Remember that time when you were just totally stumped for ideas on a new Nike Dunk SB color scheme? Well, if you had a
Microsoft Courier -- whose interface concepts have now been detailed extensively in a new video on
Gizmodo -- you'd have little trouble recalling the incident, thanks to fancy tools like an "infinite journal," "grid" and "search" to keep your little virtual scrapbook in order. On display are new gestures that use both the pen and fingers, and seem a little more obvious and common sense than last time around. Copying and "tucking" an image for instance (clipping it to the black binding in the center) is done with a finger, as is a swipe gesture that pulls up the browser, and another swipe that pulls up the home screen of sorts. The pen is more reserved for annotation and sketching, which seems logical. Your journals of stuff can be shared with browser-bound friends, and even packaged up into a customizable virtual Moleskine, elastic band and all. There are still plenty of missing pieces, like a virtual keyboard or pretty much any apps outside of scrapbooking and web browsing, but this iteration certainly looks a lot less theoretical and complicated than what we've seen so far.
Update: ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley
has more details from a "connected tipster" about Courier. According to her, Microsoft is running this on top of Windows 7, similar to how Microsoft Surface runs on top of Windows, and that the concept got its start as a reinvention of Microsoft's OneNote for a strictly tablet form factor. Word is that it's an "incubation project" (as opposed to a more conjectural Microsoft Research project) and Microsoft is apparently aiming for a mid-2010 release. The wildest part is that Microsoft is "leaning toward" the Xbox model of building the hardware itself, which apparently will help speed things along -- and delight hardware partners to no end, we're sure.
posted September 29th 2009 12:11PM
Lord on high...this thing keeps getting better and better each moment.
I'll bite sir.
Explain to me how it's better. If you can provide factual reasons why it's better, I'll buy an iPhone now and throw my G1 away.
@Iphoneisbetterthancourier:
Go crawl back into your Apple crate. MS or not, anyone trying to create something new and interesting should be commended. This just raises the stakes in the electronics game and we benefit. But I guess your iBrain can't seem to comprehend that, can it?
@IphoneisbetterthanCourier(aka Steve): Do you ever say anything positive?
"Android is about as open source as the iphone... it's a joke. Google is just as much a parent figure to Android as Apple is to the iphone."
"So are they going to charge a 30 dollar a month data charge AND a 10 dollar navigation charge?"
"BGR is a crap site that just covers blackberries, verizon and At&t. They have very little objectivity in their reporting or reviews."
"Paul A. Chapel.
Eat $hit you liberal puke"
"the soon to be announced tablet will destroy it"
So your 8 year rumored tablet will destroy this design concept?
I mean, at least Microsoft has a track record in tablets which makes this a little more credible. Apple on the other hand has said nothing about a tablet and has repeatedly denied interest in making one. That's not much to be as confident as you are.
How long has this "soon to be announced tablet" got to wait to be announced. I've been hearing murmurings of a very close tablet for years now. Personally, I say don't hold you breath.
I really like the Concept, but I'm curious to see how this thing performs in terms of responsiveness and UI-consistency when/if_ever it actually becomes a real product. MS, by now, isn't even near something like the "Courier". Please, surprise me Mr. Balmer, but I don't see this one coming in 2010 (at least not in that shape which we all fell in love with here).
@Iphoneisbetterthancourier:
Nah... compared to that, Apple Tablet will be more like Comic Sans.
Apple will never produce a tablet - because we well know that Apple doesn't copy MS.
Maybe, every once in a while it's entertaining to get a bunch of dorks that sit here all day refreshing this site all upset over someone liking Apple over Microsoft (or vice-versa).
Yeah, it's immature of me, but so is sitting on here all day (everyday) and commenting on every single post like that Mark character or the rest of you can who read each and every single post, painstakingly deciding whether or not to rate + or -.
I'm with you. This thing looks perfect as a workflow for creative types....and I am not going to be throwing my G1away for an iPhone, either.
Doesn't this seem like Bill Gate's pet project when he pops back into Microsoft every once in a while? He's always been a big proponent of tablets, and this totally seems like something he would do. Hope Bill is reading our comments so he knows how much we want this thing released? Anyone forsee an epic showdown between Jobs and Gates with the battle of the tablets... I think so.
Lots of excitement is coming out the Microsoft camp these days.
Ignoring the "Host your own party" videos :-P
@Adam :
On the contrary, those "amazing" parties should be commended...
/sarcasm haha
im hosting a windows 7 party and i think other than their video's, the whole thing is pretty cool.
now all they need to do is support some kind of a cause and they'll be the best thing since...
oh wait, i guess bill and melinda gates foundation covers that.
