WP7 - Enable Voice Bing Search in the UK

[bagg3rs]

By changing your Display Language (under > settings Region & Languages) to English United States) you can then hold down the Windows key and Find (search) Bing not just start Applications and call people) e.g "find premiere league results" which worked first time!

There are downsides listed in here, though miles isn't an issue here.

Workaround to enable local business listings and voice search on Windows Phone 7 in Australia – istartedsomething

"The two downside to this workaround is that all distances will be provided in miles instead of kilometers and “News” results will source US publishers than Australian ones. Pain worth suffering in my opinion."

 

[Vito Scaletta]

I don't understand why they removed this function from the UK? My best guess is that it wasn't intended to work with non-American accents but it does seem to work fine for me.

It's worth noting that on the HTC HD7 the language can't be changed to outside Europe. But it's fine on the Samsung Omnia 7, don't know about all the other phones.

 

[bagg3rs]

I guess it depends on what type of accent you have, I imagine some parts of the UK could cause it to struggle!

Also I don't know why they removed the postcode and other smart links from emails etc from UK. Guessing this stuff will come shortly, still enjoying WP7 though!

 

[McPhee]

I'd wager all that stuff is still in testing. It doesnt matter if the functionality works or not, it still won't be released until it's been properly tested. Could be a big update come January (or we could all be bitterly disappointed).