PRESS RELEASE
Date: 15 April 2013. Following the launch of five Bing apps for Windows 8 in October, Microsoft is pleased to announce significant updates are now rolling out across News, Sport, Travel, Finance and Maps.
Including useful and personalisable features, the app updates are designed to help users get to the information they want faster.
This customisable app is perfect for those who want their news personalised as it allows them to keep tabs on specific story categories, topics, or news sources that matter most. The Bing News app now also supports RSS feeds and offline reading so it's perfect for commuters with limited internet access. For those who like to get international news from international publishers, users can now select content from major publishers around the world to include alongside their favourite local and national sources.
With 29 additional sports leagues, the Bing Sport app is perfect for users to keep up with their favourite team and includes more than 65 leagues and sports, covering the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Scottish Premier League, Rugby, Cricket, Tennis, Golf and more. Truly a one-stop shop, users can swipe through the app to get an overview of the top sports headlines, scores, schedules, standings, statistics and more. In addition, sport lovers can personalise their experience, allowing them to track the leagues and teams they're most interested in, pinning favourites to the start screen to get Live Tile updates as they happen
Now with additional travel content from Lonely Planet, TripAdvisor, Frommer's and Frodor's, the Bing Travel app is the best place for travellers to plan their next holiday. Not only allowing users to check out local attractions, restaurants and activities, this great app also allows people to book flights and hotels directly within the app, filtering by price, amenities and more. Plus, the Travel app also includes striking photos and 360 degree panoramas, allowing users to truly dive into their destination.
Allowing users to keep tabs on their portfolio and gauge performance of stocks at a glance, the Bing Finance app now includes an updated watch-list, real-time stock updates across nine markets and customisable interactive charts. This great app also includes six helpful personal finance calculators, including mortgage, currency, savings, financial, loan and retirement tools. Be sure to keep up to date with the latest financial headlines within the Bing Finance app too with multiple content partners including Wall Street Journal.
With more features to help people find quicker ways to get to their destination, the Bing Maps app now supports improved driving, transit and walking directions, as well as up-to-the minute traffic incidents notifications including construction and accidents.
For those in London, walking and transit directions are combined, so whether they're travelling to a friend's house or going to watch the football on a Saturday, people will know exactly how long their journey should take them from door-to-door. Transit takes into consideration Bus, Underground, Docklands Light Rail (DLR) and Overground data.
With the swipe of the finger, users can also save their favourite places to one convenient location within the app, making it faster and easier to access the places that matter most. What's more, users can sync their favourite places across all of their Windows 8 devices, ensuring seamless access.
Perfect for those looking for news from their favourite source, conditions at a nearby ski resort, or even highlights from last night's Scottish Premier League matches, the Bing apps for Windows 8 are ideal for helping people to find what they're looking for and to quickly get things done.
To download the latest versions of the Bing apps, users can visit the Windows Store from their Windows 8 device and click on the text notification for updates in the upper-right of the screen. From there, all they need to do is select the Bing apps and touch ‘Install Updates'. The Bing Weather app update is due soon - we'll keep you updated.
About Bing
Bing is built to give consumers a new search experience by understanding the different ways in which UK consumers search online, organising results in a user friendly way and diminishing information overload and internet clutter. Bing is more effective in providing search results that enable users to make informed decisions. The Bing homepage is an inspirational way to help users discover more about their world. Every day, a stunning new photograph brings users closer to one of life's intriguing views. The hotspots hidden within the picture help users explore more about the image and the facts surrounding it.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
