MS Courier - not the font, just an overlooked not-quite tablet.

In all the hype that built up over the impending announcement of (in my opinion) the next to useless (for me anyway) iPad (I'll talk about that some other time...), somehow I missed this little gem that's been bubbling away in Microsoft's hush-hush research labs. I don't know how I missed it, there's bits of info. all over the place, and MS was even hyped to unveil it at the 2010 CES... but they didn't.

Anyway - I'm actually quite excited about the Courier Project and its implications... if it ever happens.

Here's a video of one of the ways it could work:



So, pretty nifty yeah?

If it actually ends up coming out, it will probably do more for education (at least) than Apple's iPad.

As can be seen, one of its main features is that it is hinged... that's right - it's got a great, big (well not that big actually) hinge right in the middle. For those of use who use books etc, this is great. It also appears to do something that the iPad does not - multitasking. For the end user, this is BIG news. Whereas on the iPad you can only really do one thing at a time, the dual screen layout means that on one page, I can have my favourite tech blog (yay for Gizmodo today) open on one side and do up my notes on the other! I can drag and drop my cut text from the left and put in my journal on the right. And I can still watch my movies if I want... just like the iPad. So, the iPad is built on a mobile phone OS (yep-  it's the same as the iPhone and iPod Touch, just bigger) and the Courier, being built by MS, will probably run on some version of Windows.
Why is this important? Because, now I can run what I want (ie. the same office applications that I have at work) on my tablet and I'll probably even be able to watch movies at Hulu or Vimeo, because Microsoft don't discriminate against Adobe and they need Flash, which the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch doesn't and will never support. (one caveat: I can't actually watch at Hulu.com as it's only available to people in the US and Canada, and definitely not in Australia).

Unfortunately, Microsoft didn't take the time to unveil it at CES 2010 - instead they introduced a 'nameless' HP tablet. .  >8-(

Anyway, here's hoping that it arrives sometime soon. Unlike the iPad - if this one is compatible with my Windows boxes at school, I'll buy one!