So the big news of the day (in case you haven’t had a chance to peruse other gadget/technology news sites out there) arguably came from Gizmodo.com where they reported on a skunkworks project over at Microsoft codenamed “Courier”. Headed up by none other than J.Allard himself (yes the golden boy behind the Xbox 360 and um.. the Zune), Courier is a completely fresh take on the tablet device concept.

First and foremost, take everything you knew about the Microsoft Tablet PC and throw it out the window (no pun intended there). Courier is a complete re-envisioning of what a tablet device could be like. Using a journal/booklet-styled form factor, Courier features dual touch-screen displays, a built-in camera, and a unique customized multi-touch user interface.

Much like the Microsoft Surface, users can interact with objects on the display using finger gestures. Want to share a note with a contact? Flick the contact over to the note and instantly share the note with the contact. Want to capture an image for a scrapbook? Capture it and then flick it over to the scrapbook section.

Yes.. one look at Courier and you’d think it came from Apple! (Ironically enough, Courier is so “cool” looking that one has to wonder if this leak was done on purpose to cool off any Apple buzz on their supposed upcoming tablet device. Nothing like conspiracy theories!).

To find out more about Courier, you’ll want to head over to the Gizmodo webpage and check out the embedded video clip.

There’s certainly a lot to like with Courier.. but will the project ever see the light of day? Will it be competitively priced? Will it have a large application eco-system (a la iPod touch/iPhone)? Will it actually jump the threshold of being “nice to have” to “must have”? All questions that are yet to be answered.

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Technorati Tags: Microsoft Courier, J. Allard