Batteries

[A_SN]

I read them (either craigix or MWeston) say at one point that the OMAP's clock speed was just a maximum, and it would always downclock as much as possible without losing efficiency.

100 hrs for MP3 playback is pretty kickass. Is that with the screen on? Also, how long could we watch video (let's say DivX or Xvid)?

Oh yeah? I thought it wouldn't downclock but just that it was so power efficient that there would be little leakage during idle cycles.

 

[chris_merris]

I do not care how heavy the Pandora is, especially if the battery can last 16 hours! Also, hopefully it doesn't increase the size of the unit too much. If I can fit it in my pocket - it's not too big (not saying I would actually carry it in my pocket - just if it would fit.)

 

[Miki_Loz]

I just wouldn't care for the weight if pandora's battery could last for 16 hours!!!

 

[OrR]

Please don't get too exited over the 100/16 hour battery life speculation, even if it came from Craig himself. Usually these things don't work out quite as well as in theory. It's better to expect less now and be positively surprised later than the other way around!

 

[Karel Jansens]

Pretty soon it'll be quite easy to spot Pandora owners: They all sport an insanely wide grin on their face and they're walking lopsided. B)

 

[trooper]

Pretty soon it'll be quite easy to spot Pandora owners: They all sport an insanely wide grin on their face and they're walking lopsided. B)

With a rather large bulge in their trousers. :lol:

Trooper

 

[fusion_power]

Please don't get too exited over the 100/16 hour battery life speculation, even if it came from Craig himself. Usually these things don't work out quite as well as in theory. It's better to expect less now and be positively surprised later than the other way around!

Hm, I think even with "only" 50hrs for mp3 the Pandora could be a candidate for the Guinnes Book.

Oh, because Theme "Battery": the Dev's should use a Non-Exploding Battery. There are many bad news about dangerous Notebook-Batteries a while ago, even from big companies. ^^""

 

[Prophet]

Please don't get too exited over the 100/16 hour battery life speculation, even if it came from Craig himself. Usually these things don't work out quite as well as in theory. It's better to expect less now and be positively surprised later than the other way around!

Very true.

Personally speaking, I'm fine with the PSP battery life, so I'm not as demanding as some people.

BTW - you folks should see the battery life on my transparent yellow NeoGeo Pocket Color Slimline. It's the "newer," slimmer model that only came out in Japan, and the battery life (longer than the original NGPC)is just insane - something like 50 - 60 hours on 2 AA's. I've had one set of batteries last me a year or more!

 

[lubidog]

My Ipod gives over 40 hours MP3s and around 7 videos If the MP3s are timed by roughly two and a half, that could give over 14 hours video on the Pandora....

Gosh!!!!!!

 

[atomicthumbs]

My Ipod gives over 40 hours MP3s and around 7 videos If the MP3s are timed by roughly two and a half, that could give over 14 hours video on the Pandora....

Gosh!!!!!!

That Pandora is not an iPod. This comparison does not work.

At bare minimum, you'd need to factor in the video/audio format, the Pandora's DSP and IVA2+, and the memory usage of the codec/player.

 

[javaJake]

Yea, considering there's more going on in Pandora's noggin, the fact it can theoretically achieve these times is amazing.

 

[quartercast]

Please don't get too exited over the 100/16 hour battery life speculation, even if it came from Craig himself. Usually these things don't work out quite as well as in theory. It's better to expect less now and be positively surprised later than the other way around!

Very true.

Personally speaking, I'm fine with the PSP battery life, so I'm not as demanding as some people.

BTW - you folks should see the battery life on my transparent yellow NeoGeo Pocket Color Slimline. It's the "newer," slimmer model that only came out in Japan, and the battery life (longer than the original NGPC)is just insane - something like 50 - 60 hours on 2 AA's. I've had one set of batteries last me a year or more!


What is the screen like on the slimline model compared to the original NGPC?

 

[Karel Jansens]

Wait... I just thought of something: If this 100/16 hours guesstimate is even mildly correct, thEn it wouldn't be unrealistic to assume 8 hours WiFi surfing, would it?

Man, are there going to be queues for this baby...


EDIT: I just noticed: "THEN" instead of "THAN". D'oh!

 

[Tobriand]

Bear in mind they ended up going for the smaller battery, so the 16 hour estimate does not apply, AFAIK. We do not, in fact, have an estimate beyond Craig's most recent (100 for MP3s, 10-ish for other stuff), but I doubt the lower figure is with WiFi enabled because WiFi typically uses a lot of juice compared to other components, and for many people, it'll be turned off much of the time. There's not much point in having WiFi on when playing FF7.

We know it's a brand new WiFi module with super ultra power saving abilities, so I'd guess it has a low-power mode for idling while you're actually reading your web page/email/whatever as opposed to the normal state of just on and off. On that basis, and the assumption that it needs 0.5A when actually transmitting, I'd guess that browsing the web a bit would probably cut battery life to 0.8x and online gaming to 0.5x where x is however long it would last for high end applications without WiFi.

I stress, however, that I'm pulling figures out of the air. They seem reasonable to me, though, but this is one area we'll have to wait on official announcement (and testing) to find out the details for, I imagine...

 

[Squidge]

I think one of the first things the devs will be doing (well, me anyway, I don't know about anyone else) is measuring current consumption on various tasks and seeing how low we can get the consumption. The omap has some amazing power saving abilities and MJW says he has put a load into the extra circuitry he added.

 

[Karel Jansens]

Nokia's N800's WiFi module can be switched between 10mW and 100mW. It makes a small but noticeable difference on battery life.

It also influences the sensitivity, but Nokia's module is so amazingly good at capturing weak signals, you'd normally not notice. I so hope Craig found one of equal quality.

 

[Yrx]

custom battery size

10 hours

I would have rather preferred if you had just made the entire thing a little bigger, honestly... I would have gladly taken a higher capacity battery, especially considering that it would have been a standard size. Hopefully this one won't be a pain to find...

And what about the other issues with a spot for the stylus and a volume wheel? MWeston was implying that the larger 30 mm would have solved the space issues. Has this been worked around, then? I saw the volume wheel on the latest pictures of the board, but hopefully that isn't just for the prototype.

I'm just hoping that the size won't cause issues. After all, what's 3 mm?

 

[Tobriand]

I'm just hoping that the size won't cause issues. After all, what's 3 mm?

If the device were originall billed at ~23mm, then I'd agree. However, in this case, 3mm is the difference between being as thick as a GP2x (at it's thickest point - the battery compartment) and - basically - the original gameboy, which was, whilst an amazing device, not really suited to carrying around in a pocket. A bag, yes, but not a pocket.

And given the PDA-ey functions of Pandora, it makes sense to fit in a pocket if possible...

 

[javaJake]

I just realized that the 100/16 battery life span requires a custom battery. I don't care all that much, but I don't know what others will think.

 

[#1 GameMaster]

We have decided to stick to 27mm and a custom battery size to use every last mm of space, the battery will be ~4000mah.

According to our calculations it should work for up to 100 hours(!) playing mp3s. We won't know about using powerful apps until we do some further tests, but we are aiming for that magic 10 hours. It should easily get 10+ hours running recompiled GP2X apps.

Your not joking are you because that would be F***ing awesome. B)

Oh no to much excitement!!
(head flies of body and lands into someones hands.)