Pandora Handheld

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ReRuss
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Pandora Handheld

Post by ReRuss »

Anyone been keeping an eye on this? It looks rather promising for a 3rd party handheld...

http://openpandora.org/

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    * ARM® Cortex™-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
    * 430-MHz TMS320C64x+™ DSP Core
    * PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
    * 800x480 4.3" 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD
    * Wifi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth & High Speed USB 2.0 Host
    * Dual SDHC card slots & SVideo TV output
    * Dual Analogue and Digital gaming controls
    * 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
    * Around 10+ Hours battery life
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Post by gllt »

I stopped paying attention after the paypal bawwsness.
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Post by SquareHead »

Holy shit. I just took a look at this thing, and I like it. The videos are pretty amazing. It could almost replace my psp. Well except for the games I actually bought for my psp.
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Post by Panzer88 »

I've been tracking it for years and indeed checked the site recently for progress.

I used to have it in my sig awhile ago, looks like they will finally be ready to really ship the final thing in a few months. I'll wait till the first wave or two has been shipped seeing as there is enough demand, and then I'll get one. It's got pretty impressive specs, especially considering how long ago they planned those specs, and also the pricing isn't bad compared to the psp when it first came out and this isn't even made by a major manufacturer like sony.
[quote="byuu"]Seriously, what kind of asshole makes an old-school 2D emulator that requires a Core 2 to get full speed? [i]>:([/i] [/quote]
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Post by SquareHead »

It shockingly might even replace my netbook.
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Post by ReRuss »

SquareHead wrote:It shockingly might even replace my netbook.
Since it can pretty much run firefox... it's gonna be my netbook lol
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Post by odditude »

it's essentially the same hardware as an iphone 3gs / palm pre. interesting.
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Post by adventure_of_link »

ReRuss wrote:
SquareHead wrote:It shockingly might even replace my netbook.
Since it can pretty much run firefox... it's gonna be my netbook lol
can it still use flash in browser and use youtube in browser? if so, sounds like a winner. Otherwise, gimmie my netbook.
<Nach> so why don't the two of you get your own room and leave us alone with this stupidity of yours?
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Post by I.S.T. »

odditude wrote:it's essentially the same hardware as an iphone 3gs / palm pre. interesting.
Yup. That's a huge coincidence, though.
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Post by paulguy »

I've ordered one and am in waiting. The pandora is technically faster than the iPhone 3gs at least, since the iPhone is underclocked and I think has a weaker gpu. It wasn't that long ago that they planned out the specs. Maybe a year and a half ago.
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Post by Nightcrawler »

Why is this preferred over a netbook?
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Post by SquareHead »

Nightcrawler wrote:Why is this preferred over a netbook?
I'm not sure, but don't this qualify as an ultra-mobile?

I'd prefer this over a netbook because its roughly the size of a DS, plays games, has built in gaming controls and can still do everything a netbook can.

Shit. I still can't justify it. I just want one.
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Post by Nightcrawler »

It seems you get more for your money with a Netbook though. The LCD screen is much smaller on Pandora. I understand that's desirable for the product, however it should theoretically make the device cheaper than an equivalent Netbook. The hardware on a Netbook seems a bit beefier as well, though I can't compare the graphics hardware well.

Can't beat the integrated d-pads though. No netbook will ever have that. It's a hard choice, but I would somehow feel I got slightly ripped off with Pandora when I could have gotten a bit more bang for the dollar with a Netbook.

I guess I'd feel better about the whole thing if it were $50 - $75 cheaper. $330 seems a bit much for what you get.
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byuu

Post by byuu »

I was going to argue with you until I saw this:
Nightcrawler wrote:I guess I'd feel better about the whole thing if it were $50 - $75 cheaper. $330 seems a bit much for what you get.
Dear god, that is way too much money for a gaming handheld.
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Post by Exophase »

They can't sell something like this for any less. There's just not enough volume, nor will they make any money back from licensing games on it. As it is they're barely going to be making any profit at all, at least not for a good while.

Look at the Freerunner phone, which had a similar grassroots development - it cost more than they're asking for the Pandora and in my opinion was quite an inferior quality product in comparison. While it does have the phone portion, the Pandora has a whole lot of other desirable features.

Fortunately for the makers of this thing most people aren't buying it just to use it as a gaming device. Really, there's still nothing else on the market released or announced that even comes close to what they're going to be coming out with, so until that changes they'll continue to have the market potential.
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Post by SquareHead »

I saw potential in it as a core to a wearable system.
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Post by Gil_Hamilton »

Nightcrawler wrote:Why is this preferred over a netbook?
It's pocketable.
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Post by Panzer88 »

I already have a laptop so don't really care about a netbook but I am certainly interested in the pandora

I'll let the first few shipments pass but I do want to support it as I like what they are doing. If they can mass produce it'll reduce costs.

I think the price is due to it being a community project of sorts, it isn't going to compete with the industry leaders.

The iphone originally released at $600.

the current iphone 3GS without a contract costs $799.99 for the 32GB version and $699.99 for the 16GB version.

The original PSP launched at $249 USD, the Sega Nomad was $180 and the Game Gear was $150.

The original DS launched at $149.99 USD the original GBA was $99.95, the Gameboy Color was $79.99, and the original Gameboy was $89.95

The Palm Pre costs $549 without a contract.

the GP32, the first big open handheld launched at $299.99

I think it's important to support the pandora or at least spread awareness of it to help grow the market for open software platforms.
[quote="byuu"]Seriously, what kind of asshole makes an old-school 2D emulator that requires a Core 2 to get full speed? [i]>:([/i] [/quote]
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Post by Francis64 »

The Dingoo looks quite cool too. Apparently it allows you to emulate most 80's-90's video game systems:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingoo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCE2Vv4Srvw
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Post by gllt »

Francis64 wrote:The Dingoo looks quite cool too. Apparently it allows you to emulate most 80's-90's video game systems:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingoo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCE2Vv4Srvw
It's pretty like a micro gba but prettier I think
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Post by paulguy »

I know someone with a Dingoo... but I haven't been in much contact with him in a while. Apparently it's alright but the built-in emulators are kinda buggy and weird, but it's already been cracked to run other OSes, I guess.
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