New details and images emerge of the Microsoft Courier
It has been nearly six months since we last heard anything about Microsoft’s Courier device, long enough to make you wonder if we had all been pranked to be honest. Now, with news of when the iPad will finally launch, a wealth of new information on the rumored Microsoft Courier has hit the Internet, and Microsoft’s positioning on this device is an interesting one.
We first mentioned the Courier last Sept., and since then there hasn’t been any other information coming out about it. Engadget has now gotten some more details, as well as more photos of it, so it’s beginning to look like this device truly is real, and we may even see it this year.
The images show it to still be a dual-screen device that opens like a book, and is reportedly about about the size of a 5X7 photo when it’s closed, and is about an inch think as well as weighing around a pound. As opposed to a device such as the iPad, it is a stylus-based interface because this is being positioned more as a digital journal than a tablet, and will have handwriting recognition technology. While there is still no mention of wireless connectivity, it is hard to imagine that this won’t have Wi-Fi.
While it does have a headphone jack for media playback, this doesn’t feel like a device for video, but more listening to music, audiobooks and podcasts.
From the pictures of the interface, there does appear to be an e-book component, which makes perfect sense considering its physical format.
What most intrigues me is the “Publishing” tab that can be seen. If this truly is a “journal”, could we be seeing some sort of blogging integration that would allow you to handwrite out blog entries?
Release is currently rumored to be in the third or fourth quarter of this year, so more information is sure to be popping up soon.
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March 6th, 2010
this is looking to be a much more sensible option than the tablet form, providing the interface will work as described. I would by this over an ipad/slate/joojoo any day.