iPad: Horrendous Name or Just Stolen from “Star Trek”?

The Grand Nagus's iPad

So Apple’s tablet computer is here and it looks great! I mean a giant iPhone is cool…groundshattering in a way…but still a giant iPhone.

More important…iPad. Really? No, really??? Whoever focused group that apparently did an awful job or the results were just thrown away. I (and many others) immediately thought of feminine hygiene products. While the name may seem silly now and I’m sure it’ll enter the common vernacular soon, it’s still silly and awful.

The PADD from Star Trek: The Next Generation

That said, anybody remember what the computer tablets that had access to the computer, were books, etc. in the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” were called? Yeah…PADDS.

Per Star Trek Wiki Memory Alpha,

“PADD” is an acronym for Personal Access Display Device, a hand-held computer interface, used as early as the 22nd century24th century. and well into the

PADDs were used by such space-faring organizations as Earth Starfleet and the later Federation Starfleet, as well as by the Andorian Imperial Guard, Bajoran Militia, Cardassian Union, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, and Vulcan High Command. They were common to cultures even as distant as the Delta Quadrant.

So was the name iPad just “synergy” or some other creative buzzword? Or are Roddenberry’s ashes rolling over in outer space as not just a concept but the name of something from his universe is co-opted by the Grand Nagus….I mean Steve Jobs. (h/t to @bradbaumn on the Grand Nagus bit)

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