#FF00AA

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.

The demo video of the interface is fantastic — this is not a netbook, or a tablet computer, or whatever: it’s a digital notebook, with tailor-made software and specific functionality — and I’d buy it in a heartbeat.

But then, the concept itself entails some limitations: since this is not going to run regular applications, it’s not going to replace your laptop, or even your XP netbook, so it better be real cheap. And, with two multitouch screens, it’s gonna have a hard time being affordable.

Still, Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division (the same people who designed the Xbox and the Zune) is definitely talented.

This video gives new expectations for whatever Apple might or might not release in tablet form someday. The iPhone software is two years old (plus design time) and the visuals and basic paradigms are becoming passé; if the tablet is going to wow us, its software has to be as specific as the Courier’s — I’m suddenly not so much interested in a tablet that would run OS X or iPhone OS. I want this thing.