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Microsoft has updated its Bing for Mobile app for iPhone and Android, adding some new features and bringing the experience more in line with the experience offered on Windows Phone.

"Today's update uses HTML5 to blend the mobile browse experience with the app experience so you get a consistent and fast mobile search experience," read a Nov. 2 posting on the Bing Community blog, "whether you're using m.bing.com from your browser or the Bing app."

Microsoft's Windows Phone tightly bakes Bing's search engine into the interface, blurring the line between traditional browser-based search and the platform's "Metro" interface. Evidently, Microsoft seems interested in extending aspects of that experience to other smartphone platforms.

"Rather than tightly binding functions into a mobile client, we want to embrace the drive towards exposing our functions via an HTML5 experience," the blog post added. "Using HTML5, our goal is to build a mobile experience that leverages the unique capabilities" of platforms such as camera support and voice search, while "making the functions the apps can provide consistent across the platforms."

In addition, this app update also includes Deals, which the blog describes as "one-stop deal shopping and convenient mobile phone access for local deals from more than 100 deal providers across the United States." It makes Bing's video domain, launched in October on m.bing, available on the iPhone. The Android version of the app offers a combination of real-time transit routing and news. And the Maps/List Split View allows users to synchronize a list, such as directions, into a single view alongside a map.

Microsoft is apparently aiming to release the same experience for Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices at some unnamed point in the future. For the moment, the Android and iOS apps are available on their respective app stores.

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We've seen plenty of shots of the Nokia 808 PureView in action, but they've all been hampered by boring old terrestrial bounds. Thankfully, a team attached the handset to a giant balloon for a little more perspective. The photo is at the end of the six and half minute video after the break, but thankfully there are a lot of lovely shots of Iceland accompanying atmospheric music to keep you busy in the meantime.

[Thanks, Chad]

Continue reading Nokia nabs 808 PureView space shot of this big, blue 41-megapixel marble

Nokia nabs 808 PureView space shot of this big, blue 41-megapixel marble originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 May 2012 18:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Those benevolent armchair philanthropist Redditors are at it again! Four days ago a 'self' post extolling the potential virtues of a Backup Day exploded with 2500 upvotes and 1000 comments -- and now World Backup Day 2011 is actually happening.

On March 31, as part of the global data-saving initiative, you are encouraged to back up all of your cherished photos and videos, and important documents. If you've ever had a hard disk fail, and not had a backup to fall back on, you'll know that it's a bit like losing a sizable fragment of your soul. If you've never backed up your important files -- or if you only back up sporadically -- do it on World Backup Day!

It's not hard to back up your data, either. A 2TB drive costs only a fistful of dollars, and it takes just a few minutes to set SyncToy for Windows, or Time Machine for Mac, to mirror your data every night. If you prefer a cloud-based solution, there's always SugarSync and Dropbox. Finally, don't forget that Bundlelytic has a charity giveaway for three excellent data-backup-and-recovery tools -- $160 of software for only $25, and 100% of the proceeds to go the Japanese Red Cross.

For even more backup options, for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, check our list of 13 great backup programs.

March 31 is World Backup Day 2011 originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Most every touchscreen in the market today can only register your finger input as coordinates; that's fine for most uses, but it leads to a lot of double-taps and occasionally convoluted gestures. A pair of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Chris Harrison and Scott Hudson, have suggested that shear touch might be a smarter solution. Instead of gliding over fixed glass, your finger could handle secondary tasks by pushing in a specific direction, or simply pushing harder, on a sliding display. Among the many examples of what shear touch could do, the research duo has raised the possibility of skipping through music by pushing left and right, or scrolling more slowly through your favorite website with a forceful dragging motion. The academic paper is still far away from producing a shipping device, although a Microsoft doctoral fellowship's partial contribution to funding the study indicates one direction the technology might go. You can take a peek at the future in a video after the jump -- just don't expect a tablet-based Van Gogh this soon.

[Thanks, Chris]

Continue reading New shear touch technology lets you skip a double-tap, push your device around (video)

New shear touch technology lets you skip a double-tap, push your device around (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 May 2012 01:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What a tangled Web of litigation, close friends, enemies, software licensing, open-source interpretation and intrigue this case proved to be. A jury in Federal District Court for Northern California in San Francisco delivered a partial victory for Oracle by determining that Google had violated Oracles copyrights related to Java language APIs used to develop the Android mobile operating system. But the Jury failed to reach a verdict on the essential question of whether or not Google had made "fair use" of the APIs and was therefore protected at least partially from liability. As a result, a trial that supposedly had the potential to set a major standard in software development law ended in a muddle that only further court decisions can resolve. At the copyright and patent trial in federal court, which began April 16, Oracle charged Google with stealing 37 APIs in its Java software suite to help build the highly successful Android mobile device operating system. Oracle is seeking about $1 billion in damages and a possible injunction against Google using the software. In only four years, Android has become the most popular mobile operating system for smartphones and other mobile devices in the world. Android, released in 2008 by Google to partners such as Samsung, HTC and other manufacturers for smartphones and tablet PCs, now runs on more than 300 million mobile devices. Google believes that with this litigation, Oracle is unjustly trying to horn in on the profits from the OS. Here, eWEEK highlights the key figures and data points thus far in the trial, which is expected to continue into June with deliberations on the separate patent infringement issues in the case. - ...

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This one's for the sysadmins in the audience: Altaro, makers of our favorite "time machine for Windows" back solution, OopsBackup, have just announced a new product entering beta called Hyper-V Backup.

The beta run is limited - Altaro are looking for just 250 testers. All participants will get a free license key to the final, production version. So if you're interested in helping test Hyper-V Backup, get yourself over to Altaro now and join the beta.

Altaro Hyper-V Backup beta launched, only 250 places available originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 05:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Amazon Appstore for Android launched last week, one of its primary features -- Test Drive -- was disabled just a few minutes after it opened. With no try-before-you-buy, no refund process, and 1-Click purchasing ready to strike at any moment, this caused some problems. Anyway, don't despair: Test Drive is now enabled.

Before you get your hopes up, Test Drive doesn't work with every app. The IMDb app works fine -- you can even watch movie trailers on it! -- but the Angry Birds games are sadly not enabled. Some games work surprisingly well, though, like Bubble Buster. There's very little latency, and the framerate is really rather good. The Test Drive experience is so true to life that you even get ads; how cool is that?

Continue reading Amazon Appstore for Android Test Drive hands on: surprisingly cool, but still US-only

Amazon Appstore for Android Test Drive hands on: surprisingly cool, but still US-only originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Add playback hotkeys to Amazon Cloud Player with a Chrome extension originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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'Twas only a matter of time, we suppose, before Uncle Sam got his mitts on Nokia's mobile imaging monster, the 808 Pureview, and that time is now. The folks at the FCC got a real good look at the Symbian handset sporting a 41-megapixel shooter, and have torn it asunder to ensure it's safe for human use. Before you go thinking that this visit to the FCC means that the 808's coming to American carriers, recall that Nokia's already nixed that idea. That said, if you're like us, that won't deter you from wanting to check out the drool-inducing pics of its innards in our gallery below. And, naturally, there's all the electromagnetic measurements you can handle at the source link.

Nokia PureView 808 pops up at the FCC, has innards splayed across the internet originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 May 2012 12:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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