14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 8 Release Preview, the final pre-release version of Microsoft’s next-gen platform, was made available for download yesterday with a load of enhancements packed inside, including a new set of applications from Bing, namely News, Sports, and Travel.
Rumors on the availability of these Metro apps in the latest version of Windows 8 did emerge before, without offering comprehensive details on what they would have to offer.
However, now that the platform has been released and people already started downloading and installing it on their PCs, we can learn more on what Microsoft has packed these applications with.
The three new apps from Bing are similar with those previously loaded in the platform, namely Finance, Weather, and Maps, and they have been greatly optimized for use on touch-enabled devices, though they appear to be working well on traditional PCs as well.
“These apps are visually organized, intuitive to use, easy to personalize, and they offer content from multiple, trusted providers. They let you complete key tasks such as browsing news headlines, checking sports scores, and finding a flight or hotel room quickly and confidently,” Microsoft says.
Windows 8 Release Preview arrives with a News app meant to keep users on top of things that interest them the most.
It provides news from reliable sources from around the web, covering areas such as national, world, technology, entertainment, politics, sports, and health.
Through it, users can keep an eye on new info on their favorite celebrities, as well as on sport teams, or on new devices and software that caught their attention.
Moreover, users can also choose to view articles from their favorite sources, all listed in a special section of the application, put together in categories of interest.
The Sports app in Windows 8’s new flavor is meant to prove a great option for keeping an eye out on the sports, teams, and players that users care about.
The app offers a quick overview of the top sports headlines, live scores, schedules, standings, extensive statistics and more, and it also enables users to benefit from personalization options of their experience.
Thus, the app provides them with the option to receive info on leagues and teams that they are most interested in, and it also delivers high-res photos to them.
The new Travel app coming from Bing has been designed to let users explore over 2,000 destinations from all over the world.
It brings rich resources to user, including in-depth articles, attraction information, maps, and weather conditions, as well as photos of the selected destinations.
Moreover, it can also deliver info on flights for the selected place, along with hotel details and the possibility to make reservations in only a few simple steps.
These three applications (News, Sports, Travel) – along with those previously available in Windows 8 Consumer Preview (Finance, Weather, Maps) – are available for people in 62 countries at the moment.
They can be accessed in 12 languages, namely English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Russian, Portuguese, Korean, Swedish, Arabic, and Catalan.
To make a better idea of what the Bing apps in Windows 8 have to offer, download and install the Release Preview of the platform today.
It can be found on Softpedia via this link.
