Unlike every tablet that looks like every other tablet that looks like an iPad, Microsoft's Courier was bold, imaginative and different. Of course, it got killed and was never released. But the spirit is still alive! The Courier's dual pane versatility lives on with Tapose.
The first details of Microsoft's dual-screen Courier tablet sent everyone into a tizzy. Then Microsoft proclaimed Courier dead before ever officially acknowledging its existence. But wait: is this email from CEO Steve Ballmer reason enough to hope for Courier's future?
These fresh images and details of Microsoft's Courier paint a slightly different device than the one uncovered a few months ago—tinier seeming, perhaps less genre-busting, and a more direct iPad fighter.
Tablets today are thought to be made in one of two ways: Upsizing a smartphone or downsizing a laptop. Many of these new tablets are decent, but both methods render something less than the perfect tablet.
We've seen slides and videos of Microsoft's Courier booklet in action, but nothing has quite explained how all of these things actually work. This document explains Courier's interface, gestures and features more in-depth than ever before.
Gestures: The basic finger gestures are exactly what you would expect. A one-finger tap-and-hold clips content, one-finger flicks scroll vertically and turn pages. Two-finger gestures open and close apps: Up or down opens an app, while a swipe offscreen closes it. Flicking toward the other screen with two fingers…
More details on Courier, courtesy of Mary Jo Foley: Most interestingly, her sources say it runs Windows 7 underneath, the same way the Surface runs on top of Vista, and that Microsoft will actually make the tablet hardware.
Microsoft's Courier booklet was surprising, mostly because it was so far outside of what everybody now expects from a tablet. This internal video shows how Microsoft thinks we'll use Courier.
Whether it's Microsoft's Courier or Apple's own inevitable tablet, it's hard to imagine any product besting this 1987 simulation demo of the Apple Knowledge Navigator.
Microsoft's Courier tablet is actually one of a few different prototypes that J. Allard's cooking up, says Cnet's Ina Fried—a piece of the larger Alchemy Ventures project he's running, reported by Mary Jo Foley the other day. [Cnet]
