Engadget reports that a team of Microsoft developers have been working on Project Austin, a note-taking app for Courier presented a fascinating environment for visual project-based brainstorming and organization. Folding screens make much more sense when the system software has been built for it from the ground up. However, even when I wrote about Courier’s potential, I noted that most of the magic was in the software, offering “The iPad’s blank slate might make it possible to create something like Courier as an app.”
As the Engadget post notes, that came to pass. However, it cites Fifty-Three, Inc.’s Paper, which is merely a nicely executed and well-received drawing app, and not Taposé, the real attempt to implement the Courier on the iPad that has received a lukewarm reception. Windows 8 would strongly benefit from something that combined the intuitiveness of the touch interface with the power of the PC. Project Austin, which takes advantage of Windows 8’s capabilities, has much potential to be such a showcase app. Even untethered from what would have no doubt been a pricey device, though, it’s unclear how large the target market is for apps such as Project Austin or Taposé. And that, of course, was what would have killed the Courier, regardless of how it delivered its message.