Feedback on BTest-1 Unit

[Jaya Kumar (ஜெயாகுமார்)]

Hi all,

FedEx just delivered a unit. First of all, congratulations to all of
you. The unit looks very nice. Here are my initial thoughts:

1. Mechanical and packaging issues
- Power plug fits snugly. Well done on picking green. Helps distinguish it.
- The wallwart is US type. That's ok. It works fine with the standard
Rs 50 plug adapter we get here and is very common anyway. This might
not be true for other countries.
- Battery seems ok. I tend to prefer the slide-in type battery but
this is fine too.
- Opening up the unit. It wasn't immediately intuitive for me. I was
looking for something to push on or a slider type thing to separate
the lid from the body before realizing the ears are important.
- The hinge. I like what it can do. But it doesn't feel smooth when
rotating. I think I also felt a creaky type sensation the first time I
tried rotating it. Seems okay now.
- Display is very nice. I had been skeptical about that but glad to be
wrong. Congrats.
- I have fat fingers. I imagine the keyboard will be fine for kids.
But I'll be using USB for now. The dimples on the home keys are okay
but it isn't as easy to pick up as a bump.
- the left and right buttons seem to have sunk a bit too far from the
level of the body.
- Use of polystyrene in packaging. There are alternate materials but
perhaps these don't meet various constraints or cost issues. Anyway,
just thought I'd mention it.

2. Software
- bootup is not speedy. Any chance of using upstart?
- I didn't realize the bars on the top right were wireless. I thought
they were volume controls since that's where volume controls typically
go. Aren't there other symbols for wifi strength? Once dillinger told
me, then it made sense. It did get a bit messed up during setup.
Probably because I switched to VT console and iwconfiged stuff and
then switched back once I found out from dillinger. Also, I had dhcp
disabled on my AP so it got weirder and started showing duplicate
ESSIDs. All of this went away once I turned on DHCP. Probably nothing
to worry about but figured I'd mention it. Right now, wireless is
working fine for me.
- Touchpad is acting up. The left and right blocks drawn on the pad
don't seem to be sensitive.
- Tamtam. I clicked on it. Couldn't immediately figure out how to make
noise with it. This probably has more to do with me being slow rather
than any UI flaw. :) Anyway, it'll be good to put something on the
wiki that suggests some trivial sequence of actions one can do upon
receipt of a unit in order to verify various functionality like
wireless and audio.

Misc:
- a single picture of the keyboard and what each button is supposed to
do would be good. Would help app developers keep consistency and such.
- ok. I'm feeling around the body looking for edges and I feel that
the battery doesn't quite fit perfectly with the body. So it's going
to get scratched and dirt and stuff may accumulate in those crevices.

Ok. Congrats again.

Best regards,
jayakumar