£375 are you having a laugh????
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MarioPandio
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I think the OP got a slightly harsh reaction here but overall its pretty fair. He expressed that he's very interested in the product, has followed things and wants to know what the future holds software wise and perhaps any further hardware tweaks prior to shelling out. He's probably just a little put out that the price has risen a second time, just when he was planning on getting one.
I want a second unit too and the second price change though totally required and still reasonable, has put it back up just out of reach for now. So its time to save a little instead
I adore this machine and despite it being on last legs from LCD issues, it made it through my holiday, entertained the kids, left me no end of gaming options in spare moments and new software was released throughout to try out amid other entertainment it provided from my pocket. It outlasted my mifi's battery on 2 occasions showing I need a spare for that aswell and I'm still reluctant to RMA her, until she's truly dead. That's how damn good she is. So they're well worth the price.
I think the future software wise is going to explode with options and optimised applications once the 2 batches are all out-there, atop the premium orders. The future cases may get a tweak after batch 2 for the bezel issue perhaps and I imagine a range of case colours will likely appear one day. The most important part of the future though, is what Pandora 2 will introduce down the line but for a long while yet, Pandora 1 is going to beat alot of indirect competition hands down.
It is a slight shame the price has to be what it is, as I think at the original cost these would fly off the shelves to a wider market once they start getting noticed but its still a very fair price for an awesome machine and I've barely scratched its surface of uses since May.
I want a second unit too and the second price change though totally required and still reasonable, has put it back up just out of reach for now. So its time to save a little instead
I adore this machine and despite it being on last legs from LCD issues, it made it through my holiday, entertained the kids, left me no end of gaming options in spare moments and new software was released throughout to try out amid other entertainment it provided from my pocket. It outlasted my mifi's battery on 2 occasions showing I need a spare for that aswell and I'm still reluctant to RMA her, until she's truly dead. That's how damn good she is. So they're well worth the price.
I think the future software wise is going to explode with options and optimised applications once the 2 batches are all out-there, atop the premium orders. The future cases may get a tweak after batch 2 for the bezel issue perhaps and I imagine a range of case colours will likely appear one day. The most important part of the future though, is what Pandora 2 will introduce down the line but for a long while yet, Pandora 1 is going to beat alot of indirect competition hands down.
It is a slight shame the price has to be what it is, as I think at the original cost these would fly off the shelves to a wider market once they start getting noticed but its still a very fair price for an awesome machine and I've barely scratched its surface of uses since May.
It's closer to 10 hours if you're actually using it, and 8 hours if you have the wifi on.
The battery is good, but "15 hours" is exaggerating a little.
I was going to write up a fairly long post of why I feel the Pandora is worth every dollar I have throw at it, but that up there is exactly what my point was going to cover. I am sick and tired of dealing with devices (PS3, PSP, iPhone, iPad etc) and only allowed to use it within the limits of the arseholes that created it, even though the potential for so much more is right there to be unlocked (if you jailbreak). The only limitations I have for my Pandora is my own limited techno-babble knowledge, but between the assistance of smarter folks than me from here, and the wiki guides and tutorials, I am using the absolute shit out of my Pandora - to it's full potential and to my full expectations. Best $500 I ever spent on gaming.
tsh
Active Member
If the price is too high for the original poster, he can take the ebay route, with 4000 in circulation soon, there will always be a few people who get bored or need to sell - and used ones ought to come in a little cheaper. This is of course also the real test of how real the price is.
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Not really, if you drop the brightness down you can actually get 15 hours of general use.
Lowest brightness is still bright enough for me to play indoors.
I guess if you are playing something more intensive like PSX/N64 stuff constantly that 15 hours will quickly disappear, but when I went to Chile to get married in September last year, I played a lot of Pandora on the plane... pretty sure I got 14-15 hours out of it.
Prometheus
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I assure you that I was not exaggerating in the slightest. I said that my Pandora gets 10 to 15 hours because 10 to 15 hours is what I get.
