I'd be keen to make an FPGA based custom cpu board to go in, presuming they release port pinouts, timings and signalling details. This could be used for hardware laptop versions of legacy computers - Amiga, ST, Atari 800XL etc. Particularly if there is a slot for custom external ports to be exposed.
The Framework Laptop
861–870 of 1001 posts
Re: The Framework Laptop
#862Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like the XPS 13 trackpad is fine, what's your beef with it?
XPS trackpads have always been number one, from the very beginning. I'm working with a 10 year old laptop and its trackpad has performed flawlessly and is superior to any MacBook I've ever used (but especially older ones). My XPS has the advantage of two physical buttons for left and right click. They require just the right amount of force to press (like a slightly softer mouse button with deeper travel). It makes dr…
As you say, the default mac os touchpad settings are somewhat strange to me.
But the touchpad can be configured for the bottom side of the touchpad to function as buttons: if you touch it directly, it won't register as mouse movement. If you press on the left, it's a left button, right is a right button. So while not actual physical buttons, it's pretty damn close. I don't actually use this so not sure houw this would work out in practice for your needs.
Regarding the dragging situation, there's another setting that's now been buried in "Accessibility" for some reason, but that was present in the touchpad settings before: "drag hold".
This allows you to lift the finger from the touchpad for a brief period while dragging without stopping the dragging. This, to me, is the pinnacle of touchpad experience. You can start dragging wherever you want on the pad and go as far as you like, you never run out of space.
There's also a similar option that some people like: three-finger drag. It works like scrolling, except that if you use three fingers it starts dragging.
Re: The Framework Laptop
#863Reading down the proposed spec sheet, I'm starting to see how crappy the competition is! * Apple MacBook - Nothing configurable. Expensive and not build to be repaired. * Microsoft Surface - Much the same, but with Windows * Lenovo Thinkpad - A little more configurable than a MacBook, and much better value, but still difficult to repair. Missing premium features like an Aluminium case. * Dell XPS 13 - Much like the L…
> * Lenovo Thinkpad - A little more configurable than a MacBook, and much better value, but still difficult to repair. Missing premium features like an Aluminium case. difficult to repair? They're super easy to repair! My T430 even came with a bay to access the RAM and hard drive without opening the case up. Also replacing things like keyboard usually is only 2 screws even on the newer models. All screws are standard…
I think that model is discontinued. You need to compare with the X1 Carbon models.
Re: The Framework Laptop
#864Earlier quoted context omitted.
Caveat: may not include an awesome trackpad driver.
If it includes a GPU driver, then the trackpad driver is trivial compared to that. Actually manufacturing the trackpad hardware might be difficult/expensive, but since that's already a given, the driver can be tweaked in tons of ways to fit the regular macOS experience...
Doing output is trivial compared to properly handling any type of free-form user input.
Re: The Framework Laptop
#865Earlier quoted context omitted.
For whatever reason, I've never used a laptop that wasn't a MacBook that has had a trackpad anywhere as amazing as what Apple has done. I don't know if the problem is hardware, software, or both, but as a consumer I don't care. I'll never buy a non-Apple laptop until I can find one that has a trackpad as good or better. That's my personal requirement. On a personal laptop I always use the trackpad so I want it to be…
> I'll never buy a non-Apple laptop until I can find one that has a trackpad as good or better Funny that Commenting on a thread about a non-apple laptop that you'll never buy a Non apple laptop. That is true and unadultered fanboyism.
Where's the fanboyism in that?
They were commenting on a post about how most PC touchpads suck and that for some people a great touchpad is a requirement, the absence of which would prevent them from buying other laptops, such as the Framework Laptop.
Re: The Framework Laptop
#866A bit like the comments about incongruous items in the recent Apple lab video, I find the presence of a Pocket Operator on the video demonstrating ease of assembly rather amusing. They already ticked the expensive camera box, but for proper hipster bingo success, you would also need: some kind of branded grid paper notebook, a metal mechanical draughting pencil, a teapot with loose leaf tea, audiophile headphones and…
You joke, but my Grado headphones and Swanson Speed Square were only not in the video because the shipment didn't arrive at the shoot in time.
