I just bumped into this video of Nicholas Negroponte from 1984, it's a presentation from TED where he talks about the future of computer technology. It's really quite amazing how well Mr. Negroponte predicted a lot of the products and technologies we're seeing on the market today. He was so accurate on some of these issues that one might be tempted to give him the nickname Nicholas "Nostradamus" Negroponte. Listen to him talking about touch interfaces and you'll hear him say, "There are certain things you can do with more than one finger input." which we all recognize today as the multi-touch on our iPhones and the most talked about feature that people expect Apple to put into a UMPC if they decide to enter the market.

Now, Mr. Negroponte has been instrumental in making sure that some of his predictions came true, but I don't think he had any idea that his visions would ultimately result in the UMPCs that we see today. In the video you can see him talking about a new kind of book, a CloudBook if you will, that is interactive and is an in-depth resource for whatever topic you want to read about. Of course many of you know about the OLPC program that Negroponte has been running, and this program has had a significant impact on UMPCs in shrinking the form factor, increasing the battery life, and driving prices down.

Have a look at the video. Doesn't Negroponte sound like he's talking about our beloved UMPC?