You need to download and install Silverlight to get the new Maps experience, which isn't too big a deal. It allows you to have smoother animations when zooming in or out as well as a pretty slick looking streetview interface, with trees and buildings looking cut out from their background, if a bit crudely. This is done using Microsoft Photosynth, which analyzes digital photos and creates a 3D model of the area. It's pretty damned impressive.

The real question is this: how did Bing streetview cars cover all this ground without everyone noticing? [Fast Company; Bing Maps]

Highlights:
AT&T — 35% cashback (iPhone excluded, unfortunately)
T-Mobile — 35% cashback
Dell — 20% cashback
HP — 20% cashback
Lenovo — 20% cashback
Walmart — 15% cashback
Overstock — 15% cashback

The Rest:
Sears — 8-13% cashback
Circuit City — 8-12.2% cashback
Tiger Direct — 8—12.2% cashback
eBay — 8-10% cashback
Best Buy — 5-10& cashback
Buy.com — 5% cashback

Keep in mind it takes up to 60 days until your money is available, but hey, free money later is better than no free money at all. [Bing via Cheap Ass Gamer]

The Financial Times reports that both companies have discussed the idea, though talks are still at an early stage. It's also hard to imagine Bing becoming the exclusive place to search for News Corp content, like the Wall Street Journal, any time soon. As soon as a smaller blog links to a News Corp story, it'll be straight back on Google. The "new" search wars have well and truly begun. [Financial Times via Business Insider]

Apple Patent Describes iPod UI "Pushed" to Other Devices

An Apple patent filed in May 2008 describes a way of pushing whatever UI Apple wants to non-Apple hardware, for consistency's sake. That non-Apple hardware could include car stereos or something like the Chumby One (which has iPod functionality, but with a lookalike UI). It's a nice idea for Apple, but could be tricky given the myriad different hardware that might want to take advantage. What if the hardware has a resistive touchscreen, or a shitty processor? Might it just be better to use a custom interface for iPod integration? Regardless, it's in Remainders because it's not really that unexpected or interesting in its implications. [MacRumors]

Philips Announces Very Pretty Pro LCD Line

Philips' new high-end LCD line looks pretty fantastic, with two important caveats. First, let's drool a little: The two models (40- and 46-inch) have a 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 1ms response time, 5 HDMI ports (not sure why you'd need that many, but whatever) and a 200Hz refresh rate, with a nice brushed-aluminum look. Now, the caveats. First, they're UK only, and second, they're prohibitively expensive at about $3,000 and $4,100, respectively. Still, drool-worthy. [Engadget]

NYTimes Columnist Proposes Boycott of "Pro-Communist China" Bing

NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has proposed a boycott of Microsoft's Bing search engine due to its supposed pro-Chinese-government censorship of search terms like "Dalai Lama" and "Tienanmen" when searched in simplified Chinese characters. In English and other non-Chinese languages, the results you'd expect from "Tienanmen" show up, but in Chinese, apparently it returns sanitized results (no massacre, in that case). Since I'm not really sure how to type simplified Chinese characters on an all-Amurrican MacBook Pro keyboard, I haven't tested it myself—but if true, it's a little underhanded on Microsoft's part, although certainly paling in comparison to, you know, the Chinese government. What's odd is that Google's Chinese search also returns censored results, but "to a much lesser extent," so I guess it's okay. Weird stuff. [TechFlash]

Ooma Adds New Handsets and International Plan

Internet phone company Ooma began shipping its new Telo handset as well as offering a very cheap international calling plan (500 minutes for $5 per month). Ooma, for those who don't know (I assume this includes everyone) varies from other VoIP services like Vonage by cutting out the monthly fees, instead packing them into a fairly expensive set-top box, at $250. So this international plan requiring a monthly fee is a big deal for them, but it winds up in Remainders because I honestly had not even heard of Ooma until this morning. Oops. [Electronista]

Is there anything more fun than sitting around, growing your hair, drinking a Bud while listening to Jethro Tull and pondering how to change the balance of power in the search world and unseat Google?

Would the top 1k most visited sites take a cool $1mm each, plus a commitment from Microsoft or Yahoo to drive traffic through their search engines to more than make up for the lost Google Traffic.

