Pandora's Design

[Shirohagen]

Apart from the construction of the keyboard itself, the letters on the keyboard need to be smaller and more professional looking. I would say they don't need to be more than a quarter of the area of each key, and they should be gray or more subtle, and not in italic CAPS...

...they could even be in lowercase, that would be quite 'techy'. Just so long as they aren't SHOUTING!

®

 

[Nova]

Lowercase keys would be very attractive, quite modern.

Par example:

 

[C B Felterbush]

I designed this logo for a company here locally, I always thought the text was a great modern professional look.




I think the text used in the Shooting Star portion would look really nice on the keyboard.

 

[Shirohagen]

Maybe, but it's quite bold and it's italic, I think it needs something 'straightforward' and light. Maybe a bit like the Apple keyboard:

http://www.apple.com/keyboard/

Even though those are CAPS they're still a light touch. Lowercase would be nice though, code is predominantly in lower case so it's a nice link. I used lowercase in my logo design for the Pandora:

Nova: That Optimus keyboard is indeed a thing of beauty!

People think italic is 'dynamic' 'speedy' and 'techy' but it's hardly ever nicer than the normal cut of any font. The keyboard letters don't need to try hard, just - be there. Italic fonts are supposed to be used to differentiate words in prose, or to emphasise things. We don't need to do either of those on the Pandora.

A thing that ought to be considered is the graphic identity for the system. The logo thread hasn't produced any clear concensus, but whatever type style is used to promote the machine, and in it's logo, ought to be used on the keyboard and labelling the ports etc. The whole thing ought to 'fit'

It's only a detail, but from the renders, in my opinion, it's one of the things making the unit feel a little homemade at the moment.

That, and I'm a type geek...

®

 

[prairiefire]

Lowercase keys would be very attractive, quite modern.

Par example:

[/quote]
I agree. I really like the lowercase look.

 

[C B Felterbush]

That new keyboard look very nice, I have always used MAC products and they just keep coming out with winners. I would love a Pandora in aluminum with white keys and black lettering. -----Dreams------

 

[fusion_power]

A Pandora Case in Carbon fiber look would be cool. Could be done with paint I think.

Oh, I prefer UPPER CASE letters, letters with balls! Lower case ar girl-letters!

 

[prairiefire]

Oh, I prefer UPPER CASE letters, letters with balls!

you prefer letters with balls? :blink:
yuck.

 

[aatu]

I was just wondering: why do most of you want touch screen? At first I thought "Wow, it has touch screen?" But after awhile I came to realize that I don't really need it, and that it basically is just an extra cost for me.
I still think it's nice to have, but mainly because it's something exotic and something to show-off. Furthermore, we could use one of the analog sticks as a "mouse", which would be almost as good, and certainly sufficient enough.

I think drawing is the main thing that you can't do with analog pad. But what other uses are there? Exclude DS emulation, because that may not happen... I think in some thread I saw someone mention some game or application, but I'm not sure. But still, we surely aren't taking it for just few certain tasks, are we?

Of course, if the cost difference is negligible, then why not? But I would assume it's not that small of a difference...

ps. Before anybody says something about GUI, I personally prefer not to whip out the pen everytime I want to do something with the device. I hope it will at least have the option of doing things without touch screen. Maybe even disable the touch sensing to save some battery? (Probably won't save that much though...)

 

[nubie]

I was just wondering: why do most of you want touch screen? At first I thought "Wow, it has touch screen?" But after awhile I came to realize that I don't really need it, and that it basically is just an extra cost for me.
I still think it's nice to have, but mainly because it's something exotic and something to show-off. Furthermore, we could use one of the analog sticks as a "mouse", which would be almost as good, and certainly sufficient enough.

I am going to be using a Targus mini-laptop mouse, it will look really good (and confuse people even more in regard to the Pandora's size)

QUOTE
I think drawing is the main thing that you can't do with analog pad. But what other uses are there? Exclude DS emulation, because that may not happen... I think in some thread I saw someone mention some game or application, but I'm not sure. But still, we surely aren't taking it for just few certain tasks, are we?

Text recognition, very important. And Emulation or ports of graphical games. ScummVM comes to mind, I would use a stylus for that.

QUOTE
Of course, if the cost difference is negligible, then why not? But I would assume it's not that small of a difference...

I have heard $13 or less, the touchscreen interface is already integrated into the processor, and the screen has the touch capability, I think it helps to have a general level of hardware across all units from the start.

QUOTE
ps. Before anybody says something about GUI, I personally prefer not to whip out the pen everytime I want to do something with the device. I hope it will at least have the option of doing things without touch screen. Maybe even disable the touch sensing to save some battery? (Probably won't save that much though...)

