A Pandora 2 Concept

[Prometheus]

That would be entirely too difficult to get back to after that sharing of entirely too much information.

 

[FRZ]

Setting aside the fact that the P2 will not begin the design process for quite a while, if ever, and that The Team have some ideas up their colective sleeves, I thought it might be worth suggesting this:

This would also be good for e-book reading if the screen were partially reflective.


The strange colour-sheme is optional.


(MIUbit have had their HDPC design floating around for years, updated it umpteen times, they might be so fed up that they'd license the flippy screen just to get a return on their investment!)


Any thoughts?


That looks arful. We seen a device like this before and I dont remember being interested in it, too bulky and long a la pspish. I wouldnt buy it. What would be better is a full screen about as close to the size of the pandora as possble, preferrably clamshell or tilt screen a la touchpro2. I don't mind the keyboard layout much and current gaming controls. Most importante though, is a much slimer design. So when its in my pockets the bulk of it is not sticking out so much. I remember the Pandora1 design was compared much with the DSlite. Well, the DSlite is a perfect size handheld IMO. It can comfortably hold 5in screen with bezel to spare. You guys should look into that. PandoraLite?

​

 

[Exophase]

I wasn't 100% sold at first but I think I like clamshells too.


Now I know I'm going to sound kind of douchey for saying this, but with a 3DS in hand.. I kind of wish Pandora could be more like that. I don't mean just like that, but any move in that direction seems like an improvement. 3DS just feels more compact, smooth, and durable. I'd still take matte over glossy, though.


The amazing thing is 3DS is only a little bigger in base width/length, while noticably thicker.. but Pandora feels a lot bigger due to its design. But that could just be me.

 

[FRZ]

Yeah, the Pandora is too perfect of a design to mess around with.

Just need to lose some weight

 

[FRZ]

Im a fanatic of clamshell, tilt screen designs and physical keyboards. Why? Because touch screens are great for scrolling and playing angry birds but, I hate typing on them. I hate playing adventure games, third person, etc, on touch only devices with hands blocking view.

 

[bismuthdrummer]

I wasn't 100% sold at first but I think I like clamshells too.


Now I know I'm going to sound kind of douchey for saying this, but with a 3DS in hand.. I kind of wish Pandora could be more like that. I don't mean just like that, but any move in that direction seems like an improvement. 3DS just feels more compact, smooth, and durable. I'd still take matte over glossy, though.


The amazing thing is 3DS is only a little bigger in base width/length, while noticably thicker.. but Pandora feels a lot bigger due to its design. But that could just be me.

I don't think it's douchey to admit the Open Pandora takes after the form factor of Nintendo's latest Gameboy. We can always take lessons from the big guys, especially when they get it right.


If we can't shrink it to DS Lite size, then maybe 3DS shape is the way to go. Also, if we aren't going glossy then maybe some texture to the plastic would help the appeal (my Acer Aspire feels great). Fanciness ain't vital but it sure helps the marketing side of things.

 

[milkshake]

well if the tech does exist for restistive touch screens to be able to handle MORE than 2 inputs at the same cost or less than the cost of a capacitive screen then I would say go with that. even though my experiance of using of products with resistive screens the responce from capacitive feels so much nicer than the have I pressed it hard enough for input detection resistive.

 

[-Tj-]

The amazing thing is 3DS is only a little bigger in base width/length, while noticably thicker..

Did you mean Pandora?

 

[Prometheus]

I wasn't 100% sold at first but I think I like clamshells too.


Now I know I'm going to sound kind of douchey for saying this, but with a 3DS in hand.. I kind of wish Pandora could be more like that. I don't mean just like that, but any move in that direction seems like an improvement. 3DS just feels more compact, smooth, and durable. I'd still take matte over glossy, though.


The amazing thing is 3DS is only a little bigger in base width/length, while noticably thicker.. but Pandora feels a lot bigger due to its design. But that could just be me.

Not douchey at all, if you ask me, and not just you, either.


I like the Pandora's case, but the 3DS also has a nice casing design that's pretty comfy to hold. It's even better with the addition of Nyko's extended battery, for me, though. It's a large screw-on battery that replaces the entire back panel, and makes the 3DS about the same thickness as the original DS (not that you'd know from looking, due to the shape of it).

 

[Exophase]

Did you mean Pandora?

Yes. Thanks.

 

[kuru]

Might throw that in here aswell: there's piezoelectric touch screens. Media say this technique combines pros of resistive and capacitive. Check out this link in German or google for yourself (SmartQ 10 Tablet).


Edit: In Short this kind of display can detect 10 points simultaneously and be used with a non-capacitive stylus.

 

[Binky]

What would people think about a 360° hinge?


Most of the advantages of clamshells, but improved touchscreen access.


Or is touchscreen access/comfortable use perfectly adequate on a traditional clamshell, and I'm trying to solve a problem that isn't there? h34r:

 

[WizardStan]

What would people think about a 360° hinge?

Same thing when it was considered for the Pandora one: lawsuit will find you.


Flipping the screen backwards and rotating it and folding it back again are both heavily patented inventions. It'd be very difficult to do either without a license, or at the very least a really good lawyer.

