Microsoft Courier

[SDSD]

Damn, this thing looks pretty sweet. Gizmodo has some pretty sweet pictures of it too.

http://www.imagebeast.net/images/lsu...9l6j6za0pa.jpg

It feels like the whole world is holding its breath for the Apple tablet. But maybe we've all been dreaming about the wrong device. This is Courier, Microsoft's astonishing take on the tablet.

To watch the video, you'll first need to install the flash player.
' Courier is a real device, and we've heard that it's in the "late prototype" stage of development. It's not a tablet, it's a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. They're connected by a hinge that holds a single iPhone-esque home button. Statuses, like wireless signal and battery life, are displayed along the rim of one of the screens. On the back cover is a camera, and it might charge through an inductive pad, like the Palm Touchstone charging dock for Pre.

Until recently, it was a skunkworks project deep inside Microsoft, only known to the few engineers and executives working on it—Microsoft's brightest, like Entertainment & Devices tech chief and user-experience wizard J. Allard, who's spearheading the project. Currently, Courier appears to be at a stage where Microsoft is developing the user experience and showing design concepts to outside agencies.

Microsoft has a history of collaborating with other firms, especially in the E&D division: Zune and Xbox have both gone through similar design processes. (And plans for the Microsoft Store leaked through a third-party agency were confirmed as genuine prototype layouts and concepts.) This video is branded Pioneer Studios, a Microsoft division within E&D that specializes in this kind of work, working with another agency that's a long-time Microsoft collaborator on confidential projects.

The Courier user experience presented here is almost the exact opposite of what everyone expects the Apple tablet to be, a kung fu eagle claw to Apple's tiger style. It's complex: Two screens, a mashup of a pen-dominated interface with several types of multitouch finger gestures, and multiple graphically complex themes, modes and applications. (Our favorite UI bit? The hinge doubles as a "pocket" to hold items you want move from one page to another.) Microsoft's tablet heritage is digital ink-oriented, and this interface, while unlike anything we've seen before, clearly draws from that, its work with the Surface touch computer and even the Zune HD.

Over the next couple days we'll be diving much, much deeper into Courier, so stay tuned

Hattip Gizmodo

[SephYuyX]

Oh wow, I heard rumors about this months ago. It looks really sharp, hope it comes out soon and doesnt cost an arm and a leg.

[Akucaen]

Now that actually looks pretty damn cool but really useful as well. I'm looking forward to seeing the potential uses for it.

[Alishe]

Bet it cost way too much compared to it's usefulness to an average person.

[scrockstar]

if the price is about the same as a netbook I could see this selling a ton of units.

[Minions]

if the price is about the same as a netbook I could see this selling a ton of units.

With Microsoft's $100+ wifi adapters for the xbox360, and previous other releases I highly doubt it. This is generally the fate of most tablets, they either suffer from design flaws, defects and lack of QC, or they are overly expensive, causing most people not to buy them.

[Takedown3]

saw this on engadget today, looks very cool and i could certainly see it being a big seller if the price is around 400$++ and it has some major processing power