Computers in movies look nothing like the beasts we lug around today. They're thin and light, a single pane that jumps to life when touched. Technology follows Hollywood dreams; here's hoping this montage is a portent of what's coming soon.
The world will be shocked if Apple doesn't reveal a tablet computer next week. It won't be the first, not by any stretch, and it won't be the first multitouch device, naturally. But as we envision it (http://gizmodo.com/5452501/the-apple-tablet-interface-must-be-like-this), the tablet represents the fusion of two of the most steadfast dreams of sci-fi nerds and ordinary people alike.
This reel, compiled for Giz by Mike Byhoff and Frank Cozzarelli as a celebration of sci-fi's longstanding love affair with tablets and touch interfaces, is pretty self explanatory, but there are a few things to think about:
• The greatest literary device in sci-fi history, the actual Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was, in fact, a tablet.
• Gene Roddenberry was—like some tech analysts these days—in favor of the tablet coming in large and small sizes.
• The Incredibles, created by Steve Jobs' Pixar, not only has the most Apple-like vision of a tablet, but shows it sliding out of a manila envelope, three years before Steve drew the slender MacBook Air out of the same.
• We're not sure what Bart Simpson (http://gizmodo.com/tag/bartsimpson/) is doing to that iMac either, but apparently "Mapple" beat Apple to the punch with touchscreen all-in-ones.
Read more: The Tablets of Our Dreams (http://i.gizmodo.com/5454430/the-tablets-of-our-dreams)