I'm loving this concept, it's so fresh.. MS is going to set a new standard?
Now just make it a reality and I'll bite..
And that, my friends, is what a tablet is supposed to be.
+100
Why do they keep having screenshots of Google search on there and not Bing....
I think the designer making these isn't really with the corporate message; they windows usage scenario is shown with XP.
Heh, good point, kazbaeden. I bet that laptop was supposed to be a Mac, too....The cursor is the OS X cursor. they probably just removed the camera, changed the latch, and threw in IE on XP.
Bing probably wasn't around at the time this video was made.
The video appears to me to be at least a couple years old because of that laptop running XP.
Sounds like it would be a great student device for all ages.
It would also be a great business tool. I work in the industrial automation field and manage a lot of capital improvement projects at various customers. This device would be great for going to a initial meeting and jotting down what the customer is looking for and then expanding on it through a seemingly endless string of follow-up meetings as the project takes shape until its final approval and kick-off meeting, which half the time ends in additional items being tacked on and a new string of meetings spread out over a year+ time frame before the project even starts and then interfacing with four or five other contractors on scheduling and so on. I would love to have this item for work.
But that is the most significant point, it would be for work, or for school, or for any number of tasks that I would never think of. The one thing that would separate it from a Apple tablet is that the fruity flavored one would almost assuredly be an entertainment / media centered device for casual use. While the Courier market could be huge in its own right, I find it hard to believe it would come anywhere near the entertainment focused market would be.
I personally don't care if Apple ever releases a tablet, but I do wish that someone would release a MID-sized tablet that boots quickly, supports any media formats you through at it, have Wifi (N speeds) and bluetooth, touchscreen in a high resolution, SD memory card support and be able to run:
1. Streaming apps like Netflix, Amazon VOD, Hulu, and other web based video services.
2. Internet Radio, Rhapsody, podcasts and other music services.
3. Full web browser with flash and silverlight support.
3. Integrated applications for popular content like Facebook, flickr, myspace, youtube type stuff
4. support for email clients like gmail, outlook, hotmail etc.
5. support for quick and easy installs of applications like games (not Crysis level games just PSP or iPhone type games)
Wrap it all up in a Media Center type interface as the main desktop and drop the traditional windows start menu and UI.
@dennisheadley
I'd love to be able to read this like a book. so the comic book file support would be great as well. But overall, a nice multimedia system like you propose would be fantastic
There was an Apple home page that had the new latest iPod Nanos and said Small Talk, so the video should be about as old as the release of the newer type Nano.
Awesome! The problem with the Apple version is that it won't be a Mac Tablet, it'll be an iTunes Tablet. I hope the Courier rocks Apple. Microsoft feels like the consumer hardware underdog right now.
What Apple Tablet?
in other news, MS fanboys have nerdgasm then stand in line at Bank of America to get home equity lones
Way to make yourself look smart there...
I guess you've yet to finish grammar school?
I think someone needs to lones you a dictionary.
Why? So he can use proper English yet again?
Oh wait. Reply fail.
*hides in corner*
And the applebots who all freaked the f out last night when the apple store went offline didn't?
@ j Stevens.
ULTRA KILL!!!
you win.
I think this looks great as a replacement for a yellow paper pad or one of the current paper/digital notepads but I really don't see this format being particularly useful for things other than being a great business meeting / college class type tool. It would work great for those purposes as you could jot things down and then take it back to your desk and continue to work right there on the original notes to expand them and flesh them out.
On the other hand it is too bulky with the multiple screens to be a lay on the couch and use kind of casual device, pretty much the same two plains to keep positioned problem that makes laptops suck for lounging around. It might make a great e-reader with full color magazines being displayed just like their newsstand counterparts. Try lounging around with a three ring binder and writing, drawing, and just holding it while you do so and you will see its a pain to do. This would be a lay it down on a table type device with mostly pen input.
Well not just college classes, but for every grade. I remember having to write my notes for each class in separate notepads.
Now, If they threw in a nice calculator, this would be awesome for math class, and almost perfect companion for school.
Anyways, I think that demographic alone is a huge number.
A calculator would be awesome. Imagine something like a handwritten version of Wolfram Alpha. It would be the math students' version of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I'll respectfully disagree. I don't mind lounging with my laptop, what I do mind however is being stuck with an adapter that's attached to the wall when I am using my laptop. If this thing has a battery life of about 6-10 hours of actual use, I could see myself skipping the Zune HD I've been waiting on, and picking up one of these. That's assuming that it supports audio. If it doesn't I'll have to pass.
