Possible Pyra competitor: Graalphone

[Binky]

simple but powerful I/O through touchscreens

Where did "powerful" come from?
My experience with capacitive touchscreens is that they're a pain to draw on, they're a pain to type on, they're a pain to precisely select GUI elements with. Pain and frustration all the way.

Thank goodness you can still buy real keyboards, that's what I say!

 

[Klumpen]

Where did "powerful" come from?
My experience with capacitive touchscreens is that they're a pain to draw on, they're a pain to type on, they're a pain to precisely select GUI elements with. Pain and frustration all the way.

Thank goodness you can still buy real keyboards, that's what I say!

 

[TrashyMG]

@Klumpen - That's my fear of what is to come, why I keep several dozen Model M keyboards around.

 

[rygD]

And why I am sticking with their Unicomp little brothers.

I have convinced someone of the quality of mechanical keyboard and got them into a flashy (literally) one with knock off Cherry blue switches. I am working on someone else, but she seems quite content using touchscreens, and it's fine with whatever shitty rubber dome or chiclet keyboard she comes across. Not everyone seems to care what they use for typing.

There are plenty of keyboards out there I rally want to try. I doubt I will find them all, let alone be able to buy them. I would love to get a Model F, and just found this, in case anyone else is interested: https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/
[doublepost=1483693832,1483688880][/doublepost]If you want one of the reproduction Model Fs you need to order before the end of the month. I think an Industrial F77 with black keys would be my setup if I could afford one.

 

[Gren]

I'd love one of those Model Fs. Bit expensive though!

Not sure I can justify that price when I already have 2 original Model Ms from '87 and just bought a Unicomp Ultra Classic.
Can't beat some buckling spring action Much preferable to my QPAD with cherry MX blues.

@rygD You used an original Model F?

 

[rygD]

@rygD You used an original Model F?

I don't know. I may have back in the day, but I can't remember for sure. In the 80s I mostly encountered Apples at schools and libraries (usually something in the II family, with one lab full of Macs, and Ataris and such for the few people I knew of that had computers at home). Toward the end of the decade it was mostly IBM compatibles that were coming in, and I think by then any actual IBMs I was hands on with would have had Model Ms. By the 90s that trend seemed to continue, and most Apples, which were starting to become less common, were Macs, with older Apple IIs still occasionally in use around the turn of the century (and a handful seen in the wild in 2000, at least some of which had amber monitors!). I wasn't really paying attention to keyboards at that time, I just noticed that some felt better than others. I have mostly owned laptops, and started looking into decent keyboards only in 05 or 06.

I guess I got a little carried away.

On topic: Edit: Gone. Got confused about which thread this was.

 

[kabaiakh]

Although I don't know the dimensions, this comes to mind:
http://oldcomputers.net/poqet-pc.html

I have an USB floppy drive waiting for a Pyra to connect to. ;=)

 

[rygD]

I will buy or make stickers that look like floppies to put on my SD cards (I made a thread about them). I do like using old hardware, though, and I know a guy that teaches computer repair classes and recommends always having a USB floppy drive or something. I can't remember...something about DOS, I think. I prefer to use something more sensible (Linux on a CD/DVD or thumb drive for modern computers), and save DOS for the old machines.

 

[mclien]

@Klumpen - That's my fear of what is to come, why I keep several dozen Model M keyboards around.

That's why I try to keep connected to DIY Communities (like this) and I'm lucky that we live now in a time where you at least have the chance to go "So you abandoning your product I like most company XY? Or don't do e decent one for profit reasons? Hell, then I'll do my own"

 

[ZXDunny]

It looks gorgeous, but unless a company with really, really deep pockets picks it up it'll never be made at that size - look at the Pandora and Pyra; they're ugly, horrific, uncomfortable bricks and had ED been able to access decent production and prototyping (which is more expensive than he will ever be able to afford) then that sort of form factor is well out of reach. The keyboard appears very much like the old Psion Series 5 keyboards, and if it's done even reasonably well (in that the keys actually move, basically) it will blow the Pyra out of the water when it comes to typing.

It's a shame it will never likely see the light of day; I'd have loved the Pyra internals inside something like this kind of form factor.

No room for game controls, but as I rarely game on handhelds anymore I could live with that.

 

[veloknight]

Where did "powerful" come from?
My experience with capacitive touchscreens is that they're a pain to draw on, they're a pain to type on, they're a pain to precisely select GUI elements with. Pain and frustration all the way.

Thank goodness you can still buy real keyboards, that's what I say!

