Yesterday, the cats over at Gizmodo got a look at what appeared to be a pretty groundbreaking product from Microsoft — the Courier — a dual-screen, multitouch tablet with an advanced UI the likes of which we’ve rarely seen. According to the site’s report, the product was in “late prototype” stages, and judging from the video, it looked to be pretty far along (at least as far software was concerned). Today, MobileTechWorld looks as though it might be shedding a little more light on the device and its software… but it might not be quite what you think.
via Engadget
The article in question points to two very revealing projects within Microsoft’s R&D labs that have marked similarities to the Courier. The first is its prototype tablet PC interface called InkSeine. InkSeine works on a strikingly similar premise to the UI shown in the demo video, including a heavy reliance on pages in “notebooks,” and the ability to scrapbook pieces of websites by screen-capping certain areas. InkSeine also bares resemblance to the Courier interface in its use of circular context menus which surround bits of content. While there are clearly major differences, it’s easy to see a lineage from this interface to the more polished iteration from the Courier demo.
Tags: dual screen tablet, microsoft courier, microsoft notebook, microsoft reader, microsoft tablet