The name iPad has been speculated as the name of an Apple PDA/Tablet dating back to 2002 or earlier.
In fact, the name iPad was first used (as far as I can tell)
in 2000 as a prank.
And it was passed around in several MacRumors posts back in 2001/2002,
here,
here,
here,
here, or
here.
Yes, but I said the name with certainty!
Seriously though, I didn't believe it to be a pda or even an extension of Newton. I didn't see Apple wanting to put out a highly stylus dependent device for anything other than possibly handwriting. I felt that those PDA's were too clunky, and non-streamlined for SJ's taste. He wouldn't want extra gadgets, even something as simple but easy to lose as a stylus, to be an integral part of the iPad.
Like I said in my post linked below, I saw the ipad being "...a lot more robust than a PDA while not being an inconvenient laptop."
I even almost hit the price points [from the link below]: "I would pay $599 for a slimmed down entry version and $899 for a hardware[ram, audio recording, combo drive?, etc.]/software upgraded version."
LOL @ the combo drive guess, but as also stated in the link below, I saw the iPad as being "[approx. the size of 2 DVD boxes stacked on top of eachother]". So I thought it would be twice as thick as the current iPad. Also, the DVD box sizes I was referring to are the older dvd boxes that were around 10" in height, or as I had posted numerous times on these forums back then, something that was about the size of a piece of paper (in height obviously) or a clipboard, and that you could hold and use in much the same way you would hold and use a clipboard:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/2219457/
Of course over 3 years had passed between my original iPad post and the one linked directly above, and because SJ had said that "everything running Mac OS (iOS hadn't been introduced yet, nor had the iPhone) would have the word Mac in the name from now on", I had changed the name to MacPad and then MacPod (LOL!) because this device would not canabilize other Apple products, but rather raise awareness of them by complimenting them. It would be another Apple product for SJ's vision of the "digital lifestyle".
Oh, the memories!
This is the most accurate and earliest (as far as I know) post that I had made using the name iPad:
https://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-232266 </t-23590.html
For more foresight fun, clicky linky in my sig to see the epic battle thread between us here on MR and the Nokia [and other FORMER leading phone manufacturers] trolls regarding what they saw as the completely useless multi-touch input advantages of the [at that time] just released iPhone.
PEACE.
