FOSDEM report?

[_wb_]

My 2 year old daughter always picks up TV remote controls or anything else that somewhat resembles a cellphone, she holds it to her ear and says 'allo papa! ("hello daddy!"). It is very cute.

What were we talking about again?

 

[God Ginrai]

That's adorable.

And we were talking about Sidetalking.

-God Ginrai

 

[Natsu]

Whoops. My fault there, I got that part of our argument confused with facts from the other part. You're right, we should for the definition of whether this is considered sidetalking assume that that a mic and earpiece exist on the bottom while one uses it.


In that case, I'm not sure what it would be. I would still consider it odd, because it is the bottom of the device. Others may not. I'm sure some will define it as sidetalking.

-God Ginrai

I wouldn't myself. Maybe on the top then? Either way, the biggest surface area will be on your face like a phone. 

 

[_wb_]

SIdetalking? Is that a feature request? I think the Pyra will support it out of the box, no problem -- ED even gave a demo at the FOSDEM talk

 

[God Ginrai]

SIdetalking? Is that a feature request? I think the Pyra will support it out of the box, no problem -- ED even gave a demo at the FOSDEM talk

Althought that demo was using a Pandora.

-God Ginrai

 

[Natsu]

SIdetalking? Is that a feature request? I think the Pyra will support it out of the box, no problem -- ED even gave a demo at the FOSDEM talk

No. But a mic and speaker on the top or bottom is.

 

[_wb_]

Also for non-phone use there is something to be said to have the mic and speakers at the outside when the lid is closed, so that you can use it as a portable radio or tape recorder without having to keep the lid open.

 

[God Ginrai]

Also for non-phone use there is something to be said to have the mic and speakers at the outside when the lid is closed, so that you can use it as a portable radio or tape recorder without having to keep the lid open.

Honestly, that's unneeded. You close it if it's going into your pocket, in which case speakers are useless. If it's not going in a pocket, you can open the clamshell just fine.

-God Ginrai

 

[Natsu]

Honestly, that's unneeded. You close it if it's going into your pocket, in which case speakers are useless. If it's not going in a pocket, you can open the clamshell just fine.

-God Ginrai

I wouldn't mind just sitting it on a dock and listening to music. Plus apparently, people like putting the devices inshirt pockets.

 

[God Ginrai]

Honestly, that's unneeded. You close it if it's going into your pocket, in which case speakers are useless. If it's not going in a pocket, you can open the clamshell just fine.

-God Ginrai

I wouldn't mind just sitting it on a dock and listening to music.

if it's on a dock, then wouldn't that dock be connected to better speakers?

-God Ginrai

 

[Natsu]

if it's on a dock, then wouldn't that dock be connected to better speakers?

-God Ginrai

Afaik not all docks have speakers. Besides, even if just charging by cord.

 

[_wb_]

It makes sense to close the lid to save power (since closing the lid disables the screen, which uses more power than anything else when playing music). It also makes sense to close the lid to make the device more compact and strong -- less likely to get damaged in case it accidentally gets dropped or whatever.

I wouldn't mind having the speakers in the sides of the base. There is no space in the lid, in the top of the base we can probably use the space for the keyboard and controls, and the backside is probably not a good idea. But the sides, it could work. My hands don't actually cover the sides when I'm holding my Pandora, they rather provide a shape that would more or less direct sound coming out of the sides to my ears. With the speakers in the sides, we would probably also get better stereo separation.

 

[God Ginrai]

It makes sense to close the lid to save power (since closing the lid disables the screen, which uses more power than anything else when playing music). It also makes sense to close the lid to make the device more compact and strong -- less likely to get damaged in case it accidentally gets dropped or whatever.

I wouldn't mind having the speakers in the sides of the base. There is no space in the lid, in the top of the base we can probably use the space for the keyboard and controls, and the backside is probably not a good idea. But the sides, it could work. My hands don't actually cover the sides when I'm holding my Pandora, they rather provide a shape that would more or less direct sound coming out of the sides to my ears. With the speakers in the sides, we would probably also get better stereo separation.

