Stop Making Excuses and Update Bing for WP7
OK so this massive update comes out to Bing on every platform except Windows Phone. So yeah, Bing is Microsoft’s baby and it’s so integrated into the OS that you have a dedicated Bing search key on Windows Phones yet we’re the last one to get the update? Yes, I know we’re going to get the update, but we have to wait until you do your first OS update next year? WHY?! Look, I know that Bing is tied into the OS and that means you can’t just do an update through Marketplace, I get it (but also note that Google is separately their apps because of this, but it’s not an excuse for MS because unlike Android, MS can push out OS changes to all devices directly). But just because it’s part of the OS and not a standalone app doesn’t mean you can’t push the damn update to me now. Why should we wait for a major update with more changes? You have this one, right here, ready to go. So give it to me. If we’re last in line already, where are things headed?
Don’t make me borrow someone’s iPhone to look at Microsoft’s premier software. That’s straight fail.
Anyway, here’s the list of things that the iPhone Bing app now has that we don’t have:
What’s New in Version 2.0
Quickly find the perfect restaurant based on your price range, cuisine, atmosphere, or location.
Easily find great movies by name, location, or theater.
Use the Plans feature to plan a night out, a dinner and a movie, or any event you want. See what plans your Facebook friends like and read their comments.
More transit directions to help you plan your commute. Real-time transit updates for Boston, San Francisco and Seattle (more cities to come), show you if a bus is on time, early, or delayed, with predictions for arrival times. Standard transit routes for 11 cities including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Jersey, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, and Vancouver BC, with more to come.
Familiarize yourself with a location before you go, using Bing Streetside. Streetside, a new mapping feature, gives you a multi-street level panorama of a location so you can take a virtual walk through the streets with a view of a location and its landmarks. Slide the street level imagery sideways, and the view of the sidewalk is seamlessly constructed, including an overlay of business listings, street names and store fronts.
Use reminders to get a notification when you’re nearby a business or location where you have an errand. Add a reminder and you’ll stop forgetting to pick up the dry cleaning.
Check in to Facebook, Foursquare, and Windows Live Messenger, without leaving Bing.
Improved homepage layout and design for easier navigation and discoverability.
And a video to add to the burn:
Man this is pissing me off.
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YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!! Sorry, I have to say even though I do like WP7, Microsoft as a company are just plain CRAP!!!! After all the BS Ballmer spilled, all the fancy presentations by Belfiore and Brandon Watson, all the cries of being aggressive in mobile, we are basically back where we were with Windows Mobile, where other platforms get updates while we loyal (stupid) Microsoft users watch from the sidelines. How can it be that the premier experience for showcase applications of Microsoft services like Messenger, bing and Hotmail Exchange Activesync are all on the IPHONE!!! and not a Microsoft product? Why is no one asking these questions of Steve Ballmer and co? Shouldnt someone in the whole of MS be prioritising WP7 over anything else right now? Are they really this dumb in Redmond?
While it’s not entirely correct, that Microsoft can just push every update to every phone (OS updates still require a carrier certification for carrier phones like the ATT branded Focus), I completely agree. Bing on WP7 doesn’t even have Turn-by-Turn Navigation or Transit Information and it’s still waaaay to focused on the US. Bing in Europe lacks even more features (no local information for example). Yes, Microsoft doesn’t have unlimited resources, I get that. But if you really want to go international, then you should get it right.
Trying to play devils advocate here but my guess would be their logic is to not put out multiple updates back to back and confuse new WP7 users. Of course, they could have held back this Bing update to iPhone till after the WP7 update in early January (hopefully) as all this does is give prospective buyers one more reason to buy an iPhone. That’s a tad counterproductive.
@jimski: I think the fact that iOS gets the better Microsoft software and faster updates than WP7 is more confusing for a WP7 user.
roll outs work on a schedule. This is just how big business work. It would be nice to roll out out when they did everything else, but given the fact that we know its part of a much bigger update gives it some sense.
maybe they should NOT have rolled it out for everything else. but given google’s update to google maps…maybe they had a tip and just wanted to get bing out before google updated maps.
so what if they got bing a few weeks early, we’ll be getting a much more feature complete update.
@ramon trotman: Who slipped what into your Kool-Aid? I mean, yeah they work on a schedule but this should be like that $1 test charge that happens when you join a new service…MS could have tested OS udpates with some Bing love for their greatest and most loyal fans. Not the people that already deserted them.
@ramon trotman:
No evidence to suggest we will get anything more over the iphone version. Look at google, android is their showpiece for their tech and gets releases first, others later if at all. MS on the other hand chooses to release new features on other platforms first while ignoring their own. Didnt we go through this with WM? Now again with WP7?
chances are they had been working on updating bing for the other platforms at the same time they were prepping for the wp7 launch, im not too worried about it, im confident the next update will come to wp7 first. and @ freeway, carriers can only delay the update for up to one month, after that MS will push it out regardless.
sir, you will remove this madness from the site or i will contact the authorities. Microsoft can do no wrong!
I would imagine that updating the OS is fundamentally more involved and complex than updating an app. I’m not a techie so I could be wrong. What if the risks of pushing this one out too soon were too great?
This is the same thing happening with Zune. iPod Touch gets MSN Messenger while the Zune HD rust on the side waiting for an incomplete client.
Those clowns and monkeys at Redmond are amazing.
@D-Money: I bet you’re right. I also bet that the features are going to be far more integrated than you can do with just an app.
But, you know, it just a whole lot easier to be reactionary. Especially when such a reaction is negative.
@freeway: Well maybe, but you have to take a step back and consider the 1,000,000+ users (hopefully) that currently have WP7 devices and DON’T regularly visit sites like Mobility Digest and others. They don’t know, and probably couldn’t care less about today’s mobile news. And like it or not, they are Microsoft’s higest priority. The rest of us will just have to get over it.