Maybe. But Microsoft and others DID invent a iPad - in fact it was called the SimPad, Siemens own ipad. A tremendous device which I had the luck to own and ha

Maybe. But Microsoft and others DID invent a iPad - in fact it was called the SimPad, Siemens own ipad. A tremendous device which I had the luck to own and hack, powered by a SA1100. It could run windows ce or Linux with Qtopia. It made an excellent book reader - only the backlight was not that strong. It could even get wifi with a pcmcia card ; I modded mine to use the DECT com port with a bluetooth module (pan networking eats less power) and add a mmc while I was at it :-) Read my original review on http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6733 http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6733 - Apple Like Design and a $400 pricetag. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIMpad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIMpad I don't know why it was restricted to the german market, a shame. And the major hardware company they selected looks a lot like the Nokia of today smartphone - dedicated, fighting to remain relevant. Ultimately it lost. EDIT- submitted to HN if anyone is interested in talking about this device: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4739993 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4739993 Unfortunately opensimpad page about the hacks seem down (it had nice pics), but I found the old ugly driver on http://git.openembedded.org/openembedded/plain/recipes/linux/linux/simpad/linux-2.6.24-SIMpad-GPIO-MMC-mod.patch http://git.openembedded.org/openembedded/plain/recipes/linux...