The Next Gp*x Revision

[gaterooze]

Instead of one "bulge" in the center you could have 2 smaller ones on each end and vertical instead of horizontal like now. This would also give ergonomic "grips" at each end as well.

And if you shape them like boobs (a la GP32), perfect

 

[Alex.]

I'm not a hardware kind of guy, although I do find these matters incredibly interesting. I'll chip in my two cents regardless.

I would be willing to spring for a GP3X provided it won't cost more than $250, and that's pushing the roof a bit. I'd prefer $200, and I think that would be a very reasonable price. Any higher than that, I'll save up some more and buy a UMPC, which in a couple of years will hopefully be vastly improved all around.

Its screen diagonal should measure anything between 3.5 and 4.0 inches, with a resolution of 320 * 240. I love the current GP2X screen, an improvement on it would perhaps be the ability to show more colours on-screen at a time, which would reduce colour banding. The backlight should be user-adjustable, preferably with a hardware slider switch.

Speaking of a hardware slider switch, sound volume should be controlled by one. I'm not very happy with the software implementation that is present in the GP2X, and this simply cannot work well on a handheld where firmware may be overridden and where there is no guarantee of a specific standard use of buttons.

The batteries should be a flexible issue. There should be Li-ion packs available that would fit in the same slot as rechargeable AAs. That would be a win-win situation, no doubt. The Li-ion would recharge via electrical adapter, but be modular and replaceable with both other GP3X Li-ion packs or with a certain number of AAs. The number of AAs should be anywhere between 2 and 4, but not more than 4. With some creative use of space, they could get away with putting 4 of them in there, that's not something to worry about. Of course, two would be best, but if by using 4 I would be guaranteed 6+ hours of life at normal, non-scaled back usage, I would happily go for it.

The GP2X control layout is ideal all around. I wouldn't trade it for anything else. The stick should be of course replaced with a DPad (any kind of DPad that works well for quick reflexes, any patent can be avoided with creative design).

What's under the hood seems to be the focus of the debate here though. A lot has been accomplished with a single 200Mhz ARM cpu. There's no need for dual core. Just one 266Mhz ARM with solid Blitting acceleration, preferably with alpha-blending support. If it would have this, the sky would be the limit of what kind of games could be done on it. Keeping things simple and not over-powered will also take less toll on battery life. I wouldn't want to have to recharge or change batteries every 1 or 2 hours of use, that would plain suck.

The external design of the GP2X is also something that I am incredibly fond of. It's simple, modern, sharp, and unpretentious. It's very functional (with its headphone jack on the top as it may be, JaqMs) and it is comfortable for my hands. I wouldn't change anything about it really. I only hope they won't go for an all-glossy casing, other than that I trust GPH to make a sensible design choice if they will need to.

What if the GP3X was to have 2 SD slots? That would be the tops. Once we could use for storage, and the other for an SD peripheral such as WiFi or TV tuner (or more storage if we so desired). That would really take things to the next level - I know that the Zodiac did it first, but it's a great idea that should be used. Built-in WiFi would be overkill as it would increase the unit cost for sure, even if only by $10 (remember, the lower the price the more people will buy it, ie. I will buy it ).

Better battery monitoring would also be a step up, although I'm sure the GP2X firmware will be capable of accomplishing this in the visible future.

I suppose this is all that I can think of on the spot. I'll close by saying that I hope the GP3X won't be launched before mid-2009, and that the GP2X will maintain (and gain) community support along the way. Not even a year passed since the release of the MK2, and as you can see the homebrew scene is just getting fired up. More and more great original releases pop in every month

- Alex

 

[Trip]

Speaking of a hardware slider switch, sound volume should be controlled by one. I'm not very happy with the software implementation that is present in the GP2X, and this simply cannot work well on a handheld where firmware may be overridden and where there is no guarantee of a specific standard use of buttons.

I agree with everything that you said here Alex except about the volume buttons.
2 buttons give users more options than 1 slider switch.

It just needs GPH to make a single piece of system wide (universal) software that all programs can tap into.
Same with the screen controls (brightness etc.), volume level for programs & the TV-Out

 

[Unfathomable Depths]

2 SD slots - I can see the appeal but with the price of NAND memory falling Id like at least 4gb onboard NAND.

*edit* Ive never seen SD peripherals. Do such things exist?

 

[Zeladin]

I agree with everything that you said here Alex except about the volume buttons.
2 buttons give users more options than 1 slider switch.

Eh well I would simply replace the volume buttons with generic buttons and have a volume wheel.

I agree with pretty much everything else Alex said, though I would prefer built in wifi. I rather spend 10E more than 30e for an sd Wifi card. Two SD slots would be great. I would also say an actual usb host connector on the GP*x would be good too. Stick it at the top beside the SD slots or something.

Yes to 2009, I'd like to see more happen with the GP2X. Still plenty of stuff to come!

