Courier: First Details of Microsoft’s Secret Tablet
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.
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.
How rather cool! No doubt there will be those that 'diss' the product because it imitates a book, but hell, its different and kinda cool!
And it would seem the Microsoft backrooms have outdone Apple - with the rumoured for how long now? Apple Tablet. The Courier has some very neat features, and comes as part of the novel concepts Microsoft have been developing, including the Tabletop. Yet to prove itself technically and to the market, this might be an interesting bun-fight between the two monolithic organisations.
I guess, if nothing else, Apple, as they sometimes do, could always take a look at Courier and then start work on the MacTablet! ;)
Read the full story @ www.gizmodo.com.au.
Sylvestor
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