Apple and the tablet go a long way back

Earlier this month we took you down memory lane for a 1987 video that Apple produced about a futuristic product called the Knowledge Navigator.

It was a super smart, full featured tablet with internet connectivity, video conferencing, datebook and browser. It also contained a nifty personable digital assistant.

Ten years later, Apple was still selling the idea of an enhanced tablet. One of our readers sent us this YouTube video of a concept that Apple sent around to educators. It had a lot of the same great technology, like video conferencing and browsing, but the video shows a variety of form factors, including a desktop unit, a tablet, and a small hand held device.

It's pretty clear Apple has done a lot of thinking about what a tablet should do. Who knows if any of these concepts will get into tomorrow's announcement, but the technology is pretty much here to make the dreams into some kind of software/hardware reality.

Will an Apple tablet change the world? Stay tuned.

Thanks to Fred for the Apple nostalgia!

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Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPS1DMlzz0M

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Hardware Multimedia Cult of Mac Education Apple Apple History

Earlier this month we took you down memory lane for a 1987 video that Apple produced about a futuristic product called the Knowledge...

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Seth

The concept of the multitouch and pen-based personal screen devices is not new, its just that manufacturing is catching up.

Star Trek:TOS had pen-based tablet computers (the whole concept is just an obvious evolution of the clipboard).

Star Trek:TNG featured an entire spaceship controlled by multitouch glass surfaces and had similar PDAs to an iPad.

February 03 2010 at 4:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Betix

http://bit.ly/8KK9BS: iSlate or not? What's your bet?

January 27 2010 at 8:21 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Betix

http://bit.ly/8KK9BS: iSlate or not? What's your bet?

January 27 2010 at 8:20 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Kalel

what about the "iQ" for the Apple Tablet... Going to have a lot of e-Textbooks for it... ;)

January 27 2010 at 1:57 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

snowy2004

Oh, the Knowledge Navigator. If Steve shows off the tablet tomorrow and is able to use it in a "Knowledge Navigator" fashion, that's when I'll know the future has officially arrived.

January 26 2010 at 4:01 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ken

MacDaddyWorld has photos of a real prototype of Apple's tablet: http://bit.ly/ciFbTy

January 26 2010 at 3:56 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

BB1219

There hasn't been much talk about the Macbook air recently; has anythought thought that maybe they will replace it with this so called 'tablet'? Basically a tablet could be a smaller version of the Macbook Air without the keyboard, right?

Just my thoughts.

January 26 2010 at 3:42 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

3 replies to BB1219's comment

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