I absolutely love Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. I must have watched it hundreds of times over the years, so I’m amazed I didn’t spot this iPad similarity in one of the scenes. I guess as it’s such a sci-fi staple device, I wasn’t really looking to make the connection. But someone was.

That someone is Samsung, who are currently in a court battle with Apple over the design of their respective tablet computers, and are citing 2001′s ‘iPad’ as an example of ‘prior art’, basically a way of invalidating Apple’s patent on it. Wow, they must be desperate…

Of course 2001 also shows us all sorts of glimpses into the future, some of which have appeared (10 years late mind you) such as video calling, and the imaginatively titled TV channel BBC12, which presumably means BBC Four will be saved after all. Although if that food they’re eating ever makes it to the supermarket shelves I’ll probably pass.

And of course, as every Apple and design geek knows, old Jonathan Ive has always found a lot of his inspiration in the sixties, so this is nothing new…

…so let’s all be friends shall we? I’m putting the whole thing down as simply another example of Stanley Kubrick’s genius, which is not in dispute.

Spotted via @MatDolphin