Laptops, PADD devices, just wondering.

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Discovery' started by Gingerbread Demon, Apr 20, 2019.

  1. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    Just I was thinking this while using my laptop today and wondering if such things exist in the time Discovery takes place, and also say Enterprise, since that show is more closer to our time then Disco but would things like laptops still exist and would people still use keyboards?

    I know there's that scene on the shuttle with one but just wondering if they'd still exist and be used by people, and what would they be like in terms of power / weight etc?

    Then we get TNG and everything is done on padd which seem common and disposable.
     
  2. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Didn't Picard, Janeway and Sisko all have futuristic laptops in their ready rooms? Pretty sure Picard was using a stylus with it once.

    And yes, we've seen loads of tablets/PADDs.
     
  3. cultcross

    cultcross Postponed for the snooker Moderator

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    Number One was using an update of the TOS one this week in the turbolift, to calculate the odds of getting the Admiral to agree to be the one to stay behind.
     
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  4. SolarisOne

    SolarisOne Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Having a ton of PADDs on one's desk, per Berman Trek, looks so quaint now in the days of tablets and e-readers.
     
  5. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Does it? I've had times where I have my dual-monitor PC up and running and I'm still checking something else on my tablet or phone.
     
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  6. SolarisOne

    SolarisOne Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Yes, it does. How many of one thing do you use at the same time? Seven to eight tablets with basically one item on each one? Five phones?
     
  7. cultcross

    cultcross Postponed for the snooker Moderator

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    Yup, there's a scene in Voyager where Neelix delivers an actual box of PADDS. I get that they were visual shorthand for books in an era before everything was on one device, but it does look odd in retrospect.
     
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  8. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    Considering one padd had literal gigabytes of storage it just seems weird they'd have a pile of them on a desk with one item on each yeah.

    Picard did have a fancy desktop thing but it had like a round bottom bit and he navigated it using that round bit. I just wondered since in Disco and Enterprise we still see keyboards, when would they go out of fashion?
     
  9. cultcross

    cultcross Postponed for the snooker Moderator

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    I like the TNG laptops in that they were a nice attempt to update the idea of a personal computer. Sure, they didn't really take it far enough, but they went the right route.
     
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  10. Delta Vega

    Delta Vega Commodore Commodore

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    I'm speculating that, yes, in the future they could still have laptops and devices, but obviously those laptops and devices would have an incomprehensible multiple of the amount of storage that present day stuff has.
    Maybe.
     
  11. Gingerbread Demon

    Gingerbread Demon I love Star Trek Discovery Premium Member

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    Oh definitely and I bet CPU power would be through the roof compared to a laptop of today.
     
  12. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Ah, I thought you were simply referring to having a bunch of devices that all essentially do the same things.
     
  13. fireproof78

    fireproof78 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    This seems excessive:
    [​IMG]
     
  14. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I mean, is it worse than having a bookshelf?
     
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  15. Spaceship Jo

    Spaceship Jo Commander Red Shirt

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    This has been discussed here before, and I originally came down on the side of "pile of PADDs is silly", but since then I've worked on projects that were restricted to a single device until they were done and my spouse does every project on multiple screens so they all can be seen without switching tabs or windows or whatnot.

    Besides, one should never underestimate the human tendency toward physicality. The most productive people rarely are the ones with perfectly neat desks with a single screen or document.
     
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  16. NewHeavensNewEarth

    NewHeavensNewEarth Commodore Commodore

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    Instead of Troi advising him, he needs Marie Kondo.
     
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  17. SolarisOne

    SolarisOne Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Well, for one thing, they almost certainly wouldn't be using silicon chips, since we're already beginning to bump up against physical limits with modern cpus.
     
  18. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    He trying to find some old files and he's not sure he transferred it to his current device. So he's dug out every device he's owned.
     
  19. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I never get over the crateful of PADDs that contained Seven of Nine's parent's logs.
     
  20. NewHeavensNewEarth

    NewHeavensNewEarth Commodore Commodore

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    Although this is already a dated example, it's like having a boxful of iPods for all your favorite jams.