Gestures: The basic finger gestures are exactly what you would expect. A one-finger tap-and-hold clips content, one-finger flicks scroll vertically and turn pages. Two-finger gestures open and close apps: Up or down opens an app, while a swipe offscreen closes it. Flicking toward the other screen with two fingers slides it across. Pinches come into play, for zooming out from the Journal to the Library. These gestures can and probably will change to some degree, possibly incorporating more fingers.

Smart Agenda: The sum total of content in the Courier is called the Infinite Journal, but of course there are different ways to view that. “If Pagestream was a novel, Smart Agenda would be your Cliff Notes.” That’s how the Smart Agenda is described — it summarises the flowing Pagestream view into an easier-to-manage block of appointments, emails, to-dos, weather and messages from friends. It appears to be the closest thing to a “home screen” found in Courier.

Journal Overview: Here’s a more sprawled out view of the journal, highlighting the ability to create a custom cover and more details about search: Besides time, location, file name and tags, it suggests search also works via handwriting recognition (which would be key to making Courier actually work).

The Cloud: The “cloud” is mentioned throughout documents about Courier. Here we see some of what the cloud means for Courier: Collaborators can leave comments on shared portions of your journal that will show up instantly, with a notification appearing in the Smart Agenda. More importantly, you can “access your journal from any web browser” to make changes, suggesting true fluffy cloud connectivity.

The Browser: Courier’s browser looks straightforward, though it uses an index-card metaphor to flip through your history like a vertical version of Cover Flow. What makes it special is the power to easily clip content, like photos, to keep it in your journal.

Clip, Tuck, Paste: Perhaps the most interesting interface element of Courier — aside from the pen — is clip, tuck and paste. A lot is made of the ability to clip virtually any content, which is “tucked” into the spine to move it from one page or section of Courier to another.

Infinite Journal: The Infinite Journal, as we mentioned, is the heart of Courier. It’s an endless notebook for writing, drawing, storing content like a scrapbook and sharing notes with other people. It’s paginated and every item is tagged with a timestamp and geotag. You can also tag pages for easy searching.

The Pen: The Courier pen is not a dumb stylus: There are two buttons, an eraser and a twisting mechanism to switch to a different drawing mode. The top button is an undo button, so you won’t have to flip it to erase something every time you screw up.

The Front Button: The front button acts as a quick-select. In sketch mode, it lets you jump between pens without having to take the time to switch grips and twist. A full colour palette makes us think MS Paint: The Next Generation.

The Camera: Taking a picture with Courier sounds awkward, at least at a skate park. Taking pictures of magazines next to you is probably easier. The crop is adjusted in the viewfinder before the shot is snapped, which happens with a screen tap. There’s a dedicated hardware button which is handy.

The Library: The Library is the Courier’s main file browser. It is where everything is organised and catalogued, from journals, photos and applications to “books and subscriptions”, suggesting that Microsoft is looking at Courier as a reading device as well.

Most of you may not have 16 minutes to spare on this and probably don’t care anyway, but I promised to post the full video, if only so you can understand the context of our five highlighted segments.

Watch it, share it, do what you like. And if you just want the short and sweet, here again are our five featured bits (shot and edited by Mike Short):

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: “It Doesn’t Matter What the Critics Say”
Part 3: Ballmer on Zune: Sometimes You Get It Right The Third Time?
Part 4: Ballmer on Those Crazy Ballmer YouTube Videos
Part 5: Ballmer Optimistic About Win 7, But Says Vista Is “Very Popular”

As you know, I sat down with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to chat about all of his projects this year. Windows 7 was obviously the biggie, so we talked about it and its less beloved predecessor.

But unlike Bill Gates, who seemed like he wanted to admit Vista sucked, Ballmer sticks to his guns, calling it “very popular”. He says:

It’s much discussed but much used. Hundreds of millions of people are using Windows Vista…[Vista] has improved between service packs, compatibility upgrades that application vendors have done. Actually, the market environment for Vista is not anything like it was when it launched.

He contends that (poor) PC sales are “far more a function of the economy, right now” than any product, and uses that to express his continued caution about being too bullish on the Windows 7 launch.

