Microsoft has been slowly releasing information on an interesting new product, but without a clear picture of its market placement. It looks to be basically a Tablet PC with 2 hinged displays that are multi-touch sensitive and no keyboard.
Some of its features are on display in a recently released video that show its usefulness as an electronic organizer. I have to say that it has a very Apple look to it. The two displays appear as book pages with the spine of the book acting as sort of a clipboard. If this is its primary purpose, I can’t say how I would put it to use. As a PC, even with advances in handwriting recognition technology, I’m a much faster typist, and would feel burdened without a tactile keyboard.
The code name for this new product is Courier, and understand that it is still in development so nothing is certain, but it still looks extremely appetizing. Further discussion and the just released video clip can be seen at gizmodo.com and crunchgear.com.
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For the last several months, I’ve been using a PC that does not have any commercial off-the-shelf applications. Other than the Windows XP operating system, everything else loaded on the PC is freeware.