4 ms·

Just something like a Blackberry is decent.. Where you have a screen, that you look at, and buttons that you press with your fingers. Not a screen that you cove

Just something like a Blackberry is decent.. Where you have a screen, that you look at, and buttons that you press with your fingers. Not a screen that you cover with your fingers and also a haptically featureless screen that you press with your fingers. Handheld gaming devices are actually often well designed, eg. Gameboy, PSP. Gaming consoles have a long heritage of being able to navigate complex menus and perform complex tasks on with just a controller (eg. Mario-maker, LittleBigPlanet) Phones / tablets are fine for just faffing about on, but that is all they have been designed for imo. I think a pocket computer designed for actually doing stuff on might resemble a weird Blackberry / PSP hybrid.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago
Mario Maker uses a touch screen. Little Big Planet worked impressively well with buttons, but I wouldn't consider it ideal, and it's notable that the spiritual successor, Dreams, is designed around a mouse-like, gyroscope-controlled pointer. Media Molecule chose this option despite the fact that it feels awkward on a dualshock and requires frequent re-centering. I do miss slide out keyboards, but I don't think they're a complete solution. Similar to a stylus, sliding out a keyboard takes precious seconds, and they introduce a mechanical failure point. If you go full-on Blackberry, you loose valuable screen real-estate.
- everyone 7y ago
  * Mario Maker uses a touch screen. Ok, well 'street fighter', you need to input very complex and precise controls. Or pokemon on the gameboy, or a JRPG with its labyrinthine menus and options + 100's of complex difficult games. * sliding out a keyboard takes precious seconds As opposed to the minutes you lose fumbling with a 'keyboard' you cant feel (or see, cus ure finger is in front of it) * If you go full-on Blackberry, you loose valuable screen real-estate. If that 'real estate' is also trying to act as a physical interface, then its not valuable real estate anymore, its garbage-land, its acting as the worst interface imaginable. Ive heard that expression before and I think what the phone designers mean when they say it is: if you add a keyboard it no longer looks like a cool shiny sci-fi gadget. I dont get how people are ok with touchsceen interfaces, they're a haptic nothing. People were livid about the IBM PCjr's chiclet keyboard. Even that is infinitely better than 0.
arpa 7y ago
Oh god, good old n900... physical slide-out keyboard, touchscreen AND a stylus. Maemo rocked too, a solid debian-based OS. The hardware resources were a bit lacking, but -- best smartphone ever. And i'm not exaggerating. A modern-day equivalent would probably be gemini by planet computers, but I still haven't gotten around to getting one.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago

Mario Maker uses a touch screen. Little Big Planet worked impressively well with buttons, but I wouldn't consider it ideal, and it's notable that the spiritual successor, Dreams, is designed around a mouse-like, gyroscope-controlled pointer. Media Molecule chose this option despite the fact that it feels awkward on a dualshock and requires frequent re-centering. I do miss slide out keyboards, but I don't think they're a complete solution. Similar to a stylus, sliding out a keyboard takes precious seconds, and they introduce a mechanical failure point. If you go full-on Blackberry, you loose valuable screen real-estate.

everyone 7y ago
* Mario Maker uses a touch screen. Ok, well 'street fighter', you need to input very complex and precise controls. Or pokemon on the gameboy, or a JRPG with its labyrinthine menus and options + 100's of complex difficult games. * sliding out a keyboard takes precious seconds As opposed to the minutes you lose fumbling with a 'keyboard' you cant feel (or see, cus ure finger is in front of it) * If you go full-on Blackberry, you loose valuable screen real-estate. If that 'real estate' is also trying to act as a physical interface, then its not valuable real estate anymore, its garbage-land, its acting as the worst interface imaginable. Ive heard that expression before and I think what the phone designers mean when they say it is: if you add a keyboard it no longer looks like a cool shiny sci-fi gadget. I dont get how people are ok with touchsceen interfaces, they're a haptic nothing. People were livid about the IBM PCjr's chiclet keyboard. Even that is infinitely better than 0.

arpa 7y ago

Oh god, good old n900... physical slide-out keyboard, touchscreen AND a stylus. Maemo rocked too, a solid debian-based OS. The hardware resources were a bit lacking, but -- best smartphone ever. And i'm not exaggerating. A modern-day equivalent would probably be gemini by planet computers, but I still haven't gotten around to getting one.