Yeah, I’m also surprised they don’t have cell phones in Blade Runner. It’s after all supposed to be a dystopic film. Cell phones already make life hell, so in the future it can only become worse. The Blade Runner universe actually strikes me as kind of cool, with all the retro shit. 
Talking about dystopian sci-fi movies any body see the trailer for the Niel Bloukamp movie Chappie, staring Die Antwoord
It’s interesting to note the type of things that we think will be likely in the future. Movie makers will probably first go for the dramatic ones - the flying cars etc. - but the small things are sometimes just as memorable, for example the mysterious seashells in Demolition Man.
In some old sci-fi movies, the space ships were often fitted with toggle switches, like those found on the dashboard of a vintage Jaguar.
And then there’s that wonderful futuristic-retro, such as the steampunk genre, that deliberately (and successfully methinks) combines new technology with old fashioned styling.
Rigil
want one of those!!! awesome!
agreed! 
This is why I admire the forethought that went into the tech for Star Trek starting at “The Next Generation”. Not only did the envisage, frankly for the time, ludicrously high levels of technology, but they also seem to have thought deeply about how those technologies would be made more human friendly (talking computers, tappable communication badges, tablets, etc).
Now, they only thing they did miss, is that touch-screen technology actually sucks for doing long hours of work. For that normal keyboards are actually far superior…
Then again, most of the time-consuming text-entry in “TNG” is done via speech, so maybe that’s their way of circumventing the problem… or my geek side is totally over-analyzing this.
And then there was “Dune.” Not even sure how to classify it. LSD-steampunk?
Don’t worry I’ve spend a fair amount thinking about the start trek UI. I don’t think it practical in real life,
But they must get credit for the amount of thought they put into it.
Show anybody a Star trek console and they will know what it’s from. And they manage to support the story really well with it.
Yeah, then again, I once found a site where guys had meticulously combed through Star Trek footage in order to… wait for it… compile complete operating manuals for all the consoles on the enterprise.
I’ve never felt less geeky.
There is a pattern? Because it looks like what ever the actor feels like doing to me.
I’m busy watching the Voyager from the begging at the moment.
There are many things about the above I don’t understand, and I didn’t care enough to investigate.
Moreover, I couldn’t re-find said corner of the internet within 2 minutes so I gave up.