Would You Go Back And Change The Design?

[Pleng]

I wouldn't have bought it at the same price without the keyboard. Especially with the current xrop of UIs and non-touch-friendly apps!

 

[Bosbeetle]

What's with the non-touch friendly apps. I find most of them touch friendly enough (if you use the stylus) and I rather dont want all sorts of fingerprints on my screen. I rather have programs that have enough space for the thing they do, than cluttering them up with (big finger friendly) UI and controls.

I'd like my pandora programs the same as desktop programs, using space efficently but in a clear way. I hate it if stuff get hidden constantly than I lose track of stuff.

 

[Pleng]

OK. You like that. Good for you. I wasn't looking for an argument!

For me the menus are far too small, even with the stylus. And having to quit. Toolbar buttons are too small for fingers, but OK with the stylus and XFCE is just horribly clunky. The screen is just too small to comfortably fit a full desktop environment for anybody who doesn't have 20/20 vision.

 

[Bosbeetle]

OK. You like that. Good for you. I wasn't looking for an argument!

For me the menus are far too small, even with the stylus. And having to quit. Toolbar buttons are too small for fingers, but OK with the stylus and XFCE is just horribly clunky. The screen is just too small to comfortably fit a full desktop environment for anybody who doesn't have 20/20 vision.

Ok agreed it is a matter of opinion and I am not attacking yours. I am just curious how you envision them, for me adding bigger buttons would make the screen even more useless, you will get a big jumble of buttons and bars and no space to actually display whatever you want it to display.

Especially if you don't have 20/20 vision you want to see the thing the program is made for don't you.

Or am completely wrong?

 

[second exodous]

What's wrong with the logo?

It is like the old Apple notebooks, when the lid was open the logo was upside down. It was a design flaw for years, I don't think Steve Jobs worked there at the time, he would have flipped, people would have been fired, maimed, or killed. Craig is a softy.

EDIT: Nope, that isn't a problem, I have no idea what the problem with the logo is, can't see why it should be flipped upside down.

 

[Prometheus]

^ Yes, but if I'm not mistaken that's not the case with the Pandora, so why are people calling it a mistake?

 

[Bosbeetle]

^ Yes, but if I'm not mistaken that's not the case with the Pandora, so why are people calling it a mistake?

Indeed I think people are mistaken what is the upside of the logo.

If the pandora lid is opened the logo is in the right orientation

 

[second exodous]

Maybe some people like to stare at it lid closed, SD slots facing them, anticipating playing it more than actual playing it confused why the logo is upside down?

 

[Pleng]

Ok agreed it is a matter of opinion and I am not attacking yours. I am just curious how you envision them, for me adding bigger buttons would make the screen even more useless, you will get a big jumble of buttons and bars and no space to actually display whatever you want it to display.

Especially if you don't have 20/20 vision you want to see the thing the program is made for don't you.

Or am completely wrong?

Well let's take firefox as an example. Remove the menu bar and make the toolbar twice as big. Add an item on the toolbar to access the menu, and an item for quit. Then make the menu pop up in big, friendly letters, rather than the tiny standard menu font. Do exactly the same sort of thing for history & bookmarks. In fact the toolbar buttons for bookmarks, for example, could load up bookmarks in a new tab.

There are addons for firefox to add the menu to a button on the toolbar, but unfortunately all the ones I've tried seem to crash on the Pandora. There's no easy way as far as I know to increase the size of the toolbar. There's probably a button to add a 'quit' option to the toolbar but I haven't looked.

 

[Bosbeetle]

Ok agreed it is a matter of opinion and I am not attacking yours. I am just curious how you envision them, for me adding bigger buttons would make the screen even more useless, you will get a big jumble of buttons and bars and no space to actually display whatever you want it to display.

Especially if you don't have 20/20 vision you want to see the thing the program is made for don't you.

Or am completely wrong?

Well let's take firefox as an example. Remove the menu bar and make the toolbar twice as big. Add an item on the toolbar to access the menu, and an item for quit. Then make the menu pop up in big, friendly letters, rather than the tiny standard menu font. Do exactly the same sort of thing for history & bookmarks. In fact the toolbar buttons for bookmarks, for example, could load up bookmarks in a new tab.

There are addons for firefox to add the menu to a button on the toolbar, but unfortunately all the ones I've tried seem to crash on the Pandora. There's no easy way as far as I know to increase the size of the toolbar. There's probably a button to add a 'quit' option to the toolbar but I haven't looked.

Well that does make sense, for those reasons I use chromium less menu bar clutter indeed.

 

[NickLoTurco]

I just would have thought it would have been the right way up whilst closed, like I said before, I wasn't having a go! Maybe which ever way up it was, people might think it was upside down....I'm confused.

 

[urjaman]

I just would have thought it would have been the right way up whilst closed, like I said before, I wasn't having a go! Maybe which ever way up it was, people might think it was upside down....I'm confused.

Well, at first I was "Hmm thats weird..." but them a figurative lamp lit and I thought "Its propably supposed to advertise the pandora to other people while you use it, not to you since you already bought it " - I mean its the right way around for the person in front of you when you hold the pandora about vertically (hinge locked at its about 180 degrees).

 

[WizardStan]

I just would have thought it would have been the right way up whilst closed

It is the right way up while closed, you're just holding it wrong

edit: in case it isn't obvious, that's a joke at Steve Jobs, not you

 

[NickLoTurco]

Very good! But then, it's hardly going to advertise itself to other people as it's a handheld. It's very rare you're gonna use it in a coffee shop and use it whilst it's sat on the table like with a laptop. You're generally going to be using it whilst holding it with both hands with the hinge fully open.....

 

[urjaman]

^ Exactly. If you're using your pandora on the move, do you hold it flat? For me the screen is surprisingly close to upright when I use it...

 

[Popcorn Dave]

I agree with most of you guys, if you take the keyboard and analogue sticks off the Pandora you're left with a more expensive version of a Dingoo/GPH console. Yeah, the Pandora would still be more powerful, but you need the extra input to make the most of that extra power. PSX and N64 emulation is cool but I can imagine it getting old REALLY fast if you have to play it on a console with limited buttons and no analogue controls. I also like the fact that the Pandora doubles as an actual computer with word-processing, web browsing, etc. You can't really do that justice without the keyboard.

If OPT had made a simpler handheld from the start, it'd probably have been released by now, but it wouldn't matter because we'd all just ignore it and buy a Caanoo or a Wiz instead. People are only sticking by the Pandora now because it's offering something GPH and Dingoo aren't offering. Other things being equal most people are going to the bigger company with the longer track record (even though GPH are hardly the most reliable guys around either). Catch-22 for the Pandora, really, but I'm glad they stayed so committed to making the BEST handheld they could.

 

[quartercast]

Fix the upside-down USB port.