Given the increasing power that Google wields, it's an interesting thought. But that upfront cost wouldn't get past Microsoft's stock holders, let alone the US government's anti-competition watchdogs. Nice pot-stirring though, Mark. [Mark Cuban via The Register]

Wolfram Alpha will still live on as a standalone site, since Microsoft is just licensing their search API for Bing. And to be fair, this is what most people—including us—envisioned for Wolfram Alpha from the start:

I'm aware of the theoretical differences between the two, and I'm sure Wolfram Alpha's creators' blood would boil at the thought, but the engine's most natural home might be as a direct complement to Google, as a tab on their homepage or as a replacement for their modest current nonsearch functions.

Well, uh, almost. Maybe this'll be a good time to give Bing another shot? [CNET]

Apple Stomps Over Nokia to Become Most Profitable Phone-Maker in US

Despite being in the game for just over two years, gaining only a 2.5% national marketshare and selling only one main model at a time, Apple is now the most profitable maker of phones in the US market, taking the lead spot from Nokia. Apple's operating profit was half a billion dollars more than Nokia's this summer, mostly due to a high profit margin on smartphones—Nokia barely competes in the States in the smartphone category. Nokia doesn't seem inclined to initiate the kind of aggressive push into the US (they're mostly focused on their native Europe) that would be required to compete, so it looks like Apple will continue to sleep on giant beds of cash. It ends up in Remainders because this kind of thing is really only pressing news to Apple shareholders and the kind of weirdos that watch CNBC. [Electronista]

Windows Mobile 7 Is on Track for an Early 2010 Release to OEMs

ZDNet Taiwan reports that Microsoft is on track for an imminent release of Windows Mobile 7, the long-awaited overhaul of the soul-killing WinMo OS. It should be released to OEMs in the first quarter of 2010, which is in line for a spring 2010 general release. Hopefully it won't feel outdated so far in the future. This story landed in Remainders because, well, it's a rumor stating a project is on track for a release a long time in the future. Not the most exciting news ever. [ZDNet via WMPowerUser via Engadget]

Bing Videos Aggregates Hulu, YouTube, ABC and More

This is actually really cool: Bing has begun aggregating videos into its search results, pulling video from sites like Hulu, YouTube and ABC (as well as Microsoft's own MSN Video) into one clean homepage. It allows for easy searching and organization, plus a standard UI (which includes dimming and sharing features). The rollout started today and will continue to expand over the next few days, and can be accessed here. [Bing]

Non-Apple Companies to Support Mini DisplayPort Soon

I hate Mini DisplayPort. I hate proprietary jacks, I hate having to buy a $20 adapter, and I hate capitalization in the middle of words. But I have a MacBook Pro (more mid-word capitalization!) and I have to deal with it, so I guess I'm glad that VESA, the Video Electronics Standards Association, has agreed to adopt mDP as a legitimate branch of DisplayPort. That, coupled with Apple's recent decision to grant no-fee licenses so companies can develop products for it, means Mini DisplayPort could start being more than an annoying Apple idea. Expect accessories using the new standard to start popping up fairly soon. [Ars Technica]

Watch it, share it, do what you like. And if you just want the short and sweet, here again are our five featured bits (shot and edited by Mike Short):

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: "It Doesn't Matter What the Critics Say"
Part 3: Ballmer on Zune: Sometimes You Get It Right The Third Time?
Part 4: Ballmer on Those Crazy Ballmer YouTube Videos
Part 5: Ballmer Optimistic About Win 7, But Says Vista Is "Very Popular"

He says that uberlarge categories—"non-niche" ones, like PCs and phones that sell over 300 million units a year—won't be dominated by a single player. There'll be multiple guys in the game, and he still thinks "the software that's gonna be most popular in those phones is gonna be software that's sold by somebody who doesn't make their own phone."

Yes, this is the same Steve Ballmer who admits Microsoft boned Windows Mobile hard and is about to come out with some Microsoft-branded phones for youngsters. That's just a small of part of an interview that covers lots of ground and is definitely worth watching—it's a view of Ballmer you probably haven't seen before. [TechCrunch]

Except Visual search can't really do any of these things yet, because it's just a small collection of indexed photo albums, at least for now. Oh well! Give it a try anyway, right here. (Warning: You must be Silverlit). [Microsoft]

HandMarket App Store: Handmark's mobile client for their ample Windows Mobile app market has left beta, and by all counts, it was ready to: Navigation is easy, there are a fair number of free apps, and they've snagged some big names, like Skyfire and EA games. Waiting for Microsoft's official store is for chumps, I say.

Skyfire: Speaking of SkyFire (unnecessary abbreviation: "SkyFi"), they've updated their start page with new content. This may not sound like much, but anyone who's used the browser can attest to the start page's usefulness as a launch pad. Previously it featured Twitter, Facebook and others; now, there's search history, Gmail—awesome—and Facebook album previews. Free.

