Greyghost, I agree with you 100% (Hi Nokia Devs! )

I second that there should be LESS buttons rather than more. I think having a pull out keyboard is nice, but otherwise touch screen is the way to go. Maybe the home key when an app is not responding... or the menu key when in full screen mode... otherwise I rarely use most of the keys. The plus/minus keys? 90% of the time I use them, come to think of it, is when I show off my tablet! Otherwise I don't touch them. Full screen button is useful, but sometimes hard to get to: being in between plus and minus means I hit the wrong key 20% of the time, even though it's elevated. Having it moved AWAY from the plus/minus keys on the 810 is welcomed

Look at the touchscreen while I am driving? No thank you.

Of course when someone like me is using the N800 purely as a media device something like a BT remote could be just as good. But that remote would be another thing to lose.

I'm in favor of a few HW buttons. I think there is delay with the soft keys because I have to find and recognize them on the screen. I think that is a little faster with tactile feedback.

How about Tactile feedback ON the touch screen? I think that's the future, having the touch screen...morph, for lack of better words, dynamically to create buttons. Like a REAL LCD, Liquid Crystal Display

I know that Nokia's S60 has some sort of Force Feedback built into the display... Read about it, but didn't follow up enough (I guess I don't really understand how it works/what it does)

By the way Serahn, here's a suggestion: When driving.... focus on the road not on fumbling with your tablet

Hey! You gave me an idea! How about voice recognition? So instead of looking for the skip button, just say "Skip". Or "Skipto [pause] All Along the Watchtower"

Man I would love to work for Nokia, I have a thousand different ideas. I think I'll make a list and post them later

--Jon

I have configured Opera so I can page up/down with it. I would want to have that working with every appliction (e.g. PDF reader). Reasons? 1) That's what I'm used to from e.g. Palm PDAs with 5-way navigator pads (they work very intelligently there). 2) I prefer to avoid touching the screen with my fingers as much as possible. It gets full of fingerprints, and I _hate_ that. I use a nail now and then, but mostly the stylus.

I think the N810 is a wonderful piece of hardware.

I think the largest "design change" to the N8xx hardware has nothing to do with the physical system, but rather the software. The software library is rich and varied, but not easily accessed by casual owners. The maemo repository is large, but is more of a development community with a sourceforge feel; not ideal for non-developers/nerd.

I would like to see a site devoted to the layman -- not the tech-head that comprehends the esotericisms of project pages and changelogs -- with pages that really 'sell' the free applications with comprehensive pictures/videos and lists of features. A site that rates and reviews these applications and provides one-click-installations.

Right now, to the layman without a technical mate or technical savvy, is largely limited to the software that ships with the system. A far cry from the true potential of the N8xx internet tablet family.


Only the glassy surface of the sea can show you who you truly are.

}:^)~
YARR!!

Ton Capitain

Honestly, the more I think about the d-pad, the less concerned I am about its placement on the slide-out.

I hardly use the thing at all while thumbing.
I'll get more usability from not having to press two buttons to lock the screen.

Here's how I would have done it (if the whole face is going to slide):



(I'm going to call this one the "off-center" design, in case anyone wants to refer to both of my designs)


1) By making the screen off-center (since there's nothing on the right edge of the existing N810's screen), you can make room for the dpad to be up on the face again.

2) move the home and escape buttons to the right thumb area

3) move the menu button to just under the dpad (could have gone to the right thumb, too, but I thought this was enough).

4) have copies of the escape/menu/home button next to the keyboard, so you don't to reach up to hit escape or something.

5) move the screen down a little, to make room for the light sensor and chat cam to go center top.

I think there's still room to move the screen back a little to the left, too (to give your right thumb a little more to grasp).

This moves things around a bit, but it doesn't make the device any bigger. Of course, internal component placement might make some of it a little difficult. I wouldn't know :-}

Later on, I'll try to do a version that has a slide-screen-only (ie. thumb side-bars stay still)

(this one I'm going to call "screen slides only")

Ok. Here it is. Screen moved back to the left a little, to give more gripping area for the right hand.


You could also lower the left and right button groups so that they're centered (height wise).

I like them!

The one and only thing I would change about the N810 is to put the camera dead center at the top of the device and allow it to rotate front and back just like the original cam on the N800.