What do you dislike the most in the actual Pandora.


The keyboard is quite good for its size and for its intended use.
No, it's not.

I think it's just a few people who like it and then write long posts about how great it is and thus seem to be more numerous than they are.

there are a lot of ways to make a much, much worse keyboard of that size.
That doesn't change the fact that it's still not good.

Comparing it with the dpad does not make much sense. It is perfectly possible to make a perfect dpad within the size limitations of the Pandora dimensions, there would be nothing to gain from having more space to work with. And the Pandora has a perfect dpad indeed
Yes it does make sense. He used it as an example for something which is clearly good because nobody complains about it. On the other hand the keyboard is complained about, so it must be worse.

That there are maybe good reasons the keyboard is worse than the dpad (because it's more difficult) is completely irrelevant to the point.
 
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No, it's not.

I think it's just a few people who like it and then write long posts about how great it is and thus seem to be more numerous than they are.
Are you talking about the keyboard?

How would you improve it then, given that you only have an area of about 14x5 cm to work with?
 
0) I don't think the layout in general is that bad, I'm aware of the space restrictions. It could be improved, but it's already pretty good. It's other things I want to criticize.

1) I think there should be as many keys as reasonably possible within space restrictions. I think right now, without changing anything else, more keys of the same size could be added without having keys in locations where you hit them accidentally or they are otherwise in your way.

Concretely: There is free space for an additional button to the left/right of q/p. Also around the dpad, axby buttons and nubs. Some people want six gaming buttons. I think that might be possible (and after all you can assign those keys to have regular keyboard functionality too, so they count too).

2) Space between keys: There is pretty much space between the keys, but this also makes it easy to hit the right key without accidentally hitting another one too. I think if that spacing was made smaller to fit more keys, then practised users would benefit: they would still only hit the right keys but they would have more keys. Less practised user would need to adjust the position of their fingers more often to hit the right key (assuming they are sliding their fingers around the area where they think the key is to find it before pressing). Right now you can be off from the ideal position to hit a certain key by at least 3mm and still just press your finger down and still hit it. I think this is not necessary.

3) Size of keys: I think the keys have about the right size.

One wants to be able to slide his fingers around on the keyboard to correct the location of your finger (thumbs) and find the right key (assuming you're holding the Pandora with both hands and thumb typing). This lead to three other things:

4) Form of the top of the keys: I think rounded like they are is okay though it's not the only way (I think like this (but obviously with other proportions/smaller) would be good too), but

5) Height of the keys: I think they are too high. They hinder you when sliding your finger around. I think you could keep the form (more or less) but just scale it down to make it less high and get rid of the 2/3 of a mm or so that they just reach up vertically.

6) Surface feeling: I think it's probably that glossy coat, but no matter what it is: The fingers don't just glide over the keys, they stick to them a little (hard to describe in a foreign language). If you don't get it tell me and I'll try harder to make it clear.

7) If you put your finger on a key and move it back and forth a bit the key wobble a little (too much). Bad. Related to 8).

8) Pressing the keys: Right now if you press a key a little it goes down a little (without being registered). To actually have it register you need to press it down pretty far (for a keyboard of this size). I think it would be better if the keys didn't move at all when being pressed only a little and then when you press them hard enough move down only a tiny little bit (say 1/5 of a mm, maybe) before again meeting resistance. But this tiny movement should be very sudden, one moment there wasn't enough force and nothing happened, the next moment there was enough force and you have already moved the key down and it registered.

9) Force needed to make a key register: Shouldn't be too much (obviously) but also needs to be enough so you don't press keys accidentally. It should be possible to slide your fingers over the keys without triggering them. I think the amount of force is quite okay now, it's just distributed badly (see 8)).

That keyboard isn't perfect yet and it could use some more thought, that's what I mainly want to say.
 
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I agree with you dude, with the addition of can we plz have flat tops on the keys? I cant stand the roundedness. It causes me to accidentally not press a key even when I want to. I try to hit it and my finger slips to the side. If it was flat on the top that wouldnt happen.
 
Concretely: There is free space for an additional button to the left/right of q/p. Also around the dpad, axby buttons and nubs. Some people want six gaming buttons. I think that might be possible (and after all you can assign those keys to have regular keyboard functionality too, so they count too).
I don't think you put enough thought into this.. I have large adult sized hands and my thumb is considerable larger then the entire dpad I need the space around the dpad to be clear of buttons or I would hit them... the same goes for the other game buttons and the nubs.

the area between the left/right of qp If buttons would be there I'd hit them when using the dpad or outer game buttons.

I agree with you dude, with the addition of can we plz have flat tops on the keys? I cant stand the roundedness. It causes me to accidentally not press a key even when I want to. I try to hit it and my finger slips to the side. If it was flat on the top that wouldnt happen.
I kind of agree with you there but one thing i find with the rounded keys is that I have a tactile feeling were the center of the key is.. maybe because of my thumb size I don't seem to slip off them..
 
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Concretely: There is free space for an additional button to the left/right of q/p. Also around the dpad, axby buttons and nubs. Some people want six gaming buttons. I think that might be possible (and after all you can assign those keys to have regular keyboard functionality too, so they count too).
I don't think you put enough thought into this.. I have large adult sized hands and my thumb is considerable larger then the entire dpad I need the space around the dpad to be clear of buttons or I would hit them... the same goes for the other game buttons and the nubs.