Bad idea. Speakers need to point towards you or you have to make them much louder (and thus much more of a disturbance for those around you) to hear the same level of volume you would on the Pandora.

Speakers are designed to be pointed towards the listener.

-God Ginrai

 

[Natsu]

But the sides, it could work. My hands don't actually cover the sides when I'm holding my Pandora, they rather provide a shape that would more or less direct sound coming out of the sides to my ears. With the speakers in the sides, we would probably also get better stereo separation.

Having a mic on one of the sides would still works with what I was talking about before.

Bad idea. Speakers need to point towards you or you have to make them much louder (and thus much more of a disturbance for those around you) to hear the same level of volume you would on the Pandora.

Speakers are designed to be pointed towards the listener.

-God Ginrai

So many devices with speakers on the sides and back, I really don't think it's that big of a deal.

 

[_wb_]

It makes sense to close the lid to save power (since closing the lid disables the screen, which uses more power than anything else when playing music). It also makes sense to close the lid to make the device more compact and strong -- less likely to get damaged in case it accidentally gets dropped or whatever.


I wouldn't mind having the speakers in the sides of the base. There is no space in the lid, in the top of the base we can probably use the space for the keyboard and controls, and the backside is probably not a good idea. But the sides, it could work. My hands don't actually cover the sides when I'm holding my Pandora, they rather provide a shape that would more or less direct sound coming out of the sides to my ears. With the speakers in the sides, we would probably also get better stereo separation.

Bad idea. Speakers need to point towards you or you have to make them much louder (and thus much more of a disturbance for those around you) to hear the same level of volume you would on the Pandora.


Speakers are designed to be pointed towards the listener.

-God Ginrai

If you put the speakers on the side and use both hands to hold the device, your hands form a kind of shell that points the sound towards you. I think it would work quite well.

 

[thatgui]

So many devices with speakers on the sides and back, I really don't think it's that big of a deal.

And all got the same problem, that they need a surface to reflect the soundwave towards the user otherwise loudness is reduced drastically, something that should be avoided, Imho. 

If you put the speakers on the side and use both hands to hold the device, your hands form a kind of shell that points the sound towards you. I think it would work quite well.

I doubt we have space for that on the top side of the base. So the only possibility would be to place them on the side of the Pyra, which is something I would not want to favour as the holes of the speaker "grill" will probably get sticky through sweat and grease thus they will collect a lot of dirt.
I'm already not really happy with the position on top of the base, they will blast straight up instead towards the user, but I'll guess we have to live with that if we want a bigger screen.

 

[_wb_]

The base and the lid point exactly in the same direction if you use the device as a handheld.

Your point about collecting dirt/grease in the sides is valid though. Making the speakers slightly recessed could somewhat help.

 

[thatgui]

The base and the lid point exactly in the same direction if you use the device as a handheld.

Thats true, that was derived from my usecase which is using the Pandora with a ~120° angle. But thinking about it again - when do we need max loudness the most ? While we are having it in our hands, meaning the device is rather close to our body, or when it is sitting on a surface alone (e.g. playing music, videos, or emu+ two external controllers) ?

 

[God Ginrai]

If you put the speakers on the side and use both hands to hold the device, your hands form a kind of shell that points the sound towards you. I think it would work quite well.

If anything, my hands would direct the sound away from me when my hands are holding the device.

-God Ginrai

 

[_wb_]

If you put the speakers on the side and use both hands to hold the device, your hands form a kind of shell that points the sound towards you. I think it would work quite well.

If anything, my hands would direct the sound away from me when my hands are holding the device.

-God Ginrai

How is that possible? When I hold my Pandora, with my index fingers on the shoulder buttons and my thumbs on the dpad and action buttons, the most comfortable position is  to hold the device with my other fingers at the bottom and leave a gap of 5-10 mm at the sides. How do you hold it? With your index fingers on the dpad/buttons and your middle fingers at the shoulder buttons or something?