Our New Machine, Pandora

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Craig? still here? like my trigger idea? too many Q's? :D
I'll try to put up some modified pics tomorrow. Let me know what you all think to it so far for better or worse!
 
sam fisher said:
But do not put IR in! Noone will use it! Well, one person!
Chill out. How much do you honestly think it would cost?
 
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sam fisher said:
More than is neccasary, besides Craig won't put it in, I just know it.
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree and just wait for Craig's word. And if it isn't included then it's no big deal, as long as I can buy an IR addon as well as a bluetooth addon. A GPS addon in the future would also be great, or just the ability to use the PSP's GPS addon and other addons like the camera. Oh yah and will this have a USB port or just a mini usb port? Or would it have both?
 
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mavsman4457 said:
sam fisher said:
But do not put IR in! Noone will use it! Well, one person!
Chill out. How much do you honestly think it would cost?


Well, it costs money to put it in there, and it's not a feature many people will use. We could just say that every feature that doesn't cost more than a couple dollars should be added, but that would be ridiculous.

Also, I imagine that putting in IR would effect how the device has to be constructed, which provides more added difficulty to adding a feature no one wants.
 
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cowai said:
And who wants a remote with 10hour> battery time?
Good point. And unless the boot time is REALLY short, I wouldn't want to be turning it on and off all of the time.

Perhaps a low-power mode after some user-settable inactivity time delay would be useful for all kinds of things, not just for when the game unit is serving as a remote (using its _optional_, _external_ high-output IR transmitter USB dongle supplied by some third party)? Of course, I suspect that such a power-down (ended with a key press) could be implemented in the remote control application.
 
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lippy said:
Ive got a zodiac; it works poorly as a tv remote; needs to be less than ~1.5m away to work anywhere near reliably enough.

That's probably an IR LED output problem. After trying many universal remotes, I bought a Home Theater Master MX-500 after reading the reviews and love it. Very powerful IR output, robust quality construction and not very expensive at all.
 
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Squidge said:
Dubya' said:
High end universal remotes, some of them costing as much or more than the projected price for Craigix's new machine, use LCD touch-screen controls which can be customized for the particular equipment combination.

'IR' isn't the end of it all though. To be understood by a TV, DVD Player or whatever, the IR needs to be placed on an appropriate carrier. 38Khz is typical, but some devices do expect others (I've seen 36Khz too for example). This could be done in software, but is Linux's timing that accurate?

A quick look with Google found a PDA-based universal remote project:

http://www.codeproject.com/cs/miscctrl/Uni...eControlPDA.asp

Considering the number of universal remotes I've read about that were programmed by downloading a remote control code database which must contain all of the specific IR control code sequences for many brands and models of consumer electronic equipment, someone might be able to reverse engineer such a database and save a great deal of work for themselves (assuming the databases aren't encrypted in some way). Failing that (either for legal or for practical reasons), a "learning mode" would allow the remote to learn the code sequence from different remotes and their various control keys, but this mode in commercially made programmable remotes is always relegated for use only when the control codes for a particular equipment brand or model are not contained in the universal remotes code database. It is much more of a hassle than just typing in a three digit number to select the mode for a brand/model already in the database. And a learning mode would require an IR photodiode in the USB dongle. Come to think of it, whether or not a database of remote control codes was used, you'd always need a learning capability. Without it, the remote would be severely handicapped, IMHO. But an IR photodiode and its amp would be an extremely cheap addition.

Just found this:

Linux Infrared Remote Control

LIRC is a package that allows you to decode and send infra-red signals of many (but not all) commonly used remote controls.

http://www.lirc.org/

Just to remind everyone, I AM NOT asking for this remote control functionality to be added to the Craigix gaming/multimedia device. This is just a possible additional use for an open platform with an LCD touchscreen and an external USB IR device supplied by some third party.
 
