An ideal communicator of my dreams

[Guest Ingvarr]

Recently I've tried to bring my various internal wishes based on experience with current Smartphones/PDAs into order.

It resulted in following 3DS Max "device prototype" ;)

All dimensions were done quite real, I wanted to make it as realistic as possible. I've kept in mind the engineering side, so such device is quite possible already.

This is just an example of functional design, I did not make it "pretty".

Imagine curved corners & buttons to your taste :P

Here is a small "photosession".

Photos for Tornado and Wizard (for comparsion) is from mobile-review.com

Thats a general operation. Shows many of the possible usability modes in animation.

PDA Portrait Mode (with Wizard for comparsion)

- 2.8 inches 240x320 touch screen

- joystick

- hardware keys - two softkeys, phone keys, OK & Win key and two remappable keys for almost-one handed operation in PDA WM5

- jog dial for side scrolling

Device sides, comparing with Wizard.

I was too lazy to do all side buttons, but note Jog Dial, Mini SD slot and optical camera module (ala Nokia N90/N93). Also battery cover is visible.

PDA Landscape Mode. You've got portable video player or portable gaming console with touch screen or two-handed button operation ;)

PDA Landscape with full Qwerty keyboard. Note that keyboard somewhat smaller then Wizard's, but still pretty big. Also joystick and additional buttons all useable in that mode too.

By the way, keyboard can be made with 5 rows (with digits row at the top), because flip leaves more vertical space than the slider.

Also this mode handy as "Camcorder" mode - note that optical camera module is facing directly forward in that case.

Phone Mode.

- Monochrome high-contrast low-resolution auxilary LCD screen. Its low power and always on (only backlight is toogling). Quite readable without backlight. Also can be made quite rugged.

- Phone membrane-like (thin) keypad. Allows implementing support for big set of phone functions.

- Main screen & keyboard is safely protected.

- Full one-handed operation.

A man can dream ;)

Edited May 7, 2006 by Ingvarr

[Guest Danlance]

Is this "inspired" by the Universal - very similar in concept...

My initial thoughts...

• Too Thick - I can see you would need it to be reasonabley thick to accomodate full optical camera - but the Wizard is as bulky as is acceptable atm IMO anyway...
  
• Definately needs the numeric row on keyboard (the main thing I miss after moving from Universal to Wizard - missed an ebay bid yesterday as a result ;)
  
• Really like the 2nd screen - most annoying thing about the Universal was having to open the screen to see who was calling you (which often seemed to crash the phone as it flipped between landscape and portrait)
  

[Guest Ingvarr]

You can say this is a fusion of Wizard & Universal.

Its same thickness as Wizard, however it can only appear thicker due to Wizard having rounded corners.

Thickness is actually adjustable - in fact upcoming HTC Herald will be a lot thinner due to reduced battery.

Keyboard texture is only a sample. Of course layout can vary, and yes, numeric row should fit due to more space comparing to Wizard's slider layout.

[Guest Confucious]

Nice - I love my Universal - Smaller size, external screen and phone keypad yould make it just about perfect.

Camera 5Mp and 1Gb of RAM I presume? ;)

I'd prefer SD to mini SD as I've just bught a 4Gb card - but I'm used to buying new memory cards every time I change phones ;)

Keep up the good work :P

[Guest Ingvarr]

Well, I never thought that I will resurrect this 2 years-old topic. This forum isnt even called same as it was before, so if mod can move this thread where appropriate, Ill appreciate it :(

But I've just seen these photos :(

http://aving.net/usa/news/default.asp?mode...01&SP_Num=0

But these korean guys surely screwed up a scales :D

I must've put a schematic ruler in the pictures :(

Edited April 1, 2008 by Ingvarr