Everyone is a genius inventor in hindsight, but in this case former newspaper giant Knight-Ridder seems to have predicted in 1994 the device now known as the iPad. The newspaper chain was known for being an innovator and this is a great example of the forward thinking they were employing, even in the pre-wireless days. In Knight-Ridder it was the first newspaper publisher to experiment with videotex , launching its Viewtron system, which essentially put print content on the television screen. The company's flagship paper, the San Jose Mercury News, was the first newspaper to regularly post its full content online.
Not forward thinking enough, though. In 2006 the ailing company was sold to the McClatchy Company.