But back to the topic at hand, I don't think that using it will pose much of an issue. The biggest problem with writing in a binder while sitting is that the binder is too bulky (not exactly what I want to say, but I can't think of how else to phrase it). For example, try turning a binder at a 90 degree angle from how you normally use it, and it become MUCH easier to use.
But either way, diffrern't strokes and all that jazz.
It might be a better choice for Princeton's "ebook textbook" trial then the Kindle.
One-note was great software for annotating anything you could run on tablet xp; it was just somewhat of a pain to set u your tablet to be completely useful. If Microsoft has been actually working on improving one-note and other tablet software for the past 5 years, this might actually be a useful device.
I have a Fujitsu Tablet (slate not notebook) available at work, which was arguably one of the best and most expensive tablets ever. It stayed in my closet, because it was not really easy to use. Hopefully this version will be better.
Sounds like it would be a great student device for all ages.
It would also be a great business tool. I work in the industrial automation field and manage a lot of capital improvement projects at various customers. This device would be great for going to a initial meeting and jotting down what the customer is looking for and then expanding on it through a seemingly endless string of follow-up meetings as the project takes shape until its final approval and kick-off meeting, which half the time ends in additional items being tacked on and a new string of meetings spread out over a year+ time frame before the project even starts and then interfacing with four or five other contractors on scheduling and so on. I would love to have this item for work.
But that is the most significant point, it would be for work, or for school, or for any number of tasks that I would never think of. The one thing that would separate it from a Apple tablet is that the fruity flavored one would almost assuredly be an entertainment / media centered device for casual use. While the Courier market could be huge in its own right, I find it hard to believe it would come anywhere near the entertainment focused market would be.
I personally don't care if Apple ever releases a tablet, but I do wish that someone would release a MID-sized tablet that boots quickly, supports any media formats you through at it, have Wifi (N speeds) and bluetooth, touchscreen in a high resolution, SD memory card support and be able to run:
1. Streaming apps like Netflix, Amazon VOD, Hulu, and other web based video services.
2. Internet Radio, Rhapsody, podcasts and other music services.
3. Full web browser with flash and silverlight support.
3. Integrated applications for popular content like Facebook, flickr, myspace, youtube type stuff
4. support for email clients like gmail, outlook, hotmail etc.
5. support for quick and easy installs of applications like games (not Crysis level games just PSP or iPhone type games)
Wrap it all up in a Media Center type interface as the main desktop and drop the traditional windows start menu and UI.
Sorry for the repeat post. The first one ended up it a totally different area about Bing vs Google search in the video for some weird Engadget random post position "feature".
I understand the point that you make, and I would agree that the market for a media tablet on its own would be greater then a school/work focused tablet, but I would argue that either of these tablets would be a companion to say an iphone or smart-phone as opposed to its replacement.
So, the point that I'm trying to make is that people already carry around their media player, in their phone or pmp, and carrying around a media tablet with it is kind of redundant and silly, where as a work/school tablet would make sense because it doesn't overlap function.
I can't be the only person who continues learning after school is finished. I'm not in college anymore, so I don't need to take lecture notes, but I've constantly got 5-10 major learning projects going on at once from Software Design to Woodworking to Gadget Mods, and every single one of those projects requires a lot of learning new stuff. I find it a constant pain to keep track of my thoughts in an organized way when I've got so much new stuff going on at once, and having something like this to jot down notes in separate journals would be a godsend.
Hopefully they'll use midrange Tegra and we won't have to take out equity loans XD
seriously though, I don't mind if this thing doesn't have natove Windows compatibility, as long as it gets decent app support. Something like this without a good Photoshop equivalent would be a sin.
Any word yet on whether this is multitouch resistive or capacitive with a pressure sensitive stylus?
It won't be running on Tegra if it's running on top of Windows 7.
Tegra uses ARM cpus which cant run Windows 7.But a Dual core atom 330 with Nvidia Ion will surely rock on a tablet like this.
Posted before the update. My interest has lessened in this now, as I'm willing to bet it will be more expensive than I want it to be due to the Win7 inclusion and hardware requirements.
It's a good thing the other 3 comments I tried didn't submit, as the update would have negated them :0
Uh oh Apple tablet hopefuls, this thing looks a lot more promising than an oversized touch screen running iphone os. Did Microsoft beat Apple to it?
I think if I were a college student or if I took prodigious notes in business meetings this would be a great tool. This would also help me visually brainstorm design ideas, much like an actual tablet of paper. I can't see how it would change my life otherwise. How would this tool be so useful as to be groundbreaking?