Since September the Courier has been my most anticipated Microsoft product, 7 Series has now drawn equal, but it has been unknown if the Courier would come to market or if it only existed as a concept. Well from info and images that Engadget received today it looks so much more promising for any fan of the Courier that we will see the device before the year is out.
As a student I want nothing more than to be able to write on a screen in a book like fashion with easy access to websites and other materials, something which isn’t really possible on a netbook (screen is too small for having two programs open side by side) but is certainly possible on the above device. I can also see uses for this way beyond just student use, in fact anyone who often has to write things, whether by hand or digitally will surely benefit from a screened devices, as long as the UI and software works as required.
Now on to the info Engadget received today, first they have been told it will function as a “digital journal” which sums the product up perfects and differentiates it from Apple’s more media focused devices. The second piece of information is that the device has been designed to be extremely mobile coming in at under an inch thick, weighing a little over a pound and isn’t much bigger than a 5×7 photo, when closed. It is also being rumoured that the device will be using Tegra 2 innards, with a pen and finger based input with handwriting recognition, a built in camera and a headphone jack for media playback. It is very likely that this will be Microsoft’s ebook reader with, apparently, an accompanying ebook ecosystem. It is thought that the device will be going on sale in Q3 or Q4 of this year, the holidays are going to be very Microsofty with this, Project Natal and 7 Series. It is understood that everything entered and saved on the device will also be stored in the cloud, for access from anywhere, with a blog like interface and social integration.
It will be running the same OS as the Zune HD, Project Pink and Windows Mobile 7 Series so that means it will be built upon Windows CE 6. Could this device run apps from the 7 Series Marketplace? Would be interesting, although I imagine this will support Silverlight so apps could also run through the browser.
Right next up are the new images which I have tried to glean as much info from as possible, watch the video now added at the bottom of this post for real functionality. The above image shows the homepage and what looks like an open journal for an interior designer, as @manan has pointed out there is social integration built into the home screen and SMS functionality. Of course having SMS icon doesn’t mean that this has the hardware for it, indeed the SMS info could be streamed from Microsoft’s My Phone service which could become more powerful in its 2.0 release. In the below image we can see an open journal and someone using the touch input to move content around.
Below we can see the web browser on the left screen and what looks like something someone has copied from a website for use within a journal.
Here we see a menu for apps on the device, whether that’s the “app store” or installed apps is unknown, and on the right screen plan for someone’s day.
On the left we seen the main screen again but if you look at the “to do” list its the same as the “to do” list on the right, which now appears in a “post-it note” form. I guess from this its easy to handwrite a “to do” list and then convert it into a more digital version.
Next up we see what I actually think goes before the above image where someone is selecting their “to do” list by drawing a box around it and then can convert it into a more digital version. On the left screen we now see a list of contacts, I would it expect it possible to send someone else the “to do” list.
Another image of a journal page and the contacts page.
Below we can see a new part of the UI, the controls. There seems to be a pretty extensive range of tools for what kind of input a user will want the pen act like, even having it act as a magnifying glass, with a selection of pastel colours and the ability to mix them.
Below seems to be someone’s journal complete with hand drawn sketches, it gives a sense of how big the device will be to hold, a very good size.
Finally we have a view of what the ebook marketplace might look like with an UI that bares a resemblance to the Zune interface with text based navigation. It appears that the ebook marketplace wont just be limited to reading books but will have other products too under the playing, sketching etc categories and will support viewing samples of the products before buying them. I am unsure if the marketplace seen is through the device’s browser or if its a separate app that functions like a browser.
This all looks very exciting and its great to see some more substantial images and information about what could be a killer (possibly of the iPad) device. I can’t wait to hear more about this device, the only trouble now is that I will need to start saving up for this and a new 7 Series device (unless XDA developers can get it to run well on my HD2); I am not even going to contemplate Microsoft not releasing this globally.
One final thing to note is that I believe Engadget have a video which it used to get all these pictures, they are all (apart from the last one) titled couriervid1.jpg, now if Engadget does have a video of this UI in action they better show it off soon they seem to have willingly obliged as seen below.
Some things to note from the videos are that the effects are very nice, with sending a page to someone being absolutely brilliant. The functionality of the UI is great and seems extremely natural combining digital functionality (web browsing) with very natural interfacing (handwriting in the address bar), I don’t think there’s much to say other than watch the video.
