Touchscreen? What For?

[Karel Jansens]

To all those who would question the usefullness of a touchscreen on a clamshell, I invite you to buy a Psion 5mx (they can be had pretty cheaply these days) and see how that works out for you.

In the end, it is all in the user interface design. Do not expect the touchscreen to be very useful with a "standard" Linux distro (which is, after all, geared towards a three-button mouse and a huge monitor), but I am sure someone has thought about Linux and touchscreens. Right? Surely someone must have?

 

[Zeno Arrow]

That said though Im always trying to touch the top screen of a DS, and on a desk of the right kind of height it will be quite a natural sensation (Plus where else are you going to put the screen in a clamshell )

Just to point out the Pandora is said to use the same kind of screen hinges as the DS, making it possible to hold the unit out flat.

 

[Karel Jansens]

Just to point out the Pandora is said to use the same kind of screen hinges as the DS, making it possible to hold the unit out flat.

The developers have clearly stated that the Pandora does not fold to 180 degrees. More like 170.

 

[Zeno Arrow]

Just to point out the Pandora is said to use the same kind of screen hinges as the DS, making it possible to hold the unit out flat.

The developers have clearly stated that the Pandora does not fold to 180 degrees. More like 170.


Link? Even so, 170 degrees is fairly flat is it not?

 

[mali]

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?act=S...st&p=693837

It opens relatively flat but not a complete 180° it is close though more like 170°

 

[Bramrash]

Scum.... Sub-human scummvm

 

[OrR]

As the games are mainly gonna be oldies there wont be any touchscreen specific games.

You are wrong. There will be many touchscreen games. Many ports of old games will also probably make great use the touchscreen, for example Transport Tycoon and maybe first person shooters. The whole of iPhone gaming is touchscreen only and those are some of the most probable games to get ports of. Of course, there is a long history of Palm and PPC gaming behind that, also touchscreen based.

 

[fahrstuhl]

Hm... If you software-rotated the screen by 90° and set the resolution to 480*800, you could hold the pandora like a book, use the buttons with one and the touchscreen with the other hand... Like DS Brain Training. On the other hand, this would suck at web browsing...
Anyway, I think the touchscreen is one of the best and most important features, as you can't control a mouse pointer quicker and more accurate. If it weren't built in, I'd probably mod it to have one.

Just think about how much it would suck to control the pointer with the analog nubs. Have you ever used a web browser on a non-touchscreen phone? Not that much fun.

 

[Chock]

The touchscreen is used by the Pandora so that it (she?) knows when you cleaned the screen and took care of it (her?).

Chock
Pandoramagotchi.

 

[Zeno Arrow]

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?act=S...st&p=693837

It opens relatively flat but not a complete 180° it is close though more like 170°

Thanks for link. 170° is still very good though innit. B)

 

[TaG]

Top side of a clamshell is a strange place for a touch screen
It'd look pretty dumb with the keboard on the top...

...you can see that some people somewhere down the line are going to hurt their wrists.
Some people must have pretty poor wrists. I don't see a problem.

 

[Bramrash]

What TAG said.


and also, if you turn it upside down, the touch screen is on the bottom.

 

[mali]

QUOTE
Top side of a clamshell is a strange place for a touch screen
It'd look pretty dumb with the keboard on the top...
:lol:

 

[thantik]

I really hope this isnt the same TT that was trolling on the teeworlds wordpress blog.

 

[Karel Jansens]

It'd look pretty dumb with the keboard on the top...

Now why do I suddenly get visions of some bored Chinese copier producing just what you so jokingly suggested?

 

[MaxSteiner]

(Plus where else are you going to put the screen in a clamshell )

Couldn't be bothered to read to the end of the post?

 

[senatus]

To all those who would question the usefullness of a touchscreen on a clamshell, I invite you to buy a Psion 5mx (they can be had pretty cheaply these days) and see how that works out for you.

In the end, it is all in the user interface design. Do not expect the touchscreen to be very useful with a "standard" Linux distro (which is, after all, geared towards a three-button mouse and a huge monitor), but I am sure someone has thought about Linux and touchscreens. Right? Surely someone must have?

The Sharp Zaurus clamshell line (C1000, C3000) line have had touch-screen, keyboard, and Linux for years. It is probably the closest ancestor - though not in a direct line - to the Pandora (ARM processor).

 

[Consequence_9]

QUOTE
Touchscreen? What For?

Com'on mang, now you're just being plain ignorant.

There are plenty of obvious reasons a touchscreen is a great inclusion on a device like this. Note-taking, proper emulation, easy menu-navigation, on & on & on... use yer head...

 

[lulzfish]

Note-taking would be awesome on this. It reminds me of the Tablet PC I had back in the day. 256MB of RAM, a 1GHz Transmeta Crusoe CPU, and a Geforce 2 mobile graphics card.

About on par with the Pandora, if you can imagine.

 

[White Flame]

What for? WHAT FOR? Because nobody can agree on a keyboard layout, that's what for!