A Few Ideas For Pandora 2.

[Phawx]

Just a suggestion for Pandora 2. The form-factor seems perfect to me, so I don't want to change it all that much. I just want to have a larger screen.

The red stripes you see are where the Speakers would go. And the Yellow dot would be for a webcam.

I don't know what the exact dimensions would be, but it looks like you can get very close to a 7" screen. Which would be so sweet for something NDS sized. Hopefully 1280x768 Res would be available so we can keep the 5:3 aspect ratio so everything translates over well.

Hopefully OMAP 4xxx series integrates an additional Digital out instead of standard out so we can get HDMI out for free (resource-wise).

Anyway, Just had a few spare moments of free time before dinner. And nothing is really going on right now until September 7th-8th anyway, so I figured what would be the harm in a discussion for stuffs to have in Pandora 2.

Honestly, for me. The Pandora is awesome. The only thing I think could be improved would be to take up all the available real estate for the screen so you don't have such a huge border and a webcam would be a nice little addition. A different Video output would obviously be determined by the chipset used. So I wouldn't get to hung up on that right now.

 

[WizardStan]

All discussion about a Pandora 2 is completely pointless right now. By the time they're ready to start thinking about a Pandora 2, they'll be working on the OMAP6 or AwesomeoSoft will have just unveiled their HyperChip DeluXe or something. OLED will have been replaced by NOLED, and webcams will be dirt cheap next to the 3D imager.
Or more plainly, anything that you think would be great for a future device NOW will be obsolete when the time to actually start thinking about that device comes along. Except for this one, it will never be obsolete.

 

[lulzfish]

I don't know about the webcam.
Maybe on the outside, for taking pictures?

Other than that, the Pandora has all the design features I need.
I guess you could have an accelerometer just for the hell of it.

 

[arrrgh]

edit: i r dum

 

[dflemstr]

OLED will have been replaced by NOLED,

The new NOLED technology, expected to arrive in 2020, will push the frontiers of display technology beyound anything you've dreamt of ever before. Building on the recent SFH (Square Fucking Hole®) technology used in all modern DSS (Don't See Shit) displays, the NOLED technology further improves the drastic performance savings present in today's displays by removing the LED power indicator that has been annoying users for so long, thus leaving no electronic parts at all in your display, making it lighter, more efficient and more environmentally friendly than ever before.

With the new NOLED display, you will of course still have access to the awesome features that were brought to you via the SFH technology, including the famous infinite screen resolution and the hyper-realistic graphics that only are available using this series of displays. However, don't think that nothing has been changed in this new revision of the technology! The Void™ graphics processor with its Pure Oxygen® processor built into the NOLED display now gives you such good graphics, that you no longer are able to tell the difference between what you see on your screen and the world that's surrounding you. That's right: with this new technology, you can forget that annoying frame that was around your display previosly that made the things you saw look artificial and bounded; with the NOLED display, you will no longer be able to tell where the real world ends and the display experience starts. This makes it possible for systems built using this display to pass the IRL benchmark easily, and makes any product you use it with into an ideal client for EAs The Sims® 13.3 Service Pack 5 The Reailty Expansion pack and Blizzard's upcoming World of Yarncraft® release with no performance issues whatsoever.

The component will be sold primarily to the Developers of Pandora (praised be their names) for their upcoming Pandora Predominus XIV release, thus contributing to the newly founded Pandora world religion and bringing peace to all the peoples of the world, but will also be sold to humble, pitiful hobbyists some time after the year 2045, or after the new Pandora is released, whatever comes first.

Sorry, couldn't resist, and I was bored

 

[fischju2000]

I wonder if a Pandora 1.5 would be possible in 2 or 3 years...a board with a newer SoC with the same dimensions (we already have a PCB wizard with MWeston), a new OLED 4.3" screen, maybe even a replacement case with larger space for a 4.5" screen. Sold in a kit as an upgrade, or as a whole unit

 

[lulzfish]

It would be nice if there's a drop-in replacement for the SoC that can allow a small upgrade (like in clockspeed) without too much trouble.

Or just a battery / screen upgrade. Somewhere, in my lack of hardware knowledge, I believe that this would be simple.

 

[femngi]

Thread locked in 3, 2, 1...

 

[Phawx]

Why lock the thread. Is it impeding some higher form of information other people need to witness? Nothing new is going to happen. *Maybe* a picture will happen, but we have another 3 weeks of a whole lot of nothing going on.

