Your Ideal Handheld Device?

[Tag5]

My ideal handheld device would be:

Fairly small and discreet, fits into my trousers
It extends to a larger size that is more convenient for heavy usage
Kinetic charging would be ideal so I never have to worry about it going flat, some kind of manual pump action would be perfect
One handed operation, but made so I can swap hands if one gets tired
Something flashy, you know, so when I take it out in public everybody gasps and stares
It absolutely has to have streaming ability, no overheating but slightly warm is okay
It also goes without saying that it includes a touch interface
It includes a stylus hole, but most people won't want to use it
Some kind of virus protection and a third-party protective case as optional extras
LMAO, class!

 

[sterling976]

@ashdjones -- badassery! I love it.


I've been thinking for a while now that an e-ink enabled keymat might be in order in the ideal handheld. Its use seems kind of limited here in the Samsung Alias 2, but with a more open platform, I see a lot of potential. We could maybe even resolve all the debate about Pandora's keymat layout.

I could see this being very useful in an emulator -- not only could you remap the keys to different functions, you could change the label when you launch. Or maybe set up a script that clears all the keyboard labels except the ones you need just before you run Quake. Set up a numeric keypad as you launch your calculator app, or map hotkeys to different keyboard label layouts (fn+n for numeric keypad, fn+shift+n for reversed numeric keypad, fn+q for quake layout, etc).

 

[PoisonedV]

ideal, well, as long as we're talking in figuratives here, the pandora

 

[christo930]

If they made it a landscape qwerty slider phone, that would be pretty awesome.

Your quote didn't have any of my opinions in it, so I added a couple.
Cell phone technology is a huge "maybe" since I rarely need a phone, and the software would need to back it up somehow. I'm not sure how this would work in Linux... It might not have the tight, "do exactly as we say" style that most phones use to pull this off.

Sliders are horrible. They expose the screen and short-shift the keyboard. I really think clamshells are better.

Your opinions are bullshit, because a clamshell would either be incredibly awkward as a phone or provide insufficient screen real-estate. The problem with the exposed screen can be countered with a case, which doesn't affect size that much and isn't a serious restriction to answering the phone (and I say this from experience."] I don't use a phone much either, but I'm required to have one for work, so combining it with the Pandora would make for one less device to have in my pocket, plus make a phone that I would not mind carrying with me everywhere. Sliders aren't ideal, but they're the better way to achieve a smaller form factor without compromising elsewhere. The technology exists to combine all of the devices I would use on a day-to-day basis in one efficient device, it is just prohibitively expensive. If we're talking ideal, then I would like something that does as much as possible. Linux support wouldn't be an issue, since there are no less than three Linux distributions geared explicitly toward mobile phone use, plus others which are viable candidates. There is literally nothing standing in the way of my ideal handheld other than the high cost. Until other people are willing to spend the money on my handheld, I'll never see it, but it's certainly possible.[/quote]It's cost prohibitive partly because we want a new gadget every year. If we could know something would be useful for 5 years we would probably be willing to spend the money. Look at laptops, they used to be $3-5k and businesses bought them. Back then a tech refresh was about 4 years, but it has dropped, especially for portable devices like phones. Personally, I think this era is coming to an end. I think we are going to see tech devices that last longer and that are more expensive (at least for Americans and the British) because of changing realities in China and energy.

Chris