Did Steve Jobs Steal the iPad?
 
The industry tends to get too consumed by excitement for Apple’s latest products. So much, in fact, that we forget to ask questions we usually would like to ask. There is the general perception that Steve Jobs is one of the greatest inventors of our time. Be prepared for the wrath of Apple’s fan base if you criticize Apple and especially Jobs. Think about the iPhone and what it has done for the status of Jobs. Or the iPad, which Jobs reportedly described as the most important device he has ever launched. But is it possible that Steve Jobs is really the origin of all those captivating ideas?
 
Before you crucify me, yes, this article’s headline carries a bit of sensationalism, and depending on your perception of Apple, you have answered that question for yourself already. I don’t want to change what you already believe, but I would like to give you some food for thought. I will take you along a fascinating journey that took me back four decades in time to the origins of personal computing. There is a side of the iPad I am sure you don’t know.
 
A day or so before the iPad went on sale, I was researching material for my final iPad launch article over at ConceivablyTech.com and came across a slideshow that was mentioned by Business Insider that included some of the iPad’s predecessors. The first device was particularly interesting -- it was one of those sketchy drawings we usually see in patent drawings. The similarity to the iPad and previous Webpads was amazing. What struck me was how the article noted that the device called Dynabook dates back to 1968.

Like the author of the Business Insider article, I had never heard of the Dynabook. Google quickly revealed the source of the article, a 1972 research paper published by a Xerox PARC scientist. I have been an IT writer for the entire span of my 15-year career, so PARC was no secret to me and you perhaps know as well that this famed research center was the origin of many technologies we take for granted today, such as the laser printer, the computer mouse, and the Ethernet. It turned out the Dynabook is at least as significant as those technologies.

As you read the paper entitled "A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages," you get the impression that the author had a clear vision of a device like the iPad. Remember, this was 38 years ago in a time when the phrase "personal computer" did not exist, when there was no Microsoft and computers were not popular enough to have convinced a publisher to design and create a magazine for it. I'll spare you the details of the paper and you can read the text or download the PDF of the article to learn about a part of computer history you don’t hear about that often.
 
It so happens that the author of this paper is Alan Kay, one of the key people who have shaped the way we are using computers today. You may not have heard of Kay, as he is part of the research community and does not stand on stages like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates does. Kay is widely recognized and best known as the key scientist behind the graphical user interface and one of the inventors of object-oriented programming.

The Dynabook is still remembered as a vision of what computers could eventually become.  Kay described a plasma screen with a contrast ratio approaching that of a book; a keyboard with no moving parts; a network connection with the ability to purchase, transfer, and download “instantiate” files; global information connectivity, such as libraries; media connectivity; and a target price of $500.

After reading the paper, it was natural to ask the question: Did Steve Jobs read this paper as well and did he just try to build the Dynabook? I was lucky enough to catch up with Alan Kay and ask him what he thought. Needless to say, I also tried to contact Apple’s PR department and Steve Jobs himself, but I did not get a reply.

After a week of exchanging delightful emails with Alan Kay, I have learned quite a bit about the origins of personal computing and the Dynabook, but I have to admit that answering the question whether the iPad was Jobs’ idea or not is nearly impossible.

Kay told me that back in 1972 he “wasn't trying to predict the iPad” and that “the desiderata for the Dynabook should be judged on their own merits.” In fact, the Dynabook was not so much a prediction, but a vision for a personal computer and what it could be. That vision not only included hardware, but software as well that would allow anyone, especially children, to use the computer as a medium of expression, much like reading and writing are amplified by the printing press, as Kay describes it.   

Kay believes that computers can be much more powerful than most people can imagine today. A significant component of the Dynabook’s usage model was that its users would be able to easily develop simple applications. For example, even children could use simple yet effective graphics-based script languages to understand and translate experiments as well as to modify and write their own scripts and eventually entire programs such as games.
 
There is a clear difference between the Dynabook concept and what the iPad is today. If you look at the iPad and the Dynabook, the usage models could not be any different. You could even claim that the iPad is geared for passive computing, while the Dynabook represented an idea of active computing. The last thing you would want to do on an iPad is write your own software. You have the App Store, so why would you program anything? However, there is a much deeper connection between Kay and Apple.
 
