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Filed under: Microsoft, Search

Bing rolls out new features, partnership with Wolfram Alpha

Bing BMI calculator (Wolfram Alpha)
Microsoft's Bing search engine is still pretty new. It just launched this summer. But the company is giving the site a minor facelift which includes improved local search results and a deal with Wolfram Alpha that allows Bing to answer some complex questions about math and health-related information.

It looks like the new features are coming in a phased rollout, because I can't seem to access them yet. But the Bing blog has a number of examples, showing the kind of results the search engine can nor provide thanks to Wolfram Alpha's computations. For example, if you search for "BMI Calculator," you'll get boxes to enter your height and weight and Bing will spit out your body mass index. If you ask it for nutritional information for steak or chicken, Bing will return a chart that looks a lot like the nutritional information that you find on food packaging in the US.

Microsoft is also merging MSN Vido and Bing, and adding features to Bing Maps such as the ability to change a route by dragging and dropping the lines on a map (which you can already can with Google Maps and Mapquest).

Filed under: Productivity, iPhone, Search

Wolfram Alpha for iPhone packs big features and a big $50 pricetag

When Wolfram Alpha, the (don't call it a search engine!) computation knowledge engine, announced an iPhone app, I assumed it would just be a nice front end for the website. I also figured it would be free. Surprise! The Wolfram Alpha app does a lot more than expected, and it also carries a hefty $50 price tag. This might not be the smartest business decision for Wolfram, considering that App Store reviewers are notorious for complaining that even $10 is too much to pay for any iPhone app.

On the other hand, the app does the kind of high-level math that would make Texas Instruments weep. If you're a student or someone in a math-intensive technical field, it might rock your world. Integrals, derivatives, differential equations, and all of the other stuff I've forgotten from years of math classes? Look no further than Wolfram Alpha. It's more than just a graph generator and equation-solver, though. Wolfram Alpha offers data on everything from finances to books, movies and music, and it's often quicker than the equivalent Google Search.

Is it worth $50? That depends on what you intend to use it for, but it's certainly less expensive (and less bulky) than a graphing calculator.

[via Mashable]

Filed under: Developer, Web services, Search

Wolfram Alpha gets an iPhone app and a developer API

Wolfram Alpha was hyped as better than Google for finding certain info, especially in the areas of math and science computation, but the hype died down a bit when people realized that it was finicky and a bit tricky to use. Wolfram Alpha hasn't gone away, though. In fact, they've just announced an API for developers and a new iPhone app. It's quite possible that third-party applications harnessing the power of Wolfram Alpha might prove more popular than the engine itself.

The iPhone app, due to be released soon, is sort of a demonstration of what developers can do with the API. It should be a big improvement on the iPhone-optimized version of the Wolfram Alpha site. It will be interesting to see what uses developers find for Wolfram Alpha, because the problem with the site is that it requires more specific, more complex search queries than most users are going to bother with. Third-party apps could narrow those queries down, and direct users toward some of the things Wolfram Alpha does really well.

[via Mashable]

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The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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