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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
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Time traveling an iPad back to 1999

By | June 10, 2010, 7:44am PDT

Summary: Last night I was watching the movie Office Space (remember Milton and the line “Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler…”), a movie set in 1999, in the heady days leading up to Y2K. Well, I wasn’t really watching the movie, it was just on in the background. Anyway, I was doing a spot of work on my iPad while the movie was on I started to idly think about how cool it would be if you could take an iPad back to 1999 …

Last night I was watching the movie Office Space (remember Milton and the line “Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler…”), a movie set in 1999, in the heady days leading up to Y2K. Well, I wasn’t really watching the movie, it was just on in the background. Anyway, I was doing a spot of work on my iPad while the movie was on I started to idly think about how cool it would be if you could take an iPad back to 1999 …

Wouldn’t it be cool? Wouldn’t people think that the iPad was a wonder bit of kit? Wouldn’t people think it was one of the most magical things they’d seen …

No they wouldn’t!

It took me a while to realize it, but an iPad in 1999 would be little more than a glorified paper weight. See, 1999 is pre iPod and pre iTunes. So no apps, no music, no movies. Heck, Steve Jobs hadn’t had time to conjure up such things, having only been back at the helm of Apple for a couple of years after been given the boot by the board of directors back in 1985.

It was also pre 3G, pre GPRS and EDGE for that matter, so as a mobile tool it would be useless. Even 802.11a/b wasn’t nailed down as a standard until the second half of 1999.

Most people were using modems that dished out bandwidth by the kbps.

USB existed, but the high speed USB 2.0 had to wait until 2002.

Connectivity would have been rubbish.

GPS existed, but the accuracy was crap because of the Selective Availability pseudo-random error that was deliberately added to the signal to prevent the bad guys making use of it, which wasn’t discontinued until May 2000.

Google existed, but was pretty insignificant in the scheme of things. YouTube wasn’t even conceived.

Even the Safari browser was years away. Mac OS X existed, but only as a server OS.

Nah, I don’t think that people of 1999 would have been all that impressed with the iPad. They’d have asked “Where does the floppy disk go?” and on finding that it couldn’t read floppies, probably used it as a club or hammer or something.

Seriously though, it’s pretty sobering to realize how much infrastructure and technology a gadget like the iPad relies on, and how much of that stuff either didn’t exist a little over a decade ago, or was much more primitive than it is right now.

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Apple iPad, Movie, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

Disclosure

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

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Electronics...
Erahgon 12th Jun 2010
Just harvest it and analyze all the advanced nanotech in it. People would probably think that it came from an alien planet or something!
It's even more sobering to realze how much we've advanced in such a (comparatively) short span of time!
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Floppies in 99?
minardi 10th Jun 2010
I thought it was the time for disk and the zip drive. Floppies (long gone in 99) were called floppies because they were not rigid. Also, remember the Newton, was already kind of old then. And more, the eReader was coming along (w/o much success)..
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There is nothing in iPad that did not exist in 1999 except ...
hamobu-22333136139518773481685514128812 10th Jun 2010
... restrictions to only buy software and content from Apple. iPad is just a computer without a keyboard and with lock in for software and content purchases. People with iPads had more freedom back in 1999 then they have now.
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RE: Time traveling an iPad back to 1999
MLHACK 10th Jun 2010
@hamobu

I agree and it will keep getting worse @ long as we have gov interference and wanting either control or have access to the infrastructure. Remember this movie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120660/ this is going on now and in another decade it will be 50x worse.
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RE: Time traveling an iPad back to 1999
hamobu-22333136139518773481685514128812 10th Jun 2010
@MLHACK

I am for limiting state power, but in this case the limitations imposed come from corportations and not from state.
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You just don't get it.....
James Quinn 11th Jun 2010
@hamobu
Apple gives you a choice and it is this. You can use our products knowing that there is are clear limitations. However what you gain is a hand n glove relationship within our systems that increase reliability and responsiveness of our products. Now "IF" Apple were the only vendor who offered such products you'd have the right to complain however Apple is not there are a slew of choices where your "freedoms" by your standards are not infringed on or are less infringed on depending on your free will choice. I am more than capable of dealing and using a slew of vendors products and can tech out and figure out a variety of tech options for I've been in the computer support business for decades now. However the "reason" I choose Apple as a rule is because I don't want to take my work home with me and I simply want to USE a device not "work" to make it work for me. It's a choice you see.. Apple offers one solution and others offer another. Enjoy your freedom and I will enjoy mine.

Pagan jim
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RE: Time traveling an iPad back to 1999
hamobu-22333136139518773481685514128812 11th Jun 2010
@Pagan jim

Apple gives you a choice and it is this. You can use our products knowing that there is are clear limitations

See the keyword up there is knowing. Do you really think that people who buy iPod for the first time will be locked into iTunes and that there are alternatives out there for mp3 players that work with almost any music software? Do you think most people that buy iPhone's know that it's not normal to be restricted to only one app provider or that Developers are restricted to only one advertising company?

