Never forget Voyager, where Torres could invent a brand new method of transporter lock and implement it on-the-fly all through a console on the bridge, but even the bio-neural gel packs weren’t smart enough to get a power requisition down to the bottom decks without someone putting it into a padd and physically walking it down there.
It made sense a few years ago, but come on, how many portable devices with large screens do we have now?
Plus if I could replicate 10 iPads so I could have a page open on each to make research easier, I’d do it. What’s better, having to switch between tabs or apps, or just grabbing a pad with the info ready to cross reference.
Like all predictions about future technology, Star Trek was both right and way off.
Padds are almost used like portable storage devices. Want to give someone a book? Load it onto a padd for them.
Honestly if I could just print up a new tablet instantly and without cost, I would have half a dozen around me when I am deep into a research fugue.
Being able to quickly and easily flip between books or articles (or even different sections of the same book) while at the same time keeping the existing information up on a screen that I can directly reference is great.
I have a 42inch curved 4K main monitor.
It’s fucking huge.
Still have 2 27 inch ones in portrait to each side for documentation and browsing.
Rather have 4x 21" screens though.
Much easier to organise all the different windows that way.
My headcanon is that some of the PADDs are 1-time use with read only memory that can’t have the data loaded or transferred off it. A secure way of passing information.
Yeah, it’s commonly thought to have something to do with security. Similar to chain of custody for criminal evidence.
Engineering compiles a department report for the captain. The Shift Lead puts the data on a PADD, then gives that PADD to the Chief Engineer. The Chief Engineer signs the data with their command code and notes that it is PADD-1217. That data then becomes locked to that PADD. Someone from Engineering is assigned to take PADD-1217 to the bridge and hand deliver it to the Captain. The Captain receives the PADD, reviews the report, confirms that they are holding PADD-1217, and signs the report with their command code. Someone from Engineering is sent to retrieve the PADD, and re-deliver it to the Chief Engineer. The Chief Engineer confirms the PADD was read and signed by the Captain, confirms it is PADD-1217, and transfers the signed data to the computer core to be logged and archived. The Chief Engineer then confirms all data on the PADD has been transferred and erased, then stores the PADD until it is needed again.
This is why it’s common to see a pile of PADDs on the Captain’s desk. Each department is sending their own secure report on their own PADD.
Engineering - Apple iPad Security - GNU/Hurd Mobile Flatscreen Medical - MS Surface TNG 10 Front - Samsung FuchsiaPad
And none of them are interoperable. Did you really think they would solve that in the future?
I must be the only person on the planet who doesn’t feel the need to have a septillion screens 🤷♀️
$0.02:
We used to get plenty done with much less screen area, so there’s isn’t really a driving need, per-se. There’s nothing wrong with that workflow, even today.
That said, more pixels does enable some useful possibilities. IMO, the major difference comes down to using your peripheral vision (which wasn’t possible before) and less background tasking. Both converge on less cognitive load since you don’t need a mental map of what’s in the background (everything is “foreground” now). Instead, you can scan your immediate environment (screen real-estate, physical devices, etc) to find what you want. And I think it’s ultimately a matter of taste: some people will find that overwhelming instead of helpful or useful.
Not a bad take, your $0.02 is worth more than a lot of other people’s (not saying the takes here are bad, just a general statement). I’m far, far on the opposite end of the extreme of some people in this thread; I was comfortable on a single 11" MacBook Air screen". Part of that is certainly my ADHD/autism, in that I can hyperfocus on the thing that’s in the foreground and just swap everything else to disk when I’m not looking at it. I appreciate the recognition that it is all about taste; so many folks tend to state their preferences like they’re objective fact.
4:3 monitors were better than 16:9, objective fact, fight me
My desk has a desktop with two monitors, a laptop, an iPad, and a phone. I use each of them for different reasons throughout a day.
TBH the only reason I have so few devices laying around is because they’re expensive. If I lived in a post-scarcity society, I’d have a lot more tablets on my desk.
