Microsoft has released a new version of Bing [Free - iTunes link] for the iPhone and iPod touch. Florian Voss chronicled on their blog, includes:
Bookmarks and improved web browsing: you can now bookmark maps, directions, web sites, businesses, search terms, even the weather report, and get to the bookmarks right from the Bing home page.
Sharing: you can share interesting results with your friends using e-mail.
Copy and paste URLs: you told us and we listened! We now support copying and pasting URLs.
Parental control on search settings: we helped make search safer by letting you set a SafeSearch level and create a passcode so it can’t be changed. This is a benefit for parents who want to make sure the kids are only going to safe sites on their devices.
Search history and private search: you can now view and edit your search history. You can also search the web without saving your history on the device using private search.
Explicit location setting: let your iPhone find you or set a specific location so you can search near there (super useful when you’re going to travel to another city and want to find things around there).
Tighter integration of contacts in directions: Bing now autosuggests contacts from your address book when you enter start and end locations in directions.
Support for 1st generation iPod touch devices: we now support all versions of iPod touch.
While Google and Apple continue to squabble, and speculation remains that Bing might become the next default search engine for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, it’s nice to see Microsoft continue to invest in — and improve –the App Store app.
Note: Sadly, it appears to be US only still. For the biggest software company in the world, ignoring most of the world is… disappointing. Let’s share the Bing, shall we?
Video from Macworld 2010 of TiPb talking with Florian Voss about Bing for iPhone re-embedded after the break!
[Thanks to our good buddy Phil for the tip!]
Once again 9to5Mac reports on Steve Jobs answering Apple users’ questions, this time regarding iPad support for Google’s Picasa. The question:
…Are there any plans to support Picasa’s faces and albums in iTunes, so I can take full advantage of the [iPad] Photos application, since Photoshop Album is long discontinued. If not, please can you look into supporting the Picasa library format?
And the response from Steve Jobs:
No, but iPhoto on the Mac has much better Faces and Places features.
Sent from my iPhone
One of my favorite apps from my days using Palm OS was BugMe! Back in the day, it offered functionality that the Palm OS did not have in its Memo/Notes applications. You can pick up BugMe in the app store for a deal [$0.99 - iTunes Link]. Let’s take a look at what BugMe! For iPhone has to offer.
BugMe! is setup to have a cork board-like interface where you can stick your notes and rearrange them in any order you like. From the launch screen you can view and rearrange your notes as you want by tapping and holding. You can tap the “New Note” button to create a new note. Once created, you have several options available to you:
- Ink or eraser
- Change ink thickness
- Change note color and add an image to the note
- Share note (email, Twitter, Home Screen, Photo Album)
- Alarm
Another nice feature is the ability to set custom alarms with push notifications. This can come in really handy if you jot down a quick note and need to be reminded later.
I like this 1.x release of BugMe!. It is simple and fun, but lacks some features such as resizable notes (ya just can’t fit in a lot of the release given, even with a smaller ink size) and options to not size-to-fit images you place on a note. Other than that, if you are looking for a simple ink note app for your iPhone, BugMe! fits the bill! Lots of pictures after the break! Read the rest of this entry »
Sprint now joins Verizon in taking jabs at AT&T’s network and the iPhone, offering an “iPhone 4G” in their latest TV spot via their Overdrive WiMax hotspot (think 4G MiFi).
Sprint claims the best solution to AT&T’s supposedly slow 3G speed is not the next generation of iPhone (which won’t be called the iPhone 4G due to LTE networks not being deployed for a year or two yet), but rather your current iPhone connected via WiFi to their beefed up 4G WiMax network.
So, with Verizon targeting the iPad via MiFi and now Sprint going after the iPhone via WiMax (when they could be focusing on their own devices like the Droid and the Palm Pre) are they hoping to prop up the modem business by surrendering device mindshare to Apple?
Thing is, last we checked AT&T has the fastest 3G data speeds available on any US carrier and that’s good enough for us. But for those unfortunate souls out there with less than desirable AT&T service is this something that you would ever be interested in? And if you’re already tethering your iPhone to a Sprint Overdrive, what kind of speeds are you getting?
Watch the ad after the break!