I know I shouldn't have mentioned OMAP4 series. However, a webcam is general. Also, there *is* a max screen size one could cram into the pandora's size. So talking about a 7" inch whatever display tech doesn't matter. Because I am more interested in the screen being

1.) Larger
2.) The same 5:3 aspect ratio

So I do apologize for mentioning technical specifics. Because by the time there is a Pandora 2 there maybe Wireless HDMI or whatever, and I agree.

However, discussing general enhancements should be okay, no?

Or what about a Pandora Phone. With just Slide out game controls and a huge screen for a virtual keyboard.

 

[lulzfish]

HDMI is patented or something, though, and I don't even own a device that uses it. If they can work in VGA or DVI (VGA is cheaper but analog) that would be awesome. Or DisplayPort, which may be the 'standard' in 5 years, who knows.

Don't really care about the screen, it's already a hell of a lot bigger than the DS screen.

A phone version would be all right as long as the phone hardware doesn't add a lot of extra cost / development time.

Slide-out anything: Oh god no. I hate sliding things. They're fun to play with, but they don't leave enough space for the keyboard.
Virtual keyboard: OH GOD NO AGAIN, EVEN HARDER.

 

[elwing]

hum, bigger screen and webcam? please rename Pandora2 to PANDORAi

 

[musicalwoods]

Webcam would be cool, but a bigger screen while maintaining the aspect ratio would requre the Pandora to get longer, no? I'd rather just have a bigger screen with different aspect ratio (21:9, whatever). Basically so that the horizontal pixel width is 1024 or 1280.


I understand why the current screen was used, though.


As for an integrated cell phone module, that would be cool. Seeing as I rarely use a phone for actual voice, I'd just keep my bluetooth headset around for that. SMS and IM would be amazing on the Pandora, though. And GPRS or 3G data would be killer with Firefox (+ all my lovely extensions) w/o a bulky dongle sitting on its backside.

Accelerometers and multitouch would be great as well, but only if they could be implemented relatively cheaply. It would be great for courting more iPhone devs, but I could definitely live without those features.

And of course, the natural progression of processor and memory advancements, bigger NAND, etc.

HDMI is patented or something, though, and I don't even own a device that uses it. If they can work in VGA or DVI (VGA is cheaper but analog) that would be awesome. Or DisplayPort, which may be the 'standard' in 5 years, who knows.

HDMI has licensing fees if implemented with the audio stream. I would love for it to have HDMI, but I would settle for miniDisplayPort. DVI or VGA would be fine, too.

 

[Pleng]

To be honest I think the screen is plenty big enough as is. I think a webcam built into the unit at the TOP of the screen, on a hinge that can rotate from front to back would be good. Other than that, just pop in a new motherboard to the existing case giving an increased speed... the physical design of the unit looks pretty much perfect already if you ask me.

just a thought, would it be possible to develop a SIM-Modem module that uses SDIO as an interface? That'd be a pretty cool solution for mobile broadband without needing to have something sticking out of the USB port!

 

[Enverex]

The other issue Pandora 2/1.5 discussions have are firstly, potentially dividing the community and secondly, people not buying what's there now, because people keep bring up the potential for a new, better one.

 

[kloplop321]

having the speaker directly next to the microphone is a stupid idea.

 

[WizardStan]

Cell phone: no
GPS: yes
Accelerometer: yes
multi-touch: no
Especially no to multi-touch. If it were just an added feature, that would be fine, but in order to get multi-touch you need to use a capacitive screen, which has other drawbacks over the resistive screen. I'd rather have the better resolution and sensitivity that the resistive screen can provide than multi-touch.
Unless new tech comes out in the next 3 or 4 years that can do both.

 

[craigix]

I hope we won't have to change too much, probably just to the omap4, but let's make the Pandora1 a success first, then we will have a secure future of consoles outside the sony/ms/nintendo arena

 

[SirAileron]

I'd rather have the better resolution and sensitivity that the resistive screen can provide than multi-touch.
Unless new tech comes out in the next 3 or 4 years that can do both.

Something like this, you mean?

 

[parag0n]

One thing i'd like to see would be a third internal SDHC/SDXC/MicroSDXC to use as permanent storage for the root and home directories. Gives the advantages of a proper package manager, and removes (or vastly decreases) the problem of NAND death causing pandora death.

 

[MrPoletski]

Quantum Computer Powered Pandora FTW!!!!11one