IT Jobs
Microsoft rumours: New bing, maps, thin laptops
Announcements leaked via Twitter.
By Nancy Gohring
Published: 10:15 GMT, 11 September 09
Microsoft employees have leaked some tidbits of information revealed to them at the company's annual meeting on Thursday.
Many employees said in Twitter messages that an update to the company's Bing search engine will come out as early as next week. "Bing 2.0, out this month, has some exciting new features. Imagine seeing maps plus pics from the neighborhood of a restaurant to try," Monte Enbysk, senior editor at Microsoft Office Live, wrote.
Employees also reported getting a sneak peek at some new laptops that will be coming out with Windows 7. Those from Dell and Sony will be the "world's thinnest," wrote Bob Caswell, another Microsoft employee.
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Dell put up a new Web page on Wednesday showing an Adamo laptop that measures just 9.9 mm (0.4 inches) at its thinnest point. But Dell called it a "design concept," and it wasn't clear if it would be commercially available any time soon. Apple offers the best-known thin laptop, the MacBook Air, measuring 0.76 inches at its thinnest point.
Microsoft employees also made some amusing comments on Twitter. "My iPhone is a useless brick at Safeco field," Omar Shahine, a lead program manager at Windows Live, wrote. The meeting is being held at the Safeco baseball field in downtown Seattle. The message could mean that so many employees were using their iPhones, produced by rival Apple, that the wireless network was overloaded.
A Microsoft spokesman did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the meeting. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley first reported the Twitter messages about Bing 2.0.
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