Knight-Ridder video tablet was ahead of its time

Did Knight-Ridder foresee the Amazon Kindle and Kindle DX? Or perhaps the inevitable tablet renaissance that will be sparked by Apple’s upcoming launch of a tablet device?

In a K-R promotional video made in 1994, the K-R laboratory predicts newspapers being replaced by sleek black tablet devices that allow people to consume media on the go.

Why did the project fail to get off the ground? Screen technology, said former K-R laboratory head Roger Fidler (and later Kent State journalism professor) in an interview this year – screens were too heavy and sucked too much power.

Click on the headline for the link to the video.

(Thanks to Mizell Stewart for this goodie via Facebook.)

-- Ken Krause