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.
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.
But who wants to deal with searching through the UI for pertinent info when you can have several PADDs each attuned to a specific set of data?
They can even have their own special UI! The way they talk about reconfiguring panels makes it seem like you can build your own UI on the fly, especially the time Worf yelled at a dude who put the con controls in the engine room of the defiant and didn't use the standard layout.
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.
Just chuck them into a matter recycler when finished. No messy piles of old PADDs. Unless you're Sloan from Section 31.
I know this is in his head, but in all likelihood how he really kept his notes.
That is one way to not get hacked I suppose
Reminds me of the paper printouts in the very earliest TOS episodes. Like, what do you do when you run out of paper in deep space? And do you really have the storage for 5 years worth of computer printouts? Logistically, even an etch-a-sketch makes more sense.
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?
Why would each area of the ship need to use a different brand or model of device?
That's sure not how military ships work now.
They all run Syncthing and KDE Connect. What more interoperability you could expect is probably about things those devices won't even allow you to do.
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.
It's very amazing to me that we have better tablets today than they had on TNG, yet we're further from space exploration today than we were when TNG was being made.
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.
Power requisitions need the Human touch. And human germs.
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.
At least SNW and DISCO mildly touch on the subject with portable holo-displays.
