1 Year Ago Today.....

[Yigguth]

but all the iphones and ipod touches got no buttons

 

[renegadechic]

I understand the benefit perfectly well. I'm commenting on how the landscape has changed since the Pandora was initially announced. It was originally supposed to be more powerful than anything else available. Now there's plenty of stuff out with similar or better specs in a lot of areas. As for being open, have you looked into Maemo? It's hard to be more open than that. Yeah, the Pandora has dual analog sticks which no Maemo device does, but depending on why you were interested in getting the Pandora that reason could suddenly be gone. If you were looking for a powerful handheld linux device that acts as a computer, you've got the N900. If you're looking at a handheld gaming system with 3D graphics, you've got the iPod Touch. Also a lot of people have an iPhone anyway. If you're considering the Pandora you could just get yourself a 3GS, that covers a lot of what the Pandora could do, and brings in a huge software library the Pandora can't even touch. Then as far as what the Pandora still can do that the 3GS can't, there are other devices that will also suit your needs.

It depends on what you want. If you want a good portable PS emulator then the Pandora does well. Converting PS games for the PSP is a pain in the ass, and some games don't have perfect compatibility, so getting a system with dual analog sticks is a strong selling point for it. Same for if you want a portable system that can emulate everything up to the 5th generation in consoles with the physical controls to match then the Pandora will still be the leader.

On the other hand, if you were looking at the DS as not quite giving you what you were after, and the PSP sort of giving you what you wanted but UMD made the battery life suck and the software library is small then the iPod Touch does nicely. It's got a ton of free games that are easier to access than emulation and ROMs on the Pandora, and a bunch more at $1. You can have a ton of graphically rich games on the go without having to carry a bunch of catriges or UMDs with you.

if playing games that typically used a controller works on touch screen for you then more power to you but frankly i barely even got on with the wiimote, let alone rubbing my fingers all over a screen to control a game i am trying to look at at the same time. i think the popularity of the app store is great, dont get me wrong, and theres plenty of options there, i just think its only good for certain types of game or application that work with a touch screen but nothing else. i would not play an FPS on a system with no physical controls, or a street fighter type game, or anything with more than very small amounts of finger controlling. it just doesnt work for me. games on the iphone is for me like programming games on my old graphical calculator. yes it works, yes it has the power, but what i wouldnt give to be able to play it properly.

also, yeah maemo sounds great, but what if i want any of the other dozens of operating systems? what if i dont even want an operating system, i want to make it a stand alone music device? if it can be programmed it can be done, and thats the kind of software power i mean, not just being able to install the browser i like.

 

[Monk]

Then as far as what the Pandora still can do that the 3GS can't, there are other devices that will also suit your needs.

I am, I admit, rubbish at researching these things. Perhaps you can help me. I want a portable gaming system along the lines of the GP2X F-200 that I bought some while back, but with the following changes:

1. Larger screen - as large as possible whislt still fitting in my pocket.
2. Faster CPU - as fast as possible.
3. Supporting co-processors for sound and graphics (esp. 3D) - to reduce the load on the main CPU and therefore provide even better performance.
4. Open-Source software out of the box - no messing about "jailbreaking" (which by the very term indicates how supported the vendor would regard the behaviour).
5. A keyboard please! Preferably one that can actually be used to play BBC Micro games
6. Dual SD-Card support (I am comfortable with this media)
7. As much RAM as possible
8. Dual analog controls as well as the usual D-Pad and buttons
9. Touchscreen! How did I nearly forget that? Nice and accurate please, I want it for drawing (as well as gaming) so a resolution of a fingertip would be too poor on a portable.
10. Sound - with a standard jack for earphones.
11. Hours and hours of battery life - the GP2X suffers from too short a battery life, as does my netbook. 8 hours minimum I reckon, though more would be better.
12. Fit in my shirt pocket.
13. Must have network connectivity for Internet Access - WiFi might be enough, at a push.
14. Bluetooth MIGHT have advantages
15. At least one USB port for connecting "stuff" to (from USB thmb drives to hard drives to more gaming controls and so on)
16. Inexpensive (without being "cheap"). Call it <$350

I can list few things I want that the Pandora simply doesn't have - a camera being first on the list, followed by a secure/internal USB port and/or 3G phone capability for mobile broadband, but really - is there anything out there that has ALL of the above and is available now?

