History Main / DataPad

* Scattered all over the ''Being One'' games as ApocalypticLogs.

* The [=RobCo=] Personal Information Processor, or PIP-Boy 2000, from ''VideoGame/Fallout1'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}''. It's boxy with a small 5 x 3 inch screen with green print and colors but it's highly advanced as it records the user's health, maps wide swaths of area via satellites, reads and records messages and videos and can even play simple games. by ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' onwards, it was revealed that some vaults received [[SuperWristGadget wrist-mounted variants of the device]].

* The [=RobCo=] Personal Information Processor, or PIP-Boy 2000, from ''VideoGame/Fallout1'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}''. It's boxy with a small 5 x 3 inch screen with green print and colors but it's highly advanced as it records the user's health, maps wide swaths of area via satellites, reads and records messages and videos and can even play simple games. However, by ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' on, they have become more akin to [[SuperWristGadget wrist-mounted computers]], for reasons that aren't entirely explained.

In many science-fiction works, even those pre-dating tablet computers by decades, the most common form of portable computer is a flat, rectangular slab held in one hand and operated with the other. Usually called a Data Pad or some similar name. Like its spiritual companion, the communicator (AKA- the [[UsefulNotes/GoingMobile cellphone in your pocket]]), it's now completely {{defictionaliz|ation}}ed in the form of the tablet computer.

* ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'': Every single stalker in the Zone has a PDA. In all games, the most prominent use of the player's PDA is to check the map of the Zone and track quest objectives.
** [=PDAs=] don't appear on the corpses you loot in ''Shadow of Chernobyl'', but you can get info like stash coordinates and messages when interacting with the bodies, so presumably downloading that data to your own is an offscreen interaction; your PDA includes a fairly extensive encyclopedia about the Zone's mutants, anomalies and artifacts, plus the Marked One's journal, and a log system that includes documents you pick up during missions, and a "nearby stalkers" tab with their faction alignment and reputation.

* Fact Totems from ''ComicBook/SinisterDexter'', which are basically smartphones which give data on targets to gun sharks. Their use in the strip actually came a good decade before smartphones came to prominence.
* In ''ComicBook/AlbedoErmaFelnaEDF'' everyone in the EDF has a "hand computer" that connects them to the sentient and omnipresent Net. It's got a camera, is about 10 x 12 cm, made of titanium, and the fleet version can control a ship from any data port on board.

* Tablet pads are commonplace in the Firaxis reboot of ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}''. In ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'', Vahlen is always seen holding one that she apparently uses to interface with the research labs' network. In ''VideoGame/XCOM2'', Shen and Tygan use theirs to manage the labs and engineering bay respectively, soldiers pull one out to hack if on a square directly adjacent to a hackable feature, and ADVENT datapads are a valuable mission loot that can be sold instantly for supplies or decrypted at the labs for generous amounts of intel, though it takes some time to access their contents.

%%* The PlayerCharacter's PDA from the ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' games. (ZeroContextExample)
%%* TheCaptain's PDA in ''VideoGame/AlienLegacy''. (ZeroContextExample)

* You can find and read several of these in all ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' games, which refer to them as "datacubes".

* The PlayerCharacter's PDA from the ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' games.
* TheCaptain's PDA in ''VideoGame/AlienLegacy''.
* The [=PDAs=] in ''VideoGame/DOOM3'' look a lot like real life personal tablets, except for a disk-slot at the top and a curved part at the bottom with a trackpad of sorts in the middle. Their utility[[labelnote:*]]user ID, a "read email" function and a folder where acquired video disks can be watched, plus a weapon inventory display at the bottom[[/labelnote]] may seem limited to the player, but keep in mind that they're work tools above being personal devices, and [=NPCs=] do seem to be able to use more functions than the player has available. A PDA can also download the data from another when in close contact, which is an integral part of the game's {{lock and key puzzle}}s.

* The [=PDAs=] in ''VideoGame/{{Doom 3}}'' work just like real life personal tablets, except for them also acting as security passes for clearance-locked doors within the Mars City compound. Even then, it's not absurd for that to be arranged in the mid-[[TheNewTens New Tens]] with a dedicated app and Bluetooth connections.

* [[TruthInTelevision Tablet computers]]. [[OlderThanTheyThink While they've been around for decades]], it's only been since the introduction of the PalmPilot in 1994 that the device became practical and reliable enough to be viable.

* ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' mostly used laptops until a tablet computer (of a size and shape similar to an early 21st-century model) appeared in the 4th Season aboard the ''Demetrius.'' Usually the crew just passes around information on pieces of paper. ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' replaces these with digital computer paper. In the pilot, Zoe even uses a piece of digital paper to send a text message.

* ''Film/RedPlanet'' showcases both regular and extendable semi-transparent extendable display versions of portable computers. This latter one is used by the Mars astronauts on the ground and become an important tool to find their way to the Habitation Module.

* Averted pretty hard in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'', which used laptops until a tablet computer (of a size and shape similar to an early 21st-century model) appeared in the 4th Season aboard the ''Demetrius.'' Usually the crew just passes around information on pieces of paper.
** ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' replaces these with digital computer paper. In the pilot, Zoe even uses a piece of digital paper to send a text message.

* In 2090 AD during ''DarkFall: Lights Out'', The crew of the D.E.O.S. research station use these, and they apparently have a lot, using some as [[MundaneUtility digital picture frames]], others as personal journals, and one crew member even goes to the trouble of erasing some of the cookbook data in one, to write in it while cooking for a party.
* The [=RobCo=] Personal Information Processor or PIP-Boy 2000 from ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}''. It's boxy with a small 5 x 3 inch screen with green print and colors but it's highly advance as it records the user's health, maps wide swaths via satellites, reading and recording messages and videos, and even playing simple games. However, by ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' on, they have become more akin to wrist-mounted computers, for reasons that aren't entirely explained.

* In ''Pushing Ice'' by Creator/AlastairReynolds, the crew of the Rockhopper use tablet [=PCs=], but with the added twist in that they are flexible and can be recharged via the piezoelectric effect by flexing them back and forth. When the Rockhopper is stranded in interstellar space, it becomes a minor plot point to find a way to replace the aging tablets, along with all the other failing technology.

* The [=RobCo=] Personal Information Processor or PIP-Boy 2000 from ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout2}}''. It's boxy with a small 5 x 3 inch screen with green print and colors but it's highly advance as it records the user's health, maps wide swaths via satellites, reading and recording messages and videos, and even playing simple games. However, by ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' on, they have become more akin to wrist-mounted computers, for reasons that aren't entirely explained.

* The [=RobCo=] Personal Information Processor or PIP-Boy 2000 from ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}'' and '''VideoGame/{{Fallout2}}''. It's boxy with a small 5 x 3 inch screen with green print and colors but it's highly advance as it records the user's health, maps wide swaths via satellites, reading and recording messages and videos, and even playing simple games.

* The RobCo Personal Information Processor or PIP-Boy 2000 from ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}'' and '''VideoGame/{{Fallout2}}''. It's boxy with a small 5 x 3 inch screen with green print and colors but it's highly advance as it records the user's health, maps wide swaths via satellites, reading and recording messages and videos, and even playing simple games.

In many science-fiction works, even those pre-dating tablet computers by decades, the most common form of portable computer is a flat, rectangular slab held in one hand and operated with the other. Usually called a Data Pad or some similar name. Like its spiritual companion, the communicator (AKA- the [[UsefulNotes/GoingMobile cellphone in your pocket]]), it's now completely {{defictionaliz|ation}}ed.

* ''Webcomic/{{Jix}}'' compared the [=iPad=] to her own species' tablets [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Jix/5267409/ once]]. She wasn't particularly impressed.

* ''Webcomic/{{Angels 2200}}'': Two different versions are shown: A security guard accesses the ship's [[http://www.janahoffmann.com/angels/2006/11/23/part-4-comic-23/ message system]] with one and the pilots carry something called "[[http://www.janahoffmann.com/angels/2006/12/03/part-4-comic-31/ Jmlad]]" that functions as a personal organizer and storage device.

* Jake Quinlan's W.A.C. in ''VideoGame/{{Ripper}}''

* [[TruthInTelevision Tablet computers]]. [[OlderThanTheyThink While they've been around for decades]], it's only been since the introduction of the iPad and its competitors that they've come to prominence. [[AluminumChristmasTrees Amusingly enough]], a number of tablet computers in the early 90s ran on Newton, a [[OlderThanTheyThink handheld OS developed by Apple.]]