If you're one of the trendy hipsters driving a Smart Fortwo, here's another way of pimping up your ride: Daimler has announced a Q2 2010 launch for its Smart Drive kit for the iPhone. As pictured above, the kit consists of a cradle for handsfree communication plus charging, and an app that "combines all the features needed on the road" by the means of "extra-large buttons and extra-large letters." You'll get access to your usual music library (plus Internet radio), contacts, phone functions and map by Daimler (points-of-interest data from Microsoft Bing). There's also

Google is on the downswing with Beijing completely banning the search engine unless it complies to the native legal requirements. There is more bad news for Google lovers as speculations are abound that Google may be replaced by Bing as the default search browser on the iPhone. Apple and Microsoft have been negotiating for weeks to see the plan through.

Apple and Google have shared a nice relationship until now but, with Google targeting the smartphone market with its Nexus One handset, the two have become competitors of a sort. This is a

Ready to get your Bing on, iPhone owners? That curious little Microsoft search engine you shrugged off just a few months ago could become a mainstay in your daily routine if BusinessWeek's sources are correct. According to a pair of persons familiar with the matter, Apple and Microsoft are discussing dropping Google as the default search engine on Apple's somewhat popular handset -- talks that have been underway for "weeks," apparently. BW paints the move as further evidence of an escalating rivalry between Apple and Google. In fact, one BW source claims that,

It’s obvious that Microsoft (with its Bing search engine) has been busy trying to mount a serious challenge against Google’s dominance in the search business. Unfortunately it ran into a tiny pothole on Thursday evening when the Bing.com website went down, resulting in a browser error message when users went to the site. Microsoft has since acknowledged the issue on Twitter, and has confirmed that it’s looking into the matter. Do you recall when Google’s main site was down?

Microsoft's efforts to try and claw back some of Google's utter dominance in the search arena look to be paying off as it nabbed another 1 per cent of the US market.

The company's Bing search engine climbed to 9.43 per cent of the US market in July, up from 8.23 per cent last June.

When you add in the numbers from Yahoo after the two companies agreed a joint search and advertising deal, the portion grows to a shade over 20 per cent.

Google's dominance suffered slightly as a result, with the company's US market share slipping from 77.54 per cent

Bing, Microsoft's new search engine, has had several weeks to prove its worth. It's proved popular, picking up market share from both Yahoo and Google to become the second most used search service on the web.

But there's more to Bing than first meets the eye. Like Google, it has hidden depths and additional features. Here are ten useful bits of Bing you may have missed.

1. Get more from the US

Most of Bing's mash-up functionality is embedded in the US version of the site. You don't need an anonymised proxy - like hidemyass.com

Microsoft's new search engine Bing has made inroads into the search market with ComScore suggesting that it now has an 8.4 per cent share, with Google holding steady at 65 per cent.

The full month figures from ComScore for June have shown that the steep gains made in the opening fortnight slowed, but the news will nonetheless buoy Microsoft after it took the decision to relaunch its search.

However, there are already murmurs that the true impact of Bing will not be known until it has been up and running for a quarter – and the novelty of a new

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has expressed her doubts that Bing will finally crack the search market for Microsoft.

The arrival of Bing, backed by a massive marketing budget, represents Microsoft's latest attempt to gain a bigger market share in internet search.

But Bartz, speaking at the Bank of America US Tech conference, said that a short term uplift would not lead to any kind of key market shift.

No scale

"They're not going to get scale through Bing," insisted Bartz . "They're going to get some temporary

Microsoft has unveiled its television advert for Bing, suggesting that its new search engine means that search overload is 'officially over'.

Bing in Microsoft's latest attempt to start grabbing some search audience back from Google – by far the most dominant search engine in the US and the UK.

With Steve Ballmer telling the All Things Digital Conference that the marketing budget for Bing even made him gulp, the campaign is likely to be long and ubiquitous, although Microsoft in Britain will only start pushing the product when it comes out of beta

Microsoft's Bing search engine officially launches on Wednesday, but as it's already live in the UK, we've been cantering around the site, gathering together our early thoughts. Microsoft is placing a lot of expectations on its new search engine and has wasted no time in building it up by calling it a "decision engine".

But it's got a job on its hands; the corporation's previous efforts at improved search offerings have been met with widespread indifference.

Can Bing break Microsoft's search woes? It's too early to say. After all, Bing