Microsoft Courier May Live on in Taposé for iPad

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Nearly a year after Microsoft scrapped its ambitious Courier tablet concept, a couple of iPad app developers are trying to keep the dream alive.

They’ve proposed an iPad app, called Taposé, that would realize the Courier’s digital journal and scrapbook features. Users would be able to import images, maps and addresses from other apps while adding their own drawings, highlights and sticky notes. The idea is to create multimedia projects like the ones Microsoft described in its leaked Courier tech demos.

To build the app, the developers say they need time off from their day jobs as Boeing aircraft engineers, so they’re seeking $10,000 in donations on Kickstarter. A $10 pledge gets you a copy of the app. Other pledges include an iPad 2 engraved with “Taposé Backer” for $1,500 or more, and the tutorial named after you (plus the iPad 2 and all other benefits) for upwards of $5,000.

Intentionally or not, Microsoft generated a lot of excitement for the Courier when images and videos of the dual-screen tablet leaked in 2009. Microsoft confirmed the Courier’s existence the following April, but also announced that it had no plans to build the tablet. Apple launched the first iPad earlier that month.

According to the hilarious video the developers posted along with their Kickstarter campaign, co-developer Benjamin Monnig took the news particularly hard. If you’re not sympathetic to the Taposé, the video might change your mind. It’s embedded below.

(via TheNextWeb)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az9ogiHMm-k]

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