They are supposed to be tablets and are actually moved in the film. This whole sequence has a lot of footage of the tablets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vED

They are supposed to be tablets and are actually moved in the film. This whole sequence has a lot of footage of the tablets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vEDmNh-_4Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vEDmNh-_4Q Here is a movie poster where you can also see the same tablet in more detail (on the Moon!): http://www.cinemasterpieces.com/2001apr08.jpg http://www.cinemasterpieces.com/2001apr08.jpg Here is an excerpt from Arthur C. Clarke’s book: “When he tired of official reports and memoranda and minutes, he would plug his foolscap-sized Newspad into the ship’s information circuit and scan the latest reports from Earth. One by one he would conjure up the world’s major electronic papers; he knew the codes of the more important ones by heart, and had no need to consult the list on the back of his pad. Switching to the display unit's short-term memory, he would hold the front page while he quickly searched the headlines and noted the items that interested him.”