Originally Posted by gemniii42

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

Originally Posted by migs

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?

Originally Posted by RobbH

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!

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens

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

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens

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!!!!!.

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens

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.

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens

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...

Originally Posted by fpp

* 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 RobbH

Originally Posted by Karel Jansens

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.

Originally Posted by qole

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 Benson

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. 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 RobbH

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.

Originally Posted by RobbH

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.