I feel the same, but I think the success of all-touch smartphones vs. their physical-button predecessors shows that there's an appeal to the general public. In this case, I was using "powerful" in the same way I might use to describe a programming language: a touchscreen interface can do many different things relatively easily. Want to watch a movie? You've got the whole screen, and simple, intuitive controls overlaid on top. Want to dial a number? Good, old-fashioned cell number pad coming up. Want to scroll a webpage? Just grab and swipe. Of course, like any number of powerful programming languages, a touchscreen interface sacrifices some performance for this flexibility. Typing isn't nearly as easy, touchscreen gaming controls are terrible, UI elements are hard to precisely grab (especially for big-fingered folks like me) unless the app developer makes them huge, thus sacrificing screen real estate, and web hyperlinks are the bane of my existence on a smartphone.

This is what I'm getting at with my critique of the Graalphone. Imagine if, instead of having a second touch device for.....reasons? It had a small, versatile device with a physical numpad. Heck, you could also put multimedia and gaming controls on it. Then, you've got a 3-in-1 with a detachable dumbphone, remote control, and gamepad - a 3-in-1 in a 3-in-1!

 

[rygD]

look at the Pandora and Pyra; they're ugly, horrific, uncomfortable bricks

I know, don't you just love them! It wouldn't be the same if they were sleek and "sexy".

 

[ZXDunny]

I know, don't you just love them! It wouldn't be the same if they were sleek and "sexy".

Y'know, I *do* love my Pandy, I really do. It's lovely, even though it's quite, quite retarded when trying to do anything. I have several machines on my desk, and the Pandora is smack in the centre, always turned on and always playing music or somesuch.

But damn, it hurts the hands to hold it. Damn, it's heavy. And God Dammit something that awesome should not look like a brick. And neither should the Pyra. I'm almost certainly getting a Pyra next year when they start shipping, but it really bugs me something terrible that a device full of so much win (even though it's running Linux!) has had only minor tweaks to the Pandora case made. And let's face it, the Pandora case wasn't designed at all - it was a box to hold the mainboard and LCD, with some holes cut out.

And yes, I know that the original Pandora team couldn't afford a designer. And ED certainly can't, with his margins being so tight, and a minimalist approach to the Pyra's case allows more room (financially) to manoeuvre with the innards... but it still feels wrong.

 

[AVahne]

Eh? My Pandora is not heavy at all and is actually quite comfortable. It's not the "sexiest" thing alive, but most of the time I prefer function over form, though only as long as the 'form' is good enough, which it is in Panda/Pyra's case imo.
If you wanted something that hurts the hands to hold, try the OG 3DS.

 

[ible]

looks awesome, didn't listen, though. would want to see something with a screen on, of course

 

[ZXDunny]

Eh? My Pandora is not heavy at all and is actually quite comfortable. It's not the "sexiest" thing alive, but most of the time I prefer function over form, though only as long as the 'form' is good enough, which it is in Panda/Pyra's case imo.
If you wanted something that hurts the hands to hold, try the OG 3DS.

Never had a 3DS - went from a GP2X (and OG NDSL) to a Pandora and never bothered with the 3DS. The NDSL was lovely to hold. The Pandora does its job (poorly these days, it's 5 years old now!). Even the GP2X (which was awful) was better than the Pandora, IMO. At least casing-wise - although my CC Pandora has no cracks, the case is very badly fitting. Although I suppose I'd be happiest with a proper redesign of the Pyra case, so long as it's better made than the Pandora's it'll be acceptable.

 

[jeeks]

interesting device as someone who's quite a pro at busting all kinds of hinges on electronic devices, i'll keep my distance though :>

 

[ptitSeb]

But how that LCD screen is supposed to be connected?
(and will the screen stay open and a 120° or 90° position, but that's minor issue if the screen as no conection and is just a black surface).

 

[Alperoot]

But how that LCD screen is supposed to be connected?
(and will the screen stay open and a 120° or 90° position, but that's minor issue if the screen as no conection and is just a black surface).

This exactly.

 

[mius]

It looks gorgeous, but unless a company with really, really deep pockets picks it up it'll never be made at that size [...]

...and in that form, i.e. the already mentioned "everything into the kitchen sink" nonsense. Man, if they would just engineer a conventional 7" palmtop that is basically a semi-rugged (or MIL-SPEC) miniature convertible along the lines of IBM/Lenovo's ThinkPad X- or HP's 27x0-series tablets, complete with active digitizer and rotating hinge mechanism, I'd be in heaven. Implementing a modular philosophy with a detachable might even work better as an application-focused analogon to Nintendo's Switch, complete with keyboard, and possible game-control attachments, an external GPU, etc...

Another option would be to just design a proper working convertible/detachable/tablet case for Intel's Compute Card, or an adequate field-swappable future ARM- or x86-based alternative from a different manufacturer, especially one that's more committed to the whole open-source hardline.

The keyboard appears very much like the old Psion Series 5 keyboards, and if it's done even reasonably well (in that the keys actually move, basically) it will blow the Pyra out of the water when it comes to typing.

Yeah. Other examples that come to mind are the keyboards of Sharp's palmtop efforts, i.e. the PC-3000/-3100 series, as well as HP's Jornada machines.