Try as I might—and you can probably tell I was trying pretty hard—I could not get Ballmer to say or even hint that Vista sucked. It’s cool, though. To his point, although Windows 7 smokes it, Vista did get better. We are currently running Vista on a pair of totally stripped, brand-new Acer Timelines, and they’re actually doing fine (knock on wood). That had certainly not been the case when I interviewed Bill.

Stay tuned, because tomorrow we plan to run the full uncut interview video for your journalistically voyeuristic pleasure. Video by Mike Short

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: “It Doesn’t Matter What the Critics Say”
Part 3: Ballmer on Zune: Sometimes You Get It Right The Third Time?
Part 4: Ballmer on Those Crazy Ballmer YouTube Videos

This is the one you’ve waited for, where I get Steve to talk about his animalistic YouTube persona. But how do you ask calm collected Steve about crazy sweaty Steve? Very carefully.

As you can see in the video, he’s not going to stop being himself, just because Bill Gates is officially out of the picture and the public finally sees him as the big man up top. Does that mean more YouTube excitement? If it does, you’ll surely see it here.

Stay tuned for more exciting Ballmer moments (and facial expressions), and then the full uncut interview video later today.

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: “It Doesn’t Matter What the Critics Say”
Part 3: Ballmer on Zune: Sometimes You Get It Right The Third Time?

And in the rare case you hadn’t seen the video I’m referring to:

Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer defended notorious products like Windows Vista and Windows Mobile throughout our interview, but when it came to Zune, he did seem to admit that Zune HD nailed what previous Zunes simply couldn’t.

When I asked if he gave an order to make Zune better, he replied:

Sometimes you get it the first time you cook the soup, sometimes it takes till the second time you cook the soup…You get better every time.

However you interpret that, it’s the closest Ballmer comes to saying that product improvement was needed, that it wasn’t just revision for the sake of the sales cycle.

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: “It Doesn’t Matter What the Critics Say”
Part 3: Ballmer on Zune: Sometimes You Get It Right The Third Time?

Have a look for yourself…

Did your mouth drop? Because mine did. I also got to hold the system for a bit and it is really really sturdy. I thought it would be more flimsy, but it has strength.

I can’t tell you much more, other than it will be officially announced in November and production is scheduled to ramp up soon. As for what is inside, I can sleep soundly now that I know that there isn’t an Intel Atom processor (like the Sony Vaio X), but rather will use an Intel ULV chip of some sort. Now back to your regularly scheduled Windows 7 programming. [Dell Adamo XPS]

In this segment of my exclusive interview series with Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer, I brought up the sore subject of Windows Mobile 6.5. After defending it, he cited another product that did well but suffers mounting criticism: Nokia smartphones.

As you can see in the video, Ballmer acknowledges that Windows Mobile 6.5 is receiving negative reviews, but I never get him to actually admit that the platform still needs work. He says, “reviews aside”, he’s happy with what Windows Phones (running 6.5) can do now.

And faced with competition from the iPhone, BlackBerry and others, he contends it’s currently “kind of a horse race”. The only clear leader, market-share wise, is Nokia, and they’re losing ground. When I said that Nokia was another developer currently lambasted by reviewers, Ballmer replied:

At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what the critics say, it matters what the customers say.

Perhaps given the power of advertising (still mighty, even if it’s on the decline), there may still be a way for a product to get positive sales despite negative reviews. But the internet has changed that landscape, and the lines between critic and customer blur more every day. We all share knowledge in order to make better choices. So who, in the end, is this customer, who is so different from the critic? Not anyone who reads Gizmodo, that’s for sure.

Stay tuned for more exciting Ballmer moments (and facial expressions) over the next day, and then the full uncut interview video late Friday.

Steve Ballmer Exclusive Interview Series:
Part 1: Ballmer Talks Natal, Says Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox Coming
Part 2: Ballmer on the Smartphone Race: “It Doesn’t Matter What the Critics Say”
Part 3: Ballmer on Zune: Sometimes You Get It Right The Third Time?

In the first segment of our exclusive Steve Ballmer interview series, the Microsoft CEO and I talk about Natal, the blurring of console generations, and the surprising fact that “you’ll be able to get” Blu-ray add-on drives for Xbox 360.

When I asked Ballmer about adding Blu-ray to the Xbox, he said:

Well I don’t know if we need to put Blu-ray in there — you’ll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories.

