Watched many nostalgic videos of the B station UP master, and each time I would mark "Ye Qing Hui" on the public screen to show respect. These videos are more of an emotional outlet, and Ye Qinghui is more like a slogan and finds spiritual sustenance.
And today, the UP master "Small Meal Middle-aged Event Book" used a folding screen mobile phone to reproduce the NDS video, which completely pulled me back to the young time of the Nintendo NDS handheld "dominating the world".
The success of NDS that year captured a considerable number of fans, from entertainers to athletes and even politicians. Speaking of which, I have to say that the famous anecdote that has entered the history of Nintendo, former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak was addicted to "Adult Brain Training" and almost missed the state meeting, and even in a follow-up interview with Chosun Ilbo, he did not forget to quip "how Samsung and Hyundai can not make similar touching products."
NDS is the "white moonlight" in the hearts of every handheld player
In 2004, Nintendo released a "somewhat controversial" portable console, the Nintendo DS (DS is short for Dual Screen), which was equipped with two screens in an attempt to bring an updated gaming experience.
Interestingly, as early as the early days of Nintendo's development, the idea of dual screens was opposed by many internal developers. The operation that can be solved with one screen, why use two screens, "increase the cost in vain" is the main reason for the opposition.
But in fact, the dual-screen NDS after the listing has received an unprecedented response in the market. In less than two years, NDS sales in Japan reached 10 million units, becoming the fastest-selling host in the history of Japanese video games, and took 4 years, 3 months and 2 weeks to complete the sales of 100 million units, and finally broke the sales record of "Former King" GameBoy, becoming the world's highest-selling handheld.
From the beginning of the concept of "dual screen" different views, to become the world's favorite game handheld, strictly speaking, Nintendo has only done one thing seriously: thoroughly play the new form of dual screen, on top of which it has brought an extremely rich "human-computer interaction" method, almost subverting the way the screen interacts with the game.
In summary, NDS games have about three dual-screen interaction methods. One is a common extension, in "Super Mario Bros." one screen is responsible for the main screen, the other is to display maps, props, etc., with touch, players can operate directly without switching, and also reduce the problem of UI blocking the game screen.
The other is to expand the display of the game screen with two screens up and down, making full use of the large screen composed of two screens, such as the "Sonic Rush" horizontal action game, players can see more information through the "big screen" at a glance.
The third is to jump out of the traditional handheld mode, such as in Advanced Warfare: Double Strike, where the upper and lower screens show different fronts, and there are text adventure games like Hotel Dusk, which need to put the NDS up, like holding an e-book.
On the whole, when the NDS was still under development, Nintendo was well aware of how to make full use of the new form of dual screen in game content, and distinguish it from the traditional single-screen handheld.
When approaching NDS, we may initially be attracted by the new form of "dual screen", and as the experience deepens, the unique interaction tailored for hardware can continue to bring freshness to NDS, and gradually become the new king of the handheld.
Screen overlays don't work on mobile devices?
There's no denying that the unprecedented success of NDS is indeed linked to "bigger" screens. At the time of the NDS fire, the mainstream mobile phones at that time only had a 3-inch screen, and even then there was no concept of "smartphones".
With the emergence of iOS, Android intelligent systems, and touch screen-based devices gradually becoming mainstream, human-computer interaction is not limited to buttons, but began to integrate with the screen, where there is a screen there is interaction.
Devices with multiple screens similar to NDS have also emerged, and at the hardware level, their ideas are more convergent, bringing more information and showing a larger field of view with multiple screens. Even, in terms of screen quality, processor specifications, and overall design language, it is better than NDS, and there is a smell of "back wave pushing forward wave".
▲ Sony Xperia Tablet DS. Image courtesy of cnet
But at the market level, they failed to replicate the success of NDS, but instead were short-lived. For example, the Xperia Tablet dual-screen tablet, which was nicknamed Sony DS in the early days, its hardware specifications are consistent with mainstream Android tablets, although the form can be "folded" has the advantage of being more convenient to carry around, but Sony has not given enough innovative attempts in the dual-screen application ecology.