I agree with you dude, with the addition of can we plz have flat tops on the keys? I cant stand the roundedness. It causes me to accidentally not press a key even when I want to. I try to hit it and my finger slips to the side. If it was flat on the top that wouldnt happen.
 
I kind of agree with you there but one thing i find with the rounded keys is that I have a tactile feeling were the center of the key is.. maybe because of my thumb size I don't seem to slip off them..
Maybe a slight bump would be good then, but I find it hard to type on the current pandora because of how rounded they are.


Not sure if you saw my Ubuntu on Android video from a while back but I am used to typing quite fast on a phone. I type almost as fadt on Android as I do on my Microsoft Keyboard Pro (an older ergonomic keyboard) and thats simply from practice. my pandora on the other hand is slower than a snail for me because with every key I have to make damn well sure I use the full travel and my finger doesnt slip off. Its quite annoying and simply making the keys flat would greatly reduce the struggle.
 
Concretely: There is free space for an additional button to the left/right of q/p. Also around the dpad, axby buttons and nubs. Some people want six gaming buttons. I think that might be possible (and after all you can assign those keys to have regular keyboard functionality too, so they count too).
I don't think you put enough thought into this.. I have large adult sized hands and my thumb is considerable larger then the entire dpad I need the space around the dpad to be clear of buttons or I would hit them... the same goes for the other game buttons and the nubs.

the area between the left/right of qp If buttons would be there I'd hit them when using the dpad or outer game buttons.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/28/amytemuz.jpg


How do you hold the Pandora? The way I hold it I don't know how I could accidentally hit a button to the left of Q.


I did put thought into it, but it seems my knowledge of the size of human thumbs isn't quite accurate. :)


Maybe some pictures of how you hold your Pandora would help me imagine.

Edit:

I would be happy with flat keys too, my suggestion 5) would make them flatter anyway.

I kind of agree with you there but one thing i find with the rounded keys is that I have a tactile feeling were the center of the key is.. maybe because of my thumb size I don't seem to slip off them..
I haven't thought about the fact that it makes it easier to feel the keys if they are high and round. I suspect it's not just them being rounded but also their all in all height which makes you easily feel the center of the keys.

I personally don't think I need this to find the keys.

Hmm.
 
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Comparing it with the dpad does not make much sense. It is perfectly possible to make a perfect dpad within the size limitations of the Pandora dimensions, there would be nothing to gain from having more space to work with. And the Pandora has a perfect dpad indeed
Yes it does make sense. He used it as an example for something which is clearly good because nobody complains about it. On the other hand the keyboard is complained about, so it must be worse.

That there are maybe good reasons the keyboard is worse than the dpad (because it's more difficult) is completely irrelevant to the point.
My point was that it is possible to make a perfect dpad that fits the limited space, but it is not possible to make a perfect keyboard in that space.

I agree with you that the current keyboard is not perfect and can be improved, but I disagree with your earlier statement that it is not good for its size:

The keyboard is quite good for its size and for its intended use.
No, it's not.
That keyboard isn't perfect yet and it could use some more thought, that's what I mainly want to say.
 
I hold mine a bit different my thumbs is almost flat over the d-pad and game buttons. without too much effort I can glide over to the nubs and keyboard buttons in the center of the keyboard.  I'm a corner presser when hitting diagonals on the d-pad this is where I would hit other keys if they existed in that area.
 
If the keys were almost flash with the surface and took enough force to press, do you think you'd still hit them accidentally?
 
The overall build quality is rather disappointing (shoulder buttons, casing, video cables, hinge, ...).
 
I dislike that there's not 4 shoulder buttons as standard. And that the nubs aren't like the 3DS.

That's about it really.
 
Nothing really. I accept it for what it is.


A homebrew mini computer.


Well ed knows about the battery covers, so...
 
-I'd like to have a coherent UI for the _majority_ of games/emulators. I'm a bit tired of pushing 472 different buttons to open menus, quit games etc. It's also a rebuttal for novice people.
+1000 on this one! Having some guidelines about what each button should do would be amazing (like: quit, validate an action, invoke main menu...). As you say, right now it's really part of the game to discover how to navigate a PND :)
Not going to happen, we can implement best practices for game/emulator key setup.. but it's harder than herding cats to get people to agree on following a common universal setup.. especially in an open community dealing with open source projects with people with varying levels of coding skills.
A single button with the word menu printed on it would go a long way.
I think there definitely needs to be Something to bring it all together. Not quite sure what, but there are better minds out there to think of fixes :'D
 
I think guidelines would help a lot. I think someone should just write them (maybe in the Wiki), then people could give feedback and improve them and if it's impossible to come an agreement on a point ED could decide.
 
I'd like a good mechanism whereby a pnd could request a certain control mapping, and reset it on quit.

Its very annoying to start something, only to find it uses Home/End/PgUp/PgDn for controls and is unusable since I mapped them to mouse buttons.
 
The lack of multitouch touchscreen, but I use android too....
 
So much said about screen size maximization... cO

That 5 inch one already exceeds the possibilities and case limits of our current case dimensions.

*LoL* and that 6 inch one bursts it completely ^^

and such an HUGE case dimension isnt really what I wanted as well. =P

9591.png


... o well I will continue playing around with this later on ...
 
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