Posts Tagged ‘search box’

Bing For iPad Reinvents Multitouch Gestures

Microsoft just released an update to their popular search engine app, Bing for iPad. In this new release, developers have created a new way to search for words or phrases using a touch gesture called Lasso.

No more selecting words, copying, pasting, selecting the search box, pasting and entering (Apparently there are nine steps to copying and pasting a word into a search engine, but I could only come up with these six). Just two simple steps will get you to the search you are looking for.

On its blog site, the Bing developer team discusses the idea behind Lasso. From doing some research, the team realized that most searches come from articles that people are reading. You might be reading the latest news about the iTunes Festival in London and an article might mention something about the festival’s venue, The Roadhouse. You want to know more about The Roadhouse, so you copy and paste the name into your search engine. This can be tedious on the iPad, you have to aim it just right in order to select the word you want, and if you want more than one word, you have to stretch out that little highlighted text bobble. Lasso takes the effort out by letting you just touch the lasso icon and move your finger across the word or words that you want to search. You don’t even have to put it in the search box. It will automatically search once you have selected the text.

‘Lasso’ in action (note: this video will not play on an iOS device)

In addition to the technologically advanced new Lasso feature, Bing has made improvements to the movie search. You can now view multiple show time days and theaters. There are also improvements to the history search, the homepage and much more.

Bing skyrocketed in popularity by being the first search engine to truly utilize the iPad’s features. Instead of a web browser style scroll down and select app, Bing utilizes page swipes and offers a visually rich selection of categories to choose from. You can download it for free in the app store including the new Lasso feature today.

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Get a Taste of Google Chrome on your iPad with iChromy

iChromy, a Chrome clone for the iPad, hit the App Store earlier today. While the new browser does not use any of the code available over at the Chromium project, the end result surely looks like Chrome anyway – even the app icon is inspired by Google’s browser.

Just like Chrome, the browser is focused on tab browsing, and blurs the line between searching and browsing the web, as the address bar doubles as a Google search box. The app still has a ‘beta’ feel to it, as it does not allow you to perform basic tasks such as re-organizing tabs, but still, the browser is worth a try, especially given that iChromy is free.

iChromy offers the following features:

• Tabs on top, to open, switch and close tabs
• Omnibox, to type search keywords or URL in one box
• Extra space for the web content, as the address bar will be hidden automatically when you scroll down the page, so you get the the extra space for web content (to show the address bar, just tap the tab again)
• Offline reading, via a one-click option to save a page to a reading list, to view them offline
• Sharing, via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Diigo and Instapaper, to name a few
• Context search, to search directly from the context menu
• Last but not list, the ability to open link in new tabs (simply tap on a ling and hold for a while)

iChromy weighs less than 3 MB, and can be downloaded here.

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Terra Web Browser – iPad App Review

From the creators of the ReaddleDocs office suite comes Terra, a web browser meant to extend beyond what Safari can offer.

Most iPad users will agree that there isn’t anything -wrong- with mobile Safari, but I believe you’ll also hear from them that there are a few things that aren’t quite right. Terra addresses those items by having implemented a wish list of features.

• Tabbed browsing is available on the iPad and without an upper limit on the number of tabs you can have!
• Fully offline browsing option allows for download and go web browsing of full sites as well as associated files.
• Navigate using swipes! Two fingers from right to left will go to the previous/next page while three fingers move you between tabs.
• Import bookmarks from Safari, Firefox and Chrome, making it easy to transfer your favorites from a computer.
• Open any document or file with an association (such as .doc, .docx, .rtf) simply by selecting it.
• File sharing is easy because all downloaded files are available in your Documents folder within iTunes.
• Search box is available in the browser menu bar (Google is the default search engine but this can be updated using the browser settings).
• Print wirelessly with AirPrint.

What I liked: I love tabbed browsing. I especially love being able to switch between tabs with a three-fingered swipe. Also, the addition of fully featured offline browsing could be very valuable for those of us on limited data plans or WiFi only devices.

What I didn’t like: Not being able to change the default browser in iOS means there are limits to a full adoption of Terra. While this is beyond the control of this app, it’s still a consideration.

To buy or not to buy: When you consider that Terra is free, it’s hard not to recommend giving it a try.

• App Name: Terra – Web Browser with Tabs, Full Screen and Offline
• Version Reviewed: 1.2
• Category: Productivity
• Developer: Igor Zhadanov
• Price: Free
• Score:

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Quintura Kids for iPad – First Look