I would like the option for a PDA style OS/program. Imagine Opera with gestures on, that will make the device a killer web browsing machine on its own.

I don't think the cost is actually very high (most of it is integrated in the SoC/LCD choice already), touchscreens have been around forever in small screens, it is just a resistive surface that changes resistance when compressed. And the change is read on 2 axis and bingo, touchscreen.

All the guys with the Font, that is exactly what I was talking about, the little tweaks that will transform the console into something more and more professional.

iix,

You are right, they are trying to cram in every control for every emulator (even PCs like the Amiga/C64/Intellivision/IBM PC), I can't believe no-one has done it before, and if they succeed I am so going to get one. I have been waiting for something like this for a while. (I must admit I am tempted by the promise of $250-300 mini-laptops with the Intel Atom by the middle of the year, but I could always get both , the Pandora will have way better controls and battery life anyway, and I can mod the laptop into a Pandora look-alike with the controls. Come to think of it Craig should offer a "Eeepc"/mini-laptop control pad made of the analog and digital controls that can snap over their keyboard and hook to USB with a low-profile right-angle USB. That would surely be something I would buy, I already used to play Genesis games on a Toshiba Libretto with a CF card and DOS, on the keyboard with my thumbs, real controls would be awesome.)

 

[JakeK]

The Pandora can emulate games. Games like Secret of Monkey Island use a mouse to navigate throughout the game. I have tried playing these type of games with a d-pad and it sucked, an analog stick would be pretty much the same but with diagonal movement. Touchscreen allows direct touching avoiding the pain of using the analog stick or d-pad.

I'd say that touchscreen in the GUI would be more of a secondary thing rather than the other way around.

 

[Tobriand]

Main reasons to have a touchscreen:

- Possibly cheaper than a non-touch-screen due to high demand and high competition in the touch-screen market.
- Application interfaces. Many apps will likely be considerably easier to use with a touchscreen than with the analogues. Any browser is one... I've yet to comfortably browse the net with anything other than a mouse, although I suppoe dual analogues *might* be ok.
- ScummVM. Drawing.
- Bragging rights - one less thing for people to claim their device has that Pandora doesn't (which, at the moment, is only aesthetic simplicity and multitouch as far as I can tell).

 

[Karel Jansens]

Crayon Physics DeLuxe.

 

[xstar]

Agreed, it looks very much like they're trying to please everyone. A well meaning intention, but not practical. The button layout is far too cluttered for my liking, and the slide-out-keyboard designs suggested by some seem much more elegant to me.

I agree to, It looks to thick and blocky
When I first saw this, I was hoping it would have alot of power in a good looking case, to replace my DS. It may be ugly, thick and unappealing, but it still has a lot of power and usefullnes underneath the hood, in a sense thats what counts.

 

[nubie]

Agreed, it looks very much like they're trying to please everyone. A well meaning intention, but not practical. The button layout is far too cluttered for my liking, and the slide-out-keyboard designs suggested by some seem much more elegant to me.

I agree to, It looks to thick and blocky
When I first saw this, I was hoping it would have alot of power in a good looking case, to replace my DS. It may be ugly, thick and unappealing, but it still has a lot of power and usefullnes underneath the hood, in a sense thats what counts.

Grammar nazi.

 

[Aries]

Nice new logo!

I really see this one incrusted in gold on the middle of the cover (only the logo) and under the screen with the full Pandora text. I would look "pot of gold in the pandora box

 

[Skutarth]

The only suggestion I can give is to make it two pairs of shoulder buttons, ala L1/L2 and R1/R2 or the Xbox 360's triggers and left/right bumpers.
Otherwise, it looks great.

 

[gruso]

The only suggestion I can give is to make it two pairs of shoulder buttons, ala L1/L2 and R1/R2 or the Xbox 360's triggers and left/right bumpers.
Otherwise, it looks great.
It's a little late for design suggestions I think, but you're not totally out of luck. As I understand it, it will have two shoulder buttons, but internal connection points are available for keen modders to add another pair.

I think.

 

[crazedover]

The only suggestion I can give is to make it two pairs of shoulder buttons, ala L1/L2 and R1/R2 or the Xbox 360's triggers and left/right bumpers.
Otherwise, it looks great.
It's a little late for design suggestions I think, but you're not totally out of luck. As I understand it, it will have two shoulder buttons, but internal connection points are available for keen modders to add another pair.

I think.


Note the two boxes labeled R2 and L2 on the pcb. (This is the bottom of the board, so the right is on the left and vice versa.)

 

[atomicthumbs]

I assume that those are for stick clicks.