Oh yeah - it pretty much has to be all in one unit too, because of course I am already carrying a camera/mobile phone around (and wallet, and keys, and...). I have a limted number of pockets.

 

[renegadechic]

Then as far as what the Pandora still can do that the 3GS can't, there are other devices that will also suit your needs.

I am, I admit, rubbish at researching these things. Perhaps you can help me. I want a portable gaming system along the lines of the GP2X F-200 that I bought some while back, but with the following changes:

1. Larger screen - as large as possible whislt still fitting in my pocket.
2. Faster CPU - as fast as possible.
3. Supporting co-processors for sound and graphics (esp. 3D) - to reduce the load on the main CPU and therefore provide even better performance.
4. Open-Source software out of the box - no messing about "jailbreaking" (which by the very term indicates how supported the vendor would regard the behaviour).
5. A keyboard please! Preferably one that can actually be used to play BBC Micro games
6. Dual SD-Card support (I am comfortable with this media)
7. As much RAM as possible
8. Dual analog controls as well as the usual D-Pad and buttons
9. Touchscreen! How did I nearly forget that? Nice and accurate please, I want it for drawing (as well as gaming) so a resolution of a fingertip would be too poor on a portable.
10. Sound - with a standard jack for earphones.
11. Hours and hours of battery life - the GP2X suffers from too short a battery life, as does my netbook. 8 hours minimum I reckon, though more would be better.
12. Fit in my shirt pocket.
13. Must have network connectivity for Internet Access - WiFi might be enough, at a push.
14. Bluetooh MIGHT have advantages
15. at least one USB port for connecting "stuff" to (from USB thmb drives to hard drives to more gaming controls and so on)
16. Inexpsnive (without being "cheap"). Call it <$350

I can list few things I want that the Pandora simply doesn't have - a camera being first on the list, followed by a secure/internal USB port and/or 3G phone capability for mobile broadband, but really - is there anything out there that has ALL of the above and is available now?

i hope you have some fancy china for that serving you are dishing up

 

[Loon]

I am, I admit, rubbish at researching these things. Perhaps you can help me. I want a portable gaming system along the lines of the GP2X F-200 that I bought some while back, but with the following changes:

1. Larger screen - as large as possible whislt still fitting in my pocket.
.......
16. Inexpsnive (without being "cheap"). Call it <$350

I can list few things I want that the Pandora simply doesn't have - a camera being first on the list, followed by a secure/internal USB port and/or 3G phone capability for mobile broadband, but really - is there anything out there that has ALL of the above and is available now?

Oh yeah - it pretty much has to be all in one unit too, because of course I am already carryign a camera/mobile phne around (and wlalet, and keys, and...). I have a limted number of pockets.

There is a device coming out in 2 months or so that would meet your needs, can't quite remember what it's called though

 

[deise]

If it's got no buttons then it's not for playing games

 

[Monk]

i hope you have some fancy china for that serving you are dishing up

I keep seeing people say that there are more powerful portable gaming systems out there and it makes me quite miserable when my searching skills simply cannot turn up any of these devices - and I can't carry around 3 or 4 gaming systems in place of one. Even my BEST trousers - loaded with pockets! - would let me down before I could replace the Pandora + phone, AFAICS

Or I could forgo some of the features and get a lesser machine... but then, that would be a LESSER machine, wouldn't it?

I'd love the Pandora to have the newer kit that TI and the like have announced during Pandora development (like a 2GHz dual-core CPU sounds good to me) but it takes time for the bleeding-edge technology to reach end-user hands - we are just now at about the stage of Pandora level kit hitting the streets. A 2GHz-or-more version would be at least a year away I'd have thought, quite possibly more, if someone started working in it now and were planning on charging bleeding-edge prices.

