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Re: Are you getting a Pandora console?

Quote:

Originally Posted by gemniii42 (Post 229743)

It's to big w/o enough screen real estate. they should have used the entire top half for screen.

The screen is bigger than the N8X0's. It is, in fact, the same screen that is used for the Archos 605.

Re: Are you getting a Pandora console?

Quote:

Originally Posted by migs (Post 229755)

I know I going to get flamed for this, but do any of you Pandora fans know if it will be able to run Windows XP?

No, Vista only.

Re: Are you getting a Pandora console?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobbH (Post 229741)

I'm familiar with this argument as a defense of lousy keyboards, and I don't doubt the truth of it. But it assumes that thumb typing and touch typing are the only two options, and that is hardly accurate. I don't expect to be able to touch type on a pocketable computer, but I do want to be able to type comfortably and rapidly enough to do some serious writing. Thumb typing is not adequate for these purposes. If I could use two fingers from each hand, on a keyboard that's reasonably close to standard arrangement, I could be happy.

In the past, there have been pocketable computers with usable keyboards. Psion and HP both made them. More recently, some models of the Sharp Zaurus came close, but (for me, at least) not close enough.

Sticky shift and other modifier keys can be helpful, especially on small keyboards. But not having the right shfit key is still going to slow down anybody who knows his/her way around a real keyboard!

You're talking about the "Psion Six Finger Type Style"? I used to be really good at it, being able to take meeting notes directly to my Psion Series 3a (back in the early nineties, when such a thing was still considered to be [eerie echo on] From The Future--ture--ure--re!!!!!).

Pandora's keypad is obviously no match for that of the Psion Series 5xx (the best ever!), but it might be on par with the Series 3xx, which is not too bad. And if the layout suxx, it won't be too hard to change it, requiring harly more than a config file, some stickers and a pot of Diamond Glaze.

If only I could transplant Pandora's guts into a Psion Series 5mx shell, I'd have something very close to my ideal computer-for-everything. Ahh-- dreams; the broken shards of reality slicing through your virtual feet...

Re: Are you getting a Pandora console?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens (Post 229767)

You're talking about the "Psion Six Finger Type Style"?....

I wouldn't know. I was an HP guy and never had the Psion experience. Given the fervor of the testimonials (not just yours), I accept that Psion keyboards (or some of them) were better. But I was able to do a lot of typing with the HP 200LX, and I would be very happy with a keyboard that good.

But if by "six finger type style" you mean four fingers and two thumbs, my style was similar.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens (Post 229767)

I used to be really good at it, being able to take meeting notes directly to my Psion Series 3a (back in the early nineties, when such a thing was still considered to be [eerie echo on] From The Future--ture--ure--re!!!!!.

[Note: Karel's color enhancement removed above]

How foolish of us not to have realized that we were then at the apogee of miniature keyboard development and the future offered no more than endless opportunities to lower our expectations. :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens (Post 229767)

Pandora's keypad is obviously no match for that of the Psion Series 5xx (the best ever!), but it might be on par with the Series 3xx, which is not too bad. And if the layout suxx, it won't be too hard to change it, requiring harly more than a config file, some stickers and a pot of Diamond Glaze.

If you say so, I'll be interested to see how you implement it. I just don't think the Pandora has enough keys to be turned into a usable keyboard.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens (Post 229767)

If only I could transplant Pandora's guts into a Psion Series 5mx shell, I'd have something very close to my ideal computer-for-everything. Ahh-- dreams; the broken shards of reality slicing through your virtual feet...

I've wondered about the possibility of squeezing the N810 into a 200LX clamshell, retaining the HP keyboard. That could be a very nice palmtop computer! Somebody could probably do it, but I am not that somebody. And as I get older and grumpier, I'm becoming less interested in spending time making my computers usable.

Re: Are you getting a Pandora console?

I have almost pre-ordered the Pandora three times in the last two days. I have sat on the credit card information page for a very long time, staring at the words. But I have finally decided to take the same position as fpp:

Quote:

Originally Posted by fpp (Post 229732)

* if there ISN'T a second batch, the platform will have failed, and I will have one less dust-gathering paperweight I can't bring myself to part with because I'm too weak...

* if there IS a second batch (and third, and...), which I hope for, at that time there will enough user feedback on what the gizmo is really capable of, what's available or not, where it's going, etc. Maybe even some uncovered glaring design error(s) may have been corrected in the new batches... I guess I can change my mind then :-)

Re: Are you getting a Pandora console?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobbH (Post 229802)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens (Post 229767)

Hmmm... either of those would be killer, but I'm gonna have to go with the sawed-off Kaypro.

Seriously, wouldn't it be fun, a Kaypro with everything chopped about 6" behind the display, a slot-loading optical with a 5.25" floppy facade, and batteries for a 48-hour runtime? (And those lovely individual-switch keyboards. You know you could mod those, take keys off an old one, nibble out more room, and get extra keys... Not like the Pandora. :p Gaming controls, in the limited sense of an inverted-T cursor pad, were thus attainable.)

Really, the only problem with this is destroying a perfectly good Kaypro to build it. :(

Re: Are you getting a Pandora console?

Quote:

Originally Posted by qole (Post 229805)

Common sense and geek need are standing on my head fighting while I have the order page open... its been a fierce battle for the last 40 hrs... now that the date has been extended to Sunday .....Wonder who will win :)

Re: Are you getting a Pandora console?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benson (Post 229806)

You, Sir, are a seriously disturbed (and disturbing!) individual. ;)

Re: Are you getting a Pandora console?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobbH (Post 229802)

That's funny - somewhere in a dark musty corner of these forums there must still be an old post of mine, with a mockup picture I'd made of a 770 as the top half of a modern Psion Series5... It's true that as far as clamshells are concerned, it's been downhill ever since.

Quote:

And as I get older and grumpier, I'm becoming less interested in spending time making my computers usable.

Oh, it's not just me then ? Thanks for that :-)

Re: Are you getting a Pandora console?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobbH (Post 229802)

Here's my all time gold list:

Best pocket computer ever: Psion Series 3xx.
Easiest pocket computer ever: Newton MessagePad 2x00.
Best keyboard on pocket computer ever: Psion Series 5xx.
Sexiest pocket computer ever: Nokia N800.

(By "easiest" I mean: most user-friendly and least intrusive)