This is with a combination of gaming sessions (with the screen on full brightness, with no WiFi on) and using it for MP3s with the lid closed (but not in low-power mode, where I'm sure I would be able to get a little more).EDIT: Ninja'd by PokeParadox, whose usage patterns get that much without the MP3-playing part. :lol:
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I had never seen the Pandora exactly that way, but I find this analogy quite relevant.
Linux-SWAT
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Lucky owner of an OP, and comparing it to other electronic devices, i can tell you the OP is not expensive.
You can do so much because it's a real computer in your pocket i still believe it's underpriced.
For example, i used to think that with a ~700€ iPhone, it was possible to do a lot : wrong. OP can do 10 X what an iPhone do and is ~half the price.
I use it @work, i use it for leisure, in my bed, in the subway, anywhere. I can add any program on it, get 128 Giga of data etc, the keyboard allows me to type pretty fast etc.
So basically, yes, i'm having a laugh at iPhone and other blackberries owners.
Wally
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I had a long think about the price when I first put in the order. I cancelled once because I bought a MacBook Pro and thought the OP would never get to my hands due to all those delays and stuff.
While being in the PSP scene for a long time (I am still there briefly for DaedalusX64) the pandora is used much more and I find it more intuitive to use on a train etc.
So lets look at the PSP Scene and how it works:
1) you have to find a PSP thats hackable unless you wish to stick with signed apps and no compatibility with third party plugin files from projects that do that. PSP can cost between $100 - $400.
2) If you were to stay legit and not use custom firmware, you have to pay anywhere from $10 - $99.99 a game but if you decided to go the illegal path, you are at risk of being caught by Sony.
3) There's too many stoners and not many people are willing to help these days due to the attack of the 13 year olds trying to hack their consoles.
4) No keyboard unless you want to carry around a shitty bluetooth one which will cost you $$$ in time, money and efficiency (gotta put it in a bag or something then look like a tool for the rest of your life)
Look at the Pandora:
1) Software is mostly or always going to be free, developers aren't making any money off this product, they are doing it as a community thing
2) You can do what you want with it, you don't need to hack / downgrade the software for it to play everything, it's a great model.
3) You have direct lines with the developers, you can ask them any questions request features etc.. Try doing that on the PSP with both Custom and Official Firmware...
4) I have basically put my entire childhood in games in my Pandora which fits either a) onto my belt buckle or B) in my Crumpler bag.
So if you're saying that a PSP is "Cheaper" then think again.
P.S Nothing wrong with the iPhone
While being in the PSP scene for a long time (I am still there briefly for DaedalusX64) the pandora is used much more and I find it more intuitive to use on a train etc.
So lets look at the PSP Scene and how it works:
1) you have to find a PSP thats hackable unless you wish to stick with signed apps and no compatibility with third party plugin files from projects that do that. PSP can cost between $100 - $400.
2) If you were to stay legit and not use custom firmware, you have to pay anywhere from $10 - $99.99 a game but if you decided to go the illegal path, you are at risk of being caught by Sony.
3) There's too many stoners and not many people are willing to help these days due to the attack of the 13 year olds trying to hack their consoles.
4) No keyboard unless you want to carry around a shitty bluetooth one which will cost you $$$ in time, money and efficiency (gotta put it in a bag or something then look like a tool for the rest of your life)
Look at the Pandora:
1) Software is mostly or always going to be free, developers aren't making any money off this product, they are doing it as a community thing
2) You can do what you want with it, you don't need to hack / downgrade the software for it to play everything, it's a great model.
3) You have direct lines with the developers, you can ask them any questions request features etc.. Try doing that on the PSP with both Custom and Official Firmware...
4) I have basically put my entire childhood in games in my Pandora which fits either a) onto my belt buckle or B) in my Crumpler bag.
So if you're saying that a PSP is "Cheaper" then think again.
P.S Nothing wrong with the iPhone
SNESFAN
Retro game fanatic
I agree the pandora is probally the cheaper of other handheld computers, check dynaysm for instance.
