The list is simple enough, with thumbnail entry images on the left, and a title and a preview of the entry's text content on the right. Once you've selected a category, a scrolling alphabetical list of the available content in that category appears, with an alphabetic selector along the right side of the screen. The iPhone version of PADD opens into a basic colorful grid of the categories, sized for easy finger-pickings, whereas the iPad version opens into a full-on nested LCARS interface with links to the various categories and rotating images from the database scattered about the screen (thankfully the grid of categories is still found along the bottom of the screen).
The app does launch differently on the iPad and iPhone. The PADD app only works in landscape (despite the fact that most PADD use in Star Trek was in portrait orientation), and these menu options are located in a bar across the bottom of the screen, framed by an incongruous faux-3D bit, which confuses whether I'm supposed to be looking at a PADD or the viewscreen on the front of the Enterprise's bridge. The ten categories don't all match - the database is set up to access in-universe canon the biography of Klingon Chancellor Gowron and the biography of real life person Deep Space Nine executive producer Ira Steve Behr are treated equally - but they're at least grouped by color to help differentiate. The database is broken down into categories, such as Aliens, Ships, Characters, Episodes, and Cast. PADD is intended as a Star Trek reference, replacing the old Star Trek Encyclopedia that was last updated in 1999 (and thus lacks the final two seasons of Star Trek: Voyager, all of Star Trek: Enterprise, and the two most recent Star Trek feature films). Both the iPad and iPhone apps maintain the same basic interface, so we'll discuss them in tandem. The updated PADD app retains the LCARS interface of old, offering a lot of Star Trek eye candy in the process. In no small dose of coincidence, the screen sizes of the iPhones and iPads roughly correspond to the devices sizes of Star Trek's most common PADDs, with the iPad Mini best fitting the bill as far as screen size, thickness, and even the radius of the corners.
#Eye candy apps update
The update coincided with a released of PADD for iPhone, bringing the LCARS interface from the big screen to the small screen. The original version of PADD was released for the iPad back in June of 2011, but just a few weeks ago received a major update to version 2.0. While we're unlikely to get a full-fledged Star Trek PADD complete with LCARS everything anytime soon, you can at least get a serious doseage of Trek and LCARS on your iPad and iPhone thanks to the updated Star Trek™ PADD for iPad (opens in new tab) ($4.99) and new Star Trek™ PADD for iPhone (opens in new tab) ($1.99) apps. With the sudden availability of touchscreens in the form of smartphones and tablets, the LCARS interface is ripe for a second go 'round as a user interface.
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