 

[SNESFAN]

of course in terms of hardware they're going to be caught up with, but the point i was trying to make is that pure hardware spec isnt everything. it hasnt lost any of its original potential, its just that other devices are coming closer to matching it. if i buy a device with a warranty like the iphone, i sure as hell wont jailbreak it because that warranty will be voided and i dont trust apple to make long lasting products. the pandora on the other hand should be as sturdy as a PC where you can freely install new software, new operating systems and new everything and it wont reduce any of the original functionality. you really dont seem to understand what the benefit of a completely open handheld device like this has over one where the company will go out of their way with firmware updates to make sure you only use it the way they want you to.

not only that you're still not even beginning to acknowledge the other parts of the pandora's architecture that are exciting such as the DSP, etc. not only that, the pandora works at higher resolution as well. you really are quite utterly misinformed

I'm very unbiased and try not to come off as a fanboy when getting ideas across that I feel strongly about. I don't know if I can say the same for you. I do agree that it is not all about raw specs when it comes to speed. Programs can be optomized to make better use of hardware, you see this all the time in the mobile handset market. But there are limits, but when the specs are in the general realm of each other, it's all about software.

I wouldn't jump to conclusions about physical toughness of that of the iphone or pandora. I own a ipod touch... and it is a very solid product. The tempered glass screen is extremely scratch proof and with MANY hours in my pocket and dropping it, it has survived without the slightest scratch on the screen. (the back is horrible, but who really cares about that anyway) We can hope for the best with the pandora, but for all any of us know, the plastic they use could crack and splinter under the right conditions, and the screen may not be the most scratchproof. We can assume, but nobody knows for sure till we try it out for ourselves.

As far as not jailbreaking it beacause of voided warranty, that does seem a bit ignorant. I have sent devices back to manufacturers in the past, if I mod the built in software I just use whatever recovery software that comes with it and puts it back to factory default. I haven't been told once I have voided my warranty. If the hardware is busted, they don't analyze the NAND chip to find out if modifications are in place. They just send you out a new/refirbished one and try and fix the old one or throw it out.

I'm pretty sure you can install any software you want on any handheld device, it just depends on how much effort you want to put in to do it. But to stop people from doing this and the problems that occur 1)pirateing 2)having to support homebrew, 3)having to replace devices, they attempt to slow you down or making it harder to do. Voiding the warranty when you install your own OS on something that wasn't designed to run whatever, makes as much sence as if you wanted to re-solder or reflash your computer's mainboard yourself with your own revision and wanted a replacement when something goes wrong. They are right and justified in that aspect.

If I were to complain it would be that they didn't make their devices unbrickable by making a backup ROM. Make their hardware a little less propritary, and more like a laptop/desktop in it's ability to run either what came with it, or whatever you want without fear of destroying it. Then just go after those that pirate their copywritten software and OS. I wouldn't hate on them for not running linux or another varraint though. The way they chosen to avoid copywrite infringement does make them out to be the badguy however.

 

[Bosbeetle]

On topic 1 year ago today I was every bit as excited as today. Its been one hell of a ride and I didnt do anything I see it as great entertainment being here on the forums, its like reading a boys novel about exciting inventions and secret screw-ups conspiracy theories, economic crices and big surprises and milestones.

 

[droneb]

I am, I admit, rubbish at researching these things. Perhaps you can help me. I want a portable gaming system along the lines of the GP2X F-200 that I bought some while back, but with the following changes:

1. Larger screen - as large as possible whislt still fitting in my pocket.
.......
16. Inexpsnive (without being "cheap"). Call it <$350

I can list few things I want that the Pandora simply doesn't have - a camera being first on the list, followed by a secure/internal USB port and/or 3G phone capability for mobile broadband, but really - is there anything out there that has ALL of the above and is available now?

Oh yeah - it pretty much has to be all in one unit too, because of course I am already carryign a camera/mobile phne around (and wlalet, and keys, and...). I have a limted number of pockets.

There is a device coming out in 2 months or so that would meet your needs, can't quite remember what it's called though

i think its called somewhat P*****a i cant recall at all Two Months (tm) XD

i preordered most of the above, but the most likely its because of the Full USB Port(and the whole support/drivers behind it) and the massive batt time.

no camera? plug it. anyway i already have a nice sony k810i and tha Quality is enough.
no memory? plug it.
no key/ms? plug it.
no game c? plug it.
no Modem ? plug it.
no tvtune? plug it.

for those wondering i already carry a kangaroo (waist bag,belt bag or whatever you call it), and i always carry my cellphone, the HardDrive, 1thumbdrive 1 microsd/m2 with 2G, sometimes the DS or my usb mouse(really hate those old ball mouses) and 2 packs of fast note papers(like postit but in a notebook).

with the Pandora i expect to save my kidney by lowering the weight on the pack (they dont call it felix's cat bag for nothing, and yes i use all of this all the day).

