Microsoft Announces Bing Apps for Windows Phone 8

On Wednesday, software giant Microsoft announced the availability of its Bing Apps for Windows Phone 8 devices, including Bing News, Finance, Weather, and Sports.

These apps were already available for Windows 8 users, but the company has decided to put them on the screens in people’s hands through launching their new mobile versions. All four are available for download through the Windows Phone Store.

With the new Bing News app for Windows Phone, users will be able to easily stay on top of what’s happening around them and around the world.

The mobile software was designed to deliver a comprehensive experience, so that users could know at all times what the latest headlines are, while also enabling them to watch videos of breaking news.

“And the app is customizable so you can track specific story categories, topics, or news sources that matter to you. You can even rearrange the headline clusters so that the news that matters most to you is at the top,” Bing program manager Steve Chang explains in a blog post.

“We’ve partnered with leading editorial and news agencies including Associated Press, Reuters, Gizmodo, The Guardian and more, including local and regional sources from around the world, so you can choose which sources you’re most interested in—all in one app.”

Bing News also comes with support for the Live Tiles on Windows Phone, so that users would see what’s happening at a glance, straight from the homescreen. Pinning of favorite news sources or personal topics to the Start screen is also supported.

With Bing Sports, Windows Phone users can stay informed on the sports and teams they are interested in the most. The app will offer recent scores, top sports headlines, videos, photos, schedules, and more from sports such as soccer, football, baseball, cricket, racing, tennis, hockey, and basketball.

“You can personalize the experience to track the leagues and teams you follow. Tap into a specific league or team and the app color theme changes depending on the sport, such as green turf for NFL, brown dirt for MLB, grey asphalt for Formula 1 racing, etc,” said blog post continues.

Through Bing Weather, users will always know when to carry an umbrella when stepping outside, Microsoft notes. The app will offer details on current conditions, including temperature, precipitation, and wind.

At the same time, the app will dynamically update its live tile on the Start screen, based on users’ current location. It will also offer hourly and 10-day forecasts, and more.

“You can follow the weather with dynamic maps for your city or region in a number of categories including satellite, temperature, precipitation, cloud cover and radar. You can also drill down in to the daily weather conditions, explore historical data and view charts for temperature and precipitation,” Microsoft notes.

As for the newly announced Bing Finance app, it was designed to allow users to keep tabs on the financial markets, courtesy of features such as financial news, market info, currency conversions, timely US stock updates, and more.

“You can set up a watchlist to track your stocks and pin individual stocks to your Start screen for Live Tile updates. Tap a stock in watchlist to get an overview of the stock’s performance, news about the company, stock statistics and a company overview,” Microsoft says.