

Pressy: the one-button Android controller - praveenster
http://www.engadget.com/2013/08/30/pressy-android-controller/

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Pxtl
This is a workaround for the near-total lack of buttons on modern phones.

If phone makers would bring back physical buttons and let users do stuff with
them, pressy wouldn't exist. Of course, the trick with putting buttons around
a phone is that you have to be careful about which ones you use - I
accidentally hit buttons on my Samsung Focus near-constantly because they
decided it would be good to include a "camera" button that instantly drops
what your doing and jumps you over to the camera app. And a similar "search"
face-button.

But really, a pair of unbound L/R shoulder buttons that apps could interpret
however they liked (or ignore if it's a portrait-mode app) with no usage on
the home-screen? Who wouldn't want that? Would be fantastic for gaming, for
camera/AR apps, things like that.

But no, because suddenly everybody think they're Steve Jobs and the phones
must have perfectly clean lines, we're left with nothing but hypersensitive
capacitive face-buttons and if you want something that actually _clicks_ you
have to buy a Nintendo DS.

~~~
DanBC
> But no, because suddenly everybody think they're Steve Jobs and the phones
> must have perfectly clean lines,

Real buttons are expensive and they fail. Including buttons increases design
cost, tooling costs, component cost, build and test cost. It increases the
reject rate of the phones. It makes the MTBF worse.

It's a great idea, though. Just two buttons would be awesome, and I can
imagine many uses for them.

~~~
citrin_ru
I think hardware buttons is not very expensive. Typical Android phone cost is
about $300, price for dumb phone with hardware keyboard started from $30.

Hardware keyboard on my Nokia 2630 still works without problems after about 4
years of daily usage.

Lack of hardware buttons is on of reasons, why I still don't use smartphone.

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mattezell
This seems like a really neat idea.. One of the things that I loved about my
Droid X and still miss terribly is a physical camera button - it's just so
much easier to take my duckface selfies using a physical button!

I like the idea that this is so configurable also - I can think of many
applications for something like this..

It's interesting that they have a hardware component, though this really seems
to be a kickstarter for a button dedicated 'smart actions' application (in
that it works without the button using mute button clicks on headsets) - not
that this decreases my interest in it in the least.

Excited to see where this goes...

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britta
It doesn't have to be just for Android. There's already interest in it from
developers for jailbroken iOS:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/1lbyrr/pressy_a_b...](http://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/1lbyrr/pressy_a_button_for_your_headphone_jack_meant_for/)

And the FAQ on the Kickstarter page indicates that they'd probably welcome
that:

> We are not releasing an iOS app for Pressy. There are too many restrictions
> on the API. We hope our developers community builds an app compatible with
> iOS.

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untog
Am I the only one that uses my headphone socket to, y'know, listen to music?

~~~
danceonfire
Exactly my thought, too.

> You can still use it if you have a pair of headphones in too, with the cans'
> play button subbing in for control.

Sadly, my headphones do not have a button, and I wont be on the go without
them, so sadly Pressy is not for me.

~~~
untog
I do have earphones with a button, and the button already works to start and
stop my music and skip to the next track (with two presses). But sometimes it
gets delayed for up to 5 seconds (for reasons I've never understood). If
Pressy can fix that then great. But if it can't then there are going to be a
lot of disappointed backers out there.

One of my long-term disappointments with Android is that they never used the
modified plug the iPhone uses that also allows for volume control. But then,
Apple may have patented it.

~~~
danceonfire
I wonder if people that are interested in only the App to have their
Headphones buttons remapped comfortably will be able to acquire that, and for
what price. Not that I have done any research on Apps that already do that,
since as I said, my headphones don't have a button. :)

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dangerboysteve
I think they've made the best kickstarter video so far.

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icoder
I figured this could be done by overriding any existing hardware button
callbacks, but apparently you can not outside of your app (see this SO
question: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2986337/is-it-possible-
to...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2986337/is-it-possible-to-create-an-
android-service-that-listens-for-hardware-key-presse)).

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icoder
So what happens when Pressy is pushed when it's inside my pocket? Make a
photo? Call mom? Flashlight? The latter may be dangerous even, with the heat
that it can produce.

Not quite unthinkable since the button is sticking out if the phone.

~~~
willimholte
Perhaps deactivate Pressy if the phone is locked? Does that kill all useful
actions?

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etherealG
custom actions like this for your hardware buttons should work with the
existing buttons without the need for the hack. holding power on with some
custom roms can be configured to have the flashlight on while it's held.

would be nice if an api for these buttons existed in the android sdk. anyone
know if it's there?