 

[migo]

if playing games that typically used a controller works on touch screen for you then more power to you but frankly i barely even got on with the wiimote, let alone rubbing my fingers all over a screen to control a game i am trying to look at at the same time.

depends on the game entirely, of course I don't have this strong urge to be able to play games on the bus that I can play perfectly well at home. I don't care what the games are specifically as long as they're fun, and the iPod Touch has a huge app catalog unavailable to the Pandora and that can't be emulated on a PC. That's something entirely different that makes it more appealing, because there's nothing the Pandora can do that I can't do on my laptop.

i think the popularity of the app store is great, dont get me wrong, and theres plenty of options there, i just think its only good for certain types of game or application that work with a touch screen but nothing else. i would not play an FPS on a system with no physical controls,

I wouldn't play an FPS on the Pandora either, consoles just aren't as good for it. There's the potential that a control scheme for the iPod Touch gets developed that makes FPSes enjoyable.

or a street fighter type game,

Depends on the type really. Street Fighter wouldn't be good on the Pandora either. KoF for the NGPC would be. I'm not a huge fan of those games 'cause even on a full console they cramp my hands up, and I can't imagine the Pandora with its space constraints would be any better.

or anything with more than very small amounts of finger controlling. it just doesnt work for me. games on the iphone is for me like programming games on my old graphical calculator. yes it works, yes it has the power, but what i wouldnt give to be able to play it properly.

Classical console games aren't necessarily the best on the iPhone, but there are entirely new types of games coming out, and I'd rather play that new type of game, than make another run through SMB3.

also, yeah maemo sounds great, but what if i want any of the other dozens of operating systems? what if i dont even want an operating system, i want to make it a stand alone music device?

You want to make a standalone music device with a QWERTY keyboard and dual analog controls with limited storage capacity and no hardware for gapless playback? Not to mention I find it hard to imagine that you could do that without an OS even if you wanted to.

if it can be programmed it can be done, and thats the kind of software power i mean, not just being able to install the browser i like.

Well, this is part of what I was getting at, although I didn't articulate it well. When the Pandora was announced it looked to be the go to device for a lot of people. Over the past year it has changed so that several other devices suit me better than the Pandora does based on the reasons I was initially excited about it.

I am, I admit, rubbish at researching these things. Perhaps you can help me. I want a portable gaming system along the lines of the GP2X F-200 that I bought some while back, but with the following changes:

1. Larger screen - as large as possible whislt still fitting in my pocket.

*How big is your pocket? Specific dimensions would be more helpful. Also, larger screen = eats more battery power.


2. Faster CPU - as fast as possible.

*There are a number of phones and MIDs with CPUs in the 800MHz range, and a 1GHz one was just announced, that should be popping up within a year.


3. Supporting co-processors for sound and graphics (esp. 3D) - to reduce the load on the main CPU and therefore provide even better performance.

*This is in almost every modern smartphone.


4. Open-Source software out of the box - no messing about "jailbreaking" (which by the very term indicates how supported the vendor would regard the behaviour).

*Maemo's got this in spades. A number of other MIDs do too.


5. A keyboard please! Preferably one that can actually be used to play BBC Micro games

*No experience with the BBC Micro, but there are a ton of systems with keyboards, some of them very good.

6. Dual SD-Card support (I am comfortable with this media)

*Why do you need two? I mean if this is a deal breaker, then sure... every other thing you've listed up until now has made some degree of sense, but wanting this reminds me of the original PS3 specs with dual HDMI ports and triple ethernet ports, wanting more for the sake of more but ultimately not really useful.


7. As much RAM as possible

*256MB is starting to be minimum, 512MB is pretty normal and 1GB isn't too far away in smartphones these days.


8. Dual analog controls as well as the usual D-Pad and buttons

*Yeah, the Pandora does have dual analog cornered. If this is important to you, as I mentioned before, there obviously isn't another device out there. Not everyone was keen on the Pandora because of this though, it was more a "nice to have" feature for some people.


