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Microsoft "Courier" Pictures
tekgoblin writes to let us know that Gizmodo has some early shots of the new prototype "Courier" booklet (foldable tablet) on the way from Microsoft. "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."
I find your optimism that this device won't be locked down interesting...
Back when rumor first started, it was about a Windows 7 based device. That wouldn't have been "open" in the FSF sense; but it would have implied the continuation of Microsoft's historical commitment to backwards compatibility and 3rd party developers(yes, they can and have crushed the 3rd party developers who got in their way like bugs; but they are otherwise overjoyed to have people writing stuff that depends on their platforms).
The currently displayed model is Win CE based, and almost definitely the new Windows CE, the one with no backwards compatibility and all managed code, and still uncertain application distribution mechanisms, and integration with the locked-down worlds of zune and xbox. CE 6.5 and earlier were tottering heaps of suck; but they were open in a manner similar to desktop Windows(at least when your mobile carrier hadn't been messing with them).
Since Microsoft is currently getting hammered in the smartphone and embedded space, there is strong reason to believe that they will(simply of necessity) be more benevolent to developers than Apple is(perhaps a nicer revenue split, less jerking around, cheap dev tools, whatever); but there is no particular reason to suspect that they will be anything other than a (comparatively) benevolent overlord.
I don't think I'd buy this as a web browser. I think I'd buy this to replace my moleskine - which right now is a big mess of drawings, notes, and clips of things taped into place.
It holds everything from code samples to to UI mockups - and I write much faster with a pen (like Graffiti 1/2 or paper) than on a slow on screen keyboard.
An operating system should be like a light switch... simple, effective, easy to use, and designed for everyone.
Wow, where to begin... This looks good:
It reminds me of all the VRML hype from years back. People were predicting that in the future, we wouldn't type URLs into a Web browser. We'd fire up our Avatars and fly to places on the Web in 3-D graphics. We would walk through virtual libraries, pulling electronic books off 3-D shelves. We'd ride dragons to meeting rooms where we'd chat with other avatars in real time. And all I could think was, "WTF? So we've just invented the Internet, this miraculous thing that puts the world of information right at your fingertips, no matter where you are, so that all you have to do is type a couple things and the information instantly appears on your screen... and you want to impose a 3-D spatial paradigm on it? Instead of calling up information out of thin air, you want to have to hike down the virtual block to get it? You call that progress?"
I wonder if you're familiar with Second Life?
And yes, for many, it is considered progress. Or at least it was. I'm not sure how many big corps are still onboard, but there were buzzings of private servers for employee training and the like. Anyway it turns out that while it hasn't applied to the web as a whole, people really did cotton to that idea. Lots of people. Even some important ones.
Same thing with this tablet idea. People are too stupid to use computers, apparently, so you want to use all the power of a computer to enable them to do things like they would if all they had was a stack of paper and a Bic -- because that's what they're supposedly comfortable with.
Taking your finger and pointing it is about as basic as it gets. Using a pen is just an extension of that. Paper made it more portable than cave walls. People aren't all that keen on using keyboards everywhere they go because they're simply not natural. How many of those full-size, fold-able keyboards sold as accessories to cell phones really see any daily use?
I think the device looks like an innovative approach to 'infinite paper', which is basically what the videos bill it out to be. It looks like a huge step beyond what tablets presently mean, and seems to offer it in a better form factor.
Meanwhile your desktop will be right where you last left it, with the keyboard still attached.
I guess I'm not quite sure what you're rambling about, but I'm pretty certain the words you are searching for involve 'kids' and 'off' and 'lawn'.