to their search for example if I am searching for any book, then apart from getting the search results about my book, I would also be able to see books related to search query.

Microsoft would also add a new “Comparison Answers” capability to the Bing engine, with sports being the first category for which this functionality will be available. Microsoft officials also said auto suggest improvements would also be added for all Bing mobile users, providing faster results for queries for common topics.
[via blogs.zdnet]

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.