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I distinctly remember a Bill Gates lecture from the '80s, with accompanying video, where he presents a future-concept tablet device, with touch screen, thin, na

by teilo 15y ago

I distinctly remember a Bill Gates lecture from the '80s, with accompanying video, where he presents a future-concept tablet device, with touch screen, thin, narrow margine, etc. It had an AI-based personal assistant that accepted voice commands, and a built-in camera, with Facetime-style chat.

jessedhillon 15y ago
When you say "the '80s" do you mean literally from the period between 1980 and 1989? That has to be off by 5-10 years because in 1989 I was rocking out with 4-color CGA graphics on my 286 (with the turbo button), and maybe a 386 with a 256-color VGA was state of the art back then. Embedded cameras in consumer devices were sufficiently far off to be considered sci-fi, as was the idea of real-time video streaming. I know you said it was a concept device, but it would have been a big stretch given where we were at that time. IIRC, 1GB drives were going to debut in a few years at $1000.
- hugh3 15y ago
  No, I think I remember this video, though it would have been very late 80s, and I remember it as being from Apple. Of course it was just a video done with special effects, no part of the device was real. It was a big flat computer built into a desktop, and the person interacted with it for a while using fingers and voice commands before receiving a video call from somebody. Those things seemed a long way off at the time, but certainly not unimaginably far off. It was probably pretty damn close to actual present-day technology, but of course we've learned since then that things that may seem spiffy such as voice-controlled computers and video chat aren't nearly as useful as we thought they might be before we had them.
  - Shebanator 15y ago
    Yes, I remember this video too. I think it was part of the Information At Your Fingertips speech at Comdex in 1990. http://www.proudlyserving.com/archives/2005/05/information_at.html http://www.proudlyserving.com/archives/2005/05/information_a...
- teilo 15y ago
  It wasn't a real device. It was done with special effects, to show what might be possible in the future.
zephjc 15y ago
Are you sure you're not thinking of Apple's Knowledge Navigator concept? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bjve67p33E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bjve67p33E This video is allegedly from 1987. Edit: I changed the link to an expanded video from the early 90s(?) which contains the original video + some other mockup usage examples for OpenDoc
- farnsworth 15y ago
  Great video. I love hearing predictions like this http://ytsnip.com/?v=9bjve67p33E&t=6m55s&e=7m1s http://ytsnip.com/?v=9bjve67p33E&t=6m55s&e=7m1s. Impossible then, in my pocket today.
- teilo 15y ago
  No, that's not it. The video I mean is completely different. It wasn't Apple. It was Microsoft, and it was introduced by Bill Gates.
  - zephjc 15y ago
    If you find a video or documentation about it, please reply here, I'd be interested in finding out about it!

by teilo 15y ago

jessedhillon 15y ago

When you say "the '80s" do you mean literally from the period between 1980 and 1989? That has to be off by 5-10 years because in 1989 I was rocking out with 4-color CGA graphics on my 286 (with the turbo button), and maybe a 386 with a 256-color VGA was state of the art back then. Embedded cameras in consumer devices were sufficiently far off to be considered sci-fi, as was the idea of real-time video streaming. I know you said it was a concept device, but it would have been a big stretch given where we were at that time. IIRC, 1GB drives were going to debut in a few years at $1000.

hugh3 15y ago
No, I think I remember this video, though it would have been very late 80s, and I remember it as being from Apple. Of course it was just a video done with special effects, no part of the device was real. It was a big flat computer built into a desktop, and the person interacted with it for a while using fingers and voice commands before receiving a video call from somebody. Those things seemed a long way off at the time, but certainly not unimaginably far off. It was probably pretty damn close to actual present-day technology, but of course we've learned since then that things that may seem spiffy such as voice-controlled computers and video chat aren't nearly as useful as we thought they might be before we had them.
- Shebanator 15y ago
  Yes, I remember this video too. I think it was part of the Information At Your Fingertips speech at Comdex in 1990. http://www.proudlyserving.com/archives/2005/05/information_at.html http://www.proudlyserving.com/archives/2005/05/information_a...
teilo 15y ago
It wasn't a real device. It was done with special effects, to show what might be possible in the future.

zephjc 15y ago

Are you sure you're not thinking of Apple's Knowledge Navigator concept? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bjve67p33E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bjve67p33E This video is allegedly from 1987. Edit: I changed the link to an expanded video from the early 90s(?) which contains the original video + some other mockup usage examples for OpenDoc

farnsworth 15y ago
Great video. I love hearing predictions like this http://ytsnip.com/?v=9bjve67p33E&t=6m55s&e=7m1s http://ytsnip.com/?v=9bjve67p33E&t=6m55s&e=7m1s. Impossible then, in my pocket today.
teilo 15y ago
No, that's not it. The video I mean is completely different. It wasn't Apple. It was Microsoft, and it was introduced by Bill Gates.
- zephjc 15y ago
  If you find a video or documentation about it, please reply here, I'd be interested in finding out about it!