News Microsoft cans Courier

I'm not convinced. Reading between the lines MSI says it has working prototypes but is leaving it to other companies to produce and sell them. Does not sound confidence inspiring. Intel promises that its Menlow CPU will offer performance comparable to its 90nm Pentium-M from 2004. I've got one of those in my tablet --I can tell you that zippy it ain't, and that's on Windows XP. However Intel also says that 80-90% of planned Menlow devices will run a simple variant of Linux, not Windows 7.

Moreover reviewers who saw a prototype running Vista (http://www.anandtech.com/show/2418/3) stated it was unworkably slow.

Sorry, not seeing it yet. Give it Android on e.g. a Tecra and work out the kinks in Flash and it may get there.

EDIT: such as the WePad. Now that's what I'm talking about!

 

People were bitching about the fact that the iPad's 9.7" screen was small. I wonder what a 7" screens and a taskbar-based OS would do to those folks. Probably give 'em an aneurysm.

 

I really don't understand your posting methodology Nexxo. You write these fantastically insightful and researched thoughts, then you post flame bait like this (especially where Apple is concerned)?

The Courier looked like a fantastic device, but it was quite obvious to anyone with even a tiny bit of computer know-how that technology just currently isn't in the right place to make it a possibility. 'Laughing' at its demise is just incredibly unsportsmanlike and makes you sound like an Apple fanboy (even to people like me who own Apple hardware!).

 

Told you to wait for Courier New lol

 

:-( i probably would have boght this. As long as it didn't have winmo7 --bleaaaah. Meh, anotherone bites the dust.

 

Looks like it not going to be the year of the slate then - more like the year of the giant ipod

 

Would it be called the iPod Mega or iPod Giga?

 

Hopefully someone will still come up with a folding device. I think that was a the best part about it, but not just for the whole "keyboard on one, screen on other!" bit, or the fact that it's set up to be great at reading ebooks, nor the whole 'real OS and CPU' bit which I enjoy (and am patiently waiting for the tech to allow).

Nexxo, I hate to call someone out specifically but you're a prime candidate, haven't you ever thought "If only it could just fold up to half the height... I can spare twice the width" or "If only the screen could fold in half and protect itself without a case or sleeve"? My Nintendo DS is the only device I ever carry with me (and even that's rare) and I lurv the folding to no end, compared to a PSP which is always open unless you carry about a pesky case/sleeve. It seems to be a pretty good analogy and really makes me question how cumbersome any non-folding slate must be.

 

Nexxo, you're a mod, so I've been rewriting this to not be a total ****. I like the forums, and don't want to be banned because I couldn't be civil, but seriously-- As Krikkit said, your tone came out rather snide.

I have not followed your posts to know if you just believe in tech in general or if you're a fan boy for Apple. Apple may innovate, but they rarely implement the best concepts. The iPod nano -just- got an FM tuner for example, and the classic still doesn't have one. I do not like touch only devices, so I do not know if the iTouch/iPhone have FM tuners. But even $10 MP3 players have FM tuners. Same with OSX-- its simple, its made for people who just want a device to work, but it does not give that robust ability to manipulate it to your every need. Makes it more stable, but makes it less useful. The iPad is no exception. It's a big iTouch. Whoopie.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/ - $500 for the basic model. That's an e-reader + Windows/'Nix Netbook more or less, or about $550 shy of the budget gaming rigs posted every month. The iPad is hardly cost effective.

That dual-screen MSI project (as did the Courier) both looked infinitely more useful. Adaptive keyboards are an awesome idea. Sure they may debut at $600 at first, but it'll come down. And it'll be more useful from the start.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. And you, yours. I'm writing this less to prove you wrong. I think Apple is great at launching new ideas. (Blackberry Storm and many other full-touch phones didn't become popular until after the iPhone. We'll see a surge of media-slates soon because of the iPhone.) But it's just a company, and its just a piece of tech.

What I am really writing about the whole blowing a raspberry at Microsoft. Sure, Microsoft is a greedy monopoly at times, like almost everyone else in the tech business, but-- why laugh at the set back of technology? Shouldn't you be embracing it? I don't care if Apple comes out with the first dual-screened slate. I'll be happy-- because that means other companies will get on the ball and make a similar, cheaper, alternative version in typical trickle down fashion.

I just don't get why you wouldn't be cheering for this? Who cares who makes the innovation, as long as its an innovation and the technology moves forward. It just seems really really ignorant to resist such a cool evolution just because a certain company did/didn't make the device.

