Microsoft Courier
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Courier was a prototype concept by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
for a
dual-touchscreen A dual-touchscreen is a computer or phone display setup which uses two screens, either or both of which could be touch-capable, to display both elements of the computer's graphical user interface and virtualized implementations of common input dev ...
tablet Tablet may refer to: Medicine * Tablet (pharmacy), a mixture of pharmacological substances pressed into a small cake or bar, colloquially called a "pill" Computing * Tablet computer, a mobile computer that is primarily operated by touching the s ...
. The device was conceived as being a digital
notebook A notebook (also known as a notepad, writing pad, drawing pad, or legal pad) is a book or stack of paper pages that are often ruled and used for purposes such as note-taking, journaling or other writing, drawing, or scrapbooking. History ...
, consisting of two 7-inch touchscreens hinged together like a book, and running a custom operating system built primarily around handwriting input and a notebook-like journal for storing notes, images, and clippings from web pages. Reports had indicated that the system was largely developed outside of the normal development channels, and existence of the project was only known by a few key engineers. The project was considered to be a successor of ''
Codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...
'' and '' InkSeine'', two earlier
Microsoft Research Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technologi ...
efforts. Microsoft had previously classified the project as an "incubation", which is further along than a "research" project but is not yet in the commercial pipeline. In 2010, Microsoft confirmed that the project had ended and that they had no current plans to produce such a device. In October 2019, Microsoft unveiled an upcoming dual-screen tablet known as the
Surface Neo The Surface Neo is an unreleased dual-touchscreen 2-in-1 PC that was unveiled by Microsoft on October 2, 2019. Slated to be part of the Microsoft Surface family of devices, the Surface Neo was designed to be used in various "postures" for differ ...
, which has been widely-compared to Courier in terms of design and concept.


Design

The tablet was reported to have two seven-inch screens with a flexible hinge to allow closure like a book. The outside of the hinge would have contained wireless signal and battery strength indicators, and a home button to interact with the system while the booklet was closed. Courier would have relied entirely on touch input and handwriting recognition, as no external keyboard would have been available. Reports indicated that it would have been powered by NVIDIA’s
Tegra Tegra is a system on a chip (SoC) series developed by Nvidia for mobile devices such as smartphones, personal digital assistants, and mobile Internet devices. The Tegra integrates an ARM architecture central processing unit (CPU), graphics proc ...
250 processor and would have weighed a little over a pound. A 3-megapixel digital camera with 4x zoom was integrated into the prototype system, and the final model might have contained an
inductive charging Inductive charging (also known as wireless charging or cordless charging) is a type of wireless power transfer. It uses electromagnetic induction to provide electricity to portable devices. Inductive charging is also used in vehicles, power tool ...
pad for charging batteries wirelessly.


Usage

The system's main purpose would have been to function as a personal notebook and
day planner A personal organizer, datebook, date log, daybook, day planner, personal analog assistant, book planner, year planner, or agenda (from Latin ''agenda'' – things to do), is a small book or binder that is designed to be portable. It usually con ...
to track contacts, tasks, and appointments. Courier would have included applications such as Microsoft Paint and notepad to help users create and organize original content, as well as web and photo browsers, email applications, and possibly an e-reader.


Core operating system

The core operating system of the Courier was reportedly a specialized version of
Microsoft Windows CE Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system subfamily developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products. Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, which is base ...
, however the Courier would not have allowed installation of native Windows applications onto the system. All Courier applications would have had to have been designed specifically for the Courier's booklet form factor. In addition, some reports had indicated that the Courier would incorporate a front-side video camera for live video conferencing (via Microsoft Messenger) on the left side of the notebook so that users could have edited documents or taken notes on the right side.


