So quick question. How would the size of the keyboard affect the way you use it. Like would you have to hold it up in your hands and use your thumbs to type like an i-pad. Would you set it on a table and use your 2 index fingers. Or if it’s big enough you would use it like a normal laptop. So how would the size of the keyboard affect the way you use it.
1 Like
How long is a piece of string?
How big are your hands?
How strong are your hands?
Do you have long nails?
Do you depend on homing keys?
Are you intending on touch typing?
What layout are you intending to use?
Do you use one hand or two hands?
Have you had experience with similar sized devices?
And as a bonus; you use your thumbs on an iPad? Well then. That already is a difference in interface management between you and I.
There are a lot of factors that come into play. I would personally use it primarily sitting on my lap, or a table; using all of my fingers akin to a computer. This is from prior experience with my Cassiopeia, eee pc, and other small form keyboards.
Do you normally use two index fingers when typing?
What i mean is like in general.
It comes down to users. How do you use a mouse? Claw grip? Palm grip? When you type on a desktop keyboard, are your palms resting on the table, or raised? Do you play the piano? These are all factors that will change things depending on the user. At the end of the day, you will find a way that works for you. For now, go to a department store, and find say, an electronic pocket dictionary, and have a play with one. See how your hands feel.
On laptops, I use all my fingers except my pinkies, I just stick them up in the air for some reason. On a phone sized thing I use both my thumbs. On an i-pad I do the same. I just wanted to know in general how most people would do it.
I am anxiously waiting for April…
5 Likes
I’m super excited for this to get released!
3 Likes
5 Likes
@yong: If I may, that warning message:
Should probably be visible when the module is on the board, else nobody will see it 
3 Likes
Thanks! That’s a great suggestion.
Consider this a warning during assembly now, it’s a bit too late to change printing now. We will consider additional sticker warnings.
2 Likes
any updates on the process? i’m very interested in seeing more about the assembly and physicality of a “completed” devterm unit. very excited!
2 Likes
Are they still in business? It’s been a week and a half and no email or Facebook response?
That’s not unusual. We went weeks and even months without response on Gameshell issues. They could certainly improve in that area!
1 Like
Have you heard of the Chinese New Year?
It does disturb everything in China for weeks.
2 Likes
Yup! Look at pretty much any eBay listing in the past week. Most sellers from China have their accounts set to “on vacation”. (At least for all my gundam needs)
Heck, even in Australia, we’ve had fire works going off every night. Chinese sure know how to work hard; but also party hard!
I’d assume that the mock ups are what it’s going to be, unless we want any delays. The projected April date seems within reach. I’m not sure what else they would really need to say on the forums. Perhaps you were thinking kick starter style WIP production line shots?
Was it something you emailed them, and needed help with? It could be a long shot, but the community could help if you started a thread. Or even hopped on the discord channel.
Does anyone even use Facebook anymore? At least in Australia, they banned posting news. Yikes.
i know there are some press people reaching out to them, but i emailed just asking about how the keyboard was constructed and they told me “thank you for preordering, if you have any technical questions please use the forum” haha
1 Like
It’s honestly really bizarre that on the official forum for a commercial product, inquiries about simple factual information for that product are met with silence from the product creators, people theorycrafting by analyzing promotional renders, and fans insisting that this is normal.
If the product specs are in flux as they iterate on prototypes, being open about that process would be much better than deafening silence, especially since a selling point of DevTerm is the idea that the community will hack on the devices, furnish some of the software, and design add-ons.
i do think that there’s already precedent set, so people more used to the communication style don’t have as much of an issue. it would be nice to have more info, just so that people who preordered can know whether they’ll be able to get their devices within their stated timeframe of shipping.
Oh I absolutely dislike the silence and consider it highly unprofessional and probably causing them to lose sales. That said, I got the Gameshell because of the hardware, and they delivered a solid platform. The software was unfinished, somewhat untested, and buggy, but thankfully certain folks in the community here stepped up and addressed those problems in their spare time. (I’m looking at you. @javelinface, but there are several other folks who have made critical fixes and stable alternative OS options and software options.) Personally, when I saw how the official software was supported, I decided to stop using it and instead used one of the more up to date, stable, and less buggy user created options.
For the DevTerm’s sake I hope that happens again. I want to see the company continue to make this hardware because they do a great job with it, and the Gameshell was worth it for that alone.
But I do think it was disingenuous to sell the Gameshell as a sort of assembly required emulator device, because I’ve seen a number of disappointed folks on the forums who only wanted a working device to play games, and didn’t realize they were signing up to help develop (or at least help test) community software to be able to use it in the way they imagined. Personally, I’ve enjoyed tinkering with it, and didn’t want it to be a plug and play emulator device.
2 Likes
@adcockm You flatter me! I merely packaged what the community all came to create in a single OOB style image. I also got the most enjoyment out of troubleshooting and creating content. But that’s possibly because I’m a masochist who likes to fix things. This shouldn’t be expected to be the norm.
I still think that it’s a cultural communication difference on two fronts. First there’s the language barrier, having to carefully choose their words and make sure nothing is lost in translation. Then there’s the literal nature of being Chinese.
I am a “banana man” Asian, ie I am born Chinese, but was raised in a western society. One thing I never understood was colloquialisms, sarcasms and embellishment of speech. When Chinese people I am related to say something, they mean it, stick to it, and only provide facts.
My guess is that in saying that the device will be shipped by a date, they will keep to it unless they say otherwise. They don’t provide much build up teasers, marketing hype or other things considered the norm in western culture. Look at how Nintendo have randomly been dropping surprise titles that no one knew were in development, but would be coming out in a month. (Eg, Zelda skyward sword)
The second thing is, afaik, they’re a ridiculously small team of less than a half dozen. I have no idea what else they do with their lives, but seeing as they are out of stock on Gameshells, don’t get any revenue vis clockwork, and aren’t sponsored by anyone, they must have day jobs. Asian work ethic is insane. From the POV of a banana man, I know that my parents expected more of me than I realised I could get away with in a western world. It’s just the way things are.
On the note of teams, I’ve tagged her a few times, but there was once a mod on the forum called @Veronica who was a part of the dev team. She would deal with user/customer problems when they arose, make announcements and even start posts to instigate discussion. If you search for her posts, you can see that she was very active for a period, but then practically disappeared overnight. No idea what happened there.
Right. Sorry this became a cultural post! You can see that I am an Asian in disguise given how verbose and unsuccinct my expression of language always comes across. I’m not defending them, don’t work for them, and am not some blinded die hard fan. I’m just providing one possible reason explaining “the way things are.” It could all be completed wrong, but eh. It’s not affecting me in any way.
All the information they’ve provided is enough for me to do my own research and speculation. I don’t really care for knowing the exact process, time frames, or be provided with production line photos etc. I ordered another competitor’s device; the piboy dmg. Boy did that have a waiting time, and zero communication. They were based in the US AFAIK.
People ended up starting unofficial reddit groups, posting their order number, date they ordered the device, received shipping notices and the day they received their device. I’ve just come to expect “hacking” devices to not have huge marketing like buzz and communication. @ghostwerk you’re definitely right about the precedent being set; not just here, but across the handheld hacking device community as a whole.
4 Likes