Our New Machine, Pandora

[XaMMaX90]

My old mockup =)

 

[Squidge]

Just out of curiosity, If a way of organising files and folder was done like you say above (in the background), Let take the picture senario for instance, Say you have a "My Pictures" folder and you want to perform some basic editing on a particular picture, But you want to save it (after the edit) to another folder "Edited Pictures" for example. Would the "Edit Pictures" folder now become the default pictures folder ?, Possibly causing the user to jump back and forwards from folders. Or would there generally be two default folders for each program (One for loading and one for saving) ?.

Good point. There should be two folders if the program supported saving to prevent the above. Generally, it would be upto the developer - the save would simply reference a different association than the load for example (so for an email application, you could have a different directory to save copies of emails to the directory used for attachments, for example).

Btw, I`m all for the freedom of how i`d like my files and folders organised, But there should be some standard placement for stuff like config files, Libraries etc.

Agreed. If an application needs its own directory/folder, then there would be no harm in having it's configuration in that directory or in the "common" directory, but for otherwise single file programs they should use the common directory to avoid clutter (I hate directories with a single file in - it's such a waste).

My old mockup =)

Where's the keyboard?

 

[XaMMaX90]

Where's the keyboard?
-----
Well it is pretty old(from times then i don't know that it will have keyboard) and btw i don't think keyboard good idea imho =)

ok update

Pull screen up and there will be keyboard Ж)

 

[mafia-man]

Where's the keyboard?
-----
Well it is pretty old(from times then i don't know that it will have keyboard) and btw i don't think keyboard good idea imho =)

ok update

Pull screen up and there will be keyboard Ж)

cool

There is a phone I really like the design of called the Motorola Z8 basicaly it is a slide phone but the keypad flexes forwards to give it a more traditional phone profile. Would be nice to see a similar feature on the craiginator. Basicly you pull out the key board and it flexes forward to i dunno maybe a 140-150deg angle of the screen possibly wil a an optional kick out stand on the back. Though thats probably pushing it towards miniPC territory and is probably a bit more work in the engineering

 

[OMars]

I guess I should have been more clear in my last post - there should be an organized file system, but it should also be flexible, if the program needs multiple folders/files.

BTW, what do you guys think of this GUI I made in ms paint? Here it is:

If possible, can someone combine this GUI with the previously shown console concept to see how it would look?

EDIT: I made this in photoshop really quick:

 

[realyst]

I guess I should have been more clear in my last post - there should be an organized file system, but it should also be flexible, if the program needs multiple folders/files.

BTW, what do you guys think of this GUI I made in ms paint? Here it is:

If possible, can someone combine this GUI with the previously shown console concept to see how it would look?

OMars:

See XBox Live UI.

Personally, I would avoid as much clutter as possible on the screen. Remember that this will be a tiny screen a few feet away from your face, possibly moving about if you're within a transit vehicle. Big icons with easy navigation. The Live-like blade system works well on widescreen HD TVs....but I wouldn't want to see it on a handheld.

 

[sam fisher]

See M$ lawsuit....

 

[Lobo]

Just imagine if Craigix slips a few machines to the current devs before this hits the shops and therefore they get an early start porting there stuff so that, on launch day, you had PSX/GBA/SNES/Sega/Mame/NeoGeo/Amiga emus accompanying the initial release! And full speed to boot!

If you throw into the mix a port or two of some other 3D stuff like say Quake 3 or Half Life then this thing will rock right out of the box.



I also think the price is kinda steep (and I'm euro) but thinking of the potential it has has me starting to save up for it already.


BTW, ID software are quite Pro-opensource right? Wouldn't be a completely outrageous idea for them to come on board with this thing to even do some ports themselves of their own games.

 

[Squidge]

Personally, I think it's a waste of screen space and looks too close to a microsoft system that could be patented.

Maybe have all the basic tabs in the same strip?

eg.

[Home][Apps][Explore][Settings]
<body>

or perhaps on it's side.

 

[OMars]

OMars:

See XBox Live UI.
image

Personally, I would avoid as much clutter as possible on the screen. Remember that this will be a tiny screen a few feet away from your face, possibly moving about if you're within a transit vehicle. Big icons with easy navigation. The Live-like blade system works well on widescreen HD TVs....but I wouldn't want to see it on a handheld.

I personally think that these designs don't look that much alike, other than the tab idea. I have an xbox 360, and I know how it looks.

If people actually think it will be a problem, I can come up with a new one tomorrow.

Personally, I think it's a waste of screen space and looks too close to a microsoft system that could be patented.

Maybe have all the basic tabs in the same strip?

eg.
CODE

[Home][Apps][Explore][Settings]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]

or perhaps on it's side.

I think I can make something like that. The only problem would be that they are at the top of the screen, which would make them hard to press if you want to use the touchscreen. The shoulder buttons would work well, though. I made the tabs big as to allow easy switching between tabs from the system's home menu.

