What sort of keyboard should P2 have?

[vcoleiro1]

I know it's not going to ever be voted in, but I would have liked a touchscreen keyboard. It would have been great for:


DS drastic emu


Having any keyboard layout , size keys or language the user desired.


Having the ability to program it to show gaming buttons


Already backlit

 

[Klumpen]

I know it's not going to ever be voted in, but I would have liked a touchscreen keyboard. It would have been great for:


DS drastic emu


Having any keyboard layout or language the user desired.


Having the ability to program it to show gaming buttons

Battery life...

 

[vcoleiro1]

^ it could have been an e-ink display


But again, I know most prefer real keyboards to touch. So I can understand that

 

[slaeshjag]

^ A touchscreen keyboard is as anti-pandora as it can get

 

[_wb_]

If the touchscreen keyboard does not add to the power consumption (e.g. e-ink or at least something that can be switched off completely and still work as a (blind) keyboard) and it still feels physical (using some kind of technology like this one: http://www.tactustechnology.com/technology.html), I could actually live with that! As long as the dpad/nubs/action buttons are still real controls.

Of course just a regular smartphone-type touch screen keyboard is completely unacceptable.

 

[TrashyMG]

If the successor doesn't come with a physical keyboard I will not buy it period.

 

[mclien]

How about having a "currency" key - mapped to dollars, pounds, euros, potatoes, or whatever by prompting the user on first boot?

I don't know about you guys, but why do you need currency symbols? I need $ for shell scripts and LaTeX and so on (in fact I don't think about it as a currency symbol but just as some ASCII character like @ and #, who cares what it originally meant). But the other symbols? I just use standard abbreviations like EUR, or if I really need the symbol I don't mind having to press compose - letter E/Y/L - equals to get € or ¥ or ₤.

Me too, mod keys and letter keys will do better for me...

 

[Grench]

Of course just a regular smartphone-type touch screen keyboard is completely unacceptable.

  

If the successor doesn't come with a physical keyboard I will not buy it period.

3X. Physical keyboard is a must.

As for being able to dynamically re-map the keys, etc... You all realize that the ICP2's solution to that 'need' was to make a blank keyboard and give people a book of stickers to put on their own key labels, right?

Just do a relatively stock QWERTY keyboard layout and allow compose-character combinations to do characters outside the 'norm'. Yes, it is a one-size-fits-most solution. It is also the only really 'reasonable' solution.

Custom keymats are too expensive.

Swapable keytops are too complex -and- too expensive.

2nd screen with virtual keyboard - too complex and way too expensive both in EUR and power.

A book of stickers to put your own key labels on? What a joke.

*Start with the Pandora's keymat. A few people seem to hate it. I think it's a great solution. Simple, economical, durable, very functional.

*Make it translucent (whiteish).

*Print the key labels in DARK/black.

*Illuminate it from behind in 5-7 places with dimable color LEDs.

*It does NOT have to evenly distribute the light. The lights behind the keys are the visual equivalent of the bumps on the f and j keys - they're visual queues to where the rest of the keys are.

Next?

 

[Mr_Loon]

3X. Physical keyboard is a must.

Agreed IMHO what P2 needs to succeed are as many positive features not found on a typical smartphone, a hardware keyboard is one of them.

As for being able to dynamically re-map the keys, etc... You all realize that the ICP2's solution to that 'need' was to make a blank keyboard and give people a book of stickers to put on their own key labels, right?

Just do a relatively stock QWERTY keyboard layout and allow compose-character combinations to do characters outside the 'norm'. Yes, it is a one-size-fits-most solution. It is also the only really 'reasonable' solution.

Custom keymats are too expensive.

Swapable keytops are too complex -and- too expensive.

*Start with the Pandora's keymat. A few people seem to hate it. I think it's a great solution. Simple, economical, durable, very functional.

A great addition to the firmware would be a keyboard remapper allowing the selection of predefined layouts (DVORAK, AZERTY etc.) as well as custom keys based on user preference.

As for the expense / difficulty of something not like the current keymat & swappable keytops, look at the poll, it's pretty clear that people would be willing to pay extra for a better keyboard. As for custom keymats being too expensive, if sufficient sales are achieved then this might not be the case.

*Make it translucent (whiteish).

*Print the key labels in DARK/black.

*Illuminate it from behind in 5-7 places with dimable color LEDs.

*It does NOT have to evenly distribute the light. The lights behind the keys are the visual equivalent of the bumps on the f and j keys - they're visual queues to where the rest of the keys are.

Next?

I like the sound of the keyboard being backlit, not sure about the white on black idea though, think I'd rather see a more conventional solution here.

 

[Asiyura]

not sure about the white on black idea though

I agree, that would produce too much light IMHOPainting the keys black and leaving the letter unpainted would be easier on the eyes.

