First up, the great service that I stumbled onto last year is Lala.com. It offered the ability to listen to full length music from a HUGE variety of artists while offering a 30 second preview upon a second listen. It was great way to preview music. If you could think of it, they probably will have it (for the most part). What I found to be an extremely great use of the service was the fairly decent soundtrack collection they had.
Unfortunately, they were purchased by Apple back in December and this day was inevitable. There’s no telling what Apple is going to do with the acquisition and I would love it if they offered a cloud service and full length previewing of an album for free like Lala.com, but this is Apple after all. Free doesn’t exist in their vocabulary. Lala.com officially closes on May 31st.
Secondly, the Microsoft Courier is officially dead. Announced not even a year ago, the two-screen, book-like tablet sounded great. It’s was essentially productivity on the go. Create notes, take pictures, write a journal, and use the internet, maps and contacts. Sure, the iPad can do all that, but it was just the way you would navigate this device that seemed so fluid and would be great for the creative minds.
But not even a year later, Microsoft ended the project. There could be all sorts of reasons for this as we never truly got a real life look at the product. The touch response could have been horrible, the OS it would use might have been an issue. The cost might have been too expensive. Or maybe it just never reached the set bar of the concept.
T'was beautiful.
So unfortunately the potential of this device will not be met. I would’ve loved carrying this around and getting things done, but I suppose this device would’ve been very niche. No keyboard, no Windows 7 so how they would distribute applications is unknown. Then there’s battery life, and the screen resolution. It’s a lot to figure out and I suppose I prefer no product over a disappointing one.
