Guest post by In a move out of nowhere, Toshiba just announced the limited release of a “concept” device with almost the exact same form-factor as the Microsoft Courier. The Libretto W100 features dual 7″ multi-touch screens that fold out flat or clap together like a book. Those wanting the full Courier experience, be prepared for disappointment, however: no pen support is present, and the OS is stock Windows 7 Home Premium–albeit with the addition of some pretty slick-looking touch-friendly widgets.Perhaps the most interesting part is the virtual keyboard concept–the touch of a button turns the bottom screen into a haptic keyboard with either a standard layout for laptop approximation, or an alternate layout that looks to be thumb-friendly. In terms of performance, it should theoretically beat most Atom-based netbooks with its dual-core, 1.2GHz Pentium U5400 processor (essentially a kind of Core i3 lite) and 62GB SSD. The price tag for this stylish harbinger of things to come? A cool $1,099. Also see Engadget’s coverage
Since that’s a really old product name for them – Hell, I think I have one tucked in the back of a sock drawer somewhere that runs win95.
Dual screen concept is surely nothing new in the industry, and the form factor is nothing new for Toshiba.
It’s more of a “hey, we already know how to do that – we did it a decade and a half ago with one screen”
http://www.squit.co.uk/computers/libretto.html
Edited 2010-06-22 18:03 UTC
Beautiful! I would love modern hardware in that chassis!
They are nice even with the original hardware. I had one a few years back that I should have held onto; it was a 200MHz model I believe, with 64MB of memory and a 6GB drive. I ran Slackware 9.0 on it at the time and it was decent, but Tiny Core Linux would be even faster on it today.
Sure, it won’t do what a modern netbook will, but it’s a hell of a lot cheaper and more portable too!
What are you talking about ?
This crap will tank. If they sell more than a dozen I would gob smacked.
Check this out too:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/21/toshibas-ac100-8-hour-smartbook-…
It’s a Tegra 2 smartbook with 8 hours of battery life, 10.1″ screen, full keyboard and a weight of just 870 grams. Pretty incredible. It runs Android–but with a touchpad, which is just weird. Still cool stuff.
The Toshiba AC100 Tegra 2 dual-core ARM smartbook running Android reportedly will cost about $440.
FTA, the Toshiba Libretto W100 with stock Windows 7 Home Premium (i.e. no actual applications to speak of included in the price): “it is reportedly going to cost $1,099”.
Twice as much. You do the math.
Edited 2010-06-23 01:10 UTC
Nice subliminal message in the backgrond song of the ad…
“You want me, you need me, come touch me, and hold me”
Ernest Dichter would be proud.
Edited 2010-06-22 20:06 UTC
It’s like a commercial ad of Fashion TV.
When I first read the headline, I thought they were referring to the font. I didn’t think it was dead or in need of resurrecting.
I think everyone here will agree that the main appeal of the courier wasn’t the form factor or hardware but the software and the cool things that Microsoft promised that their software will do on the hardware. Just dropping plain ol windows on a dual screen hardware won’t automagically make it a good product or even a good idea. Call me when the software catches up to the hardware. At this point in time I don’t really care for a half assed netbook.
Toshiba’s Digital Products have tried to invent something revoulutionery.However this does not work for them.Though they have some attractive features that it fold out flat or clap together like a book and have a strong Intel Pentium U5400 processor.But still there is a lot more to go.It is far from the apple’s product Ipad which has an enhanced technology.But would you agree that apple’s iphone 4G will be entirely a out of the world innovation?
“…it is reportedly going to cost $1,099.”
Ouch.
My first thought was “cool ass!!”…
…but then I saw the price tag!
And they say Apple products are expensive…
This just makes me angry with MS and the canceling of the Courier project.
As soon as Jobs puts a cam in the iPad I’m all over it.
🙂