To iPad or 2 Data Pad? To boldly go where no electronic has gone before.

So in responding to one of my classmates blogs I came across this link that has "10 Sci-Fi Predictions That Came True" here is that link:  http://www.innovationnewsdaily.com/331-scifi-predictions-countdown.html
Even though we are a bit slow on the whole space frontier, there are other areas that have kept pace and in some cases we are ahead of the curve. For example : This is a Data Pad used in the show Star Trek The Next Generation. Compare this to the iPad2.
This show came out in September of 1987 and showed a future set in the years of 2364 through 2370. These Data pads could do everything an iPad can do. The ship was even the "Cloud" for super computing.
It still disappoints me that we went from Jules Verne and his voyage to the moon to the real Nasa mission. I understand that they have not figured out how to bend time and space, but how many years have we had a space station in space? How many years did the Russians have their space station up before it returned back to earth? With enough money Russia will even take you up in their rockets. Commercialism is good but I hope that it does not stall because of riches to be gained.

So I will start off with this question; Are we where we should be or are we behind in the times in technology? I am not really sure at the moment. I have my own doubts. I wonder how we could go from Kitty Hawk with the Wright Brothers to the Moon in 66 years. We did a total of 6 manned missions to the moon. Since 1972 there have been no further manned missions to anywhere but orbit around Earth. It has been 43 years since that 1st mission. What are we doing now? Well, we are sending out probes and machines to varying corners of our solar system. The Voyager 1 probe, launched in 1977, is now about to reach Interstellar space. Curiously though we are no where near where a lot of science fiction authors and movies have suggested we would be.
     We have no flying cars like the ones in Back To The Future II. We do not have giant space hotels as in 2001: A Space Odyssey. How much longer do we have to wait?
     Well currently there is a space race within the elite private business world. Richard Branson and his Space Ship 1 are the most famous. But there are others at the front lines of this new space race. Space X is one such company. Are they pushing the boundaries and bringing us closer to the future that many people like myself want to see? Or are they going to drag it out and make as much money as they possibly can?
     My only reason for questioning this direction is this; Many company's are known for coming out with a new products every year. They hype it, they pitch it, they bash the competition, but when it comes down to it, they have only changed a feature. Or they have only changed a part to be more efficient. But it never really the exciting game changer that they pronounce it to be. I have been waiting for nearly a decade, for a tooth sized cell phone that replaces a tooth and yet I have an iPhone 4. I had a choice between this and an iPhone 4s but there really was no drastically noticeable difference in technology. Just some quaint features and the Siri program that gets half the requests wrong and a spell checker that sucks. I turned that feature off because it is no better or worse in my iPhone 4.
     Well I will continue to watch and see where these giants of business will take us. Will they take us further into space by 50 mile increments or will they make the leap and build the hotels and luxury space destinations that we read about and see in movies? Will we be able to eat a Space Happy Meal on the Moon or be stuck eating the Freeze Dried Ice Cream that we can buy online?