Actual Software On Release Day

[Tom`]

So, from what I can see, Pandora will ship with just an OS, possibly a GUI, and absolutely NO apps? Not even an MP3 player, Ebook reader or Image viewer?

That's not a very good reason to pre-order if you'll end up with a cutting-edge portable console which can do absolutely nothing when you turn it on.

I can see no reason why there wouldn't be an image viewer, text editor, and other simple applications like that. They wouldn't take a lot of time to port and wouldn't occupy much space on the NAND.

MP3 and other audio and video formats, as has been stated, have licensing issues that prevent their being distributed pre-installed. However, they (and a good selection of other applications) should be available from the File Archive at launch, so I don't see any major problems.

 

[zxxgp]

I would like to see at least a text editor, mp3 player, movie player, and web browser ship with the device and a SNES emulator for download.

 

[Babrios]

Hello?? Open source? Linux?
Pandora has lots of possible progs available by default.
I guess, successfully compiled and running binaries will probably available for download too, so that not everyone has to do the compiling himself.

..and then of course the emulators with tons of games?

That's not what I would call NO apps. It's rather massive.

 

[Lobo]

Hello?? Open source? Linux?
Pandora has lots of possible progs available by default.
I guess, successfully compiled and running binaries will probably available for download too, so that not everyone has to do the compiling himself.

..and then of course the emulators with tons of games?

That's not what I would call NO apps. It's rather massive.

Lot's of speculation there, as seen by all the conditionals you've sprinkled throughout your post. And you have unwittingly agreed with my point: the device ships with NO APPS.

 

[Kyo]

does it really matter? As soon as these pandoras are out there ports will pop up like cheap iPhone knockoffs from china

 

[Babrios]

Lot's of speculation there, as seen by all the conditionals you've sprinkled throughout your post. And you have unwittingly agreed with my point: the device ships with NO APPS.

Since I'm not developing the Pandora system, I can of course only give my opinion and that's how I tend to choose my words. Maybe sometimes a bit unnecessarily correct, like: "I'm planning to get up at six in the morning." instead of "I will...". But who knows, my alarm clock could stop working, I might die in my sleep...?

So again, even IF it does not ship with more than the OS, there are tons of free software to run on it. That's how it was meant and I am almost sure U're aware of it, aren't you?

 

[Squidge]

Squidge, since you're one of the first devs that got a board (7 months now?), from the software perspective, how much of the hardware do you think devs are taking advantage of comparing say back in February to now?

I've no idea, as no software has been released yet? You can only compare if you have a before and after, and currently we have neither.

I don't expect anything to be released until the developers get a proper system - don't forget there's still no keyboard or buttons, so if you want to press a button on the board, you have to use a pair of tweezers to short out connections, which some might not want to do in fear of blowing the board up.

 

[Lobo]

.. there are tons of free software to run on it. That's how it was meant and I am almost sure U're aware of it, aren't you?

Sure, further down the road people will start porting stuff (great stuff I'm certain!), and I'm particularly enthusiastic about the PSX emulation, but I just want to be clear about what software will ship with Pandora.

But my whole point is that there is almost no software "to run on it": I'm sure YOU're aware that there's a lot of potential software, but not much actual running software, at least not shipping with the Pandora (i.e. NAND, cd, etc).

Some folks make it sound like any software you have for any *nix system will just run straight off the bat, which of course is not true: hell, the same kind of comments were made about the GP2X when it came out and at this stage we've seen that this is not the case.

 

[sindbad]

Some folks make it sound like any software you have for any *nix system will just run straight off the bat, which of course is not true: hell, the same kind of comments were made about the GP2X when it came out and at this stage we've seen that this is not the case.
Not all, but most will run without much effort, if at all (provided the source is available of course).

Shipping software is at the mercy of speculation, but you will be able to easily get more.

 

[AireTamStorm]

and ps3 SIXAXIS and dualshock 3 tools is just what I wanted.

Note that I ARM compiled it, but did not get a chance to test it yet. I sent it to ED, but he hasn't had a chance to test it yet either. It may very well not work until I get a unit.

 

[Kyo]

I think my thread very much proved my point. Currently half of the people who voted and will get a pandora from the first batch will develop/port for it

 

[Chip]

I just want to be clear about what software will ship with Pandora.

You're still not being entirely clear. Are you only referring to software that is installed on the Pandora before it is sent to you, or do you also include software that is available for download on release day?

