A few days ago, people stumbled upon a new viral marketing site, and a WHOIS revealed that the domain belonged to Microsoft. Then came a surge of speculation, and after a few hints were dropped by people within the company, it was determined that this had something to do with a new device that Microsoft will be announcing later this week.

People continued to dig around for more hints, until finally, someone discovered an actual promotional video.. And it looks sweet. Really, really sweet. Think of it as an ultra-portable TabletPC-like device, about the size of a small notepad, that functions as a digital media player (with a nice, big screen for video), a portable gaming device (was that Halo in the video?!), a scratchpad/notebook/journal, a PDA, a GPS unit, and more. The video does a great job highlighting various different scenarios in which it can be used. From what I could tell, it even seems to have built-in Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, so that you can tether it to your cellphone's data connection when you're out in the middle of nowhere, or use a broadband connection over WiFi when you're close to home or a public access-point. Smart.

More details are expected to show up on the Origami site on March 2nd. I just hope it's priced well too, whenever it makes its way into the market. As much as I'd love to have one (assuming it's as awesome as it looks in the video), I can't really pick one up anytime soon, but I'd really like to see something like this take-off. The utility value, especially for students, would be incredible.