Appreciate the honesty, that gave me a chuckle. For what it's worth, I was only teasing about the marketing - I signed up to the newsletter and would like to see the product suceed.
Re: The Framework Laptop
#867Earlier quoted context omitted.
For whatever reason, I've never used a laptop that wasn't a MacBook that has had a trackpad anywhere as amazing as what Apple has done. I don't know if the problem is hardware, software, or both, but as a consumer I don't care. I'll never buy a non-Apple laptop until I can find one that has a trackpad as good or better. That's my personal requirement. On a personal laptop I always use the trackpad so I want it to be…
I'm guessing a big reason why it has never been prioritized is due to the difficulty of quantifying the impact of great trackpad UX (and as a result, the negative impact of the shitty trackpad UX every non-Apple device offers). Higher-ups don't like things that aren't easily quantified.
Don't understand the downvotes. I believe that it's exactly this. It's an industry where you can point to a competitor's machine and compare gigahertz and megapixels and terabytes and gigaflops and build press releases on those numbers, where an industry leader tries to make a point with "It doesn't run Rocket League!", where manufacturers like Dell can put a nice touchpad in one machine and then build twelve awful ones a year later because they have so many models on so many markets that no one is even able to say with confidence why certain models have been more popular than others.
Design and UX-wise, the current laptop market is a shitshow and Apple seems to be the only company that consistently cares about the little things. Sure, they've messed up in the past (butterfly keyboards), but there is still a sense of progress.
Re: The Framework Laptop
#868Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is software adjustable? That's very impressive engineering. Unfortunately this a 2014 MBP.
AFAIK the button doesn't actually move, it's like the home button on some older iPhones (like the 7). It detects the pressure and has a haptic feedback to make it feel like a button. If you look at a powered off iphone 7, the button is just an indent on the otherwise fixed glass panel.
Exactly. The most impressive part is that it really feels like a click, down to the illusion it's moving down (but it's not, at all). When powering off (or there's a crash), the feeling of it being immovable is surreal. Plus the surface is suddenly responding evenly (the clicking ones had a hinged design, so it became increasingly hard to click upwards the surface)
One can leverage the haptic feedback to make the TouchBar a bit more lively[0]. The illusion breaks a bit since the haptic device is farther away from the touch surface but it's still quite a transformative experience for the TB.
Re: The Framework Laptop
#869Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hope this business of yours works out because a laptop that isn't a piece of junk with too much stuff I don't need inflating the price is something I've been wanting for a long time.
I've still never seen a PC with a sane touchpad. That's the first issue in a long tail of grievances with the PC laptop ecosystem. EDIT: This isn't a generic "pro-Mac" dig, I want a nice PC laptop because I like dabbling with Linux; however, even the high end trackpads are clunky, even with the pre-installed Windows (never mind the eternal sadness that is Linux trackpad configuration).
My Dell Precision 7750 touchpad works flawlessly and I'm running Ubuntu. The touchpad is optimal size, similar to that of Apple's I think. It also has 3 physical buttons, middle click is my favorite which by default is configured to open a link in a new tab. Multipoint touch and gestures work fine as well, at least those that I use - two finger touch for right click menu and two finger gesture for scrolling. Because it's a rather new touchpad by Dell, Initially the physical right button didn't work, which was a bit annoying, but eventually the problem was solved with kernel update.
Re: The Framework Laptop
#870Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like building a modular laptop is much easier than a modular phone. You don't have to deal with the hardware enumeration problems on x86 as you do with ARM Already many laptops you can easily swap parts like the HDD/SSD, Battery and RAM, and even the GPU (to an extent) if its using a standard like MXM. Building a laptop with more modular parts using existing standards (looks like from the images the modular pa…
It wasn't that long ago when manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo had models where you could basically replace almost everything. I guess still models like the T14 allows you to replace RAM, SSD, Wi-Fi card, keyboard, touchpad and even the screen. For the older models, even screen replacements are quite common in the ThinkPad community... Good luck for this project though, we really need more companies like this!
On some older Thinkpads, even CPU replacement was on the menu.