I liked Star Trek, where pads were commodity hardware and you'd have one for each task or report. Seems crazy at first, but it would really help with focus.
Yup. The way I understood it, PADDs weren't owned - they were just passed around, and circulated around the ship. I don't think it was ever shown, but I imagine that e.g. at the end of the day, the captain would wipe the 20-ish PADDs with reports accumulated over the day, and someone would later pick them up and carry somewhere others could pick them up again.
All of this could theoretically work better with our current technology - Internet, digital documents, file exchange systems; no need to pass around physical devices. Except somehow, it doesn't.
I think the "cloud" is helping to make it seamless to go from iPad to desktop to phone with one work item (like a report for work), but it's not quite there yet, I agree.
(I think in the Star Trek universe you would just reclaim the PADD in the replicator once you're fully done with it rather than move it around to some central "PADD library", right?)
Within an ecosystem (MS-only, Apple-only) it sorta works; much worse, if you need something from outside, then it doesn't.
RE replicators, you're right! I don't know why I haven't thought about it. PADDs are very simple as electronics go (even as today's standards go). DS9 showed people recycling dishes and food through a replicator, so the same would work for PADDs.