 

[Grench]

not sure about the white on black idea though

I agree, that would produce too much light IMHOPainting the keys black and leaving the letter unpainted would be easier on the eyes.

Context and correction. Black letters on White/color choice. The easiest thing for your eyes to work with is black text on a white background.

Black letters on white(ish) keys. Dimable color LEDs. "too much light" simply isn't an issue as the user can dim it down to 'ghostly and barely lit' or even to nothing if they want.

Note: DIMABLE.

Why is this important? Because if you paint everything on the keymat but the letters, you wind up with a materials and use nightmare. The core of the keymat must be translucent to transmit the light. The key tops are not flexible and 'capped' with non-flexible gel coats. The surrounds and flexible rubber stack moves and wears. Paint there will deteriorate, flake and otherwise wear off. Then it will look like crap with all the random light leaking around the keys.

Also, by having the keys be largely translucent, the amount of backlighting needed is generally -less- as the background glow of the keys queues your brain for positional logic of what's where.

 

[Binky]

the amount of backlighting needed is generally -less- as the background glow of the keys queues your brain for positional logic of what's where.

Couldn't this also be achieved by deliberately allowing light to leak out of the sides of each key?

 

[zonova]

I had heard that the original keyboard on the pandora was a bit difficult/cumbersome to type on at length, for things like writing long documents. I want to be able to use the Pandora2/Pyra for a lot of productive stuff, as in typing down notes or writing essays in college. For that reason, I would really like the keyboard to be comfortable to use with typing with all my fingers, instead of typing with just my thumbs, which it seems like the Pandora was originally designed for.

 

[Neelix]

I had heard that the original keyboard on the pandora was a bit difficult/cumbersome to type on at length, for things like writing long documents. I want to be able to use the Pandora2/Pyra for a lot of productive stuff, as in typing down notes or writing essays in college. For that reason, I would really like the keyboard to be comfortable to use with typing with all my fingers, instead of typing with just my thumbs, which it seems like the Pandora was originally designed for.

Given the expected size of the device I don't believe such a thing would be practical due to space limitations.   Based on what ED has said so far the new device will only be slightly wider than the existing Pandora.   If you put eight fingers over one of the rows of the Pandora's keyboard you'll find it's kind of a tight fit.  In order to have keys that are big enough for that you would have to either make the device significantly wider, or have a reduced number of keys per keyboard row, which would mean you wouldn't be able to use the QWERTY layout,  which would somewhat reduce the the usefulness for a touch-typist.

If you need to be able to type with all your fingers in such situations it may make sense to invest in a portable USB keyboard to go with it.

- Neelix

 

[WizardStan]

I had heard that the original keyboard on the pandora was a bit difficult/cumbersome to type on at length

Not really. It varies from person to person but overall I've been happy with it. I type at length without difficulty. Whenever I visit inlaws (like this week) it's my primary computing device. I'm using it to post right now.

 

[TrashyMG]

^ Agreed, It's very capable in my opinion. I've used it to hammer out notes, command line things and such, But like it was said before it's subjective on the capability of the user.

 

[Caine]

I had heard that the original keyboard on the pandora was a bit difficult/cumbersome to type on at length, for things like writing long documents. I want to be able to use the Pandora2/Pyra for a lot of productive stuff, as in typing down notes or writing essays in college. For that reason, I would really like the keyboard to be comfortable to use with typing with all my fingers, instead of typing with just my thumbs, which it seems like the Pandora was originally designed for.

Some special characters and key combinations can be a bit annoying, but overall it is decent enough for most note taking purposes.

 

[Grench]

Someone please take a spare Pandora keymat, lay it over a 'normal' keyboard and take a picture to post up?

It's right around 1/4 the surface area of a 'normal' keyboard.  Unless you have little kid hands, there is no way you could reasonably expect anything resembling normal touch typing on a device this size in this form factor.

Now, if you're willing to bend your mind a bit...

Split the 'normal' keyboard in half.  Put the left half of the keyboard upside down under the left side of the case.  Do the same for the right.  Game controls on top, touch typing on the back-side of the unit.

Reasons that'll never happen...

There would need to be a strap on one side or the other to wrap around one of the hands in order to hold onto the device properly.  

It would be an engineering nightmare.

Anyone who doesn't touch type would be screwed and have to flip the unit over every time they needed to look at a key.

 

[TrashyMG]

Someone please take a spare Pandora keymat, lay it over a 'normal' keyboard and take a picture to post up?

Well I got some pictures of the Pandora on a real keyboard..

Spoiler

Or on an old laptop with a full sized keyboard:

Spoiler

 

[zonova]

If you had to describe the current Pandora's keys, would you call them soft or clicky? Are they similar to the keys on a blackberry? Also how does the responsiveness and tactile feel of the keys change over time?