Microsoft launches Picturesque, a free lock screen app for Android

Microsoft Garage, where the company’s employees churn out experimental ideas, has now launched a new lock screen for Android, dubbed Picturesque. The Picturesque lock screen has been designed only for Android and shows Bing’s home page imagery from the past six days. This means, it pulls the Bing home page image as your background and lets you access images from the past week, probably why it’s named Picturesque. At a glance, it looks good as a second home screen. It shows updates like weather, notifications, latest news and also search feature that allows users to search via Bing without leaving the lock screen. [caption id=“attachment_253050” align=“aligncenter” width=“281”]  You can even add on your favourite apps on the lock screen[/caption] However, it lacks a layer of security and doesn’t really help you completely lock down your device in case you do not already have a security lock. It isn’t very quick at loading, points out Cnet. However, the report also adds that this doesn’t mean the app isn’t efficient. Picturesque is the second lock screen to come out of Microsoft Garage. Last year in October, the experimental ideas had resulted into the Next Lock screen that was aimed at business users with calendar feed and the ability to get into conference calls with a single swipe. Picturesque aims to let people who do not use Microsoft services, to get a taste of Bing and other Microsoft apps. It has a settings page where in you can add your favourite apps to the Picturesque home screen, however if you have a security lock installed, will still have to unlock the phone to be able to use it.