6 ms·

I was watching an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation last night, and was surprised to see one of the characters carrying around a tablet computer. I can

by rwolf 15y ago

I was watching an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation last night, and was surprised to see one of the characters carrying around a tablet computer. I can believe that finding visually-pleasing ratios of screen/margin, height/depth is a challenge, but the basic outline does not seem to be hard to imagine.

mkr-hn 15y ago
And ST: Enterprise had things that looked a lot like smartphones.
wmf 15y ago
A major difference appears to be plastic vs. flush glass bezel: http://obamapacman.com/2011/08/ipad-tablet-obvious-design/ http://obamapacman.com/2011/08/ipad-tablet-obvious-design/
- anigbrowl 15y ago
  I think that had a lot to do with Dow Corning bringing tough conductive glass to market. I have an old kitchen scale which looks remarkably like an iPad to a casual glance; it's got a black glass top, and measures the weight function via very small recessed feet it sits on. You switch it on and recalibrate for tare by just touching the appropriate icons in the corners (which actually work by optoelectric sensors rather than via conduction or pressure). It's like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Salter-1041BKDR-Glass-Electronic-Kitchen/dp/B000XS11QQ/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1 http://www.amazon.com/Salter-1041BKDR-Glass-Electronic-Kitch... The glass cover thing has been in kitchen and bathroom scales for a while, since they're likely to be exposed to fluid/powder on a regular basis.
anigbrowl 15y ago
Despite not being a trekker, I make surprisingly frequent use of a 'Tricorder' app on my phone/tablet, since it uses the actual sensors of the device as opposed to desirable fictional ones. http://code.google.com/p/moonblink/wiki/Tricorder http://code.google.com/p/moonblink/wiki/Tricorder
Corvus 15y ago
TNG? The original series had Uhura using an electronic clipboard with stylus back in 1968: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/08/how-star-trek-artists-imagined-the-ipad-23-years-ago.ars http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/08/how-star-trek-arti...
- metageek 15y ago
  Yeah, but it wasn't as obviously electronic; until I read that Ars article last fall, I always thought it was just a pad of paper.
cpeterso 15y ago
Heck, Star Trek even called the tablet computer a "PADD" (Personal Access Display Device). http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD
- AgentConundrum 15y ago
  I remember there were plenty of iPADD jokes when the iPad first came out. I'm fairly certain there is a LCARS-interface app for the device as well.
  - fortybillion 15y ago
    Yup. http://vimeo.com/26187915 http://vimeo.com/26187915
    - mikecane 15y ago
      And here is where I get to remind everyone that LCARS is IP and Copyrighted: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/cbs-legal-threat-forces-star-trek-like-diagnosticpadd-from-app-store/ http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/cbs-legal-thr...
      - praeclarum 15y ago
        And here's where I clear this BS and remind everyone that it is NOT copyrighted, and NOT trademarked and CBS has no right to it (and does not claim to). I am the author of the LCARS Reader iPad app and have been bullied by CBS many times. Their own general council however admits to having no legal basis for their claims. What CBS does have is expensive lawyers that usually get their way.
        mikecane 15y ago
        Hey, thanks for letting me know that. I was still under the misimpression from the original report! Did you ever do a blog post about this I could link to as an update on my own blog?
Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
Off-topic slightly but the thing I loved about that was Picard would routinely have several on his desk as if other crew members had handed them to him with reports to review on. So you invented the tablet computer but not cloud computing? Or even network file shares...
- joe_the_user 15y ago
  It would seem. But I suspect this wasn't so much a result of the writers' lack of imagination but rather their need for a concrete metaphor to show virtual operations. A more fully thought-out future might have a desk that was a hologram where virtual reports are still "stacked", with these serving primarily as a metaphor for both Picard and those watching Picard (they could judge how busy he was by how many "reports" he had stacked on his holographic desk).
  - tygorius 15y ago
    I agree that the fundamental concern was how to show something conceptual in a visual context where books and printed papers would be considered ancient artifacts. After watching a couple of scenes with Picard having several PADDs on his desk it occurred to me that I was presupposing that those devices were personal property. But in that future personal property is largely for sentimental items, not utilitarian ones. Also, the PADDs are primarily computer iterfaces. If you posit that PADDs are as ubiquitous and disposable in the future as Post-It notes and thumb drives are today, the metaphor makes sense. (Indeed, considering the inevitable price drop of consumer electronics, we aren't that far away from iPadish tablet computers reaching that point.) So Riker picks up a "blank" PADD, his DNA and thumbprint or whatever identifies the device to the network as a Riker interface for the time being. After he's composed his mix tape or status report on the device, it's also resident on the network. And when he hands that PADD to Picard, the recognition of the transfer to Picard serves to automatically track the work flow and acknowledge Picard's acceptance of the report.
- hugh3 15y ago
  If tablet computers were cheap enough to be effectively free, might this not be a good and effective way for a senior manager to get his work done? Instead of "Hey Captain, I need you to read this document and sign off on it, please see the attachment" you could just hand him a physical device with the document on it, he'd read it, press the "make it so" button on the bottom, and hand it back or have it sent back to the originator. He couldn't neglect it or forget to look at it, because there'd be a physical token associated with the file, which could itself be tracked through the ship at all times. I wonder if this will be a trend, in fact. Getting away from "one device that does everything" and more towards "a large number of identical devices for different functions". Give me a pad that handles my email, a pad that handles my calendar, a pad that handles my to do list, and hang another one on the wall for use as a videophone. Then maybe I'll have a pad which reminds me where all my other pads are. NB. I've watched, like, three episodes of Star Trek in my life.
riffraff 15y ago
if you look better the form factor is more like an amazon kindle. Which makes me fell damn cool when using one.

