I love the movie suspense central control panel aesthetic of the central panel (think Jurassic Park), but it seems a bit overkill(switch) and fiddly to operate!
I’m imagining suspenseful music playing as the hassled Librem user receives an incoming call and hurriedly attempts to open the dipswitch hatch to turn on the microphone.
They fumble with a stylus and drop it. The caller looks impatient and glances at his watch: it’s ten seconds before the hour! The user is resorting to the fingernail method. Oh no! They accidentally turned off the WiFi! An ominous red warning message flashes on the screen, producing a “dee dee dee dee dee” noise. “CONNECTION LOST! ATTEMPTING TRANSFER!” The music ramps up.
“Ding!” “CALL REROUTED TO 4G NETWORK.” Our user breathes a sigh of relief, visibly sweating from the stress. The caller glances back at his watch; four seconds to go. He rolls his eyes and continues to wait, unaware of the drama unfolding at the other end.
Finally, the Librem user manages to arrive at the correct configuration of switches. “MICROPHONE ACTIVATED!” states the unrealistically obvious green message filling the entire screen. The caller’s watch is now 1 second away from the hour. His finger hovers, ready to hang up. The music hits a crescendo, the user hits the call accept button…
“Hello?”
“Ah. Hi! It’s Dave here from Your Best Accident Claims. Just calling to see if you’re eligible to claim compensation for a recent accident.”
The Librem user hangs up.
I think we need something a little more ergonomic and physically robust, but I agree that the switches should either be properly labelled so you can tell what they do, or placed near to the things they affect.
I like the sliding camera cover idea.