Fresh off reports that Microsoft was working on its own version of a tablet comes this seemingly mega scoop from Gizmodo which purports to show not just photos of the tablet, but a pr demo of how the device might actually work.
The device is called Courier, and it’s not really a tablet per se, but rather consists of two 7-inch tablets joined together to form a booklet of sorts. Both 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..”
Regarding the secretive nature of the project, which is reportedly in the “late prototype stage of development”, Gizmodo writes:
Until recently, it was a skunkworks project deep inside Microsoft, only known to the few engineers and executives working on it—Microsoft’s brightest, like Entertainment & Devices tech chief and user-experience wizard J. Allard, who’s spearheading the project. Currently, Courier appears to be at a stage where Microsoft is developing the user experience and showing design concepts to outside agencies.
Interesting. Sidenote – You can make anything sound cool by referring to it as a ‘skunkworks project’.
Anyhow, you can check out mockup video footage of Microsoft’s Courier in action over here.
Tue, Sep 22, 2009
News, Rumors