...
>>>
>>>>Or is he hoist by his own petards? :-)
>>>
>>>In one of Larry Niven's RingWorld books (1970+) he describes a device that is striped to your wrist like a watch. This device (I beleive) was called a Joy-box. It not only told you the time, but was your phone, access to the central computer system, and even could make you a drink, and more. When I see what is continuously being added to the PDA these day, I can not help but think of the Joy-Boxes.
>>
>>Yeah, some of them were commendable. One I vaguely remember from some 20-odd years ago - the guys carried a "minisec" (miniature secretary) that had computer, comms, video, database, probably camera, etc.
>
>And, yet, I see them every day on the commuter train. I think they call them laptops.

That's the point. They were considered to be SF - only available when Man has reached the stars.

The closest I've seen is the series starting with "Ender’s Game", by Orson Scott Card (1977). In this the cadet students have a "desk" - a sort of all-singing-and-dancing large plaque - cf. a laptop - that can also project holograms, and there is a lot of discussion on "the Nets" (strangely prophetic). In his later novels of the series, seeing the dev. of the Interweb, he subtley changed the terminology to reflect actuality.