If you're just asking about programs that will be pre-installed on the NAND, then not much. Possibly nothing besides the obligatory text editor and picture viewer.

If you're including software that is downloadable on day one, then you can certainly add all the emulators that we've already seen in action.

 

[Lobo]

You're still not being entirely clear. Are you only referring to software that is installed on the Pandora before it is sent to you, or do you also include software that is available for download on release day?

...shipping with the Pandora (i.e. NAND, cd, etc)

By shipping I mean physically present in the box, either pre-installed on the NAND or on a CD/DVD/SD inside the same box as the Pandora: I can't be more explicit than that!

If you're just asking about programs that will be pre-installed on the NAND, then not much. Possibly nothing besides the obligatory text editor and picture viewer.

That's what I'm talking about: the "obligatory" apps.
Can anyone confirm exactly what will be included? GP2X has photo, movie, mp3 and text straight out of the box: what will Pandora have? I seem to recall that MP3 and Movies will only be available as a download due to licensing issues, but what about the other stuff?

It would also be great to know what software will be available for download the same day, but I believe that would be very difficult for the normal devs to commit 100% to a given date.
Having said that I do think that Craig and co. should try with anything they have on their end.

 

[Alpha2]

Downloadable the same day depends on the devs. what they can get done on a devboard is apparently limited from the sounds of things, yeah they can get an emu to run in command line, but without knowing every quirck of a fully built system with all the included things like a functioning GUI and keyboard they will probably wait a week before finalizing their code.

The people actually working on the GUI/front end for the thing probably know more about what will be ready. I'd assume they would have atleast simple programs like a TXT reader, MP3 player and possibly Mplayer onboad at launch but, they're the only ones who could anser that and they're to busy doing other things to answer that question (hopefully those other things include putting the final touches on the onboard apps.)

 

[Kyo]

You're still not being entirely clear. Are you only referring to software that is installed on the Pandora before it is sent to you, or do you also include software that is available for download on release day?

...shipping with the Pandora (i.e. NAND, cd, etc)

By shipping I mean physically present in the box, either pre-installed on the NAND or on a CD/DVD/SD inside the same box as the Pandora: I can't be more explicit than that!

If you're just asking about programs that will be pre-installed on the NAND, then not much. Possibly nothing besides the obligatory text editor and picture viewer.

That's what I'm talking about: the "obligatory" apps.
Can anyone confirm exactly what will be included? GP2X has photo, movie, mp3 and text straight out of the box: what will Pandora have? I seem to recall that MP3 and Movies will only be available as a download due to licensing issues, but what about the other stuff?

It would also be great to know what software will be available for download the same day, but I believe that would be very difficult for the normal devs to commit 100% to a given date.
Having said that I do think that Craig and co. should try with anything they have on their end.


I'll tell you what will ship with the P, not a lot

Why? Because it's the community supplying the software for it. You can compare it to a DS, when you buy it, you won't get any software with it (except little things like pictochat), you have to go buy that

and in the pandoras case, you have to go download that. Software that will be available at launch will be more than enough, however

 

[Alpha2]

Thing is the idea of what will be availible that first day isn't exactly a certainty. After the first week sure you'll probably see a bunch of things start to be released. But the question posed is more towards what we'll be able to use the day it hits our hands.

It probably will be that you have to download most of whatever will be available, since it would probably be a pain to load 3000 units with certain apps and would probably slow things down to have to make all those app CDs for an opperation like this.

 

[Pleng]

Thing is the idea of what will be availible that first day isn't exactly a certainty. After the first week sure you'll probably see a bunch of things start to be released. But the question posed is more towards what we'll be able to use the day it hits our hands.

Of course this will also depend on where the devs are located. Presumably English customers will get their units first, as the first batch will all be shipped from England.

If there aren't many devs in England then there won't be much software available until a few days later when the units hit mainland Europe and the rest of the world. If a lot of the devs are based in England then we shoud see a few bits and bobs appear within a couple of days.

Frankly I'm excited about the prospect of watching the software pop up bit by bit over the first couple of weeks. Checking the site every day or two to see if there's anything new about! I came in late with GP2X so never really saw any of that happening that time around, aside from Picodrive supporting Virtua Racing (though my GP2X won't clock high enough to play anything but the first track at reasonable speeds )

(edit)
Anyways, if you're thinking of pre-ordering then you are already resigning yourself to waiting up to 2 months for your unit to arrive. If you can be that patient then surely another few days for software shouldn't bee too much to worry about!