I remember seeing these in the early nineties - I didn't think a whole lot of what was being said at the time, but it's unbelievable how spot-on these ads were. Even the thin LCD screens, laptops, onscreen user interfaces were very close to being accurate. Usually the imagined version of technology ends up looking a little crappy when it's eventually brought to reality.

You know why I remember these commercials? People freaked about carying their medical history in their pocket. It was a lot like the way people say they'll never get chipped. Yet now many hospitals and clinics issue cards that you have to show when "checking in."

The same people that swore they would never carry that type of medical card, or an ATM, now have more plastic in their pockets than leather. It just serves as a reminder that incrimental change is almost impossible to resist.

Yeah, a lot of this stuff was already developed.

My dad was one of the founders of gateway computers a long time ago lol if anyone remembers the cow spotted cpu boxes?

I had a tablet PC back in like 1997 or less, Mini Disc player in the early 90's and TIVO (wasn't called TIVO, and didnt work with our cable) box I would say in the early 90's as well.. same with internet phone.. it was actually a phone that plugged into your computer lol..

So most of this stuff was already in the designing process, although its still pretty cool - btw the mini disc player never caught on lol - I thought it was pretty damn cool

[edit on 27-9-2009 by GreenBicMan]

Oh man, I remember these commercials. I remember being amazed and thinking that most of that will never happen, now it's all old hat and the gizmos they show are quite large.

It freaks me out sometimes, when I realize that I'm living in the future I imagined as a kid.

With technology advancing faster than ever now, I think the next 20 years are going to be pretty neat.

Originally posted by SphinxMontreal
I'm sure they had the technology already developed several years prior to these commercials. As with any new technlogy, the problem was making it affordable and getting it to the masses.

Making it affordable? Like the iphone? lol No the problem was and always has been setting up a system to milk profit from the tech at a large scale.