The first newspaper tablet, circa 1994? (almost)

[daffy4u]

From The Huffington Post (via Teleread). Be sure to check out the 13 minute video.

Apple's New Tablet? Been There, Done That

Sixteen years ago, in a small office in Boulder, Colo., Roger Fidler was at the top of the newspaper technology world. Behind him was an original Apple Macintosh Duo laptop fitted neatly into its dock, and a Radius Pivot 15" monitor oriented in its signature vertical position.

And sitting on his desk, next to his cup of coffee and stack of manila folders, was a prototype of a thin - about an inch thick - electronic tablet that was poised to revolutionize the print media.

[fugazied]

A shame the newspaper industry didn't get behind it back then, they might have survived the Internet catastrophe a bit better.

I guess the problem back then was simple lack of technology. I can't believe we have the technology and Apple is still holding back.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by fugazied

A shame the newspaper industry didn't get behind it back then, they might have survived the Internet catastrophe a bit better.

I guess the problem back then was simple lack of technology. I can't believe we have the technology and Apple is still holding back.

There is not now and has not been an internet catastrphe.
Only internet freedom. I built my first home system specifically to go to news sites and blogs.

Newspapers desired to continue a business model in which they had a platform to spea out, and other people did not unless they allowed it. They dug their own grave not because people started reading pixels, but because they desired to remain on high casting down mandates of opinion and context.
A new market rose up and displaced them.

That is over. There are a few even today who's positions and fact checking are so poor, they can not afford field a forum section where they might be corrected or challenged. Good riddance to bad rubbish. I am interested in a conversation not a lecture.

This site, with our sqabbles, scoops, posturing, and mea culpas is far better than a magazine trying to cover electronic reading. Gizmodo and Engadget are better than PC Magazine and PC Computiong. Jerry Pournel's Chaos Mannor continues after the demise of BYTE, and is even better as a blog than oin its days as a column.

I won't miss the old distribution models when they are completely gone. Remenisce is the only magazine I have bought in fivr years, and I haven't bought papers since 1998.

[WillAdams]

The problem was that battery and display technology simply weren't good enough back then --- I _really_ liked my NCR-3125, but it's battery life left me tethered to a wall outlet --- farther down the article notes that Fidler admitted the funding was pulled for that reason.

William