“Alan Kay is one the greatest minds in the history of computing,” Jesus Diaz reports for Gizmodo. “He worked in the 70s at the legendary Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where he said that ‘the best way to predict the future is to invent it!’ He did precisely that.”
“His Dynabook design was the first laptop and tablet concept ever. And his idea of always-connected mobile computing is exactly what we have today,” Diaz reports. “Not only he came up with these ideas out of nowhere, but he was also responsible for the overlapping windowing graphical user interface of the Alto.”
“Lately, however, Kay doesn’t seem to love the windowing GUI concept as much as he did back in the 80s, when the Macintosh came out,” Diaz reports. “This is what he said to Om Malik in a recent interview, before the iPad was introduced:”
When the Mac first came out, Newsweek asked me what I [thought] of it. I said: Well, it’s the first personal computer worth criticizing. So at the end of the presentation, Steve came up to me and said: Is the iPhone worth criticizing? And I said: Make the screen five inches by eight inches, and you’ll rule the world. – Alan Kay
Diaz reports, “I didn’t see the quote back then, but his judgement seems to me spot on.”
There’s much more in the full article, including why many so-called experts ignore why the iPad is the computing device for 95% of the population, here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Steve understands desire.” – Alan Kay, January 2007
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dow C.” for the heads up.]
Great quote, MDN.
“Just a big iPod touch” or not, I think we’ll all be pleasantly surprised by the success of the iPad, myself included.
Diaz defines the passive-aggressive nature of modern tech blogs. Gizmodo alternately fellates and bashes Apple, depending on the page hit yield, I imagine. This is the same guy who relentlessly pounded the Jobs health story and declared the vaporous Windows 7 Series Phone thingy as an “out-Appling of Apple” that “feels like an iPhone from the future”.
Good job with the obvious, Jesus. Try not to be such a dickhole the other 99% of the time.
95%?!! Not without a webcam for face to face personal connections and remote academic instruction!
95%?!! Not without fully synthetic Mobil 1, 5W-30!!
I’ve always reckoned computers are overkill for most users. iPad will be the information/entertainment appliance for the rest of us.
One pad to rule them all!
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But, but, but . . . No flash!
(although I do think we shouldn’t have to wait for a 2G for a frickin’ front facing camera, and if cellular broadband technology is to blame then make it work only with wi-fi to begin with)
Yous’ll see
I’m all for the 95% with the iPad… But that darn Active-x, Sharepoint, .net, .asp and FLASH is just a thorn on the side…
I hope this is right. To achieve this level of dominance, however, it does need to be able to function independent of another computer (i.e., updates & backup).
Go Apple!!
I love it, but it really needs a DVD player.
It needs a floppy drive.
“Steve understands desire.”
Then why did he ban all the porn apps?
Who says that Microsoft doesn’t innovate?
” …. While Bill Gates’ idea of a tablet was a market failure, it achieved one significant success: It demonstrated that transferring a desktop user interface to a tablet format was a horrible idea, destined to fail.”
“Comment from: justified
I love it, but it really needs a DVD player.
Feb 22, 10 – 06:15 pmComment from: deepdish
It needs a floppy drive.”
It needs an 8 track.
It needs a metal detector so I can find beer cans at the beach. I’ll wait as long as it takes.
Will it play my wax cylinders?
No Mini-disk drive – or SCSI port – no sale
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I may be a sad old git – but I’ve just made that paper cut-out iPad, with a cardboard insert to make it hard enough to tease people with at the office.
I need to get out more..
The second gen model had better have a reel-to-reel or it’s useless to me.
“Will it play my wax cylinders?”
Are those the things they pull out of dead whales ear holes?
Alan Kay. I met him when he was with Atari. He came up to the Puget Sound for our Atari users group meeting.
The iPad is the Dynabook realized.
I’m holding out for a turntable accessory. All that vinyl going to waste. Scratch, tick, scratch, scritch.
“Will it play my wax cylinders?”
Wax cylinders?
Is that what you women are calling those intimate “personal” devices these days?
It just hit me.
The iPad will be the 21st century equivalent of the telephone. It wil do what many never thought they would EVER need.
And what did the telephone become?
Pervasive.
Revox reel to reel. Check
Edison wax cylinders. Check
Linn LK12 turntable. Check
Morse code key. Check
Add a dowsing rod, lightning rod and CB radio and I think we got it covered!