Photo courtesy of Search Engine Land

Greg Sterling from Search Engine Land reviewed the new Bing iPhone app yesterday and the overall feeling is great.  Bing’s iPhone app is a testament that Microsoft has “come a long way in acknowledging the importance of the iPhone platform… and an important step for Microsoft to gain access to the mobile internet’s most active and engaged audience right now.”  He describes it as stacking “up very well and [offering] a more ‘integrated’ experience in many respects.”  Queries can be keyed in or spoken using voice search technology and he says that it is even more accurate than Google’s.  There is also map access and a location finder.  Click here for the full article.

iPhone has introduced the first accurate bar code scanner in an app called Red Laser.  It works with UPC and EAN bar codes.  Red Laser allows you to scan the bar code of any product and find the places online that offer the best prices.  You can keep a list of all your scanned items or place them on a grocery list.  You can even read reviews for books and movies that you scan to see if you want to buy them.  This is the direction that comparative shopping is moving in: making everything simpler.

Demonstration video for Red Laser: RedLaser Demo