Microsoft's Courier tablet
(Credit: Gizmodo) Steve Ballmer had a dilemma. He had two groups at Microsoft pursuing competing visions for tablet computers.
One group, led by Xbox godfather J Allard, was pushing for a sleek, two-screen tablet called the Courier that users controlled with their finger or a pen. But it had a problem: It was running a modified version of Windows.
That ran headlong into the vision of tablet computing laid out by Steven Sinofsky, the head of Microsoft's Windows division. Sinofsky was wary of any product--let alone one from inside Microsoft's walls--that
threatened the foundation of Microsoft's flagship operating system. But Sinofsky's tablet-friendly version of Windows was more than two years away.
For Ballmer, it wasn't an easy call. Allard and Sinofsky were key executives at Microsoft, both tabbed as the next-generation brain trust. So Ballmer sought advice from the one tech visionary he's trusted more than any other over the decades--Bill Gates. Ballmer arranged for Microsoft's chairman and co-founder to meet for a few hours with Allard; his boss, Entertainment and Devices division President Robbie Bach; and two other Courier team members.
At one point during that meeting in early 2010 at Gates' waterfront offices in Kirkland, Wash., Gates asked Allard how users get e-mail. Allard, Microsoft's executive hipster charged with keeping tabs on computing trends, told Gates his team wasn't trying to build another e-mail experience. He reasoned that everyone who had a Courier would also have a smartphone for quick e-mail writing and retrieval and a PC for more detailed exchanges. Courier users could get e-mail from the Web, Allard said, according to sources familiar with the meeting
FULL STORY:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20128013-75/the-inside-story-of-how-microsoft-killed-its-courier-tablet/
Microsoft has released Update Rollup 6 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1).
Description of Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1
Download Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1
Microsoft has released Update Rollup 6 for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1).
Description of Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1
Download Update Rollup 6 for Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1
"Time will tell us; if this was the right choice, however on thing is working for MS$ Lync plus Skype have made Cisco wake up and look over its shoulder..." - Dr. Strangelove
