Right from the Start: Bing Apps

A few weeks ago, we published a blog post about more than 20 new and improved Microsoft apps and services that will come right from (the) Start on your new Windows device with Windows 8.1. Last week we talked about Xbox Music, and this week we’re talking about new experiences with Bing apps. On Monday, Bing unveiled the next phase of search which transcends the search box delivering an intelligent layer of capabilities to products across Microsoft. That’s why this week we thought it would be fitting to highlight new experiences that the Bing apps bring to Windows.


Your favorite content in one gorgeous package

Bing apps bring the content that matters most to you in one gorgeous experience. These apps make the stuff you care about – news, finance, weather, sports, travel, food, health – visually vibrant, easy to use, and available at a glance when working side-by-side.

Bing apps come with Windows 8.1, which is a free update for Windows 8 consumers starting on Oct. 18. The Bing apps are built in -- so right from the moment you power on your Windows 8.1 device you can delve into your interests and get things done.

We’ve introduced two new Bing apps: Food & Drink and Health & Fitness, which I show more about below. News, Weather, Sports, Finance, Maps and Travel, which were updated in April, are also updated in Windows 8.1. Right from the Start screen, the larger live tile screens bring you more detailed information about the things you care about -- without even opening the app.



See this Start screen example with the large Weather app tile:




Getting stuff done today….

Staying connected, expressing yourself, getting stuff done, having serious fun: these are some of the most important things we all do, every day, and we believe your Windows device should reflect that right from the first moment you power it on. The Bing apps bring you the information you want, from the content sources you trust, in easy to use, photo-rich experiences. Here are some highlights:

  • Your news, always with you: Bing News brings you the information you care about, curated from thousands of the top national, international and local sources you trust, including ABC, AP, Bloomberg, CNBC, Reuters, Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. You can customize the Bing News app to keep always up-to-date on specific categories, news sources or story topics. With offline reading, take your news with you and read on the go.
  • Travel anywhere: With content from Fodor’s, Frommer’s and the Lonely Planet, you can use this app from browsing to booking. It’s a ton more than a gorgeous app. My favorite part of the Travel app is the gorgeous 360 degree panorama images – from the top of the Space Needle to the beaches of Mustique.
  • Finance tasks on tap: Keep tabs on the market and your stocks with a glance at the live tile on the Start screen. Create your watch list of stocks once and then get regular updates. Read the business news of the day or use tools, like the mortgage calculator, to stay informed.
  • Global – and local – sports: The Bing Sports app is a one-stop shop – and includes 74 sports leagues from around the globe covering Soccer, American Football, Basketball, Rugby, Cricket, Tennis, Motor Sports, Baseball, Ice Hockey and Golf.

The new Food & Drink App is designed for the way you use your device: Hands-Free Cooking Mode with the new Food & Drink app allows you to move step-by-step through a recipe without having to touch your device. Just use a simple hand-wave in front of your device’s camera. Here’s more goodness that you’ll enjoy with the app:

  • Explore thousands of recipes, choose wine and cocktails, watch technique videos, and discover tips from world renowned chefs to make your next meal a taste-tempting success.
  • Enjoy beautiful photos, easy to follow instructions and helpful tools such as a shopping list and meal planner to make cooking at home even more enjoyable.
  • Upload your own recipes and with a swipe and tap you can share your favorite recipes with friends.



Hands_2D00_free_2D00_mode_2D005F00_2_5F00_thumb_5F00_4F4E2FA1.png




The Health & Fitness App brings nutrition, fitness and medical information customized to your own personal needs. It’s has three incredibly easy trackers: diet, health and exercise. The Health & Fitness app also has step-by-step instructions and videos for nearly 1000 exercises and 220 workouts. You can search or browse by body part, equipment, duration, type and difficulty. Again, all built in from the moment you power on your device.





