Quick and personalisable updates announced for five Windows 8 apps

Following the launch of five Bing apps for Windows 8 in October, Microsoft is pleased to announce significant updates are now rolling out across News, Sport, Travel, Finance and Maps.

Including useful and personalisable features, the app updates are designed to help you get to the information you want faster. 

News


This customisable app is perfect for those who want their news personalised, allowing you to keep tabs on specific story categories, topics, or news sources that matter most. The Bing News app now also supports RSS feeds and offline reading so it’s perfect for commuters with limited internet access. For those of you who like to get international news from international publishers, you can now select content from major publishers around the world to include alongside your favourite local and national sources. 

Sport


With 29 additional sports leagues, the Bing Sport app is perfect for keeping up with your favourite team and includes more than 65 leagues and sports, covering the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Scottish Premier League, Rugby, Cricket, Tennis, Golf and more. Truly a one-stop shop, you can swipe through the app to get an overview of the top sports headlines, scores, schedules, standings, statistics and more. In addition, you’re now able to personalise your experience, allowing you to track the leagues and teams you’re most interested in, pinning favourites to the start screen to get Live Tile updates as they happen.

Travel


Now with additional travel content from Lonely Planet, TripAdvisor, Frommer’s and Frodor’s, the Bing Travel app is the best place for planning your next holiday. Not only does it allow you to check out local attractions, restaurants and activities, this great app also lets you book flights and hotels directly within the app, filtering by price, amenities and more.  Plus, the Travel app also includes striking photos and 360 degree panoramas, meaning you can truly dive into your destination.

Finance


Allowing you to keep tabs on your portfolio and gauge performance of stocks at a glance, the Bing Finance app now includes an updated watch-list, real-time stock updates across nine markets and customisable interactive charts. This great app also includes six helpful personal finance calculators, including mortgage, currency, savings, financial, loan and retirement tools. Be sure to keep up to date with the latest financial headlines within the Bing Finance app too with multiple content partners including Wall Street Journal. 

Maps


With more features to help you find quicker ways to get to your destination, the Bing Maps app now supports improved driving, transit and walking directions, as well as up-to-the minute traffic incidents notifications including construction and accidents. 

For those in London, walking and transit directions are combined, so whether you’re travelling to a friend’s house or going to watch the football on a Saturday, you’ll know exactly how long your journey should take from door-to-door. Transit takes into consideration Bus, Underground, Docklands Light Rail (DLR) and Overground data.

With the swipe of a finger, you can also save your favourite places to one convenient location within the app, making it faster and easier to access the places that matter most.  What’s more, you can sync your favourite places across all of your Windows 8 devices, ensuring seamless access.

Perfect if you’re looking for news from your favourite source, conditions at a nearby ski resort, or even highlights from last night’s Scottish Premier League matches, the Bing apps for Windows 8 are ideal for helping you to find what you’re looking for, and to quickly get things done. 

To download the latest versions of the Bing apps, visit the Windows Store from your Windows 8 device and click on the text notification for updates in the upper-right of the screen.  From there, all you need to do is select the Bing apps and touch ‘Install Updates’. The Bing Weather app update is due soon – we’ll keep you updated.