We were originally planning to do everything in one massive post, but we think it would have been a little too massive. So for today you're getting Part 1 of our hands-on time with the Windows Phone Mango Emulator. Surprisingly, Bing is probably the one area of Mango that is receiving the most new end-user features. But then again, Windows Phone has been notoriously lacking in features compared to other platforms' Bing apps so it was about time Microsoft did something about it. Join us after the break for the new changes we spotted and why you may just fall in love with Bing again.
Let's start with basic searching, which has received some small but cool additions. There's a new feature called Quick Cards which is basically a general chunk of info for things like movies, restaurants, and more. We tested out the feature by looking up The Hangover: Part II and it worked quite well as we could see basic info and showtimes for theaters. From there jumped into a Quick Card after we picked one of the local theaters listed. Locations seem to show more info than movies featuring options like address, neighborhood (we'll come back to that later), "Buzz" (Bing user reviews), and in the case of a movie theater more showtimes for their movies. (You can see screenshots of those at the bottom of this section.) Quick Cards looks pretty promising to replace some smaller day-to-day searches that were once limited to only using apps. Of course we know that Quick Cards will include an 'Extras' pivot that will allow apps to plug into the other options, but we didn't have any apps to load into the emulator in order to test that.
Of course, two of the most hotly-anticipated Bing features also made the cut into the emulator, but sadly Bing Vision Search was useless considering there was no way to setup a camera. But we have to say, Bing Music Search rocks (pun intended). We were able to use it by hooking up a microphone and placing it next to our speakers as we played some Wiz Khalifa. However it was hard to tell if it was working--there's no indication as to how long you need to record a song nor is there any tone/sound that goes off when it's done. But after roughly 30 seconds, Music Search did correctly recognize the song which is impressive that it recorded the snippet, uploaded it, matched it, and sent the info back down in such a short timeframe. We figure your mileage will vary depending on the strength of a data connection, but it was still pretty slick. After the results pop up in place of the previous 'Listening' screen, you can tap on it which will launch you into a Marketplace search. We were wondering why it didn't directly send us to the exact album/song page but it's possible Microsoft is using a database for recognizing music that has more songs that the Marketplace itself provides so that's probably why.
A minor but very important feature we'd like to mention is that Bing finally has Image Search! We were surprised to see that Windows Phone didn't launch with support for the pretty basic feature, but now we can't rest easy knowing it's there. Another small but delightful feature is the ability to search Bing from anywhere in the OS. For example, if you highlight a certain phrase from an article on a webpage and then press the hardware Search button you'll automatically leap into a Bing search from that phrase. We also noticed the same behavior when you press the hardware Search button while searching in the Marketplace (no text selection required here). All of that is nice for our web searching needs, but what if you're on the go and you want to know where to eat, shop, or visit? That's exactly what we'll be talking about next with...
Local Scout
This was one of the few genuine surprises Microsoft unveiled at their preview event and playing with it in person is even more exciting to think of the possibilities. We were confused as to exactly how to get to Local Scout at first, but it's actually a part of Bing. For example when you go to the main page of Bing and it recognizes your location as near one of the supported 'neighborhoods', the small black bar above the search field will change from 'Explore Map' to 'Explore [Neighborhood Name]'. You can also find the neighborhood in a location's Quick Card when searching using Bing or Bing Maps. Tapping on that launches the neighborhood's Local Scout which in our opinion is substantial enough to be considered a new Hub. Local Scout is broken down into pivots called 'Eat+Drink', 'See+Do', 'Shop', 'Favorites' and 'Highlights'. Above these pivots is a mini-Map which will actively show you the location of a place you tap on.
There's also a few more things of note we'd like to mention. First is that you can pin any locations to the Start page now which should come in handy in case you need to remember somewhere to go while you're in the area. We couldn't see where our Contacts would integrate into Local Scout like they showed in the presentation, so we're just going to have to sit tight for that one. Besides our time with Local Scout was enough to show us the feature has a ton of promise--if it's widely available. So let's say you find a place in Local Scout but you need to know how to get there. Well, that's where the next feature we're going to talk about comes in.
Turn-By-Turn Navigation
Yes it really exists and yes, it does indeed rock. The way it works is similar to how directions work right now in Windows Phone. You start off by looking up a location by using Bing Maps' 'Directions' button in the app-bar. Once it finds your destination, an overlay similar to NoDo with directions and a small map preview appears. However a few things in this screen have changed; the text for the directions is much larger now (probably to work better with car docks) and you now have the ability to interact with that small map preview, so you can still see your directions while looking at your route. However the biggest change is one that's required for any good navigation service: voice guidance! As you follow directions, the voice guidance will actively tell you directions and how to reach your destination, which is pretty useful.
That's pretty much it for turn-by-turn navigation. So far we only have one small complaint: there's no dedicated app in order to start navigation. This is a place where it took Android a little longer to get right, but Navigation is offered in a separate app in that OS and also offers a car-friendly app with big icons and simpler controls. We can't help but think Microsoft should be imitating Google in this area, but as of right now we don't see that available. Then again it could be available and maybe we just don't have access to it so it's likely we're complaining for no reason.
Well that's it for Part 1 of our hands-on with the Windows Phone emulator and as you can tell, there's already a lot that we've talked about. If you're ready for more, check out Part 2 now!
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar