DigitalDiscuss

Courier is a real device, and we’ve heard that it’s in the “late prototype” stage of development. It’s not a tablet, it’s a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. They’re connected by a hinge that holds a single iPhone-esque home button. Statuses, like wireless signal and battery life, are displayed along the rim of one of the screens. On the back cover is a camera, and it might charge through an inductive pad, like the Palm Touchstone charging dock for Pre.

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. Currently, Courier appears to be at a stage where Microsoft is developing the user experience and showing design concepts to outside agencies.

The Courier user experience presented here is almost the exact opposite of what everyone expects the Apple tablet to be, a kung fu eagle claw to Apple’s tiger style. It’s complex: Two screens, a mashup of a pen-dominated interface with several types of multitouch finger gestures, and multiple graphically complex themes, modes and applications. (Our favorite UI bit? The hinge doubles as a “pocket” to hold items you want move from one page to another.) Microsoft’s tablet heritage is digital ink-oriented, and this interface, while unlike anything we’ve seen before, clearly draws from that, its work with the Surface touch computer and even the Zune HD.

For an animated demonstration of this, look here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg7853cTtD8

Windows 7, the next and most updated operating system for home PC’s is getting closer to release on October 22nd. Coming with new improvements, upgrades and an eye pleasing new “glass” look, the OS should please owners of both powerful and underpowered machines alike.

Any student with a valid student email address are eligible to get a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional, 32-bit or 64-bit for only a mere $30. The student will have the choice on which version they get, because presumably students with weaker net-books may want a less demanding version (but less features).

Windows aren’t the only ones being generous, with apple offering their new operating system “Snow Leopard” for $29, beating Microsoft’s Windows 7 price by $1.

Windows 7 Logo

This offer will continue until January 3, 2010 at 12 a.m. CST. So you should, if you’re a student have plenty of time to pick up a copy as this offer is way to sweet to give up. The deal is found on the win741.com site, a recently launched site from Microsoft.

This move seems like a smart one by Microsoft, considering apple have beat Microsoft (Home Premium (upgrade) retailing for $120 and $200 for a Professional upgrade) on the standard prices with Snow Leopard. ($29).