 

Although desired user experience will vary, I think that if the iPad folded in half then there would be a big gap down the middle of the screen due to the bezel and hinge mechanism. In my opinion that defeats the purpose of the screen being the form factor that it is. I'm willing to bet that Apple didn't just randomly guess the dimensions of the iPad, and that at least some thought went into the size.

I had the opportunity to handle one for a bit the other day during a tech demo, and I have to say that I thought the size was quite nice for a device that sits in between phone and laptop. Breaking it in half would have resulted in two screens not much bigger than an iPhone, and would have made it difficult to capitalize on the screen real estate of the full iPad without compromising on the bezel in the middle.

 

I don't like speaking for other people (I do it anyway ) but I doubt very much that Nexxo was trying to either blow a raspberry at MS or pimp Apple. I think he just felt vindicated after the startlingly accurate stuff he posted in the iFail thread.

This is almost precisely what he predicted back when the initial iPad hate was going around - that companies would scramble to ape, and either launch shitty products or fail entirely.

 

+1 - This was the only tablet I'd consider buying, because it can do things that things I already own - an iPhone and a MacBook Pro - cannot, unlike almost all true slates.

 

^^^ This.

Obviously it is not just a big iPod Touch:



There's your technological progress, right there. Making a difference in real people's life. Shouldn't you be embracing it?

The iPad is innovation. The idea of a Tablet may not be new, but nobody even seriously considered it before Apple stuck its neck out and just did it. As a result, many other innovative devices will (hopefully) follow. But what do we get? A lot of hatin' because it is Apple that did it, and because of how it did it. My answer is: if people think they can do better, then do it. Obviously so far, with exception of the WePad, nobody can.

Which surprises me too, because as I said before in this thread: I really liked the Courier. Had it hit the market, I would have bought one --even at the £900,-- price tag I'd project it to cost (I paid almost the same for my Windows Tablet, so why not?). The HP Slate looked like an obvious Fail to me because it ran Windows 7 but had it ran Windows Mobile 7 (which, I remind you, I called a potential iPhone killer, and I still stand by that) it would have killed the iPad dead. The Google Tablet? All the tech is there: Android, nVidia Tecra, its own media infrastructure like YouTube, Google Maps etc. So why aren't we seeing one yet?

But people want a 'real OS', see? They want stereo sound on tiny speakers located ten inches apart. They want HD video on a 10" screen. They want stuff that not only is not feasible, they don't need, but isn't even appropriate for such a device. People have no vision, that's the problem.

Why I was being a tit (and for the record, I never banned anyone for calling me a lot worse; I'm a big boy and can face up to name calling and criticism. Just make sure it is based in reason or I'll do worse than ban you -- I'll debate your ass ) was not because I like to see companies fail or I'm an Apple fanboy. I was reacting to the frankly outrageously irrational Apple hate being spouted on this forum, right down to blatantly insulting Apple owners (including those on this forum) as being sycophantic sheep incapable of informed judgement. Reality Distortion Field, indeed.

I was reacting to people lauding technological innovation but not recognising it when it slaps them in the face. That is what results in poor consumer choices, and eventually, holds back technological progress.

 

It's far simpler to say "We told you so". This is Apples year for iPhone 4G and iPad whether or not the Courier or Slate would have arrived it wouldn't have mattered. Open your eyes people, you are supposed to understand tech and appreciate it.

Oh, and can't wait for Steam on my Mac!

 

might have something to do with the negative impact of the enthusiast community on the ipad,lol

 

Personally I'd like to see something with the form factor of the Nintendo DS or DSi (with a bigger (multi-touch) top screen & either a second touch screen below or a keyboard. It's a little bigger than an iPhone / iPod but still fits in a pocket etc. and has a more space for screen, battery, card reader, camera, ... Plus with the folding it should be more durable than the iPhone / iPod / iPad.

I guess that sort of describes my version of what I'd hoped the courier would be. I suspect though that it would not have been what I would have wished of it anyway. -shrug-


[off topic]
meh, Nexxo had a human moment, get over it
[/off topic]

 

I still utterly fail to see the raison d'etre for the iPad. In my eyes it's (still) a useless piece of junk.

At the moment there's exactly one piece of Apple hardware I could see a use for, and that's the iPod Touch. As the perfect universal remote, that is. Only problem right now, it doesn't support infrared, and (sadly) most consumer electronics out there still uses infrared. The switch to WiFi for consumer electronics can't come quickly enough.

 

In other (half a million so far, to be exact) people's eyes, it is the first computing device they can actually understand and use. YMMV. When are you going to learn that we are in the minority?!? Not everyone is a geek.

 

1 million sold now.

 

Everybody has at least a little bit of geek inside them