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Microsoft Courier makes Apple Tablet look silly
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You may already be asking yourself why. Well, for one, the Microsoft Courier actually exists and two, wait until you see what Microsoft has cooked up. Oh, and it’s not a Tablet but a booklet, but Apple’s Tablet is probably the closest thing to compare it to.
In fact, it definitely is, even though it’s not even out.
The Courier was leaked back in late September with a photo and some video, but really nothing substantial to ‘wow’ anybody and that was because no one knew how it was going to work. But first, let’s take a look at the specs that Gizmodo released:
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.
Pretty good, but nothing about how it actually worked, until now.
Gizmodo, once again, has released information that should get Apple a little worried, if of course the Tablet is a real thing. They have put up a ton of informative slides about the Courier’s UI that show pretty much blow you out of the water. And because there is so much info, let’s condense it a little bit.
Finger gestures are pretty intuitive on screen: tap and hold will clip content for you; a flick can turn pages or navigate vertically, pinches will zoom you out from the journal to the library. Pretty standard, could change.
Smart Agenda is basically the entire inner workings of the UI, in a sense, it’s the Courier’s home screen and it is a summary of things like emails and appointments and it looks awesome from the photo. It displays stuff from the Infinite Journal which is basically the soul of the Courier.
Think of it like a notebook for drawing, writing, keeping stuff and sharing, only it’s all digital.
A “cloud” feature allows people you collaborate with to leave you messages on shared information and you can also access your journal from web browsers.
Pretty cool thus far right?
The browser appears to be pretty standard but is described like this:
Courier's browser looks straightforward, though it uses an index-card metaphor to flip through your history, like a vertical version of Cover Flow. What makes it special is the power to easily clip content, like photos, to keep it in your journal.
Nice.
Get used to hearing about clip, tucking and pasting because it’s a big component of Courier. You can almost clip anything, which you then can tuck into the spine and paste on another page or section.
Maybe the coolest feature is the pen which can be twisted to act different and also has two buttons, one of which is undo, and the other allows you to jump between pen types fast. It also has an eraser and a full color palette.
The camera might rival it though, it looks pretty fantastic. And, last but not least, there is the Library, which stores your files and allows you to browse.
So as you can see, the Courier looks fantastic and really, it makes the Apple Tablet look silly, because well, it appears to be the real deal and has a lot of innovative things going for it. And it's upped the ante for the Tablet to make a real appearance.
Hopefully this thing materializes for Microsoft. It could even be used as an e-reader in the future.
The potential seems limitless.
Hopefully they don’t run into the same trouble Barnes and Noble did with the Nook.
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