However... stop comparing the price of the unsubsidised iphone to the pandora. What makes the iphone different than a ipod touch? The cellurlar 3g radio... that's it.. everything else is the same... the price diference? Hundreds of dollars.. same if not higher speced hardware for hundreds cheaper tha the pandora, its a very poor comparion.
Ok, I agree this is not apple, more is possible "out of the box" I justify the price to the niche, and the fact this is more of a developers device than a end users device. This won't ever be a commercial device. You don't have to be a programmer to use but you can't be a dumbass end user to use it either. Give your grandmother a pandora... sit back and laugh at her. I can hand my grandmother a ipod and she can actually use it. My 5 year old son uses my ipad all the time, but wouldn't know where to start with my caanoo let alone a pc. Just sayin
I feel op should embrace this niche uber geek demographic, where are the serial port cables? Each pandora should come with all its source code and schmatics on a bundled cd. Really really embrace it's open source handheld. Stop comparing it to a nintendo or a sony gaming device. Its just not even the same thing. I hear some of the design is being held onto before they release it? I don't want to compare them to a mainstream manufacturer but they are not completely owning up to "open source hardware"
At somepoint in the future after someone from op would consider armstrom to be out of "beta" they should move support to other os's different flavors of linux, windows ce, windows 8, android, etc... ship it with its official os but completely embrace "custom roms" just like hardkernel with odroid, they are a good example of how to run an open source hardware company even though I don't particularly care for their actual hardware, I do respect their buisness practice. They go as far as how to compile alternate os's from scratch to boot on their device.
That's all I got
Prometheus
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Just a quick note: My understanding is that the Pandora isn't open source hardware - that's when the schematics of every bit of the hardware are open. It's hardware that's not locked-down, which runs open source software. There is a difference.
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007jaws
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I'll watch out for ebay ones, they could have problems, a few people buyed from ebay and i remember a forum member recieved a unit with faulty LCD cable and stuck shoulder buttons that was unfair, it was advertised as fully working, so ebay i will avoid ebay as some people may scam you, also i know a mate who buyed one on ebay same problem recieved a premium pandora with 2 dead pixels and 2 stuck shoulder, and when he emailed the guy on ebay, he said this is how he honestly got it from openpandora and it was only 2 weeks delivered this feburary 2011, invoice was included luckily, but my mate emailed op a few times and no replies, maybe they were busy during that time.
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ZXDunny
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Meh, it's the same thing. I play GBA/GBC/GB/SNES on mine, and PSX iso games too. It's the same thing.
D.
SNESFAN
Retro game fanatic
I agree that seems to be the case, the name is very decieving then... open pandora..Just a quick note: My understanding is that the Pandora isn't open source hardware - that's when the schematics of every bit of the hardware are open. It's hardware that's not locked-down, which runs open source software. There is a difference.
Also hardkernel is bigger than op by a lot and nobody is stealing their design and their schematics have been openly avalible for at least 2 full years that I know of
second exodous
Advanced Member
Well, it is much more open than anything Apple, Sony, or Nintendo makes. I think calling it 'Open Pandora' isn't misleading at all. When I hear open, at least for me, I think source code and not hardware. Maybe because truly open hardware is rare.I agree that seems to be the case, the name is very decieving then... open pandora..Just a quick note: My understanding is that the Pandora isn't open source hardware - that's when the schematics of every bit of the hardware are open. It's hardware that's not locked-down, which runs open source software. There is a difference.
Also hardkernel is bigger than op by a lot and nobody is stealing their design and their schematics have been openly avalible for at least 2 full years that I know of
I do agree with you that even if the OP team made the hardware open not many would copy it, hardware is expensive to reproduce. I hope they will make it open if they decide to quit making the Pandora though.
second exodous
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I feel the same way actually, when windows runs on ARM Microsoft will be more of a joke and less people will buy their crap. Also, Windows CE, are you serious johnsongrantr?
Prometheus
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The product is just called Pandora, though.