by rwolf 15y ago

mkr-hn 15y ago

And ST: Enterprise had things that looked a lot like smartphones.

wmf 15y ago

A major difference appears to be plastic vs. flush glass bezel: http://obamapacman.com/2011/08/ipad-tablet-obvious-design/ http://obamapacman.com/2011/08/ipad-tablet-obvious-design/

anigbrowl 15y ago
I think that had a lot to do with Dow Corning bringing tough conductive glass to market. I have an old kitchen scale which looks remarkably like an iPad to a casual glance; it's got a black glass top, and measures the weight function via very small recessed feet it sits on. You switch it on and recalibrate for tare by just touching the appropriate icons in the corners (which actually work by optoelectric sensors rather than via conduction or pressure). It's like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Salter-1041BKDR-Glass-Electronic-Kitchen/dp/B000XS11QQ/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1 http://www.amazon.com/Salter-1041BKDR-Glass-Electronic-Kitch... The glass cover thing has been in kitchen and bathroom scales for a while, since they're likely to be exposed to fluid/powder on a regular basis.

anigbrowl 15y ago

Despite not being a trekker, I make surprisingly frequent use of a 'Tricorder' app on my phone/tablet, since it uses the actual sensors of the device as opposed to desirable fictional ones. http://code.google.com/p/moonblink/wiki/Tricorder http://code.google.com/p/moonblink/wiki/Tricorder

Corvus 15y ago

TNG? The original series had Uhura using an electronic clipboard with stylus back in 1968: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/08/how-star-trek-artists-imagined-the-ipad-23-years-ago.ars http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/08/how-star-trek-arti...

metageek 15y ago
Yeah, but it wasn't as obviously electronic; until I read that Ars article last fall, I always thought it was just a pad of paper.

cpeterso 15y ago

Heck, Star Trek even called the tablet computer a "PADD" (Personal Access Display Device). http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD

AgentConundrum 15y ago
I remember there were plenty of iPADD jokes when the iPad first came out. I'm fairly certain there is a LCARS-interface app for the device as well.
- fortybillion 15y ago
  Yup. http://vimeo.com/26187915 http://vimeo.com/26187915
  - mikecane 15y ago
    And here is where I get to remind everyone that LCARS is IP and Copyrighted: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/cbs-legal-threat-forces-star-trek-like-diagnosticpadd-from-app-store/ http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/cbs-legal-thr...
    - praeclarum 15y ago
      And here's where I clear this BS and remind everyone that it is NOT copyrighted, and NOT trademarked and CBS has no right to it (and does not claim to). I am the author of the LCARS Reader iPad app and have been bullied by CBS many times. Their own general council however admits to having no legal basis for their claims. What CBS does have is expensive lawyers that usually get their way.
      - mikecane 15y ago
        Hey, thanks for letting me know that. I was still under the misimpression from the original report! Did you ever do a blog post about this I could link to as an update on my own blog?

Tyrannosaurs 15y ago

Off-topic slightly but the thing I loved about that was Picard would routinely have several on his desk as if other crew members had handed them to him with reports to review on. So you invented the tablet computer but not cloud computing? Or even network file shares...

joe_the_user 15y ago
It would seem. But I suspect this wasn't so much a result of the writers' lack of imagination but rather their need for a concrete metaphor to show virtual operations. A more fully thought-out future might have a desk that was a hologram where virtual reports are still "stacked", with these serving primarily as a metaphor for both Picard and those watching Picard (they could judge how busy he was by how many "reports" he had stacked on his holographic desk).
- tygorius 15y ago
  I agree that the fundamental concern was how to show something conceptual in a visual context where books and printed papers would be considered ancient artifacts. After watching a couple of scenes with Picard having several PADDs on his desk it occurred to me that I was presupposing that those devices were personal property. But in that future personal property is largely for sentimental items, not utilitarian ones. Also, the PADDs are primarily computer iterfaces. If you posit that PADDs are as ubiquitous and disposable in the future as Post-It notes and thumb drives are today, the metaphor makes sense. (Indeed, considering the inevitable price drop of consumer electronics, we aren't that far away from iPadish tablet computers reaching that point.) So Riker picks up a "blank" PADD, his DNA and thumbprint or whatever identifies the device to the network as a Riker interface for the time being. After he's composed his mix tape or status report on the device, it's also resident on the network. And when he hands that PADD to Picard, the recognition of the transfer to Picard serves to automatically track the work flow and acknowledge Picard's acceptance of the report.
hugh3 15y ago
If tablet computers were cheap enough to be effectively free, might this not be a good and effective way for a senior manager to get his work done? Instead of "Hey Captain, I need you to read this document and sign off on it, please see the attachment" you could just hand him a physical device with the document on it, he'd read it, press the "make it so" button on the bottom, and hand it back or have it sent back to the originator. He couldn't neglect it or forget to look at it, because there'd be a physical token associated with the file, which could itself be tracked through the ship at all times. I wonder if this will be a trend, in fact. Getting away from "one device that does everything" and more towards "a large number of identical devices for different functions". Give me a pad that handles my email, a pad that handles my calendar, a pad that handles my to do list, and hang another one on the wall for use as a videophone. Then maybe I'll have a pad which reminds me where all my other pads are. NB. I've watched, like, three episodes of Star Trek in my life.

riffraff 15y ago

if you look better the form factor is more like an amazon kindle. Which makes me fell damn cool when using one.