LPT stuff, like what the old printers used (those long DB25 connectors).
That's not parallel, that's just serial RS232 using the same DB25 connector with a LOT of wasted pins. Don't know why you'd want to use one of those for a serial connection but you'd bring that out as part of the adapter.
I think he may actually be referring to the 25 pin parallel ports that used to exist, and may still have a header on some motherboards but not likely. Totally different from the 25 pin serial ports, in which case "RS232" was incorrectly applied, TangentDelta probably just made a mistake in terminology. I'm pretty sure a parallel port would be totally worthless though, in any case.
Regarding RS232 though, the Pandora already has three of them, multiplexed on the EXT port. That's what actually makes the EXT port so great, it has all these awesome pins to do stuff with. Honestly, I don't think there's a problem using a non-standard EXT port as it is per se, the problem was a mismanagement of the cable construction. If we'd actually had the cables delivered would as many people be complaining about it now? I don't think so.
Mini USB instead of USB OTG - sure. That is the way things are going as OTG is pretty rare now. This should be a high current USB 3.0 device port - i.e. pull a full 1 AMP charge into the Pandora.
USB OTG
isUSB mini. Dropping the OTG is just removing a free feature.
What could be an interesting idea is, instead of a mini OTG and a full sized host, keep the OTG but default it to host mode and use a full sized host port, then use some kind of full/mini adapter to convert it back into a mini slave, or even just a male-male to make it a full sized slave. Zero (almost, depending on what you think of a sub-dollar adapter) loss of functionality, and people get two full sized USB host ports. Might make charging via USB slightly more difficult since you can't just grab any old mini cable, at least not without carrying your adapter at all times; so probably not such a perfect idea in retrospect.
I disagree on the high-current charging output from the Pandora 2 to another device. I've gotten in trouble with this just charging a phone off of my Pandora WHILE it was plugged in and charging via the OTG port. Your high-current charging device would crush the Pandora 2's battery in 20-30 minutes.
20-30 minutes to drain out the battery would require an 8-12 amp current: your system is likely to burst into flames if you even attempt that. I'm thinking by "high-current" they mean something more like one or two amps. It currently takes my phone about 3 hours to fully charge off my Pandora while it is asleep, consuming just over a third of the battery. If I could do this in about an hour instead, that'd be a brilliant feature. Basically it's just increasing the power the port can handle from 500ma to 1500ma. This would also be of great benefit to those USB powered hard drives which often exceed the USB spec. Yeah, it'll half the usable life of your battery, but if my phone is dying (as has happened on more than one occasion) I'm going to have choose draining out the battery (quickly, if I can) to give me the security of being able to call for help over playing a few more hours of Nintendo. Especially good feature if it can be added without sacrifice: all it is doing is increasing the current the port can support beyond spec, making the active decision to ensure the power and ground lines will be fat enough to support it.
I disagree on the high-current power input cylindrical plug. If we have a USB 3.0 high draw mini device port on the Pandora - that should be all of the charging input we need.
Can't argue there. Why have two charging ports when one will suffice? The TWL has dedicated AC and USB pins so that you can have a high powered adapter and low powered USB connection (because you don't want to be violating spec if you can help it) but given how prevalent USB charging is becoming I'd be surprised if it's a problem that hasn't already been solved (being able to high speed charge off USB and then kicking it back down to spec if plugged into a PC, I mean).
Skip the displayport, no hdmi, no dedicated video output. Do video output over USB 3.0 via a dongle/device.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/05/displaylink-siig-usb-3-hdmi-adapter/ There are many of these types of devices coming on the market now. USB 3.0 has plenty of bandwidth to do it right.
Going to have to seriously disagree with this one. Again, you're throwing away an effectively free feature of the SoC in favour of a solution which necessarily requires more work. In order to use it the CPU would need to copy the data from the frame buffer to the USB host: the port may have the bandwidth, but does the memory? And does the CPU have the extra cycles? Every SoC already has some form of LCD out and TV out, and modern ones are likely to have two LCD connections which can be converted to HDMI for cheap, or possibly even have their own direct HDMI port instead of composite/S-Video as we have on the P1. If we were truly struggling for space and something had to go, there might be merit in the suggestion, but there's no way the P2 will be that small. If we find we're struggling for space, I'd sooner drop the barrel connector and just go with pure USB charging as you've already suggested than lose the TV out.
3.5mm audio jack/plug. Please make it compatible with volume control & skip/pause headsets. Please please please turn MWeston loose again to give us the absolute best headphone audio experience that can be produced in a hand held device.
That'd be neat. Is it a standard though? Or is it device dependent? I haven't really heard much about such things since the days of the PSP where it actually required a very special connector. I broke mine.
I consider all microphone inputs (both physical mic and in headphone jack and in current TV port to be extraneous. Anyone doing serious audio recording is going to use a USB - XLR mic adapter.
Yeah, if we're struggling for space, I think the microphone would be the first thing I'd chop. It's a 5 cent cost to keep it though, and does have some potential uses so I wouldn't discard it just for the sake of getting rid of things.
Mini A connectors are very hard to get hold of
They cost less than a dollar retail to say nothing of what a small company could get them for in quantity. I buy mini-A cables at the dollar store. There should be no problems with keeping it a mini OTG.
I did start to consider two full sized USB host ports and using a male-male cable and keeping one of them as an OTG slave, but it leads to all kinds of problems, not the least of which is charging becomes more problematic, especially when you consider that sometimes people make mistakes. Bad luck accidentally plugging in the charging cable to the wrong port. Much better if only one is full sized while the other is mini, even if it requires an adapter to get two full sized hosts, I think; saves on headaches at least, and makes it easier to charge if all you have to do is find a USB mini cable.
HDMI license is very expensive for what the Pandora would use it for.
Assuming they can actually manufacture 5000 of them per year, it's $2 per device; less if they can produce more. I would gladly pay $2 for an HDMI connection. I can't imagine anyone who would have serious reservations about an additional $2 feature on their $700 device.
Full sized HDMI ports are hard enough to keep plugged into a BluRay player and a TV.
Now you're just filibustering. There is no reason cables should be falling out. The HDMI port was very well designed to handle significant stress and any reasonable connector should be able to handle it without
Just give REAL serious thought to what is or is not important - and what could be done with a consolidated port - before drawing up the specs.
Kind of agree. I like some of your ideas, but some of your other ideas seem to be cutting features simply for the sake of cutting features. This is especially problematic when those features are effectively free. A better method, in my opinion, is instead of consolidating everything early and then working out, try adding all the features you want, to maintain completeness, and then cut and consolidate as needed. I'm quite certain we could cram everything you could possibly want into two USB3.0 ports and cover the rest in software, but then you've got empty real estate on the back of the case and a required set of dongles. More features, if the cost is low and the space is there, should be encouraged first and foremost.
Maybe we start with an EXT port like we have now, complete with three serial ports and a TV out. New SoC only has one serial port, so cut two of them (that are no longer free) and use the extra pins for something else, or switch to a different connector, and so on and so forth.
