2009/2/24 Robert McWilliam <r...@allmail.net>: > On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 04:07:26AM +0000, Liam Proven wrote: >> Perhaps I'm doing the Pandora an injustice, but it looked to me like a >> pocket console. Small, relatively low-res screen, not much storage, >> not much expansion, token keyboard, but built-in game controllers: not >> so much a Gameboy, to be fair, as an improved GamePark GP2X or >> something. Nice toy, but of no interest to me. > > The people making it are thinking of it as a console primarily but it > is a general computer that you can do whatever you want with - more > along the lines of a gaming PC than a console in desktop sized things. > > The screen isn't particularly low res: 225 ppi. I'll give you it being > quite small but that's kind of a requirement if you want to put it in > your pocket. > > It's got two SDHC card slots for storage which gives you up to 16GB > each - and you can carry more if you can live with swapping them > (though I think that would be a recipe for me losing them). > > It does have USB for adding extra peripherals, stuff sticking out is > always a bit unwieldy but shouldn't be too bad for using a wireless > dongle or flash drive. Software can be added fairly easilly - this is > one advantage of the game target, they've put a bit of effort into > making packaging and installation really easy (the installation step > is actually removed, things just run from the package). > > Right, I'll stop trying to sell you one now (I'm not actually on > commission...).
Ah, OK. On revisiting the specs, I will give you that - much better screen than I realised and rather more "poke". I still don't fancy one, though. I have no real interest in computer games: I play a few hours a year, typically, and the last game to attract my real interest was Doom in 1993. Guitar Hero was fun for a week or so then I got bored. I, like hundreds of millions, don't want a games console. I don't mind if my computer can play games - that might occasionally be useful - but I don't want hardware that is optimised for games, because I don't play games. But if you surf the web, write emails, need to take notes, whatever, you need a keyboard and a screen, and ideally, you want them to be as big as possible. My point about the Psion stands: there's a minimum size of keyboard necessary to be able to type properly on it, not painstakingly enter SMS texts. I need something I can write on for hours on end, quickly, fluidly & without pain. The Psion 3 just about coped. The Psion 5 was brilliant. Smaller would compromise this unacceptably. What Psion did, and so far everyone else except perhaps Sony have been *too stupid to realise*, is that the correct design process is this: [1] Accepting that a keyboard is, thus far, the optimal and *necessary* input device, design one as small as possible while still being possible to touch-type upon. [2] Set the size of this as the basic unit size of your device. [3] In that footprint, fit as big a screen as you can. (I.e., the same size as your keyboard, basically.) [4] Work out how thin you can make it and still include the essential functions and features. [5] Now design a hinge, slider or whatever that allows the device to open and close in a reliable, convenient fashion. Instead, what the designers of the current rash of ARM prototypes did is: [1] Miniaturise a notebook PC a bit more, producing a cramped, crappy keyboard, a tiny mousepad and whatever screen is cheap. [2] Er, hope people buy it. If this notional ARM sub-sub-notebook doesn't fit in a pocket, tough. I don't care. I want it as small as possible and no smaller. There comes a point when miniaturising a computer further compromises its usefulness. There are no end of pocketable gadgets. I've owned multiple examples: Palm, Sharp Zaurus, HTC Universal, Nokia smartphone, Nokia Communicator, SonyEricsson P-series smartphone, /et cetera et cetera ad nauseam/. All are much less use than my poor old Psions were because they are *too small*. The fact that they fit in a pocket makes them useless toys when it comes to *work*. Result: lots of pocket-sized toys that are useless, and miniature notebooks which are also useless. The pocket things bulge with functionality, but have screens and keyboards too small to use; the subnotebooks are too big to pocket, but are crippled, underpowered notebooks which desktop software won't readily fit on and /still/ have crappy keyboards. There is a sweet spot in the middle. It was forgotten 10yr ago. Nobody has yet re-discovered it. -- Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lpro...@gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AOL/AIM/iChat, Yahoo & Skype: liamproven MSN: lpro...@hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
