4 years waiting for the Pandora... finally got it and very pleased!

[phi6]

I was one of the original first batch 4000 pre-orders, unfortunately I was a little bit late to the party so ended up right at the end of the queue. Waiting patiently 4 years passed... and then I decided to upgrade to the 1ghz version on ED's site. I got it pretty much the day after! I hope my upgrade has allowed someone else to receive their pre-order model that little bit quicker

Anyway, thoughts so far:

1. Best controls I've seen for any handheld yet! Just beats the PSP by a margin with it's superior nubs and especially the lovely D-Pad. The test? I can now pull off a Shoryuken on Street Fighter Alpha 3 without burning my thumbs!

2. Loving XFCE and Firefox, feels like a real high powered computer.

3. WIFI functions really well in the office, but constantly dropping connections and slow transfer on my router at home. I tried turning off power management to the WIFI via the console command but this only improved things marginally. The solution I found was to use the USB Edimax EW-7811UN Wi-Fi Adaptor. I'm consistently getting around 200kb/s with no dropouts now! And I love the blue flashing light

4. PNDManager works nicely, constantly finding new software to try.

One question, is Android worth it? Is it possible to use it as a complete replacement desktop? I'm interested in GTA3 and Max Payne as well as the massive library of software available.

Cheers

 

[Phelsumania]

Congratulations Phi6, patient's is a vertue.  Got some bad news for you now am afraid now you've got a Pandora in your hands your going to struggle to put it down. Its as addictive as crack.

 

[A2000]

4.: Android is not yet a finished/polished or even active developed project as nobody volunteered for the latter. It therefor has some nagging errors which include: wifi led not indicating wifi status reliable, some apps don't work at all, some don't work decently.


Because of the lack of some phone features (mainly phone itself and gyros) some apps are useless.


All in all I wouldn't recommend it as a desktop replacement but as an addition to your normal one. Besides I think native Pandora apps are appropriate for most purposes and android is just for additional games.

 

[ShleeDragon]

Congratulations.. I was in a similar place.. waited and waited and waited... and once it arrived. was pretty damn impressed.

I know it would have been nice to have it 24 months ago, but I still use my Pandora every second day since I received it 6 months ago.

Go hog wild... and sell them to your friends now ED has them in stock

edit: There is no plans for a fully blown android OS.. unless Notaz drops another gift on our community

 

[Klumpen]

You should test following games on it:

Battle For Wesnoth

Super Geometry Dust
PewPew2
Frogatto
Lemmings SDL
Cavestory

Hex-A-Hop
Albion
Jaged Alliance 2

and remember to get a biiig SD for pcsxrearmed and many eBoots.

 

[MarTinazzI]

Welcome to party guy. now you can start rolling dice =)

OBS.: if you want to study, take off Pandora battery.  Phelsumania is right =)

MarTinazzI

 

[phi6]

You're telling me, this device is so addictive! I keep messing about with it at work, not being very productive in the office at all

I guess I'll stick to XFCE instead of Android then, for now.

@Klumpen, thanks I'll check those out. I got UFO working, brings back memories.

 

[ekianjo]

I recommend World of Goo on Android, especially on 1 Ghz. Works perfect.

 

[moxie]

Whee!

 

[Nintendo]

Congrats, mate.

 

[ghostpatch]

congratulations!

I guess I'll stick to XFCE instead of Android then, for now.

you don't have to decide wether to use xfce (Angstrom) or Android. Just install Android. It will run like an app and if your done, just quit and you'll come straight back to xfce.

 

[djcpe]

Awesome!  Welcome to the party!

 

[dibad0011]

Phi6 first post should be moved to the user reviews section.

 

[phi6]

Okay guys, just tried listening to some FLACs (lossless music) via Audacious media player, and jesus... this thing packs a punch in terms of audio quality.

 

[kuru]

Okay guys, just tried listening to some FLACs (lossless music) via Audacious media player, and jesus... this thing packs a punch in terms of audio quality.

Indeed it does, it's an awesome little music player. The included microphone is also of high quality. I was also pretty impressed by how darn good tv-out looks on a modern HD TV. The only scourge in terms of media is Adobe Flash. Die Flash, die.

 

[phi6]

You're talking to a professional Flash developer here...


... And I agree

 

[Phelsumania]

Not to sound rude if your a proffesional flash developer do you recogn do u might tinker with a flash player for the Pandora at some point in time if u ever fancy a break from having to much fun using the Pandora. U tried out mini slug project yet, its awsome

 

[Znirk]

I'm pretty sure he means "professional developer of content to be run through flash players", not "professional developer of flash players".

 

[Kumaki]

Yeah, I am not fooling around with Android either at the moment....I have heard of problems with it....and it isn't really complete, anyway...others swear by it and say it's wonderful...

My advice to anyone would be....if you're gonna try Android, dedicate an entire SD card to Android OS and all Android apps, and only use that when using Android.

This way you avoid the "card corruption" issue that has been reported by some people.  If you back up your Android card on a PC or a stick or whatever...and the card SHOULD get corrupted, you can replace it easily, and if it's a dedicated card for just Android, you don't lose anything else.

Just my $.02 worth.

 

[TrashyMG]

I did just that Kumaki, I wasn't going to risk it.. But I swear I thought I read the corruption issue was resolved with one of the more recent firmware updates..