Way back in 1991, just as Apple was transitioning from 68k to PowerPC chips, the braniacs at Xerox PARC were predicting it’s entire iPod, iPhone and iPad strategy. And next up for the iPad is a blackboard-sized device.

Nearly 20 years ago, just as personal desktop computers were taking off, researchers at Xerox started thinking about the next stage: ubiquitous computers and the cloud.

They envisioned a range of always-connected devices that came in three basic form-factors: Tabs, Pads, and Boards. They are described thus in a Scientific American article:

“Ubiquitous computers will also come in different sizes, each suited to a particular task. My colleagues and I have built what we call tabs, pads and boards: inch-scale machines that approximate active Post-It notes, foot-scale ones that behave something like a sheet of paper (or a book or a magazine), and yard-scale displays that are the equivalent of a blackboard or bulletin board.”

The inch-scale “tabs” are Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch, plus smartphones from Google and Palm. The foot-scale “pads” are the iPad and the 50-odd tablets coming out this year. And next up are yard-scale “boards,” which will act a big-screen hubs in the home and interactive workspaces in the office. Microsoft’s Surface table is the best current example, but more big-screen devices are inevitable as component prices come down thanks to the flat-screen TV industry.

What’s amazing is how twenty years later PARC’s vision describes Apple’s transition into a “mobile” company with a range of devices accessing the cloud. It’s fitting that the vision that should come for the same lab that invented more-or-less personal desktop computing.

Via Adam Rosen: Ubiquitous Computing 2010 – Tabs, Pads, Books and Clouds.

HP and ARM are ganging-up on Apple’s iPad, introducing new videos highlighting the tablet’s lack of Flash support and warning the Cupertino, Calif. company may not have the stage to itself much longer. Indeed, the chipmaker says there could be at least 50 iPad-like tablets introduced just this year.

HP’s “slate” device, with Windows 7, will be able to display the “complete Internet — including Flash,” the PC maker announced this week. The company also introduced a number of videos highlighting its device’s compatibility with Adobe’s Flash.

Will the iPad do something iTunes and the App Store so far haven’t: become significant money-makers for Apple? Nearly a third of the iPad’s revenue will come from content sales, one analyst said Tuesday.

We start the week with a deal on the iPod touch, starting at $139 for an 8GB first-generation MP3 player.Also on tap today is a new batch of App Store freebies, including “Big Brain on Fire,” which is described as a rhythm-based puzzle. Last on your top trio is Text Soap 6, a Mac application that transforms your text.

As always, details on these and other bargains are available on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGEcYtVBxGc&feature=player_embedded

On Friday, we mused about what would happen if Old Spice’s “I’m On A Horse” campaign was applied to Apple’s products… which seemed ridiculous enough a suggestion at the time, but if the recent Oscar Night iPad spot is anything to go by, maybe Apple decided to go just that route.

After all, slowed down by 15% and annotated by Neil Curtis, the iPad spot is just as surreal as the Old Spice ad. In fact, it is rife with goofs, most notably multitouch interactions that have little to no bearing to what the model is doing on screen. As for that iPad model, s/he is practically the Orlando of Apple spots, transmutating from female to male to female again over the course of the ad… all the while magically warping in and out of different pairs of pants.

It’s a bit strange to see a company as detail-obsessed as Apple make so many careless little mistakes… but you’d be hard pressed to catch any of these gaffes at regular speed. It just goes to show that as nitpicky as Jobs can be, the collected Internet will always one-up him.

[via Crunchgear]

Oh. My. God.

Forget the iPad, kids, just forget it forever. You don’t need one anymore. Because the guys at E4 have created… ePad. It’s more than amazing. It’s amazinger.

Don’t just take my word for it. Watch this video for the full details.

Are you looking for an inexpensive notebook for a child? This may be the perfect answer: a G4 iBook running at 1.33GHz for just $300. After you find that deal, you may want a congratulatory bit of gruesomeness while at the same time saving a few bucks. We suggest “Zombie Cannon Carnage,” just one of the iPhone and iPod touch apps included in the latest batch of App Store price drops. Finally, for students, what better way to study than with your Mac? We have a deal of “Cram for Mac,” study aid software befitting the Apple fan.

As always, details on those deals along with many other bargains, are available from CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the following jump.

If you’re like me, the last fortnight has seen little activity other than watching Olympic skiing, skating, curling, hockey, luge, bobsled, Nordic Combined, curling, complaints about NBC, curling, aerials, and curling. With the Closing Ceremonies now a rapidly fading memory of Shatner songs and giant inflatable beavers, there’s never been a better time to start slowly weaning yourself off the XXIst Winter Olympiad. And there really isn’t a better option than the deceptively simple “Vancouver 2010,” the well-made official iPhone game of the recently departed Winter Games.

A joke so obvious that the humor-bereft Mad TV joke-writing bullpen thought it up two years ago? Sure. Moreover, there’s better reasons to think Apple’s choice of the iPad moniker is a terrible branding mistake.

Even so, you might consider dropping $40 on this iMaxi Apple iPad Case being sold by the Atwoodian Etsy outfit Hip Handmaids… if only because, as a device touched by God, it may very well suffer from the occasional stigmata.

Apple has produced two new television commercials aimed at disputing rival claims the smartphone cannot accomplish everyday tasks. The two commercials – On Hold and First Steps – attempt to show consumers the iPhone and the AT&T wireless network are up to the job.

In On Hold, an iPhone owner receives an electric bill by email. After placing the call and being put on hold, the person downloads a game and whiles away the time until an operator is available. The commercial is seen as Apple’s way of showing the iPhone’s exclusive network, AT&T, can handle voice and date simultaneously. In a series of ads, rival carrier Verizon had claimed the iPhone was unable to juggle voice and data at the same time.