9. Touchscreen! How did I nearly forget that? Nice and accurate please, I want it for drawing (as well as gaming) so a resolution of a fingertip would be too poor on a portable.

*No shortage of these, it's becoming standard in almost all pocketable computers.


10. Sound - with a standard jack for earphones.

*Hardly a device without this.

11. Hours and hours of battery life - the GP2X suffers from too short a battery life, as does my netbook. 8 hours minimum I reckon, though more would be better.

*Depends on the device, but there's a number with 6-7 hours under heavy usage.


12. Fit in my shirt pocket.

*Didn't you already say this? And how big is your shirt pocket? Mine could handle the Wiz, but not even the DS or PSPGo, let alone the Pandora.


13. Must have network connectivity for Internet Access - WiFi might be enough, at a push.

*Only every phone out there beats the Pandora in this department.


14. Bluetooth MIGHT have advantages

*Every phone has this.

15. At least one USB port for connecting "stuff" to (from USB thmb drives to hard drives to more gaming controls and so on)

*So far (to my knowledge) only Maemo devices support this, and as I understand it it's been nixed in the N900.


16. Inexpensive (without being "cheap"). Call it <$350

*Buy it brand new or used after 6 months to a year?

I can list few things I want that the Pandora simply doesn't have - a camera being first on the list, followed by a secure/internal USB port and/or 3G phone capability for mobile broadband, but really - is there anything out there that has ALL of the above and is available now?

You're not going to get all of the above, particularly at that price point. Everyone would like a device with a large screen but small physical device, loaded with features, great battery life and as cheap as a DS but that's not being realistic. That kind of reminds me of a thread where someone asked whether there was a device that could do everything the N97 does (on paper) equally or better. Of course there isn't one, but once you knock off the features that aren't important to you and look at the ones that are, you start finding a number of devices that suit you.

Oh yeah - it pretty much has to be all in one unit too, because of course I am already carrying a camera/mobile phone around (and wallet, and keys, and...). I have a limted number of pockets.

I'm unclear with the slash, are you carrying a mobile with a camera around or a camera and a mobile? 'Cause if you're doing both, then what you're looking for is everything you want in 3 devices.

Since one of your requirements was the dual analog stick, one of those 3 has to be the Pandora. The other one could likely be the N900, and you'd have a lot of overlap.

I've also got similar concerns with having all in one, but my priorities are a bit different. For me it's small size (so it fits in all of my pockets, not just the larger ones), sunlight viewability and battery life. The iPod Touch is strong in this department. Battery life is in the 6+ hours for videos and gaming, and 30+ hours for music. It's very thin, and the screen is small. It's also got everything stored internally so I needn't worry about having extra SD cards kicking around. Were the iPod Touch not viable, the Pandora certainly could have been, but since the iPod Touch is a strong game platform it knocks the Pandora down a few rungs. Hell, the Wiz does too on account of being smaller. Sure dual analog controls would be nice, but the iPod Touch has some games with nice virtual dual analog controls, and overall it takes up less space, so I can live without it. At some point you need to make a compromise, be it on features, size, battery life, power or price. You can't have every feature, small size but big screen, long battery life, excellent performance and rock bottom price. Getting one more the way you want it will out of necessity drive the other one further away from what you want.

 

[migo]

Also, going back to specifically what I said. On the OpenPandora website it says

Welcome to the official website of the Pandora Handheld

The most powerful gaming handheld there is.

And this is the feature list:

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

If you throw it all together then nothing has the total feature list, but if you pare it down to the core parts.

1-3 are fully matched by the latest iDevices, N900 and quite a few other smartphones.
4 is matched by a number of smartphones, including the N900, which due to being an N-series device is also intended for gaming.
5 is matched or exceeded by a ton of devices, minus USB 2.0 host, but as far as a gaming device goes, the USB host feature isn't that important.
6 isn't matched, but the 2nd SDHC card slot isn't that important, 1 µSD slot is fine, and internal storage is also fine. When you have 32GB internal + 1 slot that matches the dual slots fine, and several devices have component video output, which is higher resolution than S-Video.
7 isn't matched literally, but the important thing is having a viable input method, and touchscreen is that, although it's suitable for a different set of games. This is fine however, as I'm content to have my keyboard and dual analog games at home and play something different on the go.
8 depends on the device, some beat it, others fall way short.