Kay agreed that Steve Jobs has known about the Dynabook idea and the interim-Dynabook (called the PARC Alto) for several decades. The result of the research and Kay’s colleagues at Apple were the Lisa and Macintosh. After becoming an Apple Fellow in 1984, Kay intended to build a Dynabook and actually came very close to completing it. “The Newton was one such project and it was a shame that the Apple marketing people messed up the design of it,” Kay said.
 
Over time, there were more Dynabook hints in the IT industry. For example, there was the Tablet PC, which was predicted to revolutionize the notebook market. However, Kay believes that “the design of this machine was ruined by Bill Gates, who insisted that Windows be the software on it.” The Tablet PC, by the way, was first designed by Chuck Thacker, who also designed the PARC Alto. 
 
So, did the Dynabook influence Steve Jobs and the iPad? “Hard to imagine that it didn't,” Kay said. “Of course, many things in the multi-touch UI, page turning animations, etc. were first done by the group of my friend Nicholas Negroponte at MIT,” Kay said. “The idea of touch screen interaction also goes back to this community, both at PARC and Negroponte's research group at MIT that invented a multi-touch tablet in the 70s. One set of the machines we made, called ‘The NoteTaker,’ had a touch screen.”
 
So Kay and Jobs have a lasting relationship. There is a particularly interesting event between the two that relates to the iPhone and the iPad. “When Steve showed me the iPhone at its introduction a few years ago and asked me if ‘it was good enough to criticize,’ which is what I had said about the Mac in 1984, I held up my Moleskine notebook and said ‘make the screen at least 5"x8" and you will rule the world,’ Kay said.
 
Did Jobs listen to Kay and simply build what he was advised to do? Possibly, but Kay really had another direction in mind. “Of course, I meant do more than just that, but it was clear the iPhone was going to be really appealing and very useful for most people,” Kay said. “When I saw the iPhone, I figured that they had already done a tablet version, which is easier to make work than the iPhone, so I was partially joking with Steve when I said 5"x8".
 
I asked Kay, of course, whether he felt that Jobs had stolen the idea for the iPad. Kay quickly denied such a thought. He actually enjoys the success Jobs has with this product and said credit has been given to all parties involved.
 
“I have been given proper credit for my research and so have the other principal contributors to personal computing and Internetworking. We've all been given the major awards in our fields, honorary degrees from universities, elected as fellows to the major professional societies, etc,” Kay said. “I don't know of any who wanted to be popular like a rock star or actor, so it all worked out well. And for quite a few of us, the big rewards now come from when our ideas are actually used rather than watered down.”
 
Kay sees a different kind of payoff in his work, rather than the monetary rewards we would normally expect. “The big rewards overall came from being able to do the work, that is to have visions and make them manifest. These are the rewards of art, and the simplest way to characterize the main figures we've being talking about is as artists in science and technology,” Kay said. “The second biggest reward was to get funded to be able to do this work. Good funders are rare, and the amazing ones give out the gold medals early, knowing that most of them will turn to lead. Public recognition 40 years later doesn't compare to the real deals.”
 
Kay said that he still talks to Jobs today and they do appear to get along pretty well. “When I talk to Steve, I try to get him interested again in doing big things for education -- this was a central theme for him in the early days -- partly as a route to sell computers, but also as a civilization booster,” Kay said. “The ‘big things’ would include funding both internal and external research to make better learning environments for children, especially for hard-to-learn ideas like math and science.”
 
Kay did succeed with his idea eventually by pushing Etoys and Scratch and visual authoring systems on top of Squeak, which is an open source version of Smalltalk. Etoys and Scratch are used by children around the world to develop scripts and even applications. But some of us may wonder, if the iPad really isn’t the Dynabook and the Dynabook has not materialized yet, why Kay has not tried to build the complete device himself.
 
I learned that Kay has a true dedication and focus on what he does and isn’t likely to deviate from that. “Scientists are not the same as entrepreneurs. My main interests are finding and inventing. None of my friends who started companies, like Adobe, ever did ‘finding and inventing’ again,” Kay said. “The processes are very different and interfere considerably. What we did instead is to spend 25 years finding out what is needed in a constructive computer environment to really help 90% of children learn difficult-to-learn powerful ideas, and we were finally successful.”
 