Terrestrica: A crowd-sourced geotagging/tourism app, Terrestrica just got a fair bit more useful with the addition of direct, location-tagged Picasa uploading and Twitter integration. The user-contributed map data is still a little slim, though.

Google Maps Layers: If you like your map overlays a little more, shall we say, filled out, Google Maps has just updated their excellent WinMo app with support for user layers, just like the desktop version has. It's had Latitude support, too, for a while now, which is more than can be said for, ahem, some other mobile platforms.

iDialer: I appreciate when my mobile apps have a sense of humor, and I can't help but think iDialer does: At first glance, it looks like an iPhone dialer ripoff—the kind of pathetic app that makes Windows Mobile users cringe, and iPhone fanboys feel warm and smug inside. But there's a minor detail that you shouldn't overlook: it's a seamless, easy to setup Google Voice client, too. Ha. It's donationware, so be generous.

SPB Radio: A tidy little radio app from a company that makes some of the more polished Windows Mobile apps out there today, SPB radio has a healthy directory (around 1,500 streams) of radio content and a slick, finger-friendly interface. The stations are free—it's a shame the app isn't. $10.

Windows Mobile 6.5 Emulator: It's a stretch for an app roundup, but everyone seems pretty curious about what Windows Mobile 6.5 is going to be like, so here you go: If you're not venturesome enough to install one of the many betas floating around to tubes onto your primary phone, have a go with Microsoft's free desktop emulator. You're in for a pleasant surprise, actually.

Office Communicator R2: Suits: Your preferred corporate communication app has been upgraded, and now you can log into your office's private branch exchange from anywhere, VPN-style. Neat, right! No? Just click next.

Bing: Microsoft has released a full, dedicated mobile app for its Bing search engine, which brings fuller phone integration, map searches and easier local listings compared to the regular mobile web interface. It's like all those Google search apps you've seen elsewhere, except decidedly Bingier.

Dorothy: WebKit has become the de facto mobile browser engine—it's the heart of the iPhone, Android and Symbian browsers—but Windows Mobile has been sadly neglected. Iris browser works, strictly speaking, but it's a little slow, and awkward to use (though development seems to have picked up as of late). Hopefully Dorothy, which is still in a closed private beta but looks fantastic, can fill the void.

This list is in no way definitive. If you've spotted a great app that hit the store this month, give us a heads up or let us know in the comments. Have a good rest of your weekend, everybody!

(Previously)

The game, named Page Hunt, presents users with a random Web page and then asks them to input the search terms that will put that page within a search engine's top five search results. Depending on how close to the top of the rankings their queries put the Web page, players are awarded points. In order to sweeten the experience, the game adds animations, a top-score list, bonus points and other "gamelike" features.

It's a good idea, and the game couldn't be more simple. Is it fun? Well, that depends on how bored you are at work right now. At any rate, if you have been using Bing and you want to help to fine tune their algorithm, Page Hunt can help you kill a few minutes. [Page Hunt via eWeek via PCMag]

Abu-Hadba's statement that "Most of what Google does is defensive" isn't actually the tech world's most hypocritical statement (when was the last time Microsoft created something that wasn't a version of an already-successful product?). He means that everything Google does is designed to keep their core business, search and advertising, growing and dominant. The impetus behind Chrome OS, according to him, isn't to encourage simpler and easier computing, but weirdly enough, to distract other companies from attacking its own cash cow.

This is an interesting conversation because Microsoft has been doing just that, attacking Google's core, with Bing—yet Abu-Habda doesn't see Bing as a similar distraction to stop others from attacking Microsoft's core business, Windows. So why is Microsoft allowed to venture into new-for-them waters with projects like Xbox, Zune, Silverlight, Bing and more, while Google is an inherently defensive company for announcing a ballsy new project of their own?

Microsoft might just be a bit nervous about Chrome OS, which we don't think is really warranted at this point. Microsoft's got an outrageously dominant OS marketshare, and seeing as how we know just about nothing about Chrome OS, it's quite a bit soon to be launching attacks at a product that may well not be a competitor at all. [Venture Beat via Crunchgear]

[CollegeHumor]

Ballmer's been talking about search now for the last couple years as something Microsoft needs to put more money and effort into. The failed Yahoo deal last year was one play that didn't quite work out. So they're trying Bing.

