It is possible to use Bing on your iPhone or iPod Touch

As we’ve known for quite some time, Microsoft was seriously interested in extending its Bing navigator and Windows Live Messenger for Apple’s portable devices (for iPod as well as for iPhone). The interesting news for the users of these devices and for those who prefer Microsoft’s search engine over Google’s, is that it was moved forward the launch of at least one of these applications and now it is possible to use Bing on Apple mobiles.

This important initiative from the Redmond Company, allows us to use the famous search engine Bing directly on the mobile screen and with the same functionality as in the computer.Moreover, as we got used by Bing.com, it is also displayed on the device screen with the “daily image” as the background.

Being used from an iPhone or an iPod, one of the main advantages of its use in portable devices is that the application allows us to use the voice recognition technology to start a search (although it only recognizes words in English at the moment, it is expected that after its use and popularity increase, new languages will be added). The application also allows the use, of course, of the alphanumeric touch keyboard of the device to search.

One of the standout features by the thousand users that already use this Bing application on their iPods or iPhones is that it can detect our location, allowing us to navigate though maps and search news, images, addresses and shops that are near from where we are.

Another important thing to point out about the mobile Bing is that it offers the possibility to search roads between one point and the other, choosing different alternatives like: the shortest route, the fastest, the one with less traffic (only available on the US at the moment), etc.

As regards the technical parts that makes it easy to use and navigate through the maps using the device, Microsoft highlighted that the application resorts to the SeaDragon technology power to achieve really fluent transactions when moving maps and images or when zooming them, avoiding the annoying loading “frame by frame” (as it happens with Google Maps).

It seems that the complementarity of applications among portable devices and computers is a matter that big companies are taking very seriously to keep them alive on the market. Microsoft and Apple, two of the companies that in other markets seem far way, here they are giving strong steps, and they were able to show that with this launch, which is expected to be the first of many other applications.

The possibilities offered by mobile phones in terms of playing videos tend to be limited to the 3GP format. This will be the right time to resort to a tool which can convert all the video files stored on our computer to our mobile 3PG format. An example of such a tool is 3GP Converter.

As we all know, nowadays mobile phones allow us to record and play video files, and then store them in their memories. These files can be saved in PC compatible formats as well. Similarly, it is possible to copy video files from the computer to the mobile, but the rather the latter will be able to play them or not, will depend on the formats it supports. To solve this problem you can use 3GP Converter, a tool for the conversion of video files to a format used by mobile phones (3GP).

To begin the conversion click the “Open” option and browse to the relevant file in the window that opens. The name of the file should appear automatically in the box below the “Input file” field.

The next step consists in selecting the properties of the new video, and here you’ll be able to make some adjustments to the default settings. Among these options you’ll find the one called “Bitrate”, which refers to the bit transfer rate. In the box placed to the left you’ll be able to choose the codec type you want to use during the process (MPEG4 or H.263). “Framerate” shows the frames assigned to the new file. Last but not least, the box “New Resolution” suggests the new video file’s width and height proportions, features that you can change if desired.

Once you’ve selected these options, and so as to finish your job, click on “Convert” and the program will start the conversion. When it’s finished, it’ll let you know whether or not it was able to successfully convert the file. The delay time will be influenced by two factors: the first one is the source file’s size, the second, our computer’s capacity to process the information. Probably a dual-core processor will be quicker than a single-core one. If the result is not the expected one, you’ll have to try other parameter settings.

As you’ve seen, it takes just a few simple steps to convert a video file to the 3GP format. Therefore, even though there are many programs that could carry out this same task, 3GP Converter,is highly recommendable due to its functionalism and practicality, specially for inexperienced users.

Download 3GP Converter