However, 1 year ago it looked like this.

1-4 were matched by nothing.
5 was only matched by the N8X0
6 wasn't really matched on account of large internal storage not being a common feature.
7 was up in the air, but at the time the types of games available required that kind of input, so it was certainly the most feature rich for what it was intended to do
8 was only covered in devices with much less performance otherwise

It went from exceeding almost everything else in all areas to only really being the go to device if you were really nitpicky about features (like USB host or dual SDHC slots).

The ONLY major standout feature of the Pandora now is the dual analog controls. No other portable has it, and assuming the controls are good (I'm curious how it'll be with the low profile they'll need for a clamshell device), that'll be the reason to get it. Everything else has ceased to be the strong selling point it was when everyone was excited about it and laying down their pre-orders, and it has to sting that by the time you get the device it'll just be keeping pace with everything else but your money was already paid.

 

[paddy]

You might remember me from such shows as ....

Hi everyone ,i just thought i would put my point across about the power and general use
of the Pandora and why i am desperate to reorder a YEAR on ! tho i don't think i will get one
of the 1st batch units for a few reasons ,none available & no cash at the moment but still
i want one.

I recently sold a viliv S5 umpc at a loss of £100 on ebay and i only owned it for 2 weeks !
i simply had to get rid of it fast but why did i get a viliv S5 ? well if you look it up
you would see that its a rather sexy umpc running windows xp/vista.windows 7 with 1gb ram
and has a 1.8 fully over-clocked atom CPU ,default speeds are 1.3.Anyway the viliv to my best
was the answer to my need for a true portable device for all my daily tasks and some light
gaming and with it running windows there would have been an app for *just about everything*
i would need but the viliv simply fell flat on its face.

The atom chip runs extremely hot and the device its self is way heavy and simply uncomfortable
to use for anything over 10 minutes ,the lack of a keyboard is sorely missed and the touch screen
keyboard is ok but not really the answer ,theres no proper controls on the viliv apart from
3 buttons and a jogstick controller,video playback is NOT what viliv say it is and is simply
not good enough ,and i find this to be directly an atom intel chipset related problem.

Now i could go on and on but this isn't really about the viliv ,its about how i have realized
how important the Pandora is to the mass market ,the Pandora at least is light-years ahead
of the sony psp & psp go ,and nintendo dsi ,in-fact the Pandora encompass both these systems
extremely well and definitely betters them in every single department.
the inclusion of a full keyboard ,touchscreen and dual analogs says it all really ,but the
fact its open and so many great devs want to write for the Pandora makes it the must have
portable hand-held device now and 2 years at least down the line.

The power of the Pandora is definitely good enough considering the atom just isn't really
possible without melting plastic and 3rd degree burns,my only objection is that the Pandora
still in my eyes doesn't have enough ram for desktop use ,but for gaming it will be fine.
The Pandora as a whole is and will be for the foreseeable future a super device for gaming and
general desktop use and it took me buying a dam viliv s5 piece of crap before i truly understood
why the cortex a8 was the right choice and i also now understand that windows doesn't have an
app for everything but when something needs to be written then it can be done easily on Linux
to get the job done with minimum fuss.

Sorry this has taken so long ,but I am all for the Pandora and i cant see any other device
out there now or in the near future that will come close.

Paddy

 

[GPTonyD32Pandora]

Wow... I totally forgot about our anniversary yesterday... I wonder if I can make up for that somehow.

Anyway, I just thought I'd join the pleasantries by saying this:

One year ago, the Pandora was the device of my dreams. It was the only device of its type capable of doing what I wanted (gaming, media, and Linux) in the package that I wanted it, under the terms that I wanted (open source). As far as I can tell, it is still the only device which meets all of my personal criteria.

What I'm trying to say is really very simple. I don't care about anyone else's opinions, about market saturation, or about hardware specifications on new devices. I want a device which is specifically designed to give me (the end-user) complete freedom to use it as I please. I want to be able to write my own software for it, to tweak settings and mod hardware, and to have root. And I want all this without having to buy an SDK, jailbreak, void warranties, perform dangerous mods, or otherwise hack into something that belongs to me.

