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Microsoft's Touted iPad Rival Courier Becomes Less Than Vapor
Kostya writes "The much discussed Courier two-panel tablet device from Microsoft is now even less than vaporware — now it's just plain dead. 'Microsoft execs informed the internal team that had been working on the tablet device that the project would no longer be supported.' While the Courier had never been officially announced as a supported product by Microsoft, it had generated a lot of discussion as what the iPad should have been."
Lets face it, 'tablets' are dead. You are essentially paying more for less. While there will always be a small niche market for tablets, there aren't any benefits for the general consumer when compared to a laptop, -especially- when they are running dumbed-down OSes.
Neither the iPad nor Courier have (or would have in the case of MS's canceled project) any real advantages when it comes to getting work done than a regular Netbook or Laptop. I can see the point of a low-priced tablet device, essentially a large, sturdy smartphone for a -low- price. But when it comes down to it, its quite stupid to pay more and get less of a product and that is what tablets currently are.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Where's sopssa when you need him!? I hope that Courier touting MIcrosoft shill is reading this. He's going to need more than a hug after this news.
Hold on, I think I hear someone backpedaling.
Never heard of the thing before now, and why would MS need an 'iPad killer'? They've had tablet support since Windows 3.11.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Ya, it would have been nice to see Bing come out as a good competitor to Google, competition really does push everyone to improve... sucks that it had to die...
Oh, you meant the Courier? Ya, that thing was cool.
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
I think he's in a corner somewhere crying.
It was planned to only allow installation of one font, a certain typewriter font, to make it run faster and create a consistent branding.
This did not do well in focus groups, who showed a preference for being able to use Comic Sans and other fonts.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
The awesome thing about how Slashdot moderation works is your insane theory should make it to +5 in no time.
Excuse me while I grab some popcorn, this is like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
and your surprised?
It's just fine, thanks for asking. :)
But, but... Surely vaporware is ideal for Cloud Computing?
And those of us with two brain cells were hopeful that each brain cell would finally have their own screen. I guess I could sniff some glue and kill off one of my two brain cells. That would make me a prime candidate for the iPad.
Why so they can cry on my shoulder about getting owned by Nintendo?
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
It's just fine, thanks for asking. :)
Lucky. I could never get the rc scripts to run right, and if you have to run it manually after every restart, well, then it's not really a surprise daemon at all, is it?
I am literally 3000 tokens away from the chaotic crossbow --Stephen
The dual screen thing is very good idea. People still like closing their books and will want to close their electronic tablets too....
I like where you are going with this. So we have a device with a screen like an Ipad, but you can close it to protect the device. Then we have a second screen which can be used for input when the device is open. The only thing I see wrong is that even haptic input isn't that great. But, what if, instead of soft keys, we had hard keys, sort of mounted on a circuit board (a "board-key". if you like). Admittedly you'd lose the flexibility of dual screens but then again divided screens aren't always ideal, you could just have different sizes of single screens available depending on people's needs. It would then be a bit like a journal or a book that could take notes. Call it a "book-note" and you've got a really great marketing idea. You might even be able to sell them in the thousands.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
You can tell I don't follow MS much because I thought "In a world with walls or fences, who needs windows or gates." was just a clever joke. Turns out that it is paraphrasing an actual MS slogan. "For a world without walls, Windows".
That tells you everything you need to know about Microsoft. They don't even get the concept of basic construction. Either you have no wall and therefor nothing to place the window in, OR you create a big window and it becomes the wall itself. A window cannot exist without a wall.
They drink the koolaid deeply in Redmond.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
You mean like the iPad can with a $30 case that ads no weight or bulk to the device?
No weight and no bulk? What is it made out of, magic?
words, words, words, lemur, words, words words