No matter what app you’re using, you can use the Reading List app to save information to check out later. I’ll detail more about the Reading List in my next post. In the meantime, here’s what is being said about the Bing apps:

“…one set of apps stood out: The Bing apps like News, Finance, Sports, Travel and Weather. With Windows 8.1, the Bing team is back with two more apps: Food & Drink and Health & Fitness. Guess what? They’re beautiful too.” – Paul Thurrott/Supersite for Windows

“Bing’s Food & Drink app is perhaps the most interesting addition. Designed as a recipe book, it includes a unique hands-free mode that lets you swipe between recipe notes to avoid touching a screen with messy fingers. – Tom Warren/The Verge

“The Food and Drink app provides easy access to recipes, ingredients, grocery lists and more, but it also uses your device’s camera to operate a hands-free mode that lets you scroll through recipe steps with swipe gestures that don’t require touching the actual screen. It’s like the no-touch gestures built into Samsung’s latest Galaxy S4 smartphone, but built for a specific use case where someone might actually, you know, want to use it.” – Darrell Etherington/TechCrunch

“Health & Fitness, to be honest, surprised me even more than the Food & Drink app. The level of complexity and the amount of features utilized in this app can truly help someone track fitness levels and improve upon what they may already be doing.” – TechNorms
​

Whether you update your Windows 8 device or buy a device with Windows 8.1, I can’t wait for everyone to be able to try these new apps. You’ll be able to do this starting October 18th! And you can also download Bing News, Weather, Finance, and Sports for your Windows Phone today!Ryan Gavin

General Manager
Microsoft Apps & Services

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Those apps might be good for some people but for me its just more bloat to uninstall. The weather app is about the only one I use.
 

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alphanumeric said:
Those apps might be good for some people but for me its just more bloat to uninstall. The weather app is about the only one I use.
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Ditto.
 

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I don't care about most of these apps, but then I don't care about them being bundled either. "Right-click, Uninstall" a few times and they're gone in under a minute, leaving no traces.

The pre-installed stuff I hate is proper bloatware, such as a trial version of some crap AV product that slows the machine down, then when you go to uninstall it it sometimes either won't uninstall, or it doesn't uninstall fully.
 

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Cannot stand Bing!
 

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djsigma said:
I don't care about most of these apps, but then I don't care about them being bundled either. "Right-click, Uninstall" a few times and they're gone in under a minute, leaving no traces.

The pre-installed stuff I hate is proper bloatware, such as a trial version of some crap AV product that slows the machine down, then when you go to uninstall it it sometimes either won't uninstall, or it doesn't uninstall fully.
Click to expand...

I have to agree with you there, at least these are easy to uninstall.
 

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    80 Mbps Down 30 Mbps Up
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    Internet Explorer 11
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Thanks for posting the article, Shawn. :)

It's great to see more Store apps added, either by MS and/or other developers.

I think that not only has MS accomplished to get an OS to run across various devices via RT in conjunction with Windows Phone 8, they have also accomplished combining the traditional "desktop-production-orientated" OS (containing consumption attributes) with a "considerable-for-now" consumption OS (containing production attributes). I feel its the best of both worlds. A new way via the Modern/Metro RT Store apps or the traditional way via the Desktop.

Admittedly I think Ms pulled a blunder with 8. Too much of a change to introduce or "force" the "new way". I feel they corrected this rather well in 8.1. More of a choice via configuration on which way a user desires to use the system > Old, new, or both.

Personally I am now using both. My new Office Pro 2013, of course, runs on the desktop along with other productive legacy programs I use, although the desktop has not always been just a production platform. It has also been a consumption platform by the launching the likes of and the use of applications such as IE or other browsers, WLM or similar, IMs, gadgets, and the likes. This is what the Stores apps are replacing really.

I started back with 8 RP and found the Modern/Metro RT Store apps rather inefficient due to lack of features and instability, but I think they have come along quite nicely with updates and time. I now use quite a few on a daily basis. I find they are more efficient on machine resources and ease of use once I learned them.

What was most astonishing to me was boot time along with all the personal information that the Start Screen conveys in such a short period of time as I explained in a post a while back: ww.eightforums.com/showthread.php?t=16379

To me the live tiles are little windows to peer into the RT Store apps that contain information that is personally important to me. I also get to arrange these tiles in personally-titled columns that are personally suitable and efficient for me. Along with All Apps this is a far more efficient menu system than the traditional Start Menu for it brings together separate system entities all in one place. This is not to say that the Start Menu was inefficient. I'm saying the Start Screen/All Apps is more efficient in more than just one way. It's not just for opening an app or other features anymore. It conveys information as well.

I also realized that while I'm using these RT Store apps I'm not cruising the internet with a browser where I'm vulnerable to viruses. Another plus for the RT Store apps.
 

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