I see no particular reason why the iCP and Pandora key layouts should necessarily be the same. One's a universal controller, the other is a complete system. Brightness and volume control don't necessarily make sense on an iCP, for example. As a result, this thread is a little confusing! I'd like to suggest it trend towards the iCP2 layout discussion, as it's the more imminent device.
Those of you who want two shoulder buttons; I agree. Definitely worth exploring, and it has been talked about at length.
There are, none-the-less, some great ideas for layouts here, and those which align closely to standard keyboard layouts seem to be the best.
I disagree. I think that it makes 100% great sense to have them be the same. The iCP2 then becomes the natural remote for a Pandora2 sitting connected to the TV across the room.
The iCP2 is also a media device & multimedia computer controller. Brightness and volume make perfect sense.
I started working on a key layout last night. My big eureka moment was in figuring out that the bottom left big button on the keyboard should -not- be shift. In my design this is a keyboard mode shifter.
Keyboard mode shifter. Each time it is pressed it could shift to a whole different keyboard mapping - for everything BUT the mode shifter button. A multi-color LED between the nubs would change color to show which mode the controls are in. Alternatively the back light could do this.
Starts in 'normal' mode. LED off.
Tap it once and it goes into 'green' mode. LED glows green.
Tap it again and it goes into 'red' mode. LED glows red.
Tap it again and it goes into 'blue' mode. LED glows blue.
In each of these modes the keyboard, including shift and Fn assignments, can be remapped. Since we're using an RGB LED set, different shades or flashing modes could be used for additional user-defined mappings - software driven of course.
With that in mind, it is possible to have a left shift, left control, left alt, space bar, right alt, right control, right shift all in a row.
So you could have the 'perfect' layout for your game or device, push the keyboard mode button and be on to the next keyboard definition, etc... The big question then isn't how many keyboard mappings there can be - but how much information do we want to try to print on each key.
That reminds me - something to consider for the iCPII and maybe even for the Pandora II - install an IR blaster I/O and consider what hardware is needed for different consoles and set top boxes so it can be used to control them all - or at least as many as can be practically done.
I'll try to find some time tonight to continue making the mapping that I started last night. I thought I would share some of the larger ideas of it with the crowd here though in case anyone gets inspired.