Kay gives Apple a lot of credit for putting the finishing touches on an idea, but he criticizes what most believe is Apple’s strongest advantage today: the App Store.
 
“The app-centric way of looking at computing is not a good one in the end for the users. The apps can be individually very good and lots of them are on the iPad, but they needlessly stovepipe and isolate functionality that really should be integratible,” Kay said.

In his words, the app approach is somewhat disappointing and hides “what’s special” about computers. “This still essentially invisible for most people,” Kay said.
 
Kay’s solution? “An alternative way to do this would be to ‘sell objects, not apps’ and let the different objects all exist and be usable together in a kind of extended desktop publishing Hypercard document structure. This would allow very useful mashups to be done without any mashing,” Kay said. “For example, one of the drawing programs on the iPad is superb, but it doesn't integrate with the word processor program other than extremely awkwardly. Object-level integration was in the original PARC systems and was more like what we intended for how integration would be done.”
 
Apple’s Hypercard may actually have been a critical component that prevented Apple from being even further ahead in the industry today than it is already. In the late 1980s, it was in place as a tool for end-users to easily create dynamic media. According to Kay, more than four million users had written scripted stacks after Hypercard had been out for about four years.
 
Sadly, Apple did not believe in Hypercard and scrapped it. Imagine Hypercard in existence today, further developed in line with Apple’s approach of clean design and ease of use? Kay even described a Hypercard-based Web browser that would allow users to create content directly within a Web browser, turning the Web browser into a versatile content creation and viewing tool, instead of the relatively simple viewing tool it is today. 
 
But Kay does not believe that all hope is lost, as long as there remains a focus on the bigger picture of what computers can be and what makes them exciting. “There's nothing wrong with the computer as a washing machine, automobile, or, perhaps, even a TV. But it would be a disaster to let TV drive out the printed book, and an even bigger one if the computer as a washing machine were to drive out the computer as the next truly important representation system since the book,” Kay said. “This is the main issue here. Another way to look at it is that if you did deeply understand what computing was all about, then you would not just want it to be used as a washing machine.”
 
Clearly, the idea of the Dynabook went far beyond what the iPad is today and it does not represent the vision of the Dynabook idea. In a way, Apple may have taken the best thoughts of the Dynabook and squeezed it into a marketable model and a scenario that fit into Apple’s business plan. No doubt, there has been a lot of brainwork to make the Dynabook work for Apple. However, the whole iPad release and Apple’s claim as an innovator just does not feel right.
 
The iPad seems to be a typical Apple product and not quite the innovation it seems to be at first sight. Instead, it is yet another example of how an idea that has been worked on for a while can be refined to perfection, at least as far as today’s market requirements are concerned. I do not believe that Apple deserves all the credit it receives today and it is a shame that the iPad’s origins are widely unknown.

I wonder: Is there an opportunity for Alan Kay’s Dynabook? An iPad with a Sqeak implementation that enables any user to write his or her own applications, rather than resorting to purchasing an app?
 
Feel free to join the discussion by leaving a comment below, but remember to keep things clean!

Introduction

What? You haven't finished your holiday shopping yet? Well, in case you've been considering a networking-related gift, there are many products that are sure to please your giftee. This guide to networking gifts is based on hands-on experience with products reviewed throughout the year, and links are included to the related reviews and articles for your further exploration. You'll also find some tips on what not to buy, a bit unusual for a gift guide, perhaps, but equally important.

You all know the drill and why you're here, so let's just get right to it.

Wireless Networking

Wi-Fi continues its march toward ubiquity despite crowded airwaves, flaky performance, over-hyped products and generally high buyer dissatifaction. But if you're determined to try to free yourself or a loved one from his or her cabled shackles, we have a few things to suggest.

First, stay away from any products using draft 802.11n technology. Despite all the hype to the contrary, this standard is far from done and many significant changes are still coming. As our reviews have shown, these products generally promise long, deliver short and will interfere with nearby networks. And if that isn't enough, only one manufacturer - ASUS - is guaranteeing upgradability to the final 802.11n spec when it is released sometime next year.

