Once I drank the Kool-Aid and became an Apple fanboy it also meant that I gained a general distaste for most things Microsoft. Sure they could get the XBox right but, on the whole, their UI/UX was severely lacking and they weren\'t really pushing any boundaries as they pandered to the lowest common denominator with their all encompassing OS. I admit it, I\'ve been skeptical that could bring anything to the table that would be worth paying attention to. Then I saw that Courier video and something started to change.. maybe Microsoft had more goods up their sleeve than I thought possible. And now this!

• Windows 7 Phone - it\'s going to be a hard sell to get an Apple zealot to like anything more than the iPhone interface but you can\'t deny it looks really nice and could be a viable alternative experience. Way moreso than what the Android has been offering. It\'s also a no-brainer that they\'re working the Zune UX into this to finally get some cohesion across their products.
• Augmented-Reality Maps - taking Google Maps to the next level is, surprisingly, Bing Maps. They\'ve gone beyond street view and they\'ve got backpack cameras going inside stores documenting interiors. They\'ve got a three quarters view of structures when you\'re in overhead mode. They\'ve got live video broadcasting real time over previously captured imagery. They\'ve got Photosynth 3D rendering of geo-tagged images from the web as a whole. They\'ve even got constellation mapping. What is happening here?!

Long story short, Microsoft is doing things worth paying attention to and they\'re doing them quite well. Maybe, just maybe, they can reinvigorate themselves in the eyes of the technophiles looking for impressive moves forward.