Scary how close some of this is and how similar it looks!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1381528/Knight-Ridder-tablet-looks-just-like-iPad-17-YEARS-OLD.html

I'm curious how many of the "hoax" comments are from apple fanboys that refuse to accept apple wasn't first, and how many just can't believe it...

if it's the genesis of Tablet computers you're looking for, you can go back a few years from that one, check this out

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andysretrocomputers/3814752001/

it's basically an IBM XT with a 20Meg hard drive controlled by a tethered pen, circa 1989

it goes back further than that

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2009/07/us0386815.pdf

one does have to wonder what exactly they were planning to use that for, but nice find Egg!

Quote from: XEntity on April 29, 2011, 02:19:06 AM
Scary how close some of this is and how similar it looks!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1381528/Knight-Ridder-tablet-looks-just-like-iPad-17-YEARS-OLD.html

not convinced it was a good prediction of what one company was going to produce, for example it predicted the birth of the ipad, per se... more it was a blueprint for what a decent tablet should look/perform like... the evolution theory, essentially - we are what we are, or we have what we have, because it is the most optimal configuration...

for example, if you ask a group of gamers what the ultimate games console would look like, almost definitely something will turn up int he next 20yrs which will resemble the proposed specs.... because it's what the market/nature dictates and what technology can eventually facilitate....

Ok, I think maybe the point has been missed here a little, and the reason I mentioned iPad specifically was because of it's appearance more than anything, but the ideas and the concepts they were coming up with were pretty spot on, they didn't quite get the whole wireless thing, but how we assimilate our news nowadays, and the varieties of content our news contains, videos and interactives etc are pretty much spot on. Obviously they missed out on the whole scope of what the devices can now do, but just looking at the news element you can't get much closer 

I think anyone who's thought up the idea of a tablet PC is going to come up with more or less a similar-ish design.

I mean its black, rectangular and has a screen...

Quote from: Dave on May 04, 2011, 00:44:26 AM
I think anyone who's thought up the idea of a tablet PC is going to come up with more or less a similar-ish design.

I mean its black, rectangular and has a screen...

True, people who complain about things being same or "like the ipad" have not got a clue really.

Your making a touch screen with good screen tech and quality;

- It has to be all about the screen because that is its selling point.
- You want it to be as thin and light as you can but not feel flimsy.
- You need a thin bevel around the screen but not to thin as you need somewhere to hold without touching the screen.
- Gyro, Axis features etc are all standard these days and expected
- Speakers, mic, possible cameras at least on the front for skype and similar are a given.
- Volume controls, on off
- Ports for charging/connectivity

All those in mind give that to any person to design with dimensions of the innards they have to conform too such as battery and you will get very similar things, at least around the screen and of course you do.

Same with the phones, you end up with similar.

UI has a bit more play but as with anything UI related - if something works and is important for usability and not under some stupid copyright you need to be implementing it in your applications. If it is a good feature, it works, its useful and people use it on something they will expect it on your thing and if you do not have a good implementation people will not like it.

Opera, google and Firefox all look similar because those features are good. One does something and it works the others of course will do the same.
Opera and Firefox UI teams went off and designed things and both ended up with very similar things because they are the logical steps.

It is in fact always a GOOD thing. You see more then one thing looking similar or doing the same thing then you know thats in the right direction.
Radically different things are either hit or HUGE miss. They create the next big step in development OR get laughed at and fail.

Quote from: Dave on May 04, 2011, 00:44:26 AM
I think anyone who's thought up the idea of a tablet PC is going to come up with more or less a similar-ish design.

I mean its black, rectangular and has a screen...

Yep but if you read the rest of my text, then you'll actually see that was why I mentioned iPad, but not the basis for the comparisson

Actually, it was well before that. The 10 commandments were written on a tablet. Not very portable and the interface left a lot to be desired, but it was solid as a rock.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

Quote from: soopahfly on May 04, 2011, 09:33:17 AM
Actually, it was well before that. The 10 commandments were written on a tablet. Not very portable and the interface left a lot to be desired, but it was solid as a rock.

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

OMFGz!!11, u iz 5o r0ngz0r! Apple waz teh f1r5te5t!!! I'm sorry I can't keep that up any longer, but clearly God just copied the one true Jobs, as did anyone else who has ever provided any form of information on a flat, hard object. Did you see those "slates" they used to write on in early schools? blatant iPad ripoff.

Returning slightly closer to the original subject, I think I see what Xentity is getting at now, that 90's product he found appears to be just about the first time anyone figured out what tablets would eventually be useful for. Before that they were just another input device for a standard computer which didn't really work very well. I remember one of the sales reps who used to visit my Dad in the early 90s had a laptop with a pen control whatsit. It was neat but ultimately pretty useless as a replacement for keyboard and mouse in a general purpose sense.

It's like someone came up with the idea ages ago, it then took about 20 years to figure out what it was useful for and another 10 to actually get the technology to catch up with the ideas. Interesting.