Microsoft’s City Art Search app now documents more than 8,000 great works

By Brad Jones July 31, 2017

microsoft city art search app lock screen — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Microsoft has released a new update to its City Art Search app, making it an even more comprehensive directory of the world’s greatest works of art. It now covers a total of 8,614 different artworks, situated in major metropolitan areas all over the world.

The idea behind the City Art Search app is to give users a way to seek out fine art in a number of different ways. It’s possible to search by artist, by the century the piece was produced in, or even by artistic movement.

The app’s main focus is directing users toward the galleries and museums where they can see particular pieces of art in person. You can specify a city or even a particular gallery, and find out which well known works are situated in that area, making it a great tool for people who want to take in some culture while they’re travelling.

Of course, it’s impossible for the app to document every single piece of art in every single gallery worldwide, so Microsoft started out documenting many of the big hitters of the art world. Girl with a Pearl Earring, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, and The Great Wave off Kanagawa are just a few of the instantly recognizable paintings that were added early on.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

With the app’s database now fleshed out, it’s becoming an increasingly powerful tool whether you’re touring the galleries of Europe or enjoy some art closer to home in North America. It seems that Microsoft will continue to add more entries with each new version. This update also contributes some minor improvements to the user interface, bug fixes, and some data cleansing.

The City Art Search app also offers art lovers a neat way to beautify their Windows devices. Outside of its search capabilities, there’s the option to set the Lock Screen to display a different work from its collection every hour, according to a report from MS Power User.

Microsoft’s City Art Search app is available now for free via the Windows Store, for devices running Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows 8.1, and Windows 8.1 Mobile.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

Computing

Best home internet deals for September 2024: AT&T, Spectrum, Optimum and more

how to optimize wifi network for work from home wrt1900acs router position location direction improve signal

for better or for worse, much of our modern world relies on the internet to access the very basic things in life, whether it's your banking information or your entertainment content; having a good internet connectino is important. Luckily, there are quite a lot of options out there these days, and some of them go beyond just providing you with internet, and can often include options for unlimited phone plans and TV channels. That's probably great if you enjoy streaming movies, live sports, and TV shows since they tend to eat up a lot of data, so going for a bundled deal can certainly save you quite a bit of extra money in the process.

So whether you want to cut the cord, improve your online gaming experience, or just upgrade your sluggish internet service to a faster one, this up-to-date roundup of the best high-speed internet deals and bundles is the place to start. Thankfully, the ubiquity of high-speed internet means you can get the bandwidth you need at cheaper prices than ever before. As fiber-optic networks roll out across the country, gigabit internet is also more accessible. You should also check out these wireless router deals to save even more money on equipment rental fees.
Best home internet deals

Computing

Best 2-in-1 laptop deals: Turn your laptop into a tablet for $349

Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 7 laptop sits on a small desk folded like a tent.

If you find that your traditional laptop isn't quite doing it for you in terms of workflow, then you might want to consider taking some of what the best tablets and the best laptops have and combining them together in the form of 2-in-1 laptops. These can offer a ton of versatility to your workflow, such as being able to use them in handheld mode for drawing or presenting, as well as the fact that most, if not all, are touch-enabled, so you don't even have to use a mouse if you don't want to.
There are, of course, a ton of great choices out there, but some of the best 2-in-1 laptops can get quite expensive, especially when you're buying them from some of the best laptop brands out there. That's why we've gone out and looked for our favorite 2-in-1 laptop deals to help save you some effort. Be sure to check all our picks below.

Asus Chromebook Plus 2-in-1 -- $349, was $499

Computing

Best Apple Studio Display deals: Save $299 on 5K monitors

Apple Mac Studio and Studio Display.

If you're working on things that require a high-end monitor with excellent resolution and image fidelity, then the Apple Studio Display is what you're looking for, especially if you're in the Apple ecosystem and using things like the Apple MacBook Pro and the Apple MacBook Air. As a 5k monitor, it blows a lot of other monitors out of the water, although it does come with a deep price tag, so if you're the sort of creative pro that's looking to up their game, you'll likely want to grab yourself a good monitor deal. Lukcily, you can get some good discounts on the Apple Studio Display, depending on which model your looking for, and if you're thinking of pairing this with a new Apple computer, check out some of these Apple deals as well.
Apple Studio Display — $1,300, was $1,599

The Apple Studio Display is one of the more premium monitors on the market. It’s not to be confused with the Apple Pro Display XDR, which is Apple’s professional, high end monitor. And while the Apple Studio Display and Pro Display XDR have some similarities, the Studio Display comes in at a much lower price tag. It has a 27-inch screen that comes with 5K resolution and 600 nits of brightness, as well as support for one billion colors and the P3 wide color gamut. It also has a six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio, which makes it a great place to sit down and watch movie.