The iPhone gets a Bing in its step
Microsoft embraces the enemy of its enemy
Microsoft has launched an iPhone version of its mobile Bing application, bringing endless images and voice navigation to Apple's baby in its continuing fight with Google.
Mobile Bing is already available for Windows Phones and Blackberrys, as well as having a version well suited for mobile browsers, but the latest release brings Bing to the iPhone as a native application - for those who feel the need for an alternative search app.
Bing does have some nice features, like the infinite images search, which Google would do well to emulate. Microsoft also reckons its maps are easier to navigate and smoother to use. We've not had a chance to compare the two, but having another option always seems like a good idea.
Microsoft has some other iPhone applications out there, but news of the Bing launch has raised some comment given the animosity between Apple and Microsoft though that's largely in the past these days.
Windows (Mobile) Phones might have aspirations of competing with the iPhone but the reality is that both companies have more to fear from Google than each other. ®
COMMENTS
bing maps
Until reading this article i hadn't even realised bing included maps. I've just given it a go, and it is really good. Seems to calculate a route quicker than google maps, and the maps is really clear. A bit of a concern was the time it takes to render the image of the map though. Seemed to take forever. A concequence of a more detailed map perhaps?
Anyway... it would certainly be nice to have an additional option for mapping on a phone, if you were using it to figure out where you were, didnt have a map, and for some reason found that the mapping app you already had wasnt working for reasons other than a lack of connectivity.
If i decide to upgrate to an iPhone on March 18th I think i'd probably welcome it, if nothing else, its another shiney app icon to fill up a home-screen.
Maps are very old
The Bing map showing where I live is about 6 years old. The one on Google is 2 years old. The resolution of the google map is very much higher than Bing. I can see features in the garden on Google and just a blur where the house is on Bing. That says it all really, just as well it was a free app.
Says it all, really.
So you reckon that Microsoft went out one day in 2003 and mapped the whole world all at once?
Here's a clue - different map providers are constantly updating their maps in a piecemeal fashion. Someone else will find that the maps of their location are newer on Bing than on Google Maps.
I know that some people just hate Microsoft just because, but it's still scary to see people literally turn off their brains when it comes to "justifying" this hatred.
The Bing app is rubbish
I have it on my BlackBerry, it asks for permissions when you install it to access location services, which I granted, then it promptly ignores my location if I search for something like "pizza". This is a schoolboy level of fail.
Fear not
You'll have no trouble cluttering up the home screen of an iPhone with tonnes of random stuff. Hell, you'll probably be moving some of the included apps to another screen to make space, even- and that's before you start adding things.
