Steve Ballmer might have no idea what's going on with the
Microsoft Courier tablet, but a new set of documents leaked to
Gizmodo certainly suggests the product is more than just a
couple videos the boss-man hasn't seen. The images detail the Courier's unique user interface, which draws on everything from multitouch gestures to pen-based handwriting recognition. The heart of the interface appears to be the Smart Agenda, pictured above, which pulls together all your disparate content like calendar entries, emails, and to-dos into one unified starting place, described as "Cliff Notes" to the Pagestream "novel." The journal itself appears to be searchable by all kinds of data, including time, location, and tags, and it's all accessed by a special multi-button pen. There's also a camera and an offhand mention of "boos and subscriptions," so it sounds like whoever was dreaming this all up considered using the Courier as an ebook reader as well -- which would be totally sweet, given the types of annotations you could do. Of course, none of this is real yet, but we're hoping against hope -- please, Mr. Steve, make our holiday dreams come true?
posted Nov 4th 2009 1:51PM
Wow, it's looking pretty good.
I'm already saving my pennies.....
Is it weird that I skimmed "pennies" as "penis"?
Did the same by skimming your avatar ;)
I hope it folds in half so that it can be held with one hand and written on with the other on one of the screens.
your penis? ouch!
Yeah, because "pen computing" was such a huge hit the last time around.
Computers without keyboards are cumbersome pains in the ass. It's been proven repeatedly.
@Information Central
This isn't a laptop without a keyboard, it's a new device designed from the ground up to be controlled with a pen and multitouch gestures.
The reason why traditional pen-based tablets suck is because they're running on interfaces designed for a mouse and keyboard and are intended to replace a laptop. This is none of those things.
Like I said earlier: Information Central is a dumbass!
Things like this should exist.
Make it happen Steve!
now!
My brain just exploded looking at this.
There's something about it that's really elemental -- I feel like the concept brings together a bunch of different technologies that are useful, but at least not totally natural for me... mobile phones, netbooks, etc.
If I could use this instead of my phone for all of my calendar keeping, note taking, drawing, etc... that would seriously change my life.
+1 this needs to exist.
No kidding. Enough talking, make it happen.
Have you ever tried a Tablet PC and actually used Microsoft OneNote (and I mean USED to its fullest capability)?
The main thing that Courier features over a tablet PC and OneNote is potentially better (we don't really know) Outlook integration, and a sleeker dual screen design.
@ micheal
i don't care which Steve makes it happen
People are drooling, Steve. Don't mess this up.
You can say that again. I can only imagine how much easier my life would be if I could sit in lectures with one of these and take all of my notes down on it. To have it sync my contacts from my phone, show me upcoming appointments, be able to sort my notes into different books for different modules. In fact, I'm surprised no-one has started work on this any sooner - students, writers, hobbyists, journalists, graphics designers; we'd all buy it in a shot :)
It's a nice looking concept, but holiday dreams? I'm not up for buying any untested, unreviewed first-gen tech product *especially* from MS. I'll wait & see.
Then don't buy it right away. There are a number of people who would be happy to buy it if it were available for the holidays. If you refuse to buy it until many people had a chance to try it out and review it, what difference does it make when it is available? If it is available for next year's holidays, would you still refuse to buy it then if nobody had a chance to get their hands on it?
Your comment history also seems to be pro Apple, anti-MS. Do you have the same attitude towards Apple? Apple generally announces a new device without letting people get their hands on it before it is sold. When/if Apple releases their tablet, will you say the same thing and refuse to buy it until it has a full review and time for people to put it through the paces to make sure it works properly?
Has Microsoft ever released a product that they didn't give full details about in well in advance and give reviewers full working units well before the launch? It is not like they keep their products closely guarded secrets until the second they go on sale. So you can wait for those reviews and first impressions and let others experience any of the release bugs and still get order on on launch day.
@ NohOne: Congrats on being able to look at a comment history - as if that's somehow relevant to what I posted here. And, yes, I do have the same attitude toward Apple, or any other tech companies. I've gotten burned on first-gen products enough that I prefer to wait for early adopters to waste their time and money doing beta testing.
iWant
and
iCantWait
You know what, that whole 'i' comment thing is really getting iOld.
It is probably just something Microsoft Research has done and is not slated for production.
Just a concept.
its the complete opposite.
Seeing how a slew of products are aiming for this class of item and this product is generally up their alley, I would say this goes nicely in their 'Microsoft Experience' goal and I haven't seen a *realistic* concept yet that can match this.
Bring it out Microsoft, bring the freaking thing out!
Looking better and better every time something is shown. Can't wait to try it (and hopefully purchase).
If this were available today I would leave my office and buy it immediately!
CES 2010 could be interesting.
I need this device to complete my life. I'm married to it already!
me too.
I doubt it'll happen this holiday season, but maybe next? This thing looks like the perfect everyday-computing device to replace my current tablet :D.
REAL Notebook style computing. I like it.
I'll only get this if it runs Windows 7 proper, and the agenda thing's just an application preinstalled on it.
In my opinion, as long as this thing interfaces and talks nicely with Windows 7, I don't see a need for it to actually be running it.
I don't see Microsoft diverging their market anymore. Windows Mobile and Windows are split nicely.
One thing to notice. It is probably 1 screen even though it's split. So imagine using the snap left and right feature. It just makes sense.
wow, i don't care who makes this thing, somebody come out with it. finally a fresh idea
this could be a game changer
OLPC concept from a couple back.
http://helderluis.net/content/olpc_xo_2_2.jpg
Here's the last image of it.
Latest article on the OLPC is basically saying that the dual-screen concept is unfeasible for any release before 2012, and they're calling that one the "XO3". Sorry to burst your bubble.
Now this is the microsoft i know and love : ) Innovation is wonderful.
This is probably going to be downvoted to hell for being spurious, but I was told on a certain technology website that the hardware is made by Dell and that it's been around for a couple of years. I can't comment on the plausibility of that assertion.
This device is exactly what i need. Hope it would go with Windows 7, not windows C.E.
Thats already confirmed bro......just check the previous post about it at Gizmodo. It runs proper Windows 7 on Microsoft hardware .
I would wait in line for this. I use my tablet about 4-5 hours a day for taking client notes and this thing looks like exactly what I need (and more).
Please don't get my holiday hopes up, there is no way this thing is coming out that soon without much more press already. CES 2010 unfortunately sounds more likely.
Late 2009 and 2010 are/are going to be an incredibly sweet time for electronics. I see a lot of innovation and great products coming out. We already have windows 7 and snow leopard, the new iMacs, Android 2 and all it's phones, the 3gs. Such great stuff. And now we have the Courier, usb 3.0, light peak, 4th generation iPhone, better Android 2 phones, and the Apple Tablet to look forward to. What a great time to be alive.
I think smartphones and tablets are going to change electronics in a drastic way. It's so exciting. We have Apple, Google, Microsoft, Intel and so many other companies to thank for this. I hope they keep pushing each other to innovate and make better, higher quality products.
If we can improve battery technology and make the internet faster, cheaper, and more available and then we will see even greater technological evolution.
"There's also a camera and an offhand mention of "boos and subscriptions," "
What the heck are boos? And why would I want to subscribe to them?
I think "boos" = books. That would make the sentence make sense anyway.
Can I have one of these yet? how about now?