Originally Posted by qole (Post 229805)

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:

Originally Posted by RobbH (Post 229802)

[Note: Karel's color enhancement removed above]

Originally Posted by fpp (Post 229840)

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.

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens (Post 229845)

There appears to be something wrong with my in-forum editor: I can't select colours anymore (nor did I add colour to that particular bit).

Does anyone else only see a small white square when clicking the colour selector?

Originally Posted by Benson (Post 229806)

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. :(

Originally Posted by Benson (Post 229865)

OK, we're seriously OT, but that's beautiful. A shame about the lights, though; revisit that after you get done with the Compaq and Toshiba!

Originally Posted by fpp (Post 229849)

Might I perhaps interest you in a working, mint-condition Compaq Portable III sewing-machine (with full-size ISA card extension)...

Originally Posted by qole (Post 229885)

Hey, OT is what I do best! Here's my server / router housing:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/21/33...8eb960c6_m.jpg
This is an old picture; I've replaced the old monitor with a 19" CRT that looks almost the same. The button / joystick console swings down and inside I have a keyboard, mouse, and some actual joysticks that I plan to rig up to the old controls at some point in the future...

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens (Post 229760)

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

Originally Posted by luca (Post 229887)

Ah, the memories...I used one at work (actually a compaq 386) and the isa expansion hosted a TI9995 processor card we needed to develop for (the compaq was used just for the keyboard/disk/screen, all the development environment was running on the TI9995).

Originally Posted by danramos (Post 229894)

How about the option, 'Will buy as soon as I can afford one!'? :)

Originally Posted by gemniii42 (Post 229891)

And it's bigger than my phone also:)
Like the original EEE pc before they upgraded the LCD, they have plenty of room for expansion.
But it looks like it could hold a 5" plus screen instead of a 4.3

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens (Post 229910)

No it doesn't: Speakers are on both sides of the screen.

Originally Posted by Benson (Post 229912)

Yeah, also like the original EeePC. :p

Seriously, I'm guessing that it's like the EeePC in a lot of ways, for example, using a smaller screen than the maximum possible to reduce cost. Maybe also preserving the option of expanding it later, for a higher-priced model (or also possibly an upgrade kit)? Leaving room for hardware hacks... Although there's proportionately less space here, and the obvious one (BT) is already integrated.

Hardware hack options: Maybe a microSD reader, though, wired in parallel with one of the SDs. (Obviously you can't have a card in both at once, though.) Or a SIM reader. Or a couple of white LEDs pointed at the keyboard. Or an array of blue LEDs serving no purpose but making it blinding to use at night and draining batteries. The possibilities are endless...

Originally Posted by qole (Post 229907)

In the wealthy Western world, "I can't afford it," is similar to the excuse, "I don't have time for that."

They both mean, "That does not have a high enough priority for me to spend money / time on it."

Perhaps, more precisely, there is a priority / cost ratio, where the needed priority drops as the cost drops. So perhaps you could say, "that thing is too expensive for its perceived usefulness."

Originally Posted by GeneralAntilles (Post 229540)

Got a Beagle, may get a Pandora later.

Originally Posted by daperl (Post 230208)

Please post some video when you have this working.

Originally Posted by qole (Post 229907)

In the wealthy Western world, "I can't afford it," is similar to the excuse, "I don't have time for that."

They both mean, "That does not have a high enough priority for me to spend money / time on it."

Perhaps, more precisely, there is a priority / cost ratio, where the needed priority drops as the cost drops. So perhaps you could say, "that thing is too expensive for its perceived usefulness."

Originally Posted by GeneralAntilles (Post 230217)

Only if you buy me one first. :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by Johnx (Post 229758)

@migs: It's not x86, so no windows xp or vista. You should look at an MID if you're tied to Windows. I think the Aigo MID might get drivers for XP at some point...

Originally Posted by fpp (Post 229732)

Well I see that I'm not in a majority position as usual, but that's OK, I can rationalize my way through :-)

I *am* tempted, as a former Psion and Zaurus user, by the clamshell design combined with state-of-the-art power, connectivity and battery life. Sorely tempted.

OTOH, I'm not really a hacker, not really a gamer, and a bit tired of being a beta-tester. After all I already have three tablets and a Zaurus, it's not like I *need* a fifth diamond in the rough to pass the time with...

So to save my sanity, and as an uncommon last resort, I try my hand at common sense :

* 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 :-)

Originally Posted by Rebski (Post 230269)

ArchiMark, if you get the chance to open a new topic in order to give us your impressions of the Aigo and the state of the Linux o/s you have tried, I for one would really like to read it.

Originally Posted by ArchiMark (Post 230257)

FWIW, pre-ordering has gone so well (over 2000 in the first 6 hours...) that they've bumped up first batch limit from 3000 to 4000, but order cut-off is this Sunday I think....check their website....
Sorry, if this was posted before, as I've only skimmed other posts in this thread....
:)

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens (Post 229841)

Here's my all time gold list:

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

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

Originally Posted by niw_uk1964 (Post 230380)

Series 5mx for me. I mourn its passing. Awesome computer.

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens (Post 230403)

The 5mx would have won "best ever", except that it has an awful screen, especially compared to the magical screen of the Series 3a (it actually got worse shen Psion added backlighting to the Series 3mx).

Originally Posted by Jaffa (Post 230447)

The touchscreen the Series 5 introduced added another layer of "stuff" to the screen, and that introduced the contrast problems.

It was a lot better in the 5mx, but still - not as good as an N810 screen.

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens (Post 230482)

I've seen an Archos 605 and the screen on that puppy is formidabulistic.

Originally Posted by jhoff80 (Post 230490)

Hey look, that somehow brought everything right back on topic since that's the screen that's in the Pandora. :D