I'll take two

And give one to my wife. This is one of the best concepts I've seen in a while.

It feels like the whole world is holding its breath for the Apple tablet. But maybe we've all been dreaming about the wrong device. This is Courier, Microsoft's astonishing take on the tablet.

You have the same portability as a netbook, and twice the screen real estate. It's just begging for some e-reader software. And if it was double hinged, two people could work on it at the same time. Or play some cool head-to-head games. If you didn't want to write, one screen could show a soft keyboard for typing with the word processor on the other.

Please make it Microsoft. From reading the comments at Gizmodo, you'll have plenty of takers.

via Wired.

So long TomTom, I hardly knew ya

Like many sad stories, this one has a happy beginning. Once upon a time I bought my wife a new Dell laptop. It just so happened that they were running a sale where you could get a TomTom GPS device for half price with a laptop, so I grabbed one of those as well. My wife was skeptical, but over the following weeks she came to love it. In fact, she became addicted to having maps, points-of-interest, and directions at her fingertips whenever and wherever she needed them.

But then tragedy struck. While driving to a doctor's appointment in Cary, a pothole became the TomTom's undoing. The bounce popped the device out of its holder and it fell to the floor of the CRV.

This was the result.Now, I'm sure you are thinking, "Just call customer service! I'm sure they would replace it. You have only had it a couple of weeks, it was damaged in the course of normal use, and any holder that would fail going over a normal pothole is not the best design in the world anyway." Well, you would be wrong. I did in fact call customer service, and was told that this is 'physical damage' and not covered under warranty. I pointed out that it was being used properly. They said, "It is physical damage, and the screen is not a repairable item."

I replied, "So, you're telling me you won't replace it and my only option is to buy a new one."

Customer Service said, "That is correct. Good bye."

So, good bye it is. Personally, my feeling on the matter is that this is a 'design flaw' not 'physical damage'. But, that argument did not sway TomTom. So, I bought a new GPS unit. And, no, it is not a TomTom. I will not buy their products ever again. And after this experience I would recommend you do not either.

Instead I went with Magellan.This is the Magellan Roadmate 1440 which we will immediately stress test on our trip to Williamsburg this week. It has a nice, robust holder attachment and I think it would take an earthquake to shake it loose.

So, all I can say is, "So long TomTom, I hardly knew ya."