 

[Binky]

Bah! all the good ideas are taken :mellow:


--


Holding my paper Pandora, it feels as though thumb-tapping the touchscreen (at about 135°) could be quite comfortable. How does it feel with a 4Ah battery in there? Is the problem with hinge stiffness?

 

[Grench]

We get another one of these threads every 3-6 months don't we?


My Ideal Pandora 2


Same keyboard and gaming controls.


Two card slots capable of keeping up with the largest & fastest sdxc cards coming on the market. Boot from one of them by default.


A power/standby switch that works.


Move the volume dial to the side. Put in a second audio jack or move the audio jack to the side. The purpose of this is to be able to listen to and control the volume of music playback while the device is in a pocket.


Two trigger buttons per side.


GPS, accelerometer, tilt, compass, barometer (altimeter), thermometer.


802.11 bgn


5" Pixel Qi 800x600 equivalent screen. Yeah, I know they don't make one that size. Ask them to?


Stack of 4 tiny speakers per side instead of the one small one to make room for the bigger screen.


USB 3.0 host port


Mini USB 3.0 OTG type port


DVI or HDMI video out


Quad core CPU


1GB RAM


Enough NAND to carry a skeletal OS that can be booted from if the SDXC boot card fails.


Then - figure out a way to make it thinner - as in sub 20mm thin.

 

[Prometheus]

^ Agreed on all but wasting an SD slot. It'd already be a shame to waste an SDHC slot on it, never mind an SDXC one.

 

[vcoleiro1]

What would people think about a 360° hinge?

Same thing when it was considered for the Pandora one: lawsuit will find you.


Flipping the screen backwards and rotating it and folding it back again are both heavily patented inventions. It'd be very difficult to do either without a license, or at the very least a really good lawyer.

I seriously doubt any patent on that would hold. It just wouldn't be defendable in court. Just about everything is patented (or applied for), even the clam shell design the pandora uses now, you'd bet Nintendo has a patent on that. Is Pandora being sued for it, no. Just like the tablet designed by apple, whats it called, oh yeah the ipad, they have patents on it, but even though they took Samsung to court and initially won, the courts over turned the rulings. There is some sense in patent law. It's almost impossible to have a patent hold on such a design.


So yeah, I think a design where the screen flips up like a clamshell design but could also slide down to cover the keyboard and allow you to use it like a tablet is the best of both worlds design. I vote for it.

 

[shinifish]

I would like a usable amount of nand in the pandora 2, not too much but enough to actually be able to use it occasionally.

 

[diligentcircle]

What would people think about a 360° hinge?

Same thing when it was considered for the Pandora one: lawsuit will find you.


Flipping the screen backwards and rotating it and folding it back again are both heavily patented inventions. It'd be very difficult to do either without a license, or at the very least a really good lawyer.

I seriously doubt any patent on that would hold. It just wouldn't be defendable in court. Just about everything is patented (or applied for), even the clam shell design the pandora uses now, you'd bet Nintendo has a patent on that. Is Pandora being sued for it, no. Just like the tablet designed by apple, whats it called, oh yeah the ipad, they have patents on it, but even though they took Samsung to court and initially won, the courts over turned the rulings. There is some sense in patent law. It's almost impossible to have a patent hold on such a design.


So yeah, I think a design where the screen flips up like a clamshell design but could also slide down to cover the keyboard and allow you to use it like a tablet is the best of both worlds design. I vote for it.

They aren't talking about that "slide" design (which is terrible IMO), but a design which either flips all the way back or rotates at the hinge. These designs are patented (not my personal knowledge, for the record, just what I've read here and on the wiki).


Even if they can't hold up, it would mean serious costs for OP in court, so it's probably best to just avoid it. You're comparing it to the clamshell design, but that's a design that every laptop uses, so it alone is not something I'd expect Nintendo to go after. It would be as silly as suing SONY because the PS3 has analog sticks, or because the PSV has a touchscreen.

 

[WizardStan]

I seriously doubt any patent on that would hold. It just wouldn't be defendable in court. Just about everything is patented (or applied for), even the clam shell design the pandora uses now, you'd bet Nintendo has a patent on that. Is Pandora being sued for it, no. Just like the tablet designed by apple, whats it called, oh yeah the ipad, they have patents on it, but even though they took Samsung to court and initially won, the courts over turned the rulings. There is some sense in patent law. It's almost impossible to have a patent hold on such a design.

Whether they'd hold or not is besides the point if you even have to defend it. Clamshell style designs for electronics have been around since the early 80s, and in other products for even longer. There's so much prior art that if Nintendo did decide to sue OPT over it (which I'm pretty sure they can't because I've never seen a patent for it) they could pay Joe McLawyer, fresh out of law school, $500 to just show up at the courthouse and it would be dismissed instantly, pretty much no contest there. If no one has sued HP over clamshell laptops I seriously doubt it'll happen to OPT, it just wouldn't make any sense.


The idea of opening a screen, rotating it 180 degress, and then closing it is, however, fairly new: any patent against it would need to be fought pretty hard and even then might still hold up. Same goes for the idea of flipping it open it 360 degrees to be a tablet. There aren't decades of prior art to fall back on, you'd have a much harder time defending yourself from any patents, of which there are many.