[EID] Predictive SF?

[Dalrymple, Garry]

Dear All

'Grace Cormet's telephone buzzed.    She took it out of her pocket and said, 'Yes?'

That passage was from Robert Heinlein's short story, 'We also Walk Dogs', published in a 1954 copyrighted Anthology, 'The Green hills of Earth', described on the back of the book as the second book of the future History series about life in the 21st Century.      Is this a first ever SF description of a wireless mobile phone being a routine device?

In John Birmingham's 'World War 2.1' series the 'pad' computer is the universal personal possession / communication device.     Has this 'prediction' already been superceded by the powers of the just recently announced Apple Ipad?

Anyone care to suggest instances of items that were optimistically 'predicted in SF' but which arrived ahead of time in the real world?

Garry P Dalrymple
Still waiting for my Aircar and personal jet pack

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