Microsoft Courier ‘digital journal’ rumour round-up
With the iPad lumbering over the hill to general release and hundreds of other other tablets looming on the horizon, we’ve been eagerly anticipating seeing some more details of the Microsoft Courier concept that appeared back in September on Gizmodo.
This time it’s Engadget who’ve gained some information from a “trusted source”, and it bodes well for Courier becoming an actual physical product, as opposed to some abstract videos on the internet.
First up is the news that Courier’s guts will be based around Nvidia’s Tegra 2 platform, which will give it plenty of grunt with a suitably customised OS. There was speculation that Microsoft’s tablet might use Intel’s Atom processor and be based on Windows 7, but Mary Branscombe of Techradar noted back in the autumn that is was “more likely that a real Courier would use processors designed for smartphones and MIDs, like Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon”. This was a pretty good guess, as before Tegra 2 was announced in January, Snapdragon was the most powerful ARM processor around.
Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet first suggested that Courier would be based on Windows 7, so it’s hard to say if Foley’s source was just mistaken or if – as Matt Buchanan at Gizmodo suggests – there was actually a switch to CE from 7. In any case, it makes sense to use CE, as it already runs on ARM chips and serves well as the basis for both the Zune HD software and Windows Phone 7 Series.
The main thing about the Courier concepts we’re seeing is the pen-based input. The iPad’s focus has always been to get your grubby mitts all over it. Courier seems a little more measured in its approach. You use your fingers to move about between applications, but the stylus is the key interface. It can be used to write, draw or even cut out parts of web pages and photos. If the iPad is a media consumer’s device, this is a jotter’s dream. When I was at college and uni, I wrote notes over every bit of paper that made the mistake of straying onto my desk. Being able to keep all those notes in a computer, where they’re even searchable, would have been pretty hard to resist.
Going by Engadget’s stated five inches by seven inches when closed, and less than an inch thick, Courier would appear to be more or less the same size as Nintendo’s DSi XL, but with more screen space.
Of course, this is all still just wishful thinking. We’ve got a nice UI concept (that still seems like it’ll need some work before it can work in reality – the videos are slick and controlled, but there’s a lot of information missing that you’d want in real world use), some possible hardware, and even a rough size, but no definite release or even confirmation of its existence from Microsoft.
Engadget says Courier will be out later this year, but Gizmodo has apparently heard that we won’t see it in 2010. The problem we face then, is one of practicality. Microsoft’s concept looks amazing, but that just talk when you’ll be able to go into a shop and buy an iPad in a month or two. There’s no denying that the productivity possibilities offered by Courier blow the iPad out of the water in places, but look at this video:
Even before it’s released, iPad app makers are making up huge ground on Courier’s features. If Microsoft wait too long, this stunning concept is in danger of becoming ordinary.