In their efforts to differentiate themselves, manufacturers have come up will all sorts of permutations on the "N" theme, making it difficult for the average consumer to know what he or she is really buying. So here's a partial list of draft 11n "marketingese" so that you know what to avoid:

• RangeMax NEXT (Netgear)
• RangeBooster N (D-Link)
• N1 (Belkin)
• Wireless N-Draft (Trendnet)
• Wireless-N (Linksys)

With that said, you'll get the best combination of range and performance from products using MIMO chipsets from Airgo. Airgo's first-generation "True MIMO" chipset is at the heart of the Belkin Pre-N and other routers. But instead of the Belkin, which is short on routing features, a better choice would be the Netgear WPNT834 RangeMax 240. Although the 240 uses Airgo's third-generation chipset that includes "ACE" technology, which can interfere with neighboring 802.11b/g networks, you can shut it off and still have a product that will keep both you and your wireless neighbors happy.

Netgear WPNT834 RangeMax 240 Wireless Router

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Wireless Networking - more

If this is your first try at wireless networking and want to raise your odds of having a happy experience, you first need to know what you're dealing with. If you already have a wireless-equipped notebook or computer, you should use the wireless software utility (or Win XP's built-in Wireless Zero Configuration tool) to see if you can detect any existing networks. Your odds of wireless success are good if you can see no more than two other wireless networks because you can set up your network to use one of the three non-overlapping channels (1, 6, 11) that isn't being used.

If you'd rather have something more portable and usable for spur-of-the-moment wireless detecting than hauling out and booting up a wireless notebook, how about a Wi-Fi finder? Derek Boiko-Weyrauch liked the ZyXEL AG-225H And TRENDnet TEW-509UB twins.

For around $60 you get a flash-drive-sized detector that will sniff out 802.11a, b and g networks and display SSID, encryption, signal strength information on a miniature LCD screen. And as an added bonus, the devices are fully-functional 802.11a/b/g USB 2.0 wireless adapters. The main weakness I've found in the months that I've used one is that the non-backlit screen is hard to see in low-light conditions.

Wi-Finding Duo: ZyXEL AG-225H And TRENDnet TEW-509UB

But neighboring wireless LANs are the only thing that can mess up your wireless network. And cordless phones, microwave ovens and other sources of 2.4 GHz energy won't be picked up by a wireless adapter. Fortunately, for $99, the Wi-Spy Spectrum Analyzer can give you a complete view of what's going on in your wireless airwaves.

Wi-Spy $99 Wi-Fi Spectrum Analyzer

LANs and Routers

Sometimes a gift is more practical than fun, sorta like the underwear or socks that you used to get as a kid. I guess you can think of routers, switches, cables and Ethernet cards as the underwear of networking - not the most fun stuff, but definitely necessary.

Manufacturers have been slow to make gigabit switches standard in all routers; even the whizzyest draft 11n stuff still mostly has 10/100 switches. So if you're tired of the time it takes to move your ripped or downloaded music and video files around, a gigabit switch might be just the thing to reward yourself with. Although the percentage difference between 10/100 and 10/100/1000 switches is still rather large, the actual cost is well within reason. And since most new computers now come with gigabit LAN ports as standard, you might as well take advantage of them.

The main catch to consumer gigabit switches is the lack of jumbo frame capability. Netgear revised its GS108 8 port switch last year to include jumbo frame capability, but didn't renumber the product and was slow to flush old inventory out of the channel, frustrating many consumers. It should be safe to buy one now, but if you're buying from an Internet retailer, check its return / exchange policies in case you get one that doesn't say jumbo frames on the box.

Netgear GS108 8 port gigabit switch

Since all of the magic is baked into chips that everyone uses, there is little to differentiate one consumer gigabit switch from another. So if you don't care about jumbo frames or your computers aren't fast enough to really take advantage of them, then shop on price and brand preference if you have one. Gigabit NICs can have a bit of differentiation in the properties or controls that they expose to users and any utilities they include. I use an Intel Pro/1000 MT gigabit adapter which exposes more properties than I care to mess with, but there are plenty of other NICs to choose from.