 

[Tobriand]

Re: the gui, I think arranging tabs on the side is the best plan of action for a gui styled like those most recently mentioned, if only because we're dealing with an 800x480 screen, so 160px of icon/tabs would look fairly natural, I'd guess.

Obviously, full names of functions wouldn't fit there. But icons would. And they can be fairly intuitive, as long as they're well designed. They'd also avoid clutter, and, by making the interface more like current tabbed PC-interfaces with tabs on the top (which are, of course, incredibly common), remove the chance of getting sued in the process. Or at least, not by Microsoft.

Not, of course, that I think M$ would sue. Consider: the device is very very unlikely to be able to emulate any of their software (X-box and above, PC more recent than early pentium, if we're very lucky). On the other hand, it can emulate their competitors' software library (PSX, GBA, N64, possibly DS, and conceivably (although infinitessimally unlikely, imo) PSP if hlide's comments are accurate and ever get followed through). So, the device reduces their competitors' market share without (in theory) effecting their own. Which, as far as I can tell, is a win for them.

Although I'd stress, a very very small win given the commonly imagined size of the market for this type of thing...

Maybe I'm crediting them with too much common sense, though.

 

[washo]

Just a little word about EEE from Asus
I received mine a couple of days ago
It rocks
As for 3D you can find videos of WoW, CS, W3:FT and other games

see you :lol:

 

[sam fisher]

i meant they'd sure over the Bladed GUI

 

[realyst]

i meant they'd sure over the Bladed GUI

Even as farked up as the current copyright and patent systems are, you can't sue over the look and feel of a GUI. Hence why Apple can't stem the flood of i(mpractical)Phone knock offs.

 

[icurafu]

Why not just leverage a UI that already exist?

Infact, access linux has already been completely ported to the OMAP3430. (probably a bad idea, but a good example.)

http://alp.access-company.com

This has native support for 800x480 and looks nice. The interface includes all the apps that we have discussed as must haves, and I'm sure Craig and Co. and would be able to develop make a few mondifications. (Such as a game/emulator focus)

No idea what the licensing agreement would be.

I'm happy enough with a UIQ style interface. Several catagories that have icons which are shortcuts that refer to applications which can be searched and added based on executable file signitures.

Easy enough to use so that I only have to flick to the catagorie and click on the icon to get into the game I want. Not to complicate the UI with RSS BS.

 

[sam fisher]

i meant they'd sure over the Bladed GUI

Even as farked up as the current copyright and patent systems are, you can't sue over the look and feel of a GUI. Hence why Apple can't stem the flood of i(mpractical)Phone knock offs.

They can sue, they may not win, but they would bankrupt the Craiginator team with legal fees. They did sue a Linux based OS called lindows over their GUI years ago.

 

[bhess]

It's been great fun reading this thread. It's so cool to see all of these awesome ideas being thrown around. I hope the Craiginator sees the light of day and this truly shows how great this community is.

 

[lubidog]

I guess I should have been more clear in my last post - there should be an organized file system, but it should also be flexible, if the program needs multiple folders/files.

BTW, what do you guys think of this GUI I made in ms paint? Here it is:

If possible, can someone combine this GUI with the previously shown console concept to see how it would look?

EDIT: I made this in photoshop really quick:

I hate to be grumpy, but this sort of excellent posting is just what we need! I am sure that Craig, with his wealth of experience and his highly paid and trained crew on board will be desperately scanning this thread for just this sort of tripe!

Now, why did I feel the need to write that?

Anyway, mock-ups that have no basis on anything other than schoolboy fantasies, and stuffing a crap photoshop image on top of a ripped off GUI that 'looks nice' is what stopped me reading this thread about 100 pages ago. But then the last few pages were genuinely interesting, with proper debate. Not this rubbish!

So, carry on boys....

 

[Javacat]

Does it REALLY need a GUI? I mean.. shouldn't bash be more than good enough?

 

[trooper]

Anyone remember Pacrom on the GP32 ?, A simple file and folder structure to run your programs from. Freedom to create folders for your music, pictures etc, And no unnecessary fluff.
Allowed you to auto run any program you had on your memory card, And also remembered the last program you ran , As it would be highlighted the next time you turned on your GP32.

Simple.

EDIT:

I hate to be grumpy, but this sort of excellent posting is just what we need! I am sure that Craig, with his wealth of experience and his highly paid and trained crew on board will be desperately scanning this thread for just this sort of tripe!

Now, why did I feel the need to write that?

Anyway, mock-ups that have no basis on anything other than schoolboy fantasies, and stuffing a crap photoshop image on top of a ripped off GUI that 'looks nice' is what stopped me reading this thread about 100 pages ago. But then the last few pages were genuinely interesting, with proper debate. Not this rubbish!

So, carry on boys....

:lol: **Cough** **Cough** :rolleyes:

Trooper