Though he says it with certitude, the timing of any kind of Blu-ray accessory is unclear. When I asked Xbox spokespeople about Ballmer’s revelation, they responded:

Our solution for HD quality video on an Xbox 360 is coming this fall with Zune Video and 1080p instant-on HD streaming. As far as our future plans are concerned, we’re not ready to comment.

Maybe something cooking for CES?

As you can see in our back-and-forth, Ballmer plays his cards close to the chest, but in my sit-down interview with him, he shared a lot. Prior to the Blu-ray business, Ballmer and I talked about Natal, and the excitement that Matt and Mark experienced when they stepped into the chamber back at E3. When I asked him if Natal was Microsoft’s attempt to do away with concept of game console generations (thereby prolonging the life of a given platform indefinitely), Ballmer smiled knowingly and said, “We’ll see.”

Stay tuned for more exciting Ballmer moments (and facial expressions) over the next day, and then the full uncut interview video on Friday.

The Barnes and Nobles eReader project, set to be revealed next week, has been under development for years, with several devices of varying size and capability in the pipeline. First rumours said it would have a colour e-ink screen. Then people said it didn’t. They were both kind of right: The layout will feature a black and white e-ink screen like the Kindle has — and a multitouch display like an iPhone underneath other. Pow!

More details and photos of the Barnes and Noble E-Ink/LCD reader here:

The first screen is a 6-inch e-ink display with an 800×600 pixel resolution. That’s standard for eBooks, with this screen having similar refresh and contrast as the second generation Kindle’s. The second display, however, is as wide as the e-ink display but is a multitouch LCD that is meant to be used as the sole interface for browsing swiftly through coloured book covers (like Apple’s coverflow, but books instead of Album art) and buying “rather than forcing e-ink do things it was not made for”. It is 480×144 pixels in size and has a resolution of 150dpi.

The choice of two different screens (and techs) on one device serves to overcome the shortcomings in e-ink, which lacks of richness and interactivity; and LCD’s eye strain and battery drain. (The LCD will remain inactive while books are being read.) Contrast this with the Kindle which uses the e-ink display to emulate a slow menu system and requires a physical keyboard for searching. Likewise, Sony’s e-ink readers with touchscreen layers have reduced visibility. The B&N reader has none of these issues. [editor's note: In theory.]

The interface has a few buttons. According to photos below, there are two sets of next/previous page buttons, as the Kindle has. But there are also buttons for search, home, “BN” which it is safe to assume is for accessing the store, and a back button. There’s also an icon for a person, with a dot under it, which is for user profile, important for the device’s social networking hooks. The reader is expected to have book lending features between friends and publishing of excerpts on Facebook and Twitter, but that may be cut before launch.

The carrier attached to the reception bars at the top of those photos might be Verizon or Sprint, but Barnes & Noble, wise to Amazon’s international plans ahead of the public (corporate espionage!) may have gone with a carrier more capable of bringing their books internationally, more naturally, meaning a GSM carrier. I’m unsure.

Pricing is yet unknown, but no matter what, it was planned to be sold at less than the price of a Kindle, with the majority of revenue made up through book sales.

What’s interesting is that B&N will sell the books it also publishes (yes, remember, they are also a publisher and not just a shop) at a deep discount compared to print editions. And the device will have some sort of access to all books scanned by the Google Books project; probably books that are out of print.

The name of the gadget, which I cannot reveal and may have changed anyhow, is freaking terrible. I hope they change it before it ships.

The leak came from someone who (quite convincingly!) claims to work for B&N developing mobile apps—his background knowledge of their app projects was startlingly deep, at any rate—and makes quite a bit of sense as an alternative to the brutally dumb software of current eBook readers.

Think about it. At six inches, it’s a smallish device, and we’ve seen Android on similarly-sized screens already. Wireless connectivity is built into the OS. Extraneous, inappropriate apps could be switched out. A custom-designed interface could be easily dropped in. Apps—oh, sweet apps—could be a huge boon. And hey, E-Ink Android drivers have already been demonstrated on video. Simply put, this would be pretty fantastic, and it’s eminently plausible.

And from the looks of it, we won’t have to wait long to find out.