The First Bing iPhone App Problems Surface, Microsoft Already Working on a Fix
So far, Redmond-based software giant Microsoft has released two application’s for the Apple developed iPhone. The first one was released last year in December – called Seadragon, the app allows iPhone users to seamlessly browse though large images, like Giga range images. The second iPhone app was released just a couple of days ago – called Bing for iPhone, the app brings Microsoft’s Bing search engine to the iPhone.
According to Microsoft, the Bing app received a warm welcome. “The response so far to the Bing app for iPhone has been incredible; we are excited by the strong customer response and download traffic,” said Microsoft. And why shouldn’t iPhone users like the Bing app, since it comes with the following features:
- Voice search. Just speak into the device and it will search for what you just said.
- Bing uses the phone’s integrated GPS to automatically find your location and thus help you discover stuff close by. You get to choose if you would like Bing to locate your position or not.
- Multiple map styles
- Smooth mapping action
- Zoom in and zoom out by pinching the screen or by using the zoom icon.
- Easily discover new locations by category (like theaters, banks, restaurants and so on).
- On the app’s home screen you will see the Bing image of the day
- Endless scrolling results for regular searches and for image searches.
It’s not all snowflakes and holiday cheer though. As it turns out, there are a few problems with the Bing for iPhone app. For example, you use the Bing app on 1st generation an iPod Touch, it won’t work. Or, if you go outside the US and try using the voice search feature, the app might crash. Searching the traditional way won’t do you any good as the app is fully supported in the US alone – this means no search results outside the US of A.
Microsoft says it is aware of all these issues. At the moment it is hard at work on an update for the voice search crashing issue. Microsoft is also testing the Bing app on 1st generation iPod Touch devices and will announce support for them in the near future. As for the lack of search results outside the US, here us what the Redmon-based software giant had to say:
“At this time Bing is only fully supported on the iPhone for the US; in some regions people may not be seeing results at all. While there was a brief period of which the Bing iPhone app was being offered in international markets at this time international availability has been suspended. We would like to apologize for the inconvenience and we hope to expand our support and availability of the app in other regions in future versions of the Bing app for the iPhone. If you are in the US or if you are encountering this issue and or you are looking for a temporarily work around go to Settings > General > International and change your Region Format to “United States.”
The Bing for iPhone app is available for download, free of charge, straight from the App Store here.
According to Microsoft, the Bing app received a warm welcome. “The response so far to the Bing app for iPhone has been incredible; we are excited by the strong customer response and download traffic,” said Microsoft. And why shouldn’t iPhone users like the Bing app, since it comes with the following features:
- Voice search. Just speak into the device and it will search for what you just said.
- Bing uses the phone’s integrated GPS to automatically find your location and thus help you discover stuff close by. You get to choose if you would like Bing to locate your position or not.
- Multiple map styles
- Smooth mapping action
- Zoom in and zoom out by pinching the screen or by using the zoom icon.
- Easily discover new locations by category (like theaters, banks, restaurants and so on).
- On the app’s home screen you will see the Bing image of the day
- Endless scrolling results for regular searches and for image searches.
It’s not all snowflakes and holiday cheer though. As it turns out, there are a few problems with the Bing for iPhone app. For example, you use the Bing app on 1st generation an iPod Touch, it won’t work. Or, if you go outside the US and try using the voice search feature, the app might crash. Searching the traditional way won’t do you any good as the app is fully supported in the US alone – this means no search results outside the US of A.
Microsoft says it is aware of all these issues. At the moment it is hard at work on an update for the voice search crashing issue. Microsoft is also testing the Bing app on 1st generation iPod Touch devices and will announce support for them in the near future. As for the lack of search results outside the US, here us what the Redmon-based software giant had to say:
“At this time Bing is only fully supported on the iPhone for the US; in some regions people may not be seeing results at all. While there was a brief period of which the Bing iPhone app was being offered in international markets at this time international availability has been suspended. We would like to apologize for the inconvenience and we hope to expand our support and availability of the app in other regions in future versions of the Bing app for the iPhone. If you are in the US or if you are encountering this issue and or you are looking for a temporarily work around go to Settings > General > International and change your Region Format to “United States.”
The Bing for iPhone app is available for download, free of charge, straight from the App Store here.