Infinite Journal

The primary interface of the Courier would have been the Infinite Journal, an electronic journal with an unlimited number of pages upon which users could have taken notes, dragged photos, sketched drawings, and stored "web clippings." Each page would have been stamped with the current time and location when each page was entered. These concepts are similar to the existing Windows Journal, which has been included in every version of Windows since XP. The mechanism for the location geotagging function might have come through an internal GPS, geolocation through IP connectivity through wireless access points, or through manual entry. Users might also have been able to highlight an infinite number of keywords to tag and index for future searching. The journal (in whole or in part) would have been able to be published online in several formats, including
PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...
and
Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987, initially for Macintosh computers only. Microsoft acquired PowerPoi ...
documents. The Infinite Journal concept reportedly originated from a desire to build Microsoft OneNote from scratch with the dual-screen booklet form factor in mind. This idea spawned from the popularity of the
Franklin Covey Franklin Covey Co., trading as FranklinCovey and based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a coaching company which provides training and assessment services in the areas of leadership, individual effectiveness, and business execution for organizations a ...
planner products, which utilize the booklet design.


Smart Agenda

The "Smart Agenda" would have been a condensed summary of the Infinite Journal, in which hyperlinked content would bring the user to the appropriate pages of the Infinite Journal. The smart agenda would have coordinated daily activities, appointments, and tasks, as well as coordinating email and messaging.


Clip, Tuck, and Paste

An innovative feature of the Microsoft Courier would have been users' ability to "clip" content from web sites or emails, to "tuck" the clipping underneath the physical hinge of the journal, and then to flip the virtual pages until the clipping was pasted into the appropriate page. This differs from a traditional
clipboard A clipboard is a thin, rigid board with a clip at the top for holding paper in place. A clipboard is typically used to support paper with one hand while writing on it with the other, especially when other writing surfaces are not available. Th ...
, in which copied items are not visible while on the clipboard, and are usually manipulated one at a time.


Touch

The Courier would have featured multi-touch and
stylus A stylus (plural styli or styluses) is a writing utensil or a small tool for some other form of marking or shaping, for example, in pottery. It can also be a computer accessory that is used to assist in navigating or providing more precision w ...
operation. The stylus would have operated in several different modes, allowing users to easily toggle between writing, painting, and sketching. Additionally, the physical stylus would have been able to access some new editing functions. It would have contained two quick-access buttons: one would have switched between a writing pen and a marker-style input, the other would have served as a quick "undo" function. Twisting the stylus would have engaged Courier's drawing functionality, and flipping the stylus over (like a
pencil A pencil () is a writing or drawing implement with a solid pigment core in a protective casing that reduces the risk of core breakage, and keeps it from marking the user's hand. Pencils create marks by physical abrasion, leaving a trail ...
) would have caused the stylus to erase content on the virtual page.


End of development

On April 29, 2010, Microsoft confirmed that they will no longer support this project. The official statement was: On The Official Microsoft Blog, Frank Shaw, the Microsoft
vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
who made the statement, referenced the articles published about the cancellation of the project as "speculation" and re-quoted himself, leaving out the "but we have no plans to build such a device at this time" part. In October 2017, it was reported that Microsoft was working on a new foldable digital ink device codenamed "Andromeda", based on the concept of the Courier. In October 2019, Microsoft unveiled an upcoming dual-screen tablet in the Surface family with strong similarities to the Courier concept, known as the
Surface Neo The Surface Neo is an unreleased dual-touchscreen 2-in-1 PC that was unveiled by Microsoft on October 2, 2019. Slated to be part of the Microsoft Surface family of devices, the Surface Neo was designed to be used in various "postures" for differ ...
. Microsoft emphasized its support of various "postures" to support different use cases and scenarios, including support for a stylus pen and a Bluetooth keyboard (which can attach to the bottom screen of the device to create a laptop-like experience, using the remainder of the screen as either a special toolbar or a touchpad depending on position). Microsoft concurrently unveiled a dual-touchscreen smartphone with a similar concept, the
Surface Duo The Surface Duo is a dual-touchscreen Android smartphone manufactured by Microsoft. Announced during a hardware-oriented event on October 2, 2019 and officially released on September 10, 2020, it is part of the Microsoft Surface series of touchs ...
.


See also

*
Surface Duo The Surface Duo is a dual-touchscreen Android smartphone manufactured by Microsoft. Announced during a hardware-oriented event on October 2, 2019 and officially released on September 10, 2020, it is part of the Microsoft Surface series of touchs ...


References

{{Microsoft Tablet computers Microsoft Research