Microsoft's new Bing app for the iPad brings a whiff of Metro UI that is likely to power Win 8

If you've never used Bing on your iPad, you might never notice the new interface Microsoft has coined for it, and it is definitely worth trying it out. Designed with a hint of the Metro UI concept that found its way into Windows Phone 7, the new Bing app is spurring rumors around the blogosphere that this will actually be the interface philosophy behind Windows 8, at least in its tablet reincarnation.

We've already posted a couple of news items revealing the presence of WP7's minimalistic style in leaked screenshots of the Windows 8 and Office 15 interfaces. And we have various sources claiming that Win 8 will have two interface versions, a flexible 3D one for the desktop, and a Live Tile-based one for the tablet, similar to what Windows Phone 7 offers at the moment.

Now the new Bing app for the iPad might turn out to be a harbinger of things to come for the actual programs running on Windows 8, and we definitely like what we are seeing. It's been rebuilt completely for the tablet realities, and tiles are used far and wide within the app. If this is what's expecting us with Windows 8 and its ARM-based slates, we might have a new powerful tablet contender very soon, this time with all the legacy and driver power of Windows behind it.

via WMPowerUser