Designs

[gaterooze]

It may look cool, but it's nowhere near as usable. What if I want to play a game that has both key and joystick input (like many DOS/Amiga/c64/MSX/Speccy games), or I want to assign some commands to keys, like in a simulator, RPG or FPS? It's nigh on impossible with that design.

Also, if you want to switch quickly between gaming and text functions (e.g. messaging), it requires swishing the screen around constantly. You sacrifice practicality for aesthetics.

edit: danboid beat me to it

 

[zacaj]

What about mine? Its like CoMike's, but the buttons dont spin, only the screen, so if you dont need the keyboard, its under the screen until you flip the screen up, then youve got all the controls..

 

[danboid]

zacaj:

I'm sorry but both the official current design and CoMikes are much better than yours because the screen folds down to protect EVERYTHING (speakers, joypad AND keyboard) when you're not using it. This is one of the beauties of the clamshell design. Your design also has less room for keys than the current design.

Also, by the looks of it you'd need a double-sided screen to pull off your design- not good!

 

[zacaj]

THe screen spins, like CoMikes, not folds.

 

[danboid]

OK, so just ignore the last sentence of my last post and see the other 2 glaring errors I pointed out

nil point, sos

 

[Sphinxter]

Yep, there's a lot of people that thinks the hinge would be a problem.

Anyway, I remember to have seen a UMPC with a similar hinge, but I don't remember where...

I will search it. This is my preferred design for sure, it should be better for gaming and PDA use, and retain its usability as a mini-laptop!

Sharp zaurus SL-C3200

 

[Yrx]

Didn't MWeston rule out a spinning screen?

And I seriously don't get why everyone is sowracked about the controls. They're basically identical to a DS. Instead of a giant screen taking the space, it's a giant keyboard, lol.

 

[gaterooze]

Zacaj, yours is neat, but I'd prefer the simplicity and extra protection of a clamshell rather than all the spinning and rotating.

 

[CoMiKe]

Here's another design. Just learning Inkscape a bit more

This is another clamshell design, and should have the real size when printed, and also when viewed on a 96 dpi monitor (my monitor is almost 99 dpi, so it looks a little smaller on it).

It's exactly as wide as the official Pandora design (140mm), but has less height, so it's even smaller!

And has a full keyboard, as my previous design.

Anyway, it has only sense with a rotating hinge that makes the screen lie over the keyboard.

Remember, I'm expecting nothing from this designs, I'm doing it to learn Inkscape and to avoid being bored.

 

[Shiny]

<snips>

Looks nice
Although the positioning of the Menu, Start, and Select buttons are less than optimal, and the game controls seem a little bit too high.
You could move the gaming controls down a little and stick those three buttons above them. Menu on the left and Start+Select on the right.

 

[Xmas]

I would have preferred the main unit to have the screen and the game controls, with some sort of clip-on cover to protect the screen and controls. The keyboard then would be a separate clip-on unit that replaces the cover (same shape, but thicker). It would plug into the USB port (which therefore would be the only port on the front side) and additionally act as a USB hub.

I'm a bit worried that the touch screen functionality will go largely unused because the screen is in the top part, and it seems almost impossible to hold the device with one hand so that you provide resistance to a stylus and at the same time use the controls on the base unit.

Since the keyboard is something most people won't use all the time, and which may be replaced by a larger external one if you want to do some serious typing, it would have been a good candidate for making removable.

 

[danboid]

I see the touch screen as being mainly used in X11 as a mouse replacement more than as a gaming aid.

Plugging in a USB mouse would be better for a gaming pointing device

 

[Sphinxter]

Zacaj, yours is neat, but I'd prefer the simplicity and extra protection of a clamshell rather than all the spinning and rotating.

Tough writing shell script without an, '|', should be shift '\'.

 

[Xmas]

I see the touch screen as being mainly used in X11 as a mouse replacement more than as a gaming aid.

Plugging in a USB mouse would be better for a gaming pointing device

There are a number of game concepts that work very well with touch screen input, as proven by the DS and some Pocket PC games.

To use a touch screen properly you need to support the screen itself with your hand or place it on a table. But if you hold the top part you have the heavier bottom part as dangling weight. That doesn't seem very comfortable to me. So I don't expect the touch screen to be used much in X11 either. It's not a dealbreaker to me, it just seems like a wasted feature.

And of course with a mouse you're leaving the handheld domain.

 

[moxie]

Here's another design. Just learning Inkscape a bit more

It still won't work with games which need both joystick and keyboard input.

