Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 Newspad finally arrives, nine years late
 When he tired of official reports and memoranda and minutes, he would  plug his foolscap-sized Newspad into the ship's information circuit and  scan the latest reports from Earth. One by one he would conjure up the  world's major electronic papers; he knew the codes of the more important  ones by heart, and had no need to consult the list on the back of his  pad. Switching to the display unit's short-term memory, he would hold  the front page while he quickly searched the headlines and noted the  items that interested him.Each had its own two-digit reference; when he punched that, the  postage-stamp-sized rectangle would expand until it neatly filled the  screen and he could read it with comfort. When he had finished, he would  flash back to the complete page and select a new subject for detailed  examination.
When he tired of official reports and memoranda and minutes, he would  plug his foolscap-sized Newspad into the ship's information circuit and  scan the latest reports from Earth. One by one he would conjure up the  world's major electronic papers; he knew the codes of the more important  ones by heart, and had no need to consult the list on the back of his  pad. Switching to the display unit's short-term memory, he would hold  the front page while he quickly searched the headlines and noted the  items that interested him.Each had its own two-digit reference; when he punched that, the  postage-stamp-sized rectangle would expand until it neatly filled the  screen and he could read it with comfort. When he had finished, he would  flash back to the complete page and select a new subject for detailed  examination. "If the analogy with the iPod and iPhone holds up, history suggests,  then, that a hockey stick in iPad sales is unlikely to occur before fiscal  2012, which is beyond our forecast period."
"If the analogy with the iPod and iPhone holds up, history suggests,  then, that a hockey stick in iPad sales is unlikely to occur before fiscal  2012, which is beyond our forecast period."BAD HARDWARE: Some 50 years later, but better ever than never.



 
	