Dispatch from gadget fantasy land

25.09.2009
Leading gadget blog Gizmodo posted a story this week that set the gadget world on fire: "."

The post claims "Courier is a real device, and we've heard that it's in the 'late prototype' stage of development." The poster, who writes under the name "The Paperboy," doesn't even tell who he is, let alone who his source is or how his source gained the exclusive information.

The post is accompanied by a slick, computer-generated video showing a device that has somehow solved all the latency, UI and performance issues of all known computing devices. The post also features clearly computer-generated illustrations of the concept, which Gizmodo does not claim are photographs or regular video.

Microsoft won't comment on "Courier," and no other publication or blog has any source other than Gizmodo's "Paperboy." But that didn't stop anyone -- including otherwise respectable publications -- from reporting "Courier" as if it were a real product. (It also didn't stop just about everyone from claiming that the computer illustrations were "photographs.") For example:

"Microsoft developing new tablet PC: report," announced .

"Microsoft readying Courier touch-screen tablet," reported the .