What do you think? Is search Microsoft's biggest mistake? If you ask me (you didn't), I'd say Microsoft's biggest mistake is the guy answering this question. [TGDaily]

It all hinges on your eligibility for AT&T's subsidy, but if you qualify for an upgrade, you could get a new iPhone 3GS for as little as $65.

Here's how it works:

New AT&T customers:

1. Visit ATT Wireless website and validate your email address with Premier.
2. Check your email and click the link to your ATT Premier Store.
3. Open a new tab with the same browser that your ATT Premier Store is open in.
4. Go to bing.com in the new tab and search "att wireless"
5. Click the 35% CashBack Sponsored Link
6. Sign into your CashBack account and get redirected to the main AT&T Wireless page.
7. In the top right enter the term "Premier" into the search bar.
8. Click the first link that reads "at&t premier login"
9. You will get directed to the same Premier store you have open in the original tab.
10. Congratulations, you are in the Premier store under the CashBack AT&T Site

Existing Customers:

1. Go to bing.com
2. Search "ATT WIRELESS"
3. Click the AT&T sponsored link, you will redirected (after you enter your email) to either the regular AT&T store or the Premier store depending on which account you have
4. Log in to your account and make your purchase.
5. The cashback will show up as "pending" after a couple of hours.
6. If it takes more than 48 hours for the cashback to show up, contact bing's customer service then you will asked for your order number, method of payment ( I attached my whole purchase order to the email): You cash will show up within hours

So far, there hasn't been any confirmation that this actually works, so if you try it, make sure to let us know how it worked out&. [SlickDeals via IntoMobile via TechCrunch]

First, potentially explicit images and video content will now be coming from a separate single domain, explicit.bing.net. This is invisible to the end customer, but allows for filtering of that content by domain which makes it much easier for customers at all levels to block this content regardless of what the SafeSearch settings might be. This makes it much easier for filtering software to block unwanted content if SafeSearch has been turned off.

In addition, we will begin returning source url information in the query string for images and video content so that companies who already use this method of filtering will be able to catch explicit content on Bing along with everything else they are already blocking for their customers.

So no, it won't affect your ability to get some bada-bing in the privacy of your own home, but your company or school will be able to filter all of it easily. Kudos to Microsoft to think about those who care about these things without affecting those who don't care. [Bing]

Searching for desktop backgrounds is super easy in Bing—there's even a special image size category for it. You can narrow results down by color, or type (illustration or photo) too.

Consumer tools are sort of Bing's thing. Meaning? You can get the contact numbers of any company really fast, even if they've hidden them. Which they always do.

Bing's Search categories are great for quick gadget research. Bing takes a (generally decent) guess at the most important information about the device, and provides a nice little menu of subsearches in the sidebar.

That huge image in the Bing background? It changes (almost) every day, and each one has interesting, related links embedded. It'd be nice if you could turn it off, but it's sorta fun, in the same way Google's custom logos are.
You can create an RSS feed for any search. They're not as up-to-date as a Google Alert, for example, but it's a nice way to gather and sort info on an active subject.

Bing's video preview basically solves the biggest problems with video search—terrible file naming and bad thumbnails. Special bonus for international users: You can use these long-ish previews to sneak around IP filtering for sites like Hulu and NBC. Above: Conan, from London. HA.

Bing's result previews create a little summary for each result, so you don't have to click if you're just looking for basic info. Especially effective on reference material, like dictionaries or Wikipedia.

The ad: Crammed full of memes and hard on the eyes, it's a little obnoxious! That's sort of the point, though, and it does a good job of summing of what's useful in Bing—its Decision Engine—for people who haven't really been following the story.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.So, Mobile Bing! It's a typically stripped-down mobile search site, and behaves much like Google's basic mobile site. Sadly, some of Bing's most touted features are seemingly absent. Techcrunch notes that most curated results, like health and travel info, don't work, except for shopping recommendations, which can be a little over-aggressive. That said, in my short testing I found local searches, like weather and films, to be pretty good—even from the UK. [Neowin, BGR]

In the automatically generated top links for Gizmodo are months-old links to single posts about the second Bill Gates/Seinfeld ad and leaked box shots of the Zune 16GB and 160GB models. Really?

Google's top eight, on the other hand, make a bit more sense, with links to tag pages for the Palm Pre, Steve Jobs and Space—three currently (or recently) trending topics, among others. Bing's weird results are probably just the result of some young, dumb algorithms, but they certainly don't look great.

UPDATE: Just like that, Lifehacker's got a list of cool stuff to try with Bing. [Bing—Thanks, Jagslive, Andy Scott, and Lorenc!]