On the point of developers being restricted to Apple's iADs service, if people did know this, do you think they would grasp the significance of what they are giving up? Do people know that it's not normal to not have USB interface on a device like iPad?
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RE: Time traveling an iPad back to 1999
kevindarling 10th Jun 2010
Ironically, back around 2000 we had industrial Windows CE slates that were the same size as the iPad (although not quite the same resolution).
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RE: Time traveling an iPad back to 1999
rossdav@... 10th Jun 2010
Wow Adrian - a thought provoking article! wink
It actually fascinates me that only a decade ago, none of the wireless data infrastructure was there yet, and Apple has changed so much.
But then I remember getting our first colour TV... :-\
Yes, I'm old.
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RE: Time traveling an iPad back to 1999
MLHACK 10th Jun 2010
@rossdav@...

Oh yeah it has changed wireless has improved as has the desire to control the 1's and 0's running over the wire or air waves.
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There were apps and there was music back in 1999...
hamobu-22333136139518773481685514128812 10th Jun 2010
... what is new with iPad are the restrictions with wich you cannot buy software and content from anywhere else but Apple. iPad is just a computer without a keyboard and with a lot of restrictions. In other words, iPad gives you everything you had in 1999 but with more restrictions.
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One mans trash is another's treasure or so I'm told:P
James Quinn 11th Jun 2010
@hamobu
One mans "restrictions" is another mans "freedom" from bother. it's all in the eye of the beholder. Man I'm whipping out the ancient quotes today!!!

Pagan jim
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RE: Time traveling an iPad back to 1999
AndyPagin 10th Jun 2010
Makes about as much sense as taking a car back to 1790, people would have thought "great idea, it'll do really well once petrols' been invented. Meanwhile I'll stick with a steam engine, it works, it's standard & it makes money".

Thats sort of analogous to how I would have thought about the Ipad in 1999.
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Only iPad does not offer anything that did not exist in 1999
hamobu-22333136139518773481685514128812 10th Jun 2010
Ipad is only restricted and crippled down computer for media consumption.
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Yes, your right
MacNewton 11th Jun 2010
@hamobu

But I love it! But not 4 you?
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Which is what a lot of people seem to want.. Right?
James Quinn 11th Jun 2010
@hamobu
Most people don't want to "know" how an OS works nor desire to have any idea how a computer works they just want those devices to work for them. They don't want to need to know the details they just want results. Sort of in the way most people who drive know very little about their cars innards. This might not be how you are use to using a computer nor how you wish to use a computer but lets face it I think Apple has found the sweat spot for the vast majority of potential consumers out there.

Pagan jim
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so you are fine with injustice
hamobu-22333136139518773481685514128812 11th Jun 2010
@MacNewton

"Yes, your right But I love it! "

So you know you are being treated unfairly, but you love it?
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Is it fair to take advantage of someone even if you fill their needs
hamobu-22333136139518773481685514128812 11th Jun 2010
@James Quinn

Most people don't want to "know" how an OS works nor desire to have any idea how a computer works they just want those devices to work for them

So if, for example, you knew nothing about computers but you needed a simple spreadsheet, and I sell you First generation Pentium machine with 1GB hard drive and 32 MB of ram for $10,000, you would be fine with that because it meets your needs?
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To quote Adam Smith
frgough 10th Jun 2010
Today's luxuries are tomorrow's necessities.
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To parody Adam Smith
hamobu-22333136139518773481685514128812 10th Jun 2010
Today?s freedoms are tomorrows infringements on intellectual property
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RE: Time traveling an iPad back to 1999
minardi 10th Jun 2010
@hamobu Seek advice. You need serious mental help.
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Insults! Really?
hamobu-22333136139518773481685514128812 10th Jun 2010
@minardi
C'mon man!
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You say tomato I say.....
James Quinn 11th Jun 2010
@hamobu
Look you see freedoms in a certain way because you have a certain experience with computer systems.. OK I get it but there are a vast population out there who don't share your knowledge or experience and they don't want to be "forced" to learn this stuff. That is their expression of freedom not being forced to learn how to deal with a computer system. Not taking on a computer related project. In your world you joyfully excepted the responsibility of being able to wheel and deal with computer issues that can arise in a chaotic world where you can load anything on your system and if it causes you problems you can figure out how to fix that difficulty well can you take a moment to see where that freedom is a prison cell for many who don't want that knowledge and or skill set and their idea of freedom is much different from yours?

Pagan jim
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I am not forcing, I am exposing.
hamobu-22333136139518773481685514128812 11th Jun 2010
@Pagan jim

You assume that people flock to apple fully informed and they have decided to pay more for a simpler solution that will fit their needs. But is that really true.

Let us say a clueless user goes into apple store and says: I need a small device to check email, watch movies and browse the web.

Then the salesman says: I have just a thing for you, this $900 iPad (plus AT&T data contract) will do everything you just said.

Well don't you think this woman would like to know that for 1/3 the price she can have a net-book with more memory, keyboard, flash support, USB interface, forward facing camera, etc?

The way I see it, this is no different than car mechanic taking advantage of a customer, doing unnecessary work and charging too much.
0 Votes
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Electronics...
Erahgon 12th Jun 2010
Just harvest it and analyze all the advanced nanotech in it. People would probably think that it came from an alien planet or something!
It's even more sobering to realze how much we've advanced in such a (comparatively) short span of time!

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