Awhile back I picked up a copy of the DVD “1001 Classic Commercials” from Mill Creek at a ridiculously low price. Imagine my surprise when I noticed this piece of technology being used in a 1948 commercial for Mum Deodorant Creme:

Was this the inspiration for the iPad Mini? Or just Samsung’s hope for  prior art?

While it’s uncanny resemblance to the iPad Mini is almost certainly coincidental*, it reminded me of a line from the Bible: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: And there is no new thing under the sun.” - Ecclesiastes 1:9 (KJV)

Or, perhaps this more recent quote, which might find favor with tablet and phone manufacturers fearful of Apple’s litigiousness:

“The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end.”
- Patent Office Commissioner Henry Ellsworth, Report to Congress, 1843.

* although, here’s a few more of Apple’s “design coincidences”, courtesy of Cult of Mac.

Thanks for reading!