Wired-only routers might seem boring when compared to their wireless cousins that networking manufacturers love to hype, but plenty of them toil quietly away keeping us connected. But as many filesharing devotees have discovered, ol' faithful might not be able to keep up with the higher download speeds that have become more common or the multiple simultaneous connections required by filesharing and gaming applications.

Fortunately, it doesn't cost a lot to replace a poky old router these days. Our Cheap Router Roundup sized up six routers costing $25 or less and found some surprisingly good products from lesser-known companies. You may have to hunt around for it online, but the AirLink101 AR504 came in at the top of the heap with the best combination of features and performance. If you're looking for something in a bit more of a brand name, just use our Router Charts to compare up and download speeds as well as the number of simultaneous connections supported.

AirLink101 AR504

Alternative Networking

If wireless isn't your thing, or you've tried it and found that it won't work in your environment, there are alternatives to getting out your drill and stringing good old CAT5/6 cable for wired Ethernet. Products that use your home's electric or phone wiring have been around for years, but have generally been avoided by consumers given their relatively slow speeds. However, satellite, cable and telco service providers now feel your pain, since they also want their services to reach every room of your home. And whenever there is a huge pile of money to be made, you can rest assured that the big guys will keep pursuing a solution.

As a result, a wave of new "alternative networking" products aiming to use your home's existing wiring is coming, this time with speeds capable of supporting multiple "triple play" data streams for video / music, voice and data. Unfortunately, service providers are doing selective roll-outs of most "alternative" technologies since there are still performance limitations and bugs to be worked out. The only "alternative networking" products generally available to consumers use power line wiring, but the story there isn't pretty, with two alternative incompatible technologies - HomePlug and DS2 - battling it out.

The upshot is that you should proceed with caution if powerline networking products are on your holiday shopping list. Products touting "200 Mbps" speeds use technology from DS2, which can neither interoperate nor coexist with products bearing the HomePlug moniker. Products using DS2 technology include D-Link's DHP-301 and Netgear's HDX101.

85 Mbps on the box indicates HomePlug Turbo technology, which is interoperable with earlier HomePlug standards. In the HomePlug Turbo Adapter Round-Up I liked Netgear's XE104, which includes a four port 10/100 switch in a compact wall-pluggable design.

Netgear XE104 85 Mbps Wall-Plugged Ethernet Switch

But shortly after you read this, the first HomePlug AV products will be appearing. Like DS2-based products, HomePlug AV gear also advertises 200+ Mbps speeds, but is supposed to be compatible with all existing HomePlug gear. If it ships as planned, ZyXEL's PLA-400 HomePlug AV PowerLine Ethernet adapter should be out this month at an MSRP of $94. Since I haven't tested HomePlug AV I can't vouch for any of its claims. But if the performance of DS2 gear is any indication, I expect best-case usable throughput between 50 and 80 Mbps.

Networked Storage

This has been quite a year for Networked Storage products, which are challenging wireless gear for the title of most desired product. The main driver has been the need to house our ever-increasing digital media collections which are being fed by digital cameras, iTunes and a host of other content acquisition options.

The good news is that the latest round of products has better performance, more user-friendly interfaces, and frequently include built-in media servers, backup features and SATA drives and interfaces. There are also more options in the BYOD (Bring Your Own Drive/Disk) category, which allow you to put that drive left over from your last system upgrade to good use. BYOD products also allow you to easily replace a failed drive, which can be quite painful with some diskful NASes.

More good news is that manufacturers are recognizing that it's impractical to regularly back up hundreds of gigabytes of data (or at least to expect most of us to actually do it) and are including automatic backup features and RAID capabilities. RAID automatically reads and writes data to multiple hard drives (you need at least two) in ways that allow data to remain intact when one drive eventually goes belly up.

If your budget is large along with your storage needs, then the Infrant ReadyNAS NV is the way to go. It can handle up to four 750 GB drives for a total storage capacity of almost 3 TB (that's Terabytes) in its petite, stylish enclosure and keep all that data safe with its flexible RAID features. The user interface is top-notch, although a bit daunting for newbies given all of its options. But Infrant's X-RAID (Expandable RAID) technology allows you to start with only one drive and automatically reconfigures itself without losing existing data as you add more drives. Multiple media servers are included, as is a client backup utility that doesn't require any software to be installed on clients. The newer NV+ adds an LCD front-panel display and bundles copies of EMC's Retrospect for another client backup alternative.

