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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."
AFAIK, Microsoft never really announced anything. They even went as far as calling it a rumor and at best some "sources" called it an incubation project.
Announced product examples are Windows Phone 7 and Natal.
I generally just read a dead-tree book when I'm on the can.
Laptops get too hot on the thigh skin, when your pants are down around your ankles...
:D
"...there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight. Awkwardness and stupidity can." ~ Mark Twain
Yeah, Pogo Stylus. Just wish Apple would've thought about it before a 3rd Party did. Still don't have an iPad yet, but once I get one, I'm getting me a pogo.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
(Multi-)Touch, on the other hand, is very limited in terms of use in anything creative.
Buh? Heard of Brushes? Used for, y'know, a New Yorker cover or two?
Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
Yeah, Pogo Stylus
I ordered several different styluses to test them all out, and the Pogo was much nicer than the others - a few others have rubbery tips that have too much resistance moving across the screen to move easily. The Pogo has a kind of sponge-like material that coasts across a screen much more easily.
I wanted to confirm that was a good choice.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You can use a stylus with them - Apple uses the Pogo Sketch stylus in the Apple Stores... http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/11/03/exclusive_look_at_apples_new_ipod_touch_based_easypay_checkout.html http://tenonedesign.com/sketch.php
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
You can make your own or pay someone to do it.
Look online, some even running OSes for grown ups.
For all that is holy, I wish people would drop Comic Sans. It's like everyone got the same idea at once -- ten years ago -- and it's Groundhog Day every time I see it. It's overused and was one of the first things I changed when I jailbroke my Touch. People using Brush Script, using Cooper Black for body text, or Copperplate for anything other than titling should probably be shot.
Oh, while you're at it, make sure you get those using Latin Wide and Marker Felt for any purpose -- because there's just no excuse. They might reproduce.
Actually there are two senses in which it can view 720p video. I'm sure the person you're responding to meant the first.
First, the H.264 playback engine caps out at 720p. Now, almost all playback engines cap out at some level. If you load 720p video files on a first generation iPod Touch, they won't play at all -- it's more than the device can handle. So don't say "of course it can play back a 720p file, every device can play back a 1080p file and just downscale it, that's no big deal". Because that isn't true.
(And yes, there's an advantage to this, if the video doesn't have much going on on the side edges. You can "zoom in" to the video, making it go full screen with the edges clipped, and with a 720p data file you'll get more detail doing this. This could be the case for example if you've got a HD render of "The Philadelphia Story" with Grant/Hepburn, as it was actually filmed in 4:3, not 16:9.)
But, second, the iPad has video-out capabilities. I picked up the "dock port to VGA" adapter for mine. When I hook it up to the HDTV in my living room, and run a little program I wrote that queries the OS for a list of attached screens and their display characteristics, know what? I have full access to full 720p resolution out that display port. So an iPad tucked behind an HDTV that it's connected to can indeed drive a full genuine 720p display.
(But I'm sure that's not what the person you were responding to meant.)
They certainly lost a lot of their power of intimidation when Longhorn cratered. I'd say the Zune debacle was another big blow, because it showed all the companies that jumped on the "Plays for sure" bandwagon that Microsoft would happily toss them under the bus to take another shot at unseating the iPod. Then you've also got their repeated failures to make a decent mobile OS. Seems to me that if I were in the consumer electronics business, I'd be very wary of anything that Microsoft was asking me to participate in.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Yeah but you really ought to give MSFT credit, they have gotten bullshitting down to a fricking art form. For those not old enough to remember or who weren't into PCs at the time read The Yellow Road To Cairo to see how MSFT under old Darth Gates managed to pretty much grind innovation to a halt for FIVE years, while killing or nearly killing several competitors, all while selling not a damned thing at all besides screenshots and bullshit.
Say what you want about old Billy boy, it takes some 50 pound brass balls to bullshit an entire industry for half a decade with nothing but a bluff. To keep a lie going THAT long, and get everyone to believe it? Man I'd hate to play old Bill in poker. Hell I'll admit he bluffed the shit out of me too, I didn't get OS/2 until it was practically on life support because I was waiting for the Cairo coolness. say what you want about old Bill, he is one cold calculating son of a bitch.
It is a shame it turned out to be bullshit, but I figured it was, old Ballmer monkey just ain't got the bullshitting skills that Bill had. To pull off good vaporware you got to make the audience believe in the vapors not just throw out a press release or an occasional leak. Ballmer needs to go spend some time at the feet of his master before trying to pull that off again, he just ain't got the skills.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Most of the weight in an iPad is the massive batteries to power the larger screen and the glass plate over the screen, which is thicker than an iPhone since it has a larger span. The whole thing weighs a pound and a half, and that's after leaving off all the I/O ports and subsequent case thickness everyone on here wants from a "real tablet" competitor like 3 USB ports, HDMI out, a removable battery, and a floppy drive.
The JooJoo doesn't get anywhere near the same battery life, and it weighs 60% more at two and a half pounds.
What makes you think MS or anyone else could actually ship a dual screen Courier that wouldn't end up weighing somewhere near three pounds by the time it made it out of manufacturing anyway.
This
or because they've got a 54% estimated failure rate?
It's a little wrong to say a tomato is a vegetable. It's a lot wrong to say it's a suspension bridge.
People using Brush Script, using Cooper Black for body text, or Copperplate for anything other than titling should probably be shot.
I agree and am willing to join your endeavor. I have guns.
This ain't rocket surgery.