Pandora's Design

Good or Bad?

  • Love it

    Votes: 1 100.0%
  • It's ok

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Meh.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I dislike it

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I hate it

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    1

Early renders of the Pandora made it look like it was black, or at least dark gray. More recently, we've been seeing it in white and I have to say it doesn't look nearly as good. Mainly because the keys etc are all still black.

Can we have it black please? Or at least if it's white then the keys etc should all be white too.

Black would be lovely though, more forgiving of scratches and marks - more 'powerful' looking...

®
 
Shirohagen said:
Early renders of the Pandora made it look like it was black, or at least dark gray. More recently, we've been seeing it in white and I have to say it doesn't look nearly as good. Mainly because the keys etc are all still black.

Can we have it black please? Or at least if it's white then the keys etc should all be white too.

Black would be lovely though, more forgiving of scratches and marks - more 'powerful' looking...

®
Actually, it's the other way around. The first renders were white, and people generally didn't like it. The images were played with and the general consensus was that it looks much better black. Craigix has said the actual device will be black or charcoal.
 
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I just had a brainwave for a future Pandora MK2! Potentially, at least. Especially if LCDs continue to get thinner and cheaper.

Essentially, imagine the current design, but, in addition to the screen inside, there's one on the outer cover too? Thus you get PDA-similarity at the same time as preserving a simplistic hinge mechanism, and presumably only at a sacrifice of cost, and, possibly, thickness (although as I say, I'm assuming LCDs are getting thinner and cheaper over time too).

Such a sacrifice, now, is NOT acceptable. But maybe in a couple of years it would be, i.e., when the price of production has shrunk.

Benefits would basically just be the touchscreen becoming more useful in a tablet mode, although I imagine you'd have to make sure that when the unit were closed, instead of auto-sleeping, it instead gave you 5 seconds or so to touch the outer screen in a couple of places just to check whether you wanted it to sleep or not.

If the two screens were not forced to display the same image, you might also get some other interesting possibilities:
- Display a random animation involving Pandora's name to just make your device look that much cooler.
- Display a video-ad for Pandora itself, thus raising awareness without needing to actually talk to the random on the bus/train who are wondering wtf you're holding.
- Obvious distinction between the Pandora and Nintendo DS - people won't make that mistake if there's a screen on the back too.

And I tentatively offer the last point because I'm aware people aren't too keen on such things...

- Potential to rent time spent playing the Pandora with such a screen on display as an advert for arbitrary 3rd party products.

I'm not entiurely certain how I'd feel about having Burger King advertising on the back of my handheld on the way into work, but I don't see why such advertisement wouldn't work for whichever company was involved, especially if you're travelling by bus/tube a lot. Most obvious disadvantage would be that, presumably, in running the advertising daemon you'd a) sacrifice some CPU power and consequently battery life (depends on how good the battery is, really, doesn't it) and B) have to report back the time you'd spent with the lid up to the companies in question...
 
I just see a lot of ideas from users, but I'm sure those ideas not consider ergonomics.

Do Pandora design has ergonomics in consideration? It will be very sad if the machine has very good hardware but will be unattractive to people due to being uncomfortable to use.

To the Pandora designers: It's considered to contract a proffesional designer for the physical design that takes care of ergonomics and having an original design instead looking like a copy of Nintendo DS?
 
timofonic said:
I just see a lot of ideas from users, but I'm sure those ideas not consider ergonomics.

Do Pandora design has ergonomics in consideration? It will be very sad if the machine has very good hardware but will be unattractive to people due to being uncomfortable to use.

To the Pandora designers: It's considered to contract a proffesional designer for the physical design that takes care of ergonomics and having an original design instead looking like a copy of Nintendo DS?
We've gone over ergonomics at times, and prairiefire made a full-scale mockup and demonstrated (basically just tested it himself and assured us) it would be comfortable. As for being a DS copy, the DS Lite has two main factors: simple and glossy. Pandora is going to be simple because simplicity is cheaper to produce, and it's not going to be glossy.
 
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timofonic said:
To the Pandora designers: It's considered to contract a proffesional designer for the physical design that takes care of ergonomics and having an original design instead looking like a copy of Nintendo DS?
Could you explain why pandora is a copy of NDS ? The only common point with NDS is you need to open it to use it !

NDS is not the first devise to use this basic design!
Pandora is more like a high powered sharp zaurus:
arton13.gif

or why not a super psion 3a (1994):
800px-Psion_Series_3a.jpg


remember that NDS is NOT the year 0 where all begin B)
 
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I think there is a little more to it than that, JyCet. Have you seen a NDS lite and compared it to the renders of the closed pandoras?

I can tell you, my white DS is very similar. But, the DS lite is very sexy, so who am I to complain. I'm just thankful the PSP wasn't found as suitble... "inspiration." ;)
 
JyCet said:
or why not a super psion 3a (1994):

jesus, the memories!
The 3a was an awesome machine. still the best calendar and the best UI for a mobile device. who needs 600MHz PocketPCs with full color displays that only last a few hours and have far worse usability than this gem...
 
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JyCet said:
or why not a super psion 3a (1994):
800px-Psion_Series_3a.jpg
Oh man, that is the exact model my father used to have!! Oh, the naughty background images he'd end up with on it whenever he'd left it around during a holiday at the cabin. Come to think of it, maybe that's why he doesn't have PDAs any longer! ^_^
 
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icurafu said:
I think there is a little more to it than that, JyCet. Have you seen a NDS lite and compared it to the renders of the closed pandoras?

