Microsoft's new 'dual display device' patent re-opens old Courier wounds
By Tim Stevens 
posted June 30th 2010 12:06PM
posted June 30th 2010 12:06PM
[Thanks, Basil]
posted June 30th 2010 12:06PM
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The Courier New.
@Colours
lol :) So i guess you could say it works as a notepad?
@Colours It's alive!!
@Colours
Get with the Times New Roman
@Colours I myself am looking forward to the Comic Sans tablet.
@c4v3man
Can't blame Microsoft for trying to make an Impact.
@c4v3man
Don't expect it to be around until the next Century shows up.
@Colours I don't know, I thought the old one was pretty Goudy.
Ok... so I stretched it just a tad....
@Colours
Wow, you guys are acting like a bunch of Wingdings!
@Duke Shut up or I'll hit you with my Trebuchet
@SamTatr Alright, don't make me call the A.R.I.A.L.(Annihilator of Really Insipid Annoying Loquaciousness.)
@Colours
Now we can look forward to a Myriad of rumours about the Futura of tablet computing.
does this mean it infringes the toshiba *insert italian name here* that they made in limited amount?
@Colours The fanboys made such a DIN over the Courier you would have thought it was the greatest thing in the Univers and once we had our hands on it we would be living in Bliss in some sort of Utopia. If the next version can get past the Beta Sans all the flashy concepts, we will just have to hope this failure has been enough to change the MS Outlook.
...OK I'm done now.
Awesome set of comments!
how can they grant this patent when some one else already made product like this?
@htd: Maybe they HAVE made it. [dramatic chipmunk]
@htd
Apple got a patent on a slide to unlock for a touchscreen, A copy of the exact catch most laptops have had for years, the simple answer is the American Patent system is a joke.
@htd, because this is a DESIGN patent, unlike a "utility" patent that @fourthletter displays an incredible of ignorance about (and no fourthletter, apple did not get a patent on "slide to unlock")
the reason MS was awarded this design patent is that the patent office apparently (and not surprisingly) was unable to find that this *exact* (virtually no variations allowed) design existed at the time the application was filed
@DigDug
You accidentally your sentence.
@Cru
yes, unfortunately typing has never been one of my fortes
@fourthletter
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1="20070150842".PGNR.&OS=DN/20070150842&RS=DN/20070150842
Please come again?
@Steve Mobs
meant to reply to @DigDug.
@Steve Mobs that link doesnt seem to work on my end...
@steve mobs, it appears you were attempting to link to Apple's published application US20070150842 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,657,849) (entitled "Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image").
The reason for my message was that, after completely ignoring the difference between design and utility patents, @fourthletter posted, and I quote, "Apple got a patent on a slide to unlock for a touchscreen, A copy of the exact catch most laptops have had for years..."
1. As I stated, Apple did not get a patent on "a slide to unlock for a touchscreen." Please see claims 1-23 of the '849 patent for the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
2. fourthletter then states that the reason that the patent system is a "joke" and that the '849 patent should not have been granted is because the '849 patent protects "A copy of the exact catch most laptops have had for years..." Unfortunately fourthletter does not appear to have any training in patent law, and has made another embarrassing mistake, because independent claims 1, 6, 8, 11, and 12-23 (some of which are method and not apparatus claims, to boot) have absolutely nothing to do with a "catch" that "most laptops have had for years." His comment is sort of like saying "J&J should not have been granted a patent on Levaquin because band-aids have existed for years."
Yet again, as I have said a gazillion times, patent law is a highly technical and complex field. Blog sites like Engadget and BGR often post patent stories without any context or explanation, and thus commentors make comments (after getting all riled up) that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Since BGR, Engadget, and others do absolutely nothing to police their own patent stories, I like to point out once in a while some "minor" technicalities to the stupid comments, you know, like the teensy weensy itty bitty difference between a design patent and a utility patent.
I know, it all falls on deaf ears. But if a blog put up a story about a new mitral valve, and some idiot left a comment that mitral valves don't work well to treat goiter, and thus should not have been constructed, I hope that someone would pipe in and say "hey bonehead, the mitral valve is in the heart, not the thyroid."
it would've been really nice to actually see a working prototype at least.
@neeko18 LOL, before the concept video was rendered, there was a sort of "Hey here's my idea" prototype running XP (maybe Vista?) with some note-taking software he flung together I think, where it was really just two resistive displays bound together by a case. One of the screens was mounted with a slide-out hardware keyboard, to boot.
He was pretty adamant, in the related blog post, about refusing to turn one of the screens into a touch keyboard, since it would defeat the purpose of having two screens of real estate (I guess he hadn't heard of auto-hide).
@neeko18
I can't remember if they had something more final but they did have the codex:
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/kenh/codex-chi-2009-with-authors.pdf
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/23/codex-and-inkseine-the-roots-of-microsofts-courier/
@Shiloh thanks for the pdf link
The Courier died and took LAY with it.
@Peter Church Ouch. Funny you bring him up though, check out some of his final posts.
@Peter Church
*rolleyes*
Am I still on your brain, Peter?
I stopped posting because of a family emergency took the fun out of engaging in what is a mostly useless back and forth over consumer gadgets.
Quite frankly it exposed the immaturity and futility of the whole thing. So I left it to you all.
I still read the Android / iOS flames and enjoy the display of wasted time.
But thanks for still keeping me messing with your mind.
@LAY
i miss your posts, buddy. i don't always have time to read Engadget due to work but i when i do, i usually find your comments insightful. i am sorry to hear that you're going through some rough time. hope things improve. if it at all possible.
Let it go
@ashleythehottiest
NO!!
@ashleythehottiest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU1knfz15xI
@N900 I seriously laughed out loud when i clicked on that!
@cwalters74
you cry over an entirely theoretical and non-existant mockup video? That thing was YEARS away from production.
Fuck, don't do this to me Microsoft...I just got over the hurt from the Courier cancellation.
@Nitesh
You shouldn't be upset. Microsoft not going forward with the Courier only opens the possibility for a competent company that actually gets it making one. MS would have screwed this up royally one way or another.
Too bad theyre concept videos in which anything is possible at upright perfection.
@MichaelJJackson
If Darth Vader were here, he'd say "I find your lack of faith disturbing."
@techee44
You mean "Lord Vader".
Grubasaurus likes good news.
@Emitor Why in the hell Apple always shows up in the comments someway!?
@cwalters74 I would still preorder the courier,.. If they'd let me. Such a lovely concept that could perfectly integrate with my life, work, and play.
Microsoft's just looking at the rest of the electronic retail world and working on software and devices suitable for kindergartners. The Courier will be intended for a much more advanced society if it's ever ready for it. For now, devices and the software on them will just get less and less advanced...Q
@ChiWax
Yeah they are, but I say forget about "kindergarten" consumers.
Why should things be dumbed down for people who most likely are not going to be interested in it anyways? The xbox does not emphasize this and it does well because it's target toward the type of person that will buy it. This thing screams productivity and creativity. Look at all the people here that would kill for this.
All of us tech geeks are more than capable of using it, and we're probably the only people who would buy it anyways. Stop being a tease Microsoft.
I still mourn that awful day
Oh what may have been...