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.
Two screens so that you can continue working on one, while the other reboots after BSOD?
Does it say “Don’t Panic”, in large friendly letters, on the front cover? Then it’s “mostly harmless”.
I thought ASUS made a new Dual screen..
BSOD is a thing of the past you Morons. Stop living in the Windows 95 era and grow up. I have used Windows Vista for more than a year and I got BSOD probably less than two time, but only once in Windows 7 and that too in Beta version of the Windows 7. All this was due to my mistake when i installed the wrong driver for my Video Card. Once I removed those, nothing crashed again, not even in Vista.
So stop this BSOD crap and move on now.
I, for one, love the idea of a tablet/booklet I can carry around. I’d really like something bigger than my DS for sketching things, or something that isn’t a stack of paper.
I hope this comes out and is relatively cheap.
Could it be! Microsoft created a product worthy of Apple’s design? Kuddo’s to Microsoft!
Tied of Apple having huge marketing presentations about product refreshes. Bring on some truly new products!
I’m speculating that there are two screens for the same reason people use dual monitors- to increase the usable real estate.
Also because a single screen will need some kind of fold-over protective cover anyway, so why not make the cover into a screen?
Additionally, I could see one of the screens turning into a touch keyboard.
RBG
If this had Apple’s name on it, presses would stop, jaws would drop, and the fanboys would offer sacrifices to statues of Steve Jobs. But because it has the word Microsoft on it, “it can’t possibly be real”, “it’s totally useless”, “it’s probably vaporware”, and “Microsoft will never be able to sell it”.
People never cease to amaze me.
#27
Agree!
I have one of these, its called an iPhone.
Here’s a place where dual screens is ideal: on one screen, a standard page. On the other screen, the image of the keyboard you’d normally be typing at to control it. Instead, you tap it with the stylus. OK, it’s not the ideal, but it can work and you can gradually improve the UI from there.
Also, in the minds of many users, every screen that moves, needs a cover. In laptops and notebooks and netbooks, that cover involves a keyboard. This tablet doesn’t have a keyboard. So you cover the screen with:
a) blunt wafer of nihil
b) another screen
c) none of the above: _____
?
Both the scrapbook idea and dual displays, have been shown off before by Microsoft Research, so it’s not farfetched at all that they’re thinking of combining them:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/23/codex-and-inkseine-the-roots-of-microsofts-courier/
#28
You read my damn mind.
I use a tablet DAILY and this thing is GREAT. I can’t wait. Of course if it comes out the day before apples, it will be dwarfed by the HUGE reaction of the press to apple’s release, and if it comes out after?
Why it’s a copycat of course.