Sony Xperia Tablet is more blunt to put the app on the dual screen pieced together, plus the third-party Android app is still based on single screen, for the dual screen form, the App tends to freely stretch to fill the screen, there will be gaps in the picture, the viewing experience is not as good as single screen devices.
If it is said that the software ecology is easy to be ignored by the outbreak of smart phone hardware at that time, then move the time to the present, Microsoft has also launched the corresponding dual-screen device Surface Duo, specifications, design and further, but it still failed to stir up much waves in the market.
Even though Microsoft has adapted a series of "productivity" apps on dual screens, it is more like simply stitching two screens together, and The Verge even calls the Surface Duo a "double trouble" device. "Although Microsoft has chosen the right direction, it still has not been able to come up with a better solution in the face of third-party apps."
The official apps are in the form of dual-screen multi-tasking, but in the face of unsuitable apps, there is no restriction inside the device, and it can only be simply and violently stretched to the dual screen, allowing the screen gap to block the field of view.
▲ The reel also "eats" the word. Image: The Verge
In fact, on a certain level, the Xperia Tablet dual-screen tablet in 2012 and the Surface Duo in 2020 are somewhat similar, and they have chosen the new form of dual-screen to expand, but they are also less creative interaction and setting on the dual-screen ecology, more parallel expansion and superposition, and the software ecology is not enough distinguished from single-screen devices.
It also returns to the origin of the problem again, "if you can solve it with one screen, why use two screens".
"Double screen" should not be a vase
The technological stride meteors are moving forward, and the "foldable flexible screens" that are more radical than the "double screen" have matured rapidly, but they are often said to be "vases" that can only be tasted fresh. In fact, the obstacle behind it is still the software ecology and human-computer interaction in the era of the bar machine.
Dual-screen devices are more like a hardware container, and if you want the whole to not be a "vase", you must put more creative, more practical, and more worthwhile interactions into it. Since the product form is becoming more and more variable, is it possible for the interaction mode to gradually expand from the plane to the space? So that it can exert its maximum value, so that the interaction is more than "open" and "closed"?
OPPO Find N's answer to space expansion is: hover.
The reason why the UP Main Meal Middle-Aged Event Book can simulate running NDS games on OPPO Find N is precisely because of the free hovering angle of 50° ~ 120° opening and closing.
Interactively, hover can bring innovative experiences in different scenes such as audio-visual, video telephony, meetings, fitness, and filming.
First selfie, no need to find a third person to help take pictures, remote gestures trigger the shutter, long-distance selfies without stress.
There's also time-lapse photography. The fuselage is stable and stable, coupled with the free adjustment of the angle, then the traffic light line, the starry sky flow, the sea of clouds and the sunset - the passage of time can be recorded as art.
When watching the video, half of it stands up as a display, and the other half acts as a trackpad while holding the fuselage steadily.
In the QQ video call, you can enter the hover display horizontally, just like the video experience of a laptop, which can free your hands without having to raise your hands to "exercise" all the time.
Similarly, for sudden meetings, there is no need to worry about not bringing a computer, and the folding screen frees both hands to record information.
And for following the video fitness, there is no need to look for a mobile phone holder, and it is smooth to take and place.
Folding up a screen, with the unique function of hinge hovering, while the fuselage has a variety of forms, it also gives this large screen two spatial states, one is unfolding, the other is hovering, thus bringing the ability of three-dimensional interaction to Find N, and also continues to bring more freshness to it.
From "early adopter" devices to "commonly used", from the minority to the masses, the software interaction in the hardware container is the decisive factor.
As mentioned earlier, "dual screen" is a container, and the hinge that provides hovering is the basic accessory, and the tailor-made software is the decisive factor in judging whether the container is just a "vase". Taken together, they form Find N's answer to the "folding" form of thinking.
From the success of the Nintendo NDS handheld, to the loneliness of the dual-screen device, and then to the folding screen can not become the main machine, it can be seen that although the innovation of the form can attract attention, the software interaction tailored based on the characteristics of the hardware is more likely to make users pay for it, and is willing to turn it into a "commonly used" device.
In terms of hardware innovation and software interaction, OPPO has taken a step forward with Find N. One screen can solve the problem, but there is no doubt that two screens can do more with less.
What's more, find N's "dual screen" is also a whole "big screen".