“Apple will be launching its much heralded slate at an event in San Francisco Jan. 27, as All Things Digital has previously reported,” Swisher reports. “The Apple device is garnering the expected flood of hype, of course. So don’t expect Ballmer to pointlessly go against the tide of this particular tsunami, thereby painting its slate efforts as also-ran.
Swisher reports, “While Ballmer might talk about a range of products related to Microsoft, and there will be multiform hardware shown, including multitouch, tablet-type devices, there will be no grand showing of the one called the Courier, which Microsoft is reportedly working on with HP.”
Full article here.
Gizmodo’s Brian Lam tweets, “Just so you know, no courier today at the CES keynote. My sources said it was far off.”
MacDailyNews Take: So much for the upstaging.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
“Multitouch.”
“We will protect our patents.”
Apparently not…
Who needs to unveil a pesky useless tablet when you have the ultra-practical consumer-friendly BigAssTable to show off instead?
He likes his strategy. He likes it a lot.
Better to let them violate and then sue many people when they’ve made money off stealing the patents.
These planned “leaks” simply create a Media frenzy. Lemmings…nothing but lemmings feed on this stuff.
“there will be no grand showing of the one called the Courier”
….. and there never will be.
I`m sure a “Courier” tablet will be released someday, but it will in no way resemble the one in the vaporware video.
I haven’t weighed in on any MDN articles in a while. This one, however, has me thinking. Since it appears AT&T;is making a virtual grab for smartphones, could this signal that they will definitely lose their iPhone exclusivity soon?
and then, despite all dribble, there will be the actual reality of the present…(still the future)
Dueling vapor ware. The alleged iSlate versus the alleged Courier. Whatever specs Ballmer claims the Courier has the mac-fan-boy technical anal-ists can squawk back..”Apples has the same but to infinity”. That’ll teach M$.
just my $0.02
I actually liked the Courier video. I write a lot and would be happy to have something as interactive as the thing seems. Beats lugging my laptop around to jot down inspiration or do more serious work on projects.
My iPhone Notes is a poor tool for such stuff. Good for pecking simple ideas, titles, but tedious to write, say a whole page of dialogue or observation.
The only problem, syncing capability with my Macbook….
The so-called iSlate (still like Tabula Rasa) will be a pain to lug around, I suspect.
“The so-called iSlate (still like Tabula Rasa) will be a pain to lug around, I suspect.”
I’m sure no one at Apple thought of that.
“I actually liked the Courier video.”
It’s good to have dreams. But a dream of vapor is all that is.
Forgive my fool blindness, but do we have a link the the “Courier Video” people keep mentioning? The only thing I found was a video that had been deleted by the user.
Microsoft has never been about creating the best products/services/software, it has on the other hand created the good enough concept. Microsoft never thought of outdoing Apple as far as the MP3 player, the simply wanted a good enough product. The problem that I see is that this type of mentality used to work well for them because the desktop revolution was mainly comprised of uneducated computer users that really did not know the deference. But times have changed, and the uneducated computer users is becoming something of a rarity.
My kid is only 6 years old and he already know perfectly how to operate my wife’s Mac Book Pro. People are becoming more discerning as far as what is happening with Windows and the Mac OS. I have seen more people switch this past two years then in all my years as a Mac user. What we are witnessing is the fall of a corporate empier. Good enough is no longer good enough.
Here’s one:
http://gizmodo.com/5365299/courier-first-details-of-microsofts-secret-tablet
-thx H. Smitty
It sounds like Microsoft hired Sarah Vowell’s little sister.
Unlike the desperate clowns at MAC Microsoft doesn’t need a new tablet to make an impact at CES. They’ve been innovators in the tablet business for years. Perhaps you MAC lemmings should be asking what took MAC so long? I mean how hard is it to make an oversized Zune wannabe I-Pod with fart apps?
Prepare to be dazzled by Ballmer waxing poetic over the rich experience brought to you by the Zune / Windows Mobile / Live / xBox / Windows / Bing ecosystem. The future is now—brought to you by Microsoft.
Your potential. Our passion.™
“ChrissyOne
It sounds like Microsoft hired Sarah Vowell’s little sister.”
Vowell’s books are funny. Haven’t heard her narrate.
ChrissyOne AND Zune Tang® in the same thread again?
My day is complete! Thx guys..
Was this announced? Did USAToday jump the gun?
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2010/01/ces-/1
Link to product works, but links on the page don’t.
‘Least, on a Mac they don’t…
@ Handsome Smitty
Have you seen The Incredibles? She was Violet.
“Until recently, it was a skunkworks project deep inside Microsoft, only known to the few engineers and executives working on it—Microsoft’s brightest, like Entertainment & Devices tech chief and user-experience wizard J Allard, who’s spearheading the project.”
The same J Allard who spearheaded the Zune, right into the ground.. Sorry. No thanks.
@Ray
“Dueling vapor ware. The alleged iSlate versus the alleged Courier. Whatever specs Ballmer claims the Courier has the mac-fan-boy technical anal-ists can squawk back..”Apples has the same but to infinity”. That’ll teach M$.
just my $0.02″
Regardless, of what you think of mac fan boys, MS is notorious for vaporware, and Apple is not.
So far, yes, the tablet specs we are discussing and speculating upon are RUMORS. Apple has made no announcement itself.
However, the “duel” is not over the rumors — it is over what SB “announces” tonight, and what finished product SJ pulls out of his pocket on the 27th, which when it does ship will be just as announced (if not better).
Will there be a video mockup tonight using animated effects to illustrate how the vaporous concept of the “Courier” might work if it ever comes out and it doesn’t lose half the features listed? Or will there be an actual product from HP but not the Courier? Making it even more likely that the Courier is vaporware to freeze the market — MS’ favorite ploy.
Vaporware or not is determined by what the companies in question announce, and their track record over previous such announcements — nothing to do with speculation by their fans.
If the Courier is real, then I’ll give y’all a ride in my flying saucer.
It’s parked out back. Honest!
“ChrissyOne
@ Handsome Smitty
Have you seen The Incredibles? She was Violet.”
Seriously!?!? Hmmmm.