Tablet Newspaper (1994)

960K views · 15 years ago · demo · historical

A 1994 video from Knight Ridder showing a concept for a tablet newspaper, with a rectangular touchscreen, few buttons and finger-sized icons. It imagines reading the news on a flat device years before modern tablets.

HN people cite it as prior art in the Apple and Samsung tablet disputes and as proof that a touchscreen slate was an obvious idea.

“Judge also considers Fidler/Knight Ridder work from 1994 on tablets as prior art”

7 comments from Hacker News

z
@zdean2011 · in “Visions of the iPad and Kindle...in 1994”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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r
@runn1ng2011 · in “Apple actually lost in Dutch court, not the opposite”
For the interest - video of the Knight Ridder Newspad (from 1994!), that was used as a prior design by the court. Very interesting, if a little too talkative ▶ this video
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c
@cuchoperl2011 · in “1994 iPad”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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d
@drats2012 · in “A device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious”
Few buttons, PDA. Tablet with news, Knight Ridder tablet. ▶ this video Icons finger sized in a grid. Well given we already had desktops, and given it's a handheld device, then it's insanely obvious to have fewer icons in a grid at finger size. Low resolution screen compared to our desktops, hey maybe we should have fullscreen as the default. Pinch to zoom, multiple sci-fi movies. Slide to unlock. Phones already had something called "unlock', and physical bolt locks already slide... So we make a visualisation of what amounts to a sliding latch when when have the touch screen, pure genius, nobody besides Apple could have thought of that, right? "Trade Dress" to stop competitors should also be entirely illegal unless there is no branding or logo on the phone, or the name is too similar or in some insanely small font. If it has "Samsung" written on it it's insane to argue that anyone would confuse these things. What if these rules applied to TVs, cars or bottles of perfume? Perhaps technically they do, but people have had such things for so long they don't think about them in that way. It's farcical that anything clearly identified as a different product on the box can be subject to such rules. Apple products are like a good classy restaurant or hotel chain. They take ingredients everyone has and put a lot of work into fit and finish, they make the customer feel special for a slightly higher price. And they have a dress code that permits only a certain crowd in there (app store approvals vs. more free entrance policy of other application stores, and by the way apt-get and various frontends to it pre-date the app store). All due respect to them for doing a good job, but Steve Jobs' entitlement complex knew no bounds and there is no moral or logical merit to their claims only a slice of legal merit on the back of stupid laws.
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f
@fpp2011 · in “US Judge denies Apple request to block Samsung tablet sales”
Judge also considers Fidler/Knight Ridder work from 1994 on tablets as prior art and believes overall value of Apple's design patents reg. tablets is rather low. see 1994 video at ▶ this video (from 2:21 you have your rectangular screen with rounded corners as a functional tablet from 1994)
f
@fpp2011 · in “US Judge denies Apple request to block Samsung tablet sales”
Judge also considers Fidler/Knight Ridder work from 1994 on tablets as prior art and believes overall value of Apple's design patents is reg. tablets is rather low. see 1994 video at ▶ this video (from 2:21 you have your rectangular screen with rounded corners as a functional tablet from 1994)
i
@ibizanick2011 · in “What Happens to Tablets in Europe if Apple Wins in Germany?”
There are many devices which look very similar to the iPad dating back to at least as far as the first series of Star Trek. And there's this electronic newspaper from 1994... ▶ this video