Microsoft's Bing & Cortana apps for iPhone add 3D Touch, other new features

Microsoft on Thursday updated two of its iPhone apps — Cortana and Bing Search — with support for 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, along with a number of other new upgrades.

With both apps, 3D Touch enables quick actions from the homescreen icon. In the case of Bing Search, this means options to jump into voice search or a newly-added barcode scanner.

The latter is part of a Deals module, and used for comparison shopping. The module also supports browsing for coupons, sales, and other offers from nearby shops and restaurants.

Bing will now also fetch prices for local gas stations, highlight top dishes at some restaurants, and search through news content. In the Today feed, people can see weather data and pin Web bookmarks.

Cortana has added a Today widget of its own, used to display reminders and offer a shortcut into the app. Separately there's a new monthly reminder option, and Microsoft has smoothed out performance by reducing the app's load time, as well as improving how it copes with slow or unreliable Internet connections.

Both apps are free downloads, and require an iPhone or iPod with iOS 8 or later.

6 Comments

rgmenke 15 comments · 12 Years

About 8 years ago

Let's hope Apple puts a higher priority on Siri upgrades, given the competition.

wood1208 2932 comments · 10 Years

I would say let Siri gets better everyday so we can't live/leave without it but teach Google lesson by helping Microsoft Bing Search against Google. Android has caused unnecessary pain(malware,security vulnerable/breaching software, personal info stolen to sent to Google to exploit, no upgrades from manufacturers,etc) for all android consumers and indirectly Apple.

cali 3494 comments · 10 Years

wood1208 said:

I would say let Siri gets better everyday so we can't live/leave without it but teach Google lesson by helping Microsoft Bing Search against Google. Android has caused unnecessary pain(malware,security vulnerable/breaching software, personal info stolen to sent to Google to exploit, no upgrades from manufacturers,etc) for all android consumers and indirectly Apple.

Domain search sites like Goog are so 1990's which is why I believe Apple's search solution will be way ahead of the curve.
I'm thinking Siri which skips all the pages of links and crap and gives you a clear answer. Watson would help too :)

I really want to see a Siri so advanced you never wanna open a browser and type in a search again.

EsquireCats 1268 comments · 8 Years

cali said:

wood1208 said:

I would say let Siri gets better everyday so we can't live/leave without it but teach Google lesson by helping Microsoft Bing Search against Google. Android has caused unnecessary pain(malware,security vulnerable/breaching software, personal info stolen to sent to Google to exploit, no upgrades from manufacturers,etc) for all android consumers and indirectly Apple.

Domain search sites like Goog are so 1990's which is why I believe Apple's search solution will be way ahead of the curve.
I'm thinking Siri which skips all the pages of links and crap and gives you a clear answer. Watson would help too :)

I really want to see a Siri so advanced you never wanna open a browser and type in a search again.

I see it that way too, AI will find information for us - thus cutting out the activity of looking for things. That leaves us with two kinds of computing devices: General purpose computers (e.g. future iPads) and assistant devices (e.g. current and future Apple Watches/wearables.) The iPhone doesn't fit into this vision because the watch could reproduce it's functions with projectors and 3d sensors (aka VR.) In-between technology could be a simple slate where the watch can send imagery/more ergonomic phone calls.

matrix077 868 comments · 9 Years

Off topic but 3D Touch should be much more with a little bit of imagination. Sadly Apple seems to lack it at the moment. Like when I 3D touch Mail app, why don't I get extra option like "Today inbox" or "This Week Inbox". Most of 3D Touch options now are just shortcuts, nothing more.