 

[Yrx]

I see the touch screen as being mainly used in X11 as a mouse replacement more than as a gaming aid.

Plugging in a USB mouse would be better for a gaming pointing device

There are a number of game concepts that work very well with touch screen input, as proven by the DS and some Pocket PC games.

To use a touch screen properly you need to support the screen itself with your hand or place it on a table. But if you hold the top part you have the heavier bottom part as dangling weight. That doesn't seem very comfortable to me. So I don't expect the touch screen to be used much in X11 either. It's not a dealbreaker to me, it just seems like a wasted feature.

And of course with a mouse you're leaving the handheld domain.

I was going to post something along these lines earlier, but as long as the screen's hinge is really firm and/or locks into place, the touchscreen will work fine by just holding onto the button. I can't imagine it being so lose that it would move if you touched it.

 

[sparr]

It may look cool, but it's nowhere near as usable. What if I want to play a game that has both key and joystick input (like many DOS/Amiga/c64/MSX/Speccy games), or I want to assign some commands to keys, like in a simulator, RPG or FPS? It's nigh on impossible with that design.

Also, if you want to switch quickly between gaming and text functions (e.g. messaging), it requires swishing the screen around constantly. You sacrifice practicality for aesthetics.

edit: danboid beat me to it

It still won't work with games which need both joystick and keyboard input.

danboid was complaining about moving your hands to change from joystick to keyboard input. I don't think that's a big deal, how many games need input from both simultaneously? Then subtract a few of those where you could do one hand on a joystick+buttons or joystick+dpad, and the other on half the keyboard.

no one (that I can see) is advocating a system where the keyboard is covered up during use. Although I happen to like that idea, since MOST games wouldn't need the keyboard. I would LOVE to see a clam+swivel hinge like laptop+tablet devices have, so you can have access to both halves or just the top half at your discretion.

 

[kingbuzzo]

It may look cool, but it's nowhere near as usable. What if I want to play a game that has both key and joystick input (like many DOS/Amiga/c64/MSX/Speccy games), or I want to assign some commands to keys, like in a simulator, RPG or FPS? It's nigh on impossible with that design.

Also, if you want to switch quickly between gaming and text functions (e.g. messaging), it requires swishing the screen around constantly. You sacrifice practicality for aesthetics.

edit: danboid beat me to it

It still won't work with games which need both joystick and keyboard input.

danboid was complaining about moving your hands to change from joystick to keyboard input. I don't think that's a big deal, how many games need input from both simultaneously? Then subtract a few of those where you could do one hand on a joystick+buttons or joystick+dpad, and the other on half the keyboard.

no one (that I can see) is advocating a system where the keyboard is covered up during use. Although I happen to like that idea, since MOST games wouldn't need the keyboard. I would LOVE to see a clam+swivel hinge like laptop+tablet devices have, so you can have access to both halves or just the top half at your discretion.


agreed. What are these key+dpad apps that are SO crucial that they need to make playing the majority of games an experience which leaves much to be desired.

So someone said that swivel is out of the question? Why? Weren't dual analogs and dual sd slots out of the question too? I'd like to hear more about this.

thanks,

King.

 

[Balzac2m]

Same here. Clamshell + Tabletmode woud be just perfect.
Scumm Games, Audio/Video-Playback and much more applications don't need anything but a mouse. It'd look like a high-end PMP when in tabletmode and can be converted to a iPod-eating, EEE-shitting monster device of unseen powers!
Seriously, tablet would make this device allmighty. SKYNET-style! And when Pandoras rule the world who will be favoured by them? We!
Man, its getting late

 

[danboid]

Reading these threads it would seem like I'm the only person who owns a Zaurus c3x00 (well, 2) and its a shame because so many people are wondering "Will this or that work?" and I'm one of the few (the only?) who has experience with the nearest thing, a Zaurus running pdaXii13.

As Yrx has already affirmed, just as long as the hinge is stiff enough (like on the excellent-build Z) then using the touchscreen is NOT a problem, chill.

The Zaurus features a swivel-hinge letting you use it tablet style, but I NEVER use it. In fact the only time I ever swivel the display is when I show it to someone for the first time, just to show off

CoMike's design would benefit from a swivel hinge because he has the d-pad a fire buttons on the same surface as the screen but swivel hinge would be a waste of time IMO with the current official design, at least I know I'd never use it. When in tablet mode you're relegated to on-screen keyboards which REALLY get on my wick!