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I have used IRShell on my PSP and that is ok. I can't find IR codes for all of my devices which makes the remote part of that application not so useful. I have also used Novii Remote for the Palm OS which was an outstanding application. It allowed for learning mode and allowed you to select from a wide variety of on screen buttons to make a custom key layout. Now that I really think about it, it would be nice to have IR in the thing, but all I really care about for IR is that it has a strong signal that won't require me to point directly at the receiver from two feet away and that it will have learning mode and somebody will support it with software. I sure hope the addons can be used without completely making the device feel awkward.
 
cappuchok said:
EDIT2: Oh, and I'd vote for a stylish gray/silver color for the body - white causes too much glare, especially if this is to have a glossy finish like the F-200 (the matt finish of the black GP2X wears down far too easily around the action buttons). And black is too much contrast to the light of the display in low-light conditions, really hurts the eyes (comparing the GP2X to a light gray NDS, I know which one I'd prefer in low-light environments).
How do you figure? A white case means the case is reflecting light. Do you want to see the *screen* or the case in low light? I would rather see the screen not the edges of the case personally. If I get an F-200 I will probably paint it black ;)

Who said there won't be any shoulder buttons? I don't think Craig would blow it like that. This isn't GPH we are talking about. You need those for just about every console that would be emulated. You also need a d-pad (yes even the N64 and PSX had one ;) ) as well as any analog nub thing that has been announced.
 
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I think it should be made of stainless steel. That would feel beutifull in your hands and make it pretty much unbreakable. The GBA micro is made from metal (i assume its stainless steel) and it looks ace.
 
Don't forget that an all metal case would require a big ole external WiFi antenna (or two) to get those signals in and out. I for one don't want that. :)
 
MWeston said:
Don't forget that an all metal case would require a big ole external WiFi antenna (or two) to get those signals in and out. I for one don't want that. :)
It dosent have to be 100% metal, you could have wifi thing behind a small plastic bit. If we're going to have a slide out keyboard the advantages of metal are obvius.
 
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MWeston said:
Don't forget that an all metal case would require a big ole external WiFi antenna (or two) to get those signals in and out. I for one don't want that. :)
or, it could use the case as the antenna
 
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Imagination Technologies' latest business operations report projects the timetable for Intel UMPC SGXs that seems to coincide with Menlow.
QUOTE
Our partnership with Intel in the personal computing/UMPC segment is progressing well... We expect this to lead to product shipments towards the latter part of our 07/08 financial year.

http://www.imgtec.com/Investors/HTMLResult...ims07/index.asp

While Intel's presentations on their ultra mobile roadmap don't detail major advancements in graphics between McCaslin and Menlow, Imgtec would say only that SGX exceeded DirectX 9 in capability -- and nothing more specific -- until recently when it disclosed SGX's Shader Model 4 compliancy.

 
craigix said:
OMAP does not support 2xSD

Wifi yes, bluetooth no (sorry).

Microphone yes!

:)
Excellent - especially happy to hear it'll have a microphone. I can live without Bluetooth, personally, and one SD slot is plenty as long as it supports SDHC and USB 2.0 Host for external drives.

DaveC said:
cappuchok said:
EDIT2: Oh, and I'd vote for a stylish gray/silver color for the body - white causes too much glare, especially if this is to have a glossy finish like the F-200 (the matt finish of the black GP2X wears down far too easily around the action buttons). And black is too much contrast to the light of the display in low-light conditions, really hurts the eyes (comparing the GP2X to a light gray NDS, I know which one I'd prefer in low-light environments).
How do you figure? A white case means the case is reflecting light. Do you want to see the *screen* or the case in low light? I would rather see the screen not the edges of the case personally. If I get an F-200 I will probably paint it black ;)

Who said there won't be any shoulder buttons? I don't think Craig would blow it like that. This isn't GPH we are talking about. You need those for just about every console that would be emulated. You also need a d-pad (yes even the N64 and PSX had one ;) ) as well as any analog nub thing that has been announced.

I specifically said I don't want a white casing, if you read my post carefully. I do, however, think black is too dark for some situations, especially in low light conditions I'd like a medium-light gray to have a comfortable "glow" around the screen (just seeing a brightly backlit screen and complete blackness around it is extremely hurtful to the eyes after a while). So: not white so as not to cause glare (I already said that in my previous post btw), but not too dark so as to make the casing totally invisible except the glowing screen in low-light conditions. The gray NDS is a good example.
 
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sam fisher said:
atomicthumbs said:
MWeston said:
Don't forget that an all metal case would require a big ole external WiFi antenna (or two) to get those signals in and out. I for one don't want that. :)
or, it could use the case as the antenna

i dont think it works like that mate lol.


They could have 5mm or so of plastic between the 2 halfs of the case so the signal could get out if not.
 
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