Name all of the devices you want to. Some of them may be very shiny, and even rather powerful. However, my real problem with them all is not the hardware, but the companies behind them who seem to think they have the right to lock me out from using my own personal property the way I see fit.

The short version: Stop your whining. Nobody cares. Have a nice day.

 

[God Ginrai]

What ever happened to Zod's really good blog post on his site explaining why you can't take full advantage of the iphone's power? (Because of reserved registers, framebuffers, etc.) That would be a great source to link in this topic, but I can't seem to find it anymore.

-God Ginrai

 

[migo]

Neo Freerunner is already released if that's really what you want.

And for all practical purposes, you can do whatever you want on any Maemo device. If you're only messing with the software and the hardware breaks you can just re-flash the original OS, assuming Nokia even cares.

Pandora isn't unique in that department. There's undoubtedly a few more portable devices you can do whatever you want to without having to go to too much trouble.

 

[Nation.A.List]

Also, going back to specifically what I said. On the OpenPandora website it says

Welcome to the official website of the Pandora Handheld

The most powerful gaming handheld there is.

However, 1 year ago it looked like this.

1-4 were matched by nothing.
5 was only matched by the N8X0
6 wasn't really matched on account of large internal storage not being a common feature.
7 was up in the air, but at the time the types of games available required that kind of input, so it was certainly the most feature rich for what it was intended to do
8 was only covered in devices with much less performance otherwise

It went from exceeding almost everything else in all areas to only really being the go to device if you were really nitpicky about features (like USB host or dual SDHC slots).

Yes, but your argument is a bit like saying "the Ferrari XXX is not the best car in the world, because the Porche ZZZ has larger wheels and the Aston Martin AAA has a larger rear windscreen". Even if the Pandoras' main components have been matched (in isolation) on other devices, it's still the best device with all the necessary components that make it, "The most powerful gaming handheld there is"

 

[Poem58]

Neo Freerunner is already released if that's really what you want.

And for all practical purposes, you can do whatever you want on any Maemo device. If you're only messing with the software and the hardware breaks you can just re-flash the original OS, assuming Nokia even cares.

Pandora isn't unique in that department. There's undoubtedly a few more portable devices you can do whatever you want to without having to go to too much trouble.

Neo Freerunner

• ARM9 400MHz processor with 2D/3D graphics acceleration
• 128MB SDRAM, 256MB NAND Flash, Micro SD expansion slot
• Wi-Fi (802.1 b/g)
• AGPS
• GPRS (2.5G not Edge)
• Bluetooth 2.0
• 3axis Motion Sensors (2)
• Removable 1200mAh battery

It has a whopping 2 buttons!?, 1/3 the battery?, 2/3 the processing Mhz, 1/2 the RAM and NAND and costs $379 or $49 dollars MORE than the Pandora!? Seeing as how I am looking for a gaming machine/computer, and don't need a phone contract either to have that, I made the right choice in choosing the Pandora.

Choosy Mom's Choose Pandora!
(Disclaimer: As a male I am not legally qualified to express the opinion of a Mom nor am I a Mom or even an employee of The J.M. Smucker Company who currently hold the trademark to the Jif product for which I have ripped off for this stupid little post)

 

[kuru]

Yes, but your argument is a bit like saying "the Ferrari XXX is not the best car in the world, because the Porche ZZZ has larger wheels and the Aston Martin AAA has a larger rear windscreen". Even if the Pandoras' main components have been matched (in isolation) on other devices, it's still the best device with all the necessary components that make it, "The most powerful gaming handheld there is"

Says it all really, you saved me stating this after reading two pages with more than one self-contradicting statements.

migo:
No UMTS on the Pandora? Those who want it will get a USB stick for that or pair it to their phone.
It's all about the all-in-one power in your pocket. And if you don't see the advantages, why stay and argue?

 

[Exophase]

Neo Freerunner is already released if that's really what you want.

If that's what who wants? As far as I'm concerned Neo Freerunner is trash at doing anything media related. You can't write to the 640x480 framebuffer faster than around 11fps, and that's using full CPU time. The display controller is on a really slow bus.