[Via BGR]
In a team-up that never made it to the big screen but just might make a big difference in many lives, Apple CEO Steve Jobs and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger are pushing forward legislation aimed at improving organ donation in the state:
“Steve Jobs’ was very instrumental in getting us here today,” said the governor. “Steve Jobs told my wife about his transplant and she talked to me. Then we had great phone conversations back and forth. … He knew that others don’t have a plane waiting for them to get to a transplant.”
Jobs said, “There were not enough livers in California to go around. I was advised by my Stanford doctors to enroll on a list at a Memphis hospital, because it was more favorable to get a liver there.
“I was fortunate,” he said because he had the ability to fly cross country in the four-hour window needed to transplant a healthy organ. “Last year, 400 other Californians died waiting. I could have died.”
He called current system “an obscure process” with “no one asking the simple question: Will you donate your organs?”
Of his current health, the whippet-thin Jobs told other transplant survivors who attended the Friday news conference, “I’m feeling fine. I almost died. It’s been a pretty good last few months.”
Non-iPhone friendly video after the break!
[Mercury News via 9to5Mac]
While it’s easy to think the iPhone 3GS is everywhere now, TiPb still gets email asking when it will be in India, and on the largest carrier in the largest market in the world, China Mobile.
Well Macworld tells us Airtel has finally announced they’ll be bringing the iPhone 3GS to India:
New Delhi, March 19, 2010 : Bharti Airtel and Apple have reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3GS, the fastest most powerful iPhone yet, to India in the coming months. For information please visit www.airtel.in/iphone3gs. For more information on iPhone, please visit www.apple.com/iphone .
Meanwhile, Financial Times [registration required] reports that China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou is still interested as well, providing Apple addresses their special radio needs:
“including TD-SCDMA is not that hard to do – RIM is doing it”. But he added that Apple had not yet responded to his proposal.
MacRumors points out that while China Mobile is a monster, their 3G customer base remains small, but should grow from 3.4 to 10 million this year.
Either way, these represent two holes in Apple’s iPhone coverage and it’s nice to see at least one of them getting filled.
An email has been sent out to developers telling them Apple is now accepting application submissions for the iPad App Store — a special category of the existing iTunes App Store for iPhone and iPod touch. 9to5Mac has the text:
iPad will begin shipping soon and your opportunity to be part of the grand opening of the iPad App Store starts today. Submit your iPad app now for an initial review by the App Review Team and receive feedback on its readiness for the grand opening. Submit Your App by March 27.
Build and test your iPad app using iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 5 available on the iPhone Dev Center. Only iPad apps built with iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 5 will be accepted for this initial review.
Upload your distribution signed app through iTunes Connect by Saturday, March 27, 5pm PDT.
The App Review Team will review your app on iPad and email you details about the readiness of your app.
You will also receive additional information about submitting your app for final review before iPad ships.
Only apps submitted for the initial review will be considered for the grand opening of the iPad App Store.
Square-Enix has been quite busy developing for the iPhone/iPod touch with the recent release of both Final Fantasy 1 and 2, and now Chaos Rings.
Make no mistake, this is no Final Fantasy but if you love turn-based battles it does look very promising. No official release date or price has been mentioned but we will be sure to fill you in on the details as they are released.
Check out the full trailer after the break and let us know what you think!
It’s no secret that Apple loves secrecy, so it comes as little surprise when Business Week reveals the hoops those lucky developers with early access to iPad hardware have to jump through:
Would-be testers of the tablet-style computer, due to be released Apr. 3, must promise to keep it isolated in a room with blacked-out windows, according to four people familiar with the more than 10-page pact that bars partners from disclosing information about the iPad.
To ensure that it can’t be removed, the iPad must also remain tethered to a fixed object, said the people, who asked not to be named because their plans for the iPad have not been made public. Apple (AAPL) won’t send out an iPad until potential partners send photographic evidence that they’ve complied.
This, of course, after Apple has already unveiled the device in a Steve Jobs keynote event, released 5 beta versions of the iPad SDK, and put the device up for pre-order via apple.com. What exactly are they still hiding? And who are these few, these privileged, these no doubt monitored with a near Sauron-esque eye? Outside of “top developers” who Apple really wants to bring to the iPhone platform, no one is saying.
We know Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal have one under lock and key. Who else could there be? We’re hoping for Hulu, of course! Which other major players would Apple — and would you — like to see on the iPad?
