I know this is kind of old news, but I wanted to shed a quiet, geeky tear for the Microsoft Courier, a big part of the reason I blew off the iPod Maxi… er, iPad.
On April 29th, in my opinion the greatest vaporware product of all time died. The amazing-looking Courier, which existed in the form of an internal Microsoft marketing video, was poised to continue Microsoft’s run of innovative, kick-ass products (see my earlier post, “Microsoft – Bastions of Innovation?“). The dual-screen book format used a stylus (I know, right?!?) along with finger controls, and you could store documents in the spine.
Store documents in the spine! What a SPECTACULAR use of generally unusable real estate!
(Photo credit obviously goes to Gizmodo)
I mean, who wouldn’t want this? My biggest beef with the iPad is how difficult it is to use spreadsheets, and the fact that what I want to use it for is a big pain with the virtual keyboard. I do actually think a stylus is a good choice.
But, alas, it was not to be. My friends kept telling me, “Dan, that thing isn’t real.” But I didn’t want to hear it. This was the tablet I’d been waiting for. It had to be real. The Tesla Roadster turned out to be real, right?
Ah well. iPad, here I come. Microsoft, I’m disappointed… your recent track record was so good, I wanted it to continue with this excellent-looking product. Maybe next year.