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Stanley Kubrick invented the tablet computer
FRUIT THEMED FIRM Apple's arguments that Samsung stole the tablet design from it have been debunked by the latter's lawyers, who found the devices in Stanley Kubrick's classic science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Apple versus Samsung tablet argument is keeping patent lawyers in sports cars and tailored suits at the moment and stopping judges from going on their summer breaks. Apple has argued that Samsung is aping its design and is fighting for a ban on imports, but Samsung has argued that you can see the design in 2001, a film that ironically starts with a bunch of apes hitting what looks like a rather large tablet.
2001 is a great film and we are always glad of a reminder, even when it appears on the Fosspatents blog. According to Florian Mueller, Samsung filed its defence against an injunction on imports last night, and included a screenshot from the film masterpiece that shows two tablets in use.
"Attached hereto as Exhibit D is a true and correct copy of a still image taken from Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film '2001: A Space Odyssey'. In a clip from that film lasting about one minute, two astronauts are eating and at the same time using personal tablet computers. The clip can be downloaded online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ8pQVDyaLo," Samsung wrote in its court filings.
"As with the design claimed by the D'889 Patent, the tablet disclosed in the clip has an overall rectangular shape with a dominant display screen, narrow borders, a predominately flat front surface, a flat back surface (which is evident because the tablets are lying flat on the table's surface), and a thin form factor."
A screenshot is included and for all we know that could be two Ipads sitting right there. We'll wait to see whether the judge is a Stanley Kubrick fan to find out what happens next. µ
Tags: Hardware
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A better example of a near exact tablet computer used and looks identical to a tablet we all know and love was used in a British TV program from 1973 called "The Tomorrow People". In episode 1 from 3:13 you can plainly see a flat LCD tablet that the actor then picks up and enters data into. The clip can be found here http://www.veoh.com/watch/v469550ECmyFssq
They just look, don't toch. Maybe there is only 2xTV's in the table.
You can see real touchable „iPad“ in one episode of Dragon Ball Z, where police officer have one.
Also the sequel to 2001, 2010 had Roy Scheider (playing Dr Heywood Floyd) sitting on the ground with a laptop computer.
Let's not forget that Clarke also invented the idea of geostationary communication satellites. Had he patented the idea, he would have made more money than Jobs could dream of.
Hari Seldon used a tablet -like computer in Isaac Asimov's scifi -classic The Foundation". I think the book was published during WW2.
All due respect to Clarke, the movie was not based on the book, they were created simultaneously. Kubrick was the mastermind behind the 2001, but he probably got the "pad" idea from actual computer science researchers at MIT or IBM.
In "The Making of Kubrick's 2001", published in 1970, there's a page showing frames containing the device, captioned: "Bowman and Poole eat automatically-produced meals while watching on Newspad earlier videotaped BBC interviews with themselves. Newspad is a kind of flat portable TV device that could display any type of visual or printed material."
So what we have is a thin, portable, vertical, flat, square display (flat OR square were not typically seen in the 1960s) that's a wireless device combining multimedia and computer output that's made by IBM (you can see the logo), that even has "pad" right there in the name.
Let's not forget Star Trek too!
When i was a kid i saw the Star Trek Series starring william shatner and uhura (hot woman even when i was a kid) went up to him with a hi tech tablet device with lights she was using her fingers and a stylus also to interact with the device.
This was further elaborated on the other
Star trek series in the eighties
with almost every show shwoing them interacting with the device, communicating on it, making logs etc.
Some of the tabs were also translucent.
If you head over to the Wikipedia page for the movie in question you'll see a theatrical poster where it would seem they are using it as an interactive device rather then just wireless monitor.
Regardless the issue at hand is Apple claiming that Samsung copied their styling, not functionality. Now compare the devices shown in the clip to the black iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1, you'll notice they have as much in common with Kubrick's device as they do each other. There's also apparently rumors going about that Apple photoshopped the images they supplied to the courts in order to make them look more alike.
All that said how any halfway intelligent person couldn't tell Samsung's products from Apple's given they have different dimensions, different weights, different layouts for the buttons & webcam and a noticeably different OS is beyond me. Not to mention the fact the Galaxy Tab has Samsung printed on both the front and back.
Really it makes me wonder about the German courts when they obviously couldn't tell this was just Apple bitching because Samsung brought out a product that's superior in practically every way for the same price or less depending on the model you're after. I mean we didn't see monitor, TV, laptop, desktop, CD player, DVD player, etc... manufacturers suing each other over virtually identical designs for the better part of the last century did we? No, we didn't. As such Apple should suck it up and stop trying to claim they have the right to a monopoly on mobile computing devices when they copied all their ideas from other people in the first place.
Since neither actor actually interacts with the device (in the clip), I could argue those are wireless monitors, not tablet computers.
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lle65mLAbW1qcaxvfo1_500.jpg
Who clearly described the concept in his book that the movie was based on. Stanley Kubrick produced a picture to fit the description. I have to say the resemblance to the iPad or Galaxy Tab is uncanny.