Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"We'd have most of what we predicted of the conquest of space, if we hadn't ignored parasite control."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Padloid | ||
| A tawdry news publication on a PDA, or notepad, device. |
Just a passing mention, but if you don't see anything like this on AvantGo, you're not looking hard enough.
The word itself is a contraction of "newspad" or "pad computer" (like a tablet pc) and "tabloid journalism" (meaning a newspaper that presents material in a condensed and lurid form). The word "Tabloid" is a registered trademark for a method of delivering drugs or chemicals in a condensed form.
| My office was in Mall Twelve, level thirty-six, 120 degrees. It's in the editorial offices of The News Nipple, the padloid with the largest circulation in Luna. |
| From Steel Beach,
by John Varley. Published by Ace Putnam in 1992 Additional resources -
|
Only if you want your news fresh; this is a good newspaper name for those who remember The Glass Teat (by Harlan Ellison).
The term newspad is borrowed from Arthur C. Clarke's 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey; Varley uses this term himself in his 1979 short story Options:
Through it all Jules was an island of calm at the other end of the table, his nose in his newspad, sipping his second cup of coffee... He finished his coffee, folded his newspad and tucked it under his arm...
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Steel Beach
More Ideas
and Technology by John Varley
Tech news articles related to Steel Beach
Tech news articles related to works by John Varley
Padloid-related
news articles:
- Make Way For The Padloids
- 'The Daily' iPad App Is A Padloid
| 'Facetime Facelift' Beautifies Video Chats |
| Meeting Wendy Of Wendy's |
| Narrative Science And Phil Dick's Homeostatic Newspaper |
| BookTrack Adds Sound To Books |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'I'm afraid to tell you this Mr. Quaid, but you have suffered a schizoed embolism...'
'It drew its power from six square yards of sunpower screens on its low curved roof.'
'...lifted themselves to skimming flight upon whirling helicopters."
'Twenty rocket tugs towed it from its Earth hangar out into space.'
I don't need it to go fast, it just needs to amble along.
'The program raced up the screen one scan line at a time, subtly smoothing, deleting and coloring.'
