datapad
Universe Assembly, LTD
brings you
ThunderCast
an innovative new datapad for the modern spacer on the go! When a traveler is in the habit of transiting across multiple regions of space with different protocols for data access, your ancestor's old MicroData Technologies model won't do.
Aw geeze! Someone's copied all the files off my 'padd again! Don't nobody make a security app for the old Companion Two Thousand that's worth a galldang no more?
The unavoidable fact is that the traditional design of a mass-market datapad aims for universal compatibility with all possible data streams. No digital protection is going to protect a channel that can't be closed!
Which is precisely how the government of yesteryear wanted it.
Yes indeedy: your cookie-cutter device can never keep your private informational resources truly private. It was designed to accept input from any source
- Bounty Hunter Guild distributed load subroutines
- Bureau of Ships and Services navbuoys
- Bureau of Ships and Services personal medical record updater
- Bureau of Ships and Services traffic control
- Corporate Sector Authority personalized communication features
- Holopedia Galactica databanks
- Governmental citizen alert services
Not to mention, young people with prurient curiosity and no respect!
Have you seen the latest rip from what's-her-name's files? I wanna see the latest on Lord Vorpatril! He's a hottie!
Your privacy deserves an upgrade! The ThunderCast model of datapad comes hardwired with a dual processor mode to create the most secure protection from hackers and other illegal data-jockies. Hacker software will only be granted write access to the protected memory storage space through the primary processor, while full access is given to your data via a secondary processor that runs pre-loaded Universe Assembly, LTD Applications. The best of both worlds, use all the apps you want with all the security you need. hx
To store an archive of the ThunderCast contents, our custom-designed data crystals require physical insertion. Two spare archive crystals are included in each purchase.
Standard Features
- Touch-sensitive or stylus-sensitive color screen, typically taking up 85% or more of total surface, transmitting in all light frequencies used by human and near-human species
- Three-dimensional holoprojector array
- Audio pickups
- Linked cameras in triads, built flush or inset to screen edges for three-dimensional recording
- Two read-only datacard slots
- One read-write datacard slot
- Single form biometric scanner (retina or fingerprint)
- Built-in short range transmission antenna
- Standard wired headphone port
- Standard power pack compartment
- Seamless case rated against liquid submersion as well as against temperature and pressure changes five times above or below user's environmental range M
- Signal scanner across standard transmission range for Holonet access
- Unique identifier compatible with BoSS navigational systems
- Emergency broadcast signal transmitter for realspace or hyperspace emergencies
- Notebook function (audio, audiovisual, or text)
- Calendar function (based in primary calendar system used at point-of-sale) with built-in day planner
- Calculator function
- Sketchpad function
Premium Features
- Read-only data crystal cradle
- Read-write data crystal cradle
- Dual form biometric scanner (circulatory pulse detector, exhalation analyzer)
- Optional swap-out battery compartment for heavy use
- Optional wireless battery recharge
- Increased sensitivity transmission antenna for improved range
- Optional basic nutrient scanner for food compatibility
- Optional substance sample analyzer
- Optional hardened impact absorption case EB
- Optional calendar conversion software for multiple calendar systems
- Optional realtime text translation software for up to 50 written languages to/from Galactic Basic Standard
- PathFinder™ blueprints and maps for locations in the user's vicinity, which may be planet-based, station-based, ship-based (some restrictions apply on commercial or military vessels!), or subspace-based
- (with subscription) Mentat-certified encryption/decryption tools
- Personalized travel case
Item type
Electronic / Cybernetic
Related Technologies
Rarity
Most adult people and many juveniles above the abject poverty level own one. Occasional careers require a separate datapad for work purposes. Few people own three.
Weight
less than 1 kilogram
Dimensions
approximately 15cm by 25cm by 1.25 cm, but varies widely with each model
Base Price
100 credits and up -- the one described in the advertisement may cost more than 8000 credits
BJ
Goss' notes:
Wow, wow, wow. Did Big John lose a bet? Or was filming this thing part of an alibi in progress?
- 19 Nelona 12730
hx
Sparks' notes:
I know it's easy to poke fun at VN Ysadora's datapad practices in exactly this way. She does not use any security or encryption measures at all; she does not care who rips a copy of her content, including competitors. Or investigative subjects. Or random script kiddies.
You know how much money gets made on high-end "outlaw tech blockers"?
You know how many of those are made by outlaw techs?
Anything designed to access the Holonet is going to be, you know, accessible on the Holonet. If you want to keep data private, you have to either put it on a dumb 'pad -- meaning, one with no technology to attach itself to any external system including the BoSS network -- or else you have to keep it under your hat.
This model has got some nice luxury features, don't get me wrong! But I guarantee that it squirts all of its supposedly secure contents back to an outlaw archive, probably once every few weeks on an irregular schedule.
Don't buy anything from Universe Assembly for yourself. Buy it for someone you want on a shorter leash. For yourself, get a secondhand model from SoroSuub like the Pocket Valet. Restore it to factory settings. Then ask a Mentat or a Skywalker to strip out the "bloatware" -- ignore the wince -- and go buy them a nice lunch while they save you from predatory capitalism.
- 34 Helona 12730
M
Goss' notes:
Now that I had some time to get numb to the OOC shenanigants on screen there:
Let's talk about useful mods!
As always, remember that these modifications are the first step in completely invalidating your warranty.
Overview: We're going to mod a ThunderCast into a single-hand control unit for simultaneous management of your five piece squad at your next Drone Wars tournament. I like to have two buzzsaws, one roller, a power-sapper, and a chaff-sprayer, but whatever combination works for you is something you should be able to drive off a single datapad. So the first thing I'm going to do is, I need to crack open this outer shell. You can see that it's seamless, meant to hold up to hard pressure without exposing the innards -- well, obviously that's got to go, but be careful to cushion the screen and the sensors with some temporary impact foam before you get out the drill!
Click here for full tutorial
- 22 Nelona 12730
Moderator's note:
Above redirect link describes an invalid, possibly extralegal activity. Link disabled.
- 22 Nelona 12730
EB
Sparks' notes:
I did not get Ms. Benacor one of these jobbies.
This is not good enough for Ms. Benacor.
She is a wonderful lady. A lady who punches like an Axial Superlaser.
A supremely fine lady!
Also she's observant Catholic so she has an aversion to "thinking machines".
I got her a vintage survey datapad manufactured in the heyday of Lardanis Survival Systems. I cleaned it up a treat, improved its voice command routines, tuned it to her vocal range, and armored it up a touch more. I figure a lady like that needs a datapad that can run her genetic analysis, serve as a blunt object to bash some problem over the melon, and still render a clear anatomical cutaway diagram afterward!
I hope she likes it....
- 7 Helona 12730
Aw, do I detect a note of a crush on the part of Sparks? :D