Microsoft's Courier detailed, might arrive by Christmas

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Although it was first exposed last September, Microsoft's Courier tablet device has mostly been shrouded in secrecy -- until now. Engadget has received a handful of details from an "extremely trusted source." According to the unnamed tipster, the Courier will serve as a "digital journal," and is engineered for ultimate portability.

The device measures less than an inch thick, weighs just over a pound, and is similar in size to a 5x7 photo when closed. Under the hood is an Nvidia Tegra 2 system-on-a-chip (SoC), and other hardware includes a built-in camera and a headphone jack. Instead of Windows 7, the Courier reportedly runs the same operating system as the Zune HD, Pink, and Windows Mobile 7 Series.

Engadget scored a couple full-length HD videos of the interface. It seems to be pen-based with user input largely focused on drawing and writing, which is backed by handwriting recognition software. There is also word of a dedicated ecosystem for e-books and other reading material. It's speculated that the Courier will land sometime in the third or fourth quarter, but nothing is official.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/38140-microsofts-courier-detailed-might-arrive-by-christmas.html

 

[Fragrant Coit]

I wonder how good the Handwriting recognition is?

What if you are a Doctor?

 

[ourboyblue]

<What if you are a Doctor?>

if your a doctor you don't care, you don't have to read it.

It looks nice, seems like a huge step up from apple's pad and phone os.

 

[ourboyblue]

Oh, I forgot, yeah, I want one.

 

[danteoz]

I wonder how much one will cost, i've been looking at different tablets,hopefully they will beat out Apple in price, since it could easily beat the OS

 

[Tekkaraiden]

Very impressive, I'd actually own one. Let's hope they release it world wide at launch and not US only. I'd own a HD Zune if they were available in Canada.

 

[Chazz]

I hope it is compatible with a keyboard. As cool as writing on this device seems, it is much faster to type that url than that person took to write it.

Browsing would be too slow if it were handwritten.

 

[theoscentral]

Whoa, I like how the pages get smaller when you activate the search!!! Sweet!

 

[Guest]

thats it...? this is gona beat the ipad?......

 

[Guest]

All they have to do to beat ipad is make it more lifestyle enhancing then the ipad. Id much rather be able to use this as a fully functional comp downloading streaming ect. make it have all the things ipad lacks dont charge me 200$ extra to surf the web dont jail me to only microsoft products and last of all kick apples butt into the ground they have gone on to long unanswered......... go Microsoft!!!!

 

[seefizzle]

A giant Iphone, or a sweet courier tablet? Somehow I think this courier will be a sweeter piece of hardware. It will probably have a bigger hard drive and more ram because Apple hasn't figured out that these components are cheap. I saw this thing a while ago. I would buy one.

 

[elroacho72]

Any thing but an ipad. I think Microsoft is answering Apple's Ipad quite nicely here.

 

[Guest]

windows 7 handwriting recognition is excellent , so if anything like that it will be awesome.

 

[Guest]

Very nice tablet! The best so far, very nice touch gestures.

 

[Guest]

Funny, and the PC in the background running XP + IE6??

 

[Puiu]

It has a really cool interface, but it seems too focused on books. A more windows design would have been better.

 

[megrawab]

This would be more useful for busy people so that they could carry their schedule with ease and mobility. The input method is gives less fatigue. Do you also have an update on Microsoft's project Gazelle? Present articles state that this browser project would surpass the performance of all other browsers in the present.

 

[princeton]

I hope this will crush the ipad into tiny pieces. The lack of freedom on apple mobile devices such as the ipod,iphone and ipad is astounding and jailbreaking is pretty much the only way to go.

 

[Guest]

I think its more of a digital notepad with internet access than anything else and well, I have yet to find a device which can possible be a good replacement as a pen and paper notepad.

The Ipad is more of a giant Ipod touch in my honest opinion.

 

[Yoda8232]

Priceton has got most of my thoughts covered, if this is executed right with great features, customization, self upgrade ability, a great app selection like Firefox's add-ons or the Apple store, and the right price the iPad will fall most definitely.

 

[NightAngel79]

Looks like a cool device. If the price is reasonable enough i would buy one in a heartbeat.

 

[Serag]

Cool tablet, sweet features and nice gestures
I hope the handwriting recognition is decent, it will have good connectivity options and a reasonable price..

 

[pipopaz]

Now thats is innovation! Hope I can get one this year.

 

[jacob007]

So, the real question is.....

Is 2 Big iPod touches better than 1 Big iPod Touch?

 

[AfricanTech]

It looks very good - better than ipad - traditionally MS products attract good third party support. And it mimics a book for reading - i.e. two pages side by side - I mean when last have you read a book that is a single page!

Horrible music in the endgadget video though - I mean really, you could hardly hear the narrator.