I can tell you, my white DS is very similar. But, the DS lite is very sexy, so who am I to complain. I'm just thankful the PSP wasn't found as suitble... "inspiration." ;)
I hope, the Devs will find a way to seperate the Design of an closed Pandora compared to an closed NDS Lite. There must be an clear optical difference in closed state IMHO.
 
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fusion_power said:
icurafu said:
I think there is a little more to it than that, JyCet. Have you seen a NDS lite and compared it to the renders of the closed pandoras?

I can tell you, my white DS is very similar. But, the DS lite is very sexy, so who am I to complain. I'm just thankful the PSP wasn't found as suitble... "inspiration." ;)
I hope, the Devs will find a way to seperate the Design of an closed Pandora compared to an closed NDS Lite. There must be an clear optical difference in closed state IMHO.

I agree and said basically the same thing elsewhere. The easiest way to do that is with prominent "Pandora" text with logo on the back of the LCD side of the unit.
 
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Fair enough, but who isn't going to know which is which between their DS and Pandora? It won't be sold or advertised closed, or in any way where there will be any confusion.

If you plaster the name over it, it won't be as classy. It's a bit of a home-made machine (I mean that in the nicest possible way) anyway, we've REALLY got to make it look fantastic otherwise it will look obviously homepsun next to more highly manufactured machines. No really sh*t-hot machine has it's name printed large over it, it would be like the real iPod next to one of those nasty Chinese rip-offs.

Let's keep it subtle, tasteful and sexy. Ignore the DS, make this what we want it to be most rather than getting paranoid about it...

Anyway, Craig knows what he's doing, the people behind it aren't going to let it look bad...

(crosses fingers and hopes)

®
 
Hmmm, maybe the "hinge" should be less DS-like. For example, instead of having one piece of plastic in the middle, have two smaller pieces. Eg.

Instead of:

===-----===

==---==---==

Yeah, my ascii art r0x0rZ ;)
 
Shirohagen said:
Fair enough, but who isn't going to know which is which between their DS and Pandora? It won't be sold or advertised closed, or in any way where there will be any confusion.
When the Pandora is in use, the text and logo will be visible and displayed correct side up. The point is not to remind the owner that they have something different in their hands, it's to let others know and, hopefully, make them curious enough to approach the user and hear some free advertising for the Pandora courtesy of some of the best salespeople in the world: enthusiastic owners.
Shirohagen said:
If you plaster the name over it, it won't be as classy. It's a bit of a home-made machine (I mean that in the nicest possible way) anyway, we've REALLY got to make it look fantastic otherwise it will look obviously homepsun next to more highly manufactured machines. No really sh*t-hot machine has it's name printed large over it, it would be like the real iPod next to one of those nasty Chinese rip-offs.
So Eolair's beautiful logos that you complimented in the logo thread aren't "classy" and make the Pandora look like a "Chinese rip-off?" I disagree.
Shirohagen said:
Let's keep it subtle, tasteful and sexy. Ignore the DS, make this what we want it to be most rather than getting paranoid about it...
Who is "paranoid about it"? It's just a suggestion. Nintendo with millions to spend on ads and instant recognition everywhere can afford to be extremely "subtle" with their logo. And just because a marking isn't "subtle" doesn't mean that it has to be tasteless. A Pandora looks a lot like the DS Lite in size and shape from a distance and will be easily mistaken as one unless there is some significant difference. If it's mistaken as just another DS, the curious bystander will immediately go into ignore mode. A nice logo will lessen the chance of this and it doesn't have to be tasteless to do so.
 
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Hang on a minute matey, make yourself a cup of tea, take your shoes off and relax. I never said anything about anyone's logo being bad, or anything which warrants you getting worked up. I am saying what I think, trying to contribute, I can just as easily not bother, but I do know what I'm talking about. The reality is that neither of us is going to decide this anyway, it's not our decision to make.

I don't agree with you about the DS at all, but I'm not going to quote yourself back to you and dissect what you say, I'm just going to go and make myself a cup of tea...

Milk, no sugar.

®
 
May be I am in a wrong thread. If yes, then sorry.

I thinking about TV out. My (planed) primary use of Pandora is computer replacement. Yes, I know. about size and so on. I currently use Windows Mobile 5 (terrible OS) and before it PalmOS 3 to 5 (good one). So I look at PAndora spec and see good and small Pocket Computer (PC :) with Linux OS. Linux is good OS and some distros realy matures (is Ubuntu - my favorit). So I guess that Pandora may be good Personal Computer replacement. Only one thing missing - some kind of monitor output.

Pandora have got (sorry my english) an TV out. I do not know details, but hope that connection with almost every TV set will go, even if I need buy some video cables. But what about CRT or LCD computer monitor? I I can connect even 15" LCD with 1024x768 res, I have realy good replacement of dig desktop computer.

So I ask: "Can I simply connect PC monitor to Pandora directly by proper cable, or I need some kind of signal convertor fo this?" And what about max resolution of external screen (1920 x 1080i/720p, 1366 x 768, ...)?

Actually, I guess that I allready read some info on this forum, but cannot find it just now. Please respond reasonable. Y realy do not summon some flame about TV out B-)
 
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