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Microsoft launches new MSN apps for news, health, sports, finance & food

Microsoft on Thursday debuted five new applications under its MSN banner for Apple's iOS, offering aggregated content from Bing covering a range of topics including news, sports and money.

All five applications are now available for free, and have been designed for both the iPhone and iPad. They are:

The five MSN apps are all advertised to offer "comprehensive content" on their respective subjects, with the ability to filter and also sync across devices and platforms.

MSN News allows users to select customized topics for preferred subjects such as sports teams, celebrities or gadgets. The app also provides breaking news alerts, and allows users to share content via Twitter, Facebook, text or email.

MSN Health & Fitness boasts built-in fitness measuring capabilities, including a pedometer, run tracker, diet tracker, and cardio tracker. It's also integrated with Apple's HealthKit, allowing users to export data to Apple's Health app as well as other compatible third-party applications.

Also included in the MSN health app are over 300 workout videos and over 900 exercise, yoga and Pilates videos. The free application also includes medical reference information such as a symptom checker, details on human anatomy, and information about drugs and common medical procedures.

MSN Sports includes information from more than 150 leagues and thousands of teams, complete with the latest news and real-time updates on live games. Users can customize the app to follow their favorite leagues and teams, reading team- or league-specific news.

MSN Money tracks major indices from around the world, including NASDAQ, NYSE, Dow Jones, S&P 500, DAX, FTSE, NIKKEI 225 and more. It also allows users to track currency exchange rates and commodity prices, and to add their preferred stocks, mutual funds and ETFs. The iPhone app includes a tip calculator, wealth estimator and retirement planner, while iPad has a stock screener.

Finally, MSN Food & Drink provides users with easy filters to find recipes by cuisine, source, ingredient, or dietary needs. Recipes can be filtered by difficulty, method, preparation time and more. The app also includes tips from famous chefs, and how-to videos providing tips and techniques.