I was thinking on the whole dpad/stick conundrum. Would a sort of module that plugs in work do you think, to have the option? Or Perhaps a pad and a stick similar to **ahem** PSP. Oh yeah and just to trounce everyone, we'll chuck in a touch screen.

edit;

Id like at least 4gb onboard NAND.

Not a good idea, I think, flash memory has a limited lifetime. I would hesitate to use my firmware storage for extensive reading and writing. That 4Gb would be wasted on me at least. It might be as cheap as peanuts and even the smallest size available by then though. I think two manufacturers released 32GB cards recently, or were threatening to...

 

[Trip]

2 SD slots - I can see the appeal but with the price of NAND memory falling Id like at least 4gb onboard NAND.

*edit* Ive never seen SD peripherals. Do such things exist?

Well the SD wifi cards & bluetooth adaptors exist, but I'm not too sure about TV adaptors etc.?

EDIT: I suppose an adaptor could be made to connect an external powered hard drive through one of these though?

 

[therealadmin]

Personally I think it would rock to have a good 3D accelerator, two analogs, and a d-pad. But I'm not sure if companies would be interested and it would probably be pricey.

 

[sam fisher]

I know there was a topic about this long ago

there have been at least 10. ah well, carry on. i'm not bitter, just weird

We should make a sort of "community favourite" idea of what it should be like, then everyon email it to GPH, they have to pay attention to public opinion, no matter how "blind" they are, if enough people want the same sort of thing.

I'm not a hardware kind of guy, although I do find these matters incredibly interesting. I'll chip in my two cents regardless.

I would be willing to spring for a GP3X provided it won't cost more than $250, and that's pushing the roof a bit. I'd prefer $200, and I think that would be a very reasonable price. Any higher than that, I'll save up some more and buy a UMPC, which in a couple of years will hopefully be vastly improved all around.

Its screen diagonal should measure anything between 3.5 and 4.0 inches, with a resolution of 320 * 240. I love the current GP2X screen, an improvement on it would perhaps be the ability to show more colours on-screen at a time, which would reduce colour banding. The backlight should be user-adjustable, preferably with a hardware slider switch.

Speaking of a hardware slider switch, sound volume should be controlled by one. I'm not very happy with the software implementation that is present in the GP2X, and this simply cannot work well on a handheld where firmware may be overridden and where there is no guarantee of a specific standard use of buttons.

The batteries should be a flexible issue. There should be Li-ion packs available that would fit in the same slot as rechargeable AAs. That would be a win-win situation, no doubt. The Li-ion would recharge via electrical adapter, but be modular and replaceable with both other GP3X Li-ion packs or with a certain number of AAs. The number of AAs should be anywhere between 2 and 4, but not more than 4. With some creative use of space, they could get away with putting 4 of them in there, that's not something to worry about. Of course, two would be best, but if by using 4 I would be guaranteed 6+ hours of life at normal, non-scaled back usage, I would happily go for it.

The GP2X control layout is ideal all around. I wouldn't trade it for anything else. The stick should be of course replaced with a DPad (any kind of DPad that works well for quick reflexes, any patent can be avoided with creative design).

What's under the hood seems to be the focus of the debate here though. A lot has been accomplished with a single 200Mhz ARM cpu. There's no need for dual core. Just one 266Mhz ARM with solid Blitting acceleration, preferably with alpha-blending support. If it would have this, the sky would be the limit of what kind of games could be done on it. Keeping things simple and not over-powered will also take less toll on battery life. I wouldn't want to have to recharge or change batteries every 1 or 2 hours of use, that would plain suck.

The external design of the GP2X is also something that I am incredibly fond of. It's simple, modern, sharp, and unpretentious. It's very functional (with its headphone jack on the top as it may be, JaqMs) and it is comfortable for my hands. I wouldn't change anything about it really. I only hope they won't go for an all-glossy casing, other than that I trust GPH to make a sensible design choice if they will need to.

What if the GP3X was to have 2 SD slots? That would be the tops. Once we could use for storage, and the other for an SD peripheral such as WiFi or TV tuner (or more storage if we so desired). That would really take things to the next level - I know that the Zodiac did it first, but it's a great idea that should be used. Built-in WiFi would be overkill as it would increase the unit cost for sure, even if only by $10 (remember, the lower the price the more people will buy it, ie. I will buy it ).

Better battery monitoring would also be a step up, although I'm sure the GP2X firmware will be capable of accomplishing this in the visible future.

I suppose this is all that I can think of on the spot. I'll close by saying that I hope the GP3X won't be launched before mid-2009, and that the GP2X will maintain (and gain) community support along the way. Not even a year passed since the release of the MK2, and as you can see the homebrew scene is just getting fired up. More and more great original releases pop in every month

- Alex

At the rate of microprocessor advancement and the handhelds being released now, Mid 2009 is far too late, especially for a 266mhz single. That would just be ridiculous, even with the proper blitting acceleration, it could still be a major bottleneck for emulators. But, as I keep stating the i.MX31, by that time, will probably cost nomore than the magic eyes chipset now, and for a 533mhz ARM11 with FPU, and ARM11 has jazelle support, so we can have native execution of Java, $250 could be possible. I for one would rather pay around the $300, hell in England, due to tax, we pay amost that much for a GP2x, I think if it has such impressive specifications as that, and with the fact it has a 3D accelerator that can push 1.5Million Polygons per second, and the high spec processor, someone as talented as Zodttd, Unai and the other who worked/are working on PSX for all would probably have absolutely no problem getting a fullspeed PSX emulator going with ease, especially with a dynamic recompiler, if they so chose that route again, and the main graphical overhead greatly cut by the 3D acceleration hardware.

