bing

One of the neat features we like with Local Scout, the Bing service that shows you things to do around your location, is the tie in with apps. For instance, when you go under eat + drink and pull up a restaurant you can scroll over to Apps to open up the listing in a third party app like Foodspotting.

The ability to do that is quite useful as it saves you time in having to go to your favorite app and look up the same information. One change that came with Windows Phone 8 though has us scratching our head, and it’s affecting third party apps, including Liquid Daffodil’s popular Add to Contacts app.

The Windows Phone 7.8 update is here. Well, it will be once you're able to update your hardware should you not go down the manual route. We've all be eagerly awaiting the notification that there's a new build available, but what if you overlook a new feature or miss new functionality through excitement (with or without comforting alcohol), or simply not being aware that such magic exists? We'll quickly run you through on how to get started with the 7.8 update.

Microsoft is getting feisty again with their Bing service as they’re taking the fight to Google with quite a snarky holiday ad released on YouTube.

With its "A Visit from St. Nicholas" style narration, the ad takes on Google’s practice of listing shopping results not so much based on lowest price or other reasonable metrics but rather who paid the most. As it turns out, some of the top results in Google are there because a company paid to have them there, as opposed to being what is best for the shopper. Or so that is what Microsoft alleges.

Those of you who participate in the Bing Rewards program may have received an email recently, as I did, telling you about a new contest where you can win one of five HTC 8X phones. In addition to winning of HTC's flagship devices, the selected contestants will also receive $200 toward a contract with AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile.

In reaction to Windows 8 going official today and Surface RT tablets coming tomorrow, Microsoft has also made some changes to what Bing shows for results.

The adjustment people will notice on their new Windows 8 devices is that searches for general terms like “travel” will now show Windows 8 Store results too with a convenient download button to the Store. Of course those of you with Windows Phones should already know this behavior when you do searches on your phone. Just another neat example of how Microsoft can leverage Bing for a better Windows experience.

Speaking of Windows Phone, some of those earlier announced changes to the Store for searching are also slowly taking effect of which you can read about here. Thanks, Dustin P., for the tip!

Microsoft has released an update to their Bing Get Me There app, which is available for those who either travel through or reside in London. The app enables users to keep up-to-date with the status of public transport links in the city. It also sports functionality for quick assistance to get the user home (or to a connecting rail terminal) with a pinned Live Tile opening up directions from current location to the configured "home" in the settings.

We previously looked at an update which was pushed out adding support for the DLR (Docklands Light Railway), London buses and Overground lines. Now the app has been bumped to version 1.5, which now includes a Bing search box for instant web searches from within the app, handy for those times when you require further information. Bug fixes and optimisation are bundled, as well as recently re-opened stations and stops.

There’s been a lot of news today—both for Microsoft and Nokia—so we’re going to just touch on a bit of that and also mention some other Microsoft stories that you may have missed. So here’s your roundup:

• Microsoft wants you take your Xbox security seriously and posts tips on how to do that
• Mark Penn, former advisor to President Clinton, will be a VP at Microsoft where he hopes to make Bing cool
• Microsoft may have lost money this quarter but their consumer division is actually doing well

So head on past the break for today’s wrap up...

Nokia have just announced an update on how they are progressing with their Destination Maps product. The aim with the initiative is to provide an additional layer of mapping data where it makes sense. In this case Nokia are essentially aiming for Shopping Malls, Airports and other large scale public spaces. The rate at which they are adding these internal spaces is impressive, now boasting 4605 venues in 38 countries. 

Microsoft yesterday announced commercial availability of their Microsoft Translator Hub. The service has been designed to allow developers and business to deliver tailored, real-time translation in up to 39 languages.  The real-time translation is available as an Azure Marketplace application, enabling users to leverage the Microsoft Cloud to deliver more relevant machine translation applications to their customers.

The applications vary for this service but as an example, it will allow for fluid, real time translation of live web chat interactions from customer services representatives. It goes beyond plain machine translation by allowing the output to be fully optimised for that particular application. A private set of data can be uploaded and using the Translator’s machine learning training system, output can then be tailored as required. Manipulating the output could allow exclusion of business specific nomenclature such as names of products or abbreviations. These customised translation scenarios can then be tested deployed so that they suit each application for which they are targeted. Once the solution is deployed, it can accessed through the familiar Microsoft Translator Service API, all the time being kept private or shared, depending on what you require.