the.com/tablet
the slab that ate your laptop, your notebook, and your kid's attention span
means A flat slab — of stone, clay, wax, paper, or now a thin touchscreen computer — used for writing, marking, or displaying information.
from From Old French 'tablete,' a little 'table,' which traces back to Latin 'tabula,' a board or plank. The same 'tabula' gives us 'table' itself — so a tablet is literally a small flat surface, a meaning that's carried it from clay tablets pressed in Mesopotamia to stone tablets in scripture to the glowing glass slab in your hand. The pharmaceutical 'tablet,' a little flat-pressed pill, follows the same shape logic.
- ancient roots
- Mesopotamians wrote on clay tablets 5,000 years ago
- medical twin
- Same word means a pressed pill of medicine
- failed first
- Apple's 1993 Newton flopped before iPad won
- stone origin
- Moses carried the original tablets down a mountain
ipad — apple's tablet device, first released in 2010, dominates the market with 28% global share
amazon kindle fire — amazon's android tablet line launched in 2011, focused on media consumption and shopping
samsung galaxy tab — samsung's android tablet series since 2010, competing directly with ipad in consumer market
microsoft surface pro — microsoft's hybrid tablet-laptop running windows, launched 2013, marketed as pc replacement