Microsoft has launched an app for Apple’s iPhone. Microsoft and Apple are traditional rivals in the operating systems market, but that has not prevented the world’s largest software company from launching an application for the iPhone.

Seadragon Mobile is free to download from Apple’s iTunes App Store and gives users the ability to access online photo libraries either using the phone’s 3G or Wi-Fi connection.

These include images available of Microsoft’s Photosynth site, which allows users to stitch together hundred of digital photographs to create a 3D image that can then be looked at from all angles, or even viewed in close-up detail.

The apps also offers an RSS feed so users can be notified when new content is made available.

The U.K.’s advertising regulator banned a video advertisement for Apple’s 3G iPhone, saying Wednesday that the ad exaggerates the phone’s speed and is misleading.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received 17 complaints about the advertisement, which shows a person whizzing through tasks such as opening a news page in a browser, using Google Maps and downloading a file.

All of the tasks “had waiting times of only a fraction of a second,” the ASA said in a statement. A voice over says no less than five times that the 3G iPhone is “really fast.”

In response, Apple told the ASA that the claim is a comparison between the 3G and 2G iPhone models, and that users would understand that performance could vary. The ad did include a text disclaimer that read “Network performance will vary by location.”

However, the ASA found that the snappy visuals combined with the repetition of “really fast” would “lead viewers to conclude that the device actually operated at or near to the speeds shown in the ad.”

Also, not all mobile phone users may be aware of the differences between 2G and 3G technology, ASA said.

Apple did not have an immediate comment on the ruling.