3. Arthur C. Clarke Predicted The iPad
While many people associate 2001: A Space Odyssey solely with director Stanley Kubrick, esteemed sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke was heavily involved with the writing of the script. Not only that, but at the same time the film was being made, Clarke was writing the novelization. Despite both Kubrick and Clarke collaborating on each other's projects, Clarke is recognized as the singular author behind the story. In Clarke's novelization published in 1968 he details a piece of technology strikingly similar to the iPad. The item is flat with a large screen and it's plugged into the ship's network. There it scans for the world's latest news stories. Not only that, but the device features automatic hourly push updates.
"The text was updated automatically on every hour; even if one read only the English versions, one could spend an entire lifetime doing nothing but absorbing the ever-changing flow of information from the news satellites.
In the story, it's speculated to be the final step in man's quest for perfect communication. And the name of such a brilliant piece of technology? The Newspad.