Here is a Link to the page for the i.MX31

Edit: I also think that it should be released in late 2008 at the lastest, we all know it'll take half a year longer than GPH presume anyway.

 

[Trip]

I would also say an actual usb host connector on the GP*x would be good too. Stick it at the top beside the SD slots or something.

Move over the EXT port at the bottom & place a full size USB Host port next to it. Would be better for docking & hardware addons like USB hubs, TV adaptors etc.

 

[sam fisher]

I really urge people to take a look at the specs sheet and data sheet etc for the i.MX31.

 

[Trip]

I really urge people to take a look at the specs sheet and data sheet etc for the i.MX31.

Is there full Linux support for this, or is it just for Freescale and Microsoft technology?

 

[sam fisher]

All the hardware is OS independant, it has OpenGL-es too

 

[Trip]

All the hardware is OS independant, it has OpenGL-es too

My bad.. what I meant was do they include an official Linux version of the SDK.
Wouldn't it be a lot harder to take full advantage of the hardware if they don't?

Or am I completely on the wrong track?

 

[sam fisher]

I honestly don't know there. I'm sure they would have one. After all it states "Other software availble on request".

 

[DaveC]

You can still put in 4 AA batteries with 4:3, you would just separate them. Instead of one "bulge" in the center you could have 2 smaller ones on each end and vertical instead of horizontal like now. This would also give ergonomic "grips" at each end as well.

Wow, what a great idea!

I posted after you as I type slower but didn't see the post until I did mine. I realized after I posted but I didn't bother to take it out. Oh well.

 

[sehs33]

I would go for the following:
- Volume wheel, I hate the current volume control, increase the buttons as much as you want and spread them on every spot of the case but give me a wheel to control the volume.
- Supporting & combining a descent wired gp*x headphone's port<-->remote<-->headphones, so we can use it as a real mp3 player.
- Supporting wireless remote, either by gp*x headphone's port<-->RF receiver<-->same mentioned remote with RF sender (it will require a tiny battery for the remote), or having an RF port in the case/BOB and a separate remote that can be bought as an accessory.
- Real Time Clock, many people want it so much and there isn't that high cost.
- Good price should be less than the coming PSP2 when it is out.
- Popular hardware implemented chips instead of totally relying on software (Z80 for example?)
- USB host port that accepts powered USB hubs, so we can add several peripherals like two game pads and a USB cup warmer
- A nice touch will be a mic and FM tuner, more people will be attracted to have it this way, and again, not that much increase in price.
- A retratactable USB A to B cable with full software support to make the GP*X show under any OS as a flash memory, it will simply replace their ordinary external hard drives for people who have high capacity SD cards (or whatever cards that will be cheap at that time)
- Cheap media that is commonly available and has fast read/write times, with full software support for its capabilities (DMA anyone?)
- No special batteries, just bundle two sets of standard rechargeable batteries, descent charger, power supply and the ability to charge the set inside the unit, this will make everyone happy.
- The only needed wireless (beside the cheap RF mentioned above) is for wireless internet, so no stupid things for data transfer or multiplayer gaming.
- Doing it the right way, set your target price and then start adding parts while knowing your budget, start with a basic setup that is 60 to 75% your budget, and then start increasing RAM or look for better CPUs and other options.

(Asian candy will rock too, official GP*X candy )

 

[Epicenter]

(Asian candy will rock too, official GP*X candy )

Update from GPH: Candy2x MK2 will fix bug where Candy2x causes appendicitis and stomach cancer

I really urge people to take a look at the specs sheet and data sheet etc for the i.MX31.

Is there full Linux support for this, or is it just for Freescale and Microsoft technology?

It'll run Linux just fine. See the datasheets for confirmation.

 

[J201605]

I would want the same screen size.

Definetly a dual dpad/ANALOG stick combo

I wouldn't want anything like fm tuner or wifi built in because it is too expensive and would make the device stupid. It would be better to have sdio support for wifi fm tuner options and usb host port. This would allow people to easily add things and maintain the openness of the system. When devices try to default to bieng too many things they are terrible.

 

[sehs33]

FM tuners cost nothing, so are microphones, I suggested them to GPH and they liked the idea and said it is easily doable, but it was too late because that was few days before they shipped the "First Edition" units.
FM tuners and microphones are basic additions for any entertainment player, it is a shame they are not already available.

 

[sam fisher]

I really think everyone should email GPH and "suggest" The i.MX31 for their next console, if they do one.