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Star Trek's Design Influence On Palm, New Tech
kevcol writes "The San Francisco Chronicle has a fun article describing how many of the inventions of Star Trek have made early appearances, 2 centuries ahead of Captain Kirk's time. They talk with one of Palm's UI designers, who admits that '...my first sketches were influenced by the UI of the Enterprise bridge panels', and also notes: 'When we designed the first Treo... it had a form factor similar to the communicators in the original series. It had a speakerphone mode so you could stand there and talk into it like Capt. Kirk'."
I wish they'd work on some of the innovations in Woody Allen's scifi movie Sleeper. I want my own Orgasmatron!
Da Blog
When are those panels of randomly blinking lights going to make it on the market? I have been waiting some time.
To live in a house without a bathroom.
Palm probably has an easter egg which is a pre recorded message that says "Beam me up Scotty", a feature that capt kirk could have used in his days!! :-)
Lord of the Binges.
Star Trek? Screw that! Where's my flying car?
no one gets inspired by the clothing though. I'm not quite ready to jump into tights yet.
How telling is THAT? :)
You are not the customer.
Space:1999 was too far fetched. I mean.. a space station on the moon a FULL YEAR before we were able to buy flying cars here on Earth? That's crazy talk!
Trolling is a art,
The Holodeck.
"Lets build an entertainment facility that tries to destroy/take over the ship on an almost weekly basis."
Good idea.
I wish that in real life that whenever you met a minor character, an unimportant and insignificant person, probably annoying and/or ignorant, you could be sure that they were going to die within the next 60 minutes. That would make life much more enjoyable!
I love how one start trek guy will hand his pda to another guy and say 'here's that report you asked for.'
So not only do they not have email, there's like one crewmember who's really bad at reading reports he's given... so his inbox is full of other peoples' pdas.
Yes, but.........the long pauses..........are not.......included.
Mr. Spock..........moderate this post...........to TROLL.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
It had a speakerphone mode so you could stand there and talk into it like Capt. Kirk.
You...
mean you...
could... speak...
into... it like...
this?
And call green...
women to...
see if they... would beam...
up... for a...
date?
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Fantastic! The only pacing item seems to be the Heisenberg Compensators... and some minor metaphysical issues, but other than that, good to go!
"Lets build an entertainment facility that tries to destroy/take over the ship on an almost weekly basis."
A big company in Redmond is already on this project.
I remember a "Technical Manual" book that tried to explain the science behind Star Trek:TNG-era devices. A footnote in the section of the book about transporters revealed that the answer that the writers gave whenever asked "How do the Heisenberg Compensators work?" was always "Very well, thank you."
So exactly what function did you serve on the Enterprise D when you experienced this horrible UI? Helm? Security? Engineer? Perhaps you were even the captain having trouble working the ship?
Or maybe you were just some shmuck trapped in a cargo hold who couldn't work the UI to get out so you were forced to just go along for this Crack-induced joy ride of a hallicination because after all it is only a friggin TV show!
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Great... and with bluetooth technology, how long before we see some geek walking around tapping his "federation logo pin" on his "Picard's Capt. Jacket" to activate his "speaker phone". Yet another thing to annoy me at the local electronics store check-out line.
Sigh. What ever happened to just wearing a tee-shirt to demonstration ones devotion to a "show"?
-jhon
The would have been out a lot sooner but companies are still having problems with the panels randomly blowing up and injuring people using them.
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it
Wonderful... now Paramount will have an opportunity to cash in on the ubiquity of Star Trek once again - "time for some litigation boys!"
Fortunately for us, Star Trek didn't influence Peter Jackson's take on Lord of the Rings!
I mean... wtf is this? (quicktime required)
----- -----
To live in a house without a bathroom.
Hey, there was ONE bathroom on the Enterprise D. It's near Engineering, behind the hamster wheel.
There is one button on it
Yeah, and it says: "I feel lucky"
Remember how Kirk would flip open his communicator one handed, say "one to beam up" and be transported back to the ship. Well there's something they will never invent - a folding cell phone with a reliable hinge.
Squirrel!
Ah slashdot. Where in the face of time travel, FTL travel, aliens, antigravity, intertial dampners, teleportation and Q, people are worried about how realistic the cell phones are.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
In the first pilot, Mr. Spock used a viewer in a meeting room to display what resembled a primitive PowerPoint presentation to the ship's executive officers.
That is illogical. A Volcan would never invent such an emotion-tied and fact-poor presentation technique.
Table-ized A.I.
This gadget needs the Exploding Panel (c) technology to make it complete.
Just think, somebody jostles you in the subway and POOF ! lights, sparks and burning wires.
Great way to promote replacements too.