The latest killer application for the Windows Mobile phones is the newly updated Windows Mobile Live Search. Some of the key features that I like are:
- Speech recognition - no typing required, nice when your thumbs are not available :)
- Gas Prices - A new icon on the icon bar that lists all the best gas prices for gas stations surrounding the location that you specify
- Movies - You can view a list of all movies and narrow down where you want to go watch a movie from there or you can view all movie theatres and view the movies that are showing.
- Traffic - Real-time traffic report - I do prefer the detailed views (i.e. carpool) of ASI SmartPhlow (Internal Microsoft Application) but it only works for the Seattle area. This is a great alternative.
- Driving Directions - I love this because I can be in downtown Seattle and type an address and get turn by turn directions. I can also select a step in the direction and view a map of those directions, it's really slick.
- Installation - You can install this directly from your windows mobile phone by selecting the link titled "New! Search Download" on http://mobile.live.com - No need for a PC to sync your phone, this is how all applications for mobile phones should install, I shouldn't need to connect my phone to a PC to install any applications for it unless that application requires synchronizing to my PC.
- Automatic Updating - I launched the application the other day and was notified of the update which included the new Speech recognition.
This application blows all other search applications for mobile devices out of the water. I have to say this is one of the best Windows Live applications across all platforms (i.e. PC, mobile, etc.). Congrats Windows Live on a hell of an application.
Windows Mobile Live Search