Infrant ReadyNAS NV NAS

If your budget is more modest, you may want to consider dual-drive products that support RAID 1 instead. Two products with good combinations of price and performance are HP's Media Vault and D-Link's DNS-323. Both are dual-SATA drive products with RAID 1 capability, built-in media serving and gigabit LAN interfaces.

HP mv2010 Media Vault

The DNS-323 is a full BYOD device and the mv2010 version of the HP product comes with one 300 GB drive and lets you add another via a handy slide-in tray. Both rate high in performance in our NAS Charts and will have full reviews coming up soon. The HP will set you back around $350 and the D-Link will be about $230 (sans drives) when it hits the stores shortly.

D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure

Multimedia - Video

As our digital media libraries grow, so does the desire to not be stuck next to a computer to listen or watch them. Limitations imposed by various Digital Rights Management (DRM) schemes continue to be a big drag on this product category for legally-purchased media, so many users resort to building their libraries by ripping and downloading. For video files, however, the ability of products to handle the wide array of file formats and bit rates is just as large a problem.

Two media players that Jim Buzbee liked are Netgear's EVA700 and D-Link's DSM-520. Both support 1080i HD output via component video outputs, but the DSM-520 also sports an HDMI port. The EVA700 gets the nod for widest video format support and ability to play MP3 files that include album art, but has an unexciting user interface with inconsistent screen-saver feature.

Netgear EVA700 Digital Entertainer

The DSM-520 has a more attractive look and feel, but chokes on MP3 files with album art and has more limited video format support. No streaming media player does it all (not at least yet), but if you want to jump in now, these are two good choices.

D-Link DSM-520 Medialounge Wireless HD media player

Multimedia - Audio

The picture is much brighter for networked audio players. A few products have managed to bypass DRM issues by running an application on a Windows PC that intercepts the music stream after DRM decrypting. Mike Baggaley liked Logitech's Wireless DJ which was able to wirelessly stream DRM'd and unlocked MP3, AAC, and WMA files with ease using a self-configuring Bluetooth network.

Logitech Wireless DJ

A perennial favorite is SlimDevices' Squeezebox, which combines good looks and wide format support (MP3, WMA, FLAC, AAC, WAV and Ogg Vorbis) with the ability to access content directly from streaming servers. But the only DRM format it supports is Rhapsody's subscription-based service. Infrant and SlimDevices (which is now part of Logitech) are jointly offering an NV / Squeezebox bundle for whole-house systems (pictured below) if your year-end budget range is above $1000.

Infrant NV, SlimDevices Squeezebox bundle

But if you're going to spend that much for a whole-house audio system, a better choice would be Sonos' Digital Music System. While it also can't play DRM-protected files, its wireless remote and multiple room capabilities provide a slicker user experience. You can choose from the original ZP100 ZonePlayer with built-in 50 W amplifier, or newer ZP80 which omits the amplifier for a smaller footprint and price.

Sonos ZP80 ZonePlayer 80

VoIP

Again, I'll start with what not to buy, which are any of the Wi-Fi Skype phones that finally hit the shelves a few months ago. The phones from SMC and Belkin are essentially the same, while Netgear's SPH101 looks similar but uses a different hardware design that includes a speakerphone. The reason for my thumbs-down is that at between $150 - $200, they are too expensive for what they do, which is to let you make Skype voice calls while connected to an 802.11b or g wireless network. The big negatives are short and/or inconsistent battery life, inability to authenticate with any hotspot that requires you to launch a web browser to connect and no text chat capability.

A much better gift for a frequent Skyper - especially someone who uses Skype for business calls - is Polycom's Communicator speakerphone. It's a snap to set up and provides excellent voice quality in both directions. At around $130, it's a bit pricey, but well worth it.

Polycom Communicator Skype Speakerphone

Return to the Holiday Buyer's Guide 2006 index page.

Part 3: Components & Peripherals

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