banjeed
Member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2008
- Messages
- 212
I know I know, it's been done to death, but what the hell, why not.
I'd like to start by saying this is really for the people still waiting. You've got a bit of a pickle on your hands..I know, I've been there too.
I've had my unit for a few weeks now and I must say I'm insanely impressed with what's been accomplished with such a small dev base. The device feels solid and I doubt a few drops would cause major damage to its innards (hope I didn't just jinx it). That being said, it does have a fun squeak and creak to it when I'm grasping it in intense gaming situations. Just enough to remind you that this is the dream child of a small team and not the latest money drop from a major mega corps. I'm so glad the silkscreen idea fell through. I'd hate labels all over it ruining its simplistic design.
Now on to the gritty. I was worried that the controls would be too tiny, and I'd have to get used to them. Honestly, I'm pleasantly surprised. The spacing feels natural and after hours of use, I find my forearms getting tired before my fingers. I've had many foldout keyboard phones in the past and the only thing that feels unnatural to me so far is finding the spacebar and tab. And sure enough it takes me even longer to realize they are the same button. Give it time, I'm sure it'll move into muscle memory.
The screen is simply stunning. Like many, I noticed some ghosting while moving the mouse around and playing some games during the first few days and somehow, it's not there anymore. Perhaps the screen takes some time to break in, or maybe I'm just noticing it less now that I'm used to it, but I can assure you it's no big deal. Don't panic! As for the dimming and brightness, It's certainly bright enough that I have to turn it down in bed at night so as not to blind myself, but I've also had it at full blast with an airplane window-shade open next to me and I was shocked at how crisp the comic I was viewing looked. If I had any gripe with this aspect it's that I seem to have to hit the brightness up and down buttons a few times for it to 'tick' to the next level. You find yourself hitting that button about 40 times to get it all the way up or down when it seems there are only about 10 or so levels.
Moving to audio...holy shit. The speakers pack a trebly punch when listening as a standalone, but when I plugged my headphones in is when I was really impressed. These guys chose well, you won't be disappointed. In the plane, I was not only next to the window, but also the wing/engine and I had no problem hearing my movie when the audio was cranked up. Great job here!
Nubs nubs nubs. They feel fantastic. You really have to try them yourself to understand the effort put into them. The travel is more than anticipated. A few rounds of Mario64 and star fox and they feel great. I'm guessing it's yet another thing I have to get used to but it seems that sometimes they travel faster on one diagonal direction than the other. It's definitely random, and sometimes, I'll feel a slight 'click' and they then go full-speed. Like I said, I'm guessing after more use, this won't be an issue.
Ok, now onto the place I'm guessing I'll get a little flamage. Let me preface this are by saying this is the point I want to make it known that you have much to gain by waiting a little longer. The software isn't quite there yet. I understand that this is inevitable when only a few are actively developing, and I'm not trying to rag on it in any way, but it is beta software, and here's why. I'll start by saying the OS is impressive, but could still use some further tweaks. I had my device in low power mode the other day and started wiping off my screen. Much to my horror, I loaded it back up and noticed a few of my icons were missing from the dock. I can only assume this means that the screen still registers commands when it's in low-power mode and I was moving things around. One of those icons was the pandora menu. After trying a few things and hitting the pandora button, I couldn't find a way to bring back that logo'd button but did manage to find the Xfce menu button which works the same. It's a little annoying, but so's life. My other major gripe with the base OS is with unmounting your cards. It's great that I can simply hold the stylus on the desktop icon for an SD card (or right-click) and select unmount, but guess what?...even though it unmounts, the icon remains on the desktop. When you're unmounting an App card, you can see your Apps disappear from the desktop so you know it's done, but for simple storage, you either guess, or open a file manager to check it's status from there. A simple message pop-up or the icon disappearing would be a nice addition to a future update, which brings me to my next point. It's possible many balloon notifications aren't enabled because they seem to be glitched. I believe it's the messages having to do with network passwords or the like, but i seems that when I select the checkbox for "do not show me this again", and hit ok or cancel, that balloon stays up..until when I open a new app. Onto the internet, many of us I have to assume will first try using the internet icon on the dock to browse. I'm sure it's been addressed, but that browser just isn't a realistic option as a default item. If it was quick, or correctly parsed the pandora app store, it'd be a different story, but unless there are licensing issues involved, Chromium should really be the default browser off the get go. It's fast and also the only browser I've seen tackle the App store in a real way.
Noobs keep in mind that especially at this point, you'll need to learn a bit of linux directory structure just to do everyday things from the Pandora. Even after you get through the better browser hurdle, if you try and download an app, you'll soon find that you have no clue where it's gone. You can't launch it from the downloads tab like on other OSs, but by default, you'll find them in the tmp directory. From there you can simply cut and paste them to the directory of your choosing, or change the default download directory. Here's where I'll save you the agony of finding out for yourself how to navigate offscreen menus. Of course it's to be expected that most programs weren't designed for the Pandora's rez, and when they overflow, you have to hold left shoulder button and drag the menu off screen. Holy shit I wish this was common knowledge from the start of things. I spent so much time trying button combinations in tandem with tabbing to try my desired settings. This leads me to my next point.
You will without a doubt become very frustrated trying to exit out of some emulators/Apps. Such is the nature of an open source device, every App has it's own control scheme and unfortunately, most open to fullscreen by default. To get out of them, sometimes it's as easy as clicking the 'x' in the corner, but sometimes, it's space, x, p, esc, pandora button, both shoulder buttons + pandora button, etc. You will find yourself playing the keyboard like a piano trying to find the right button / button combo and I'm ashamed to admit, may like myself end up yanking that battery out when nothing seems to work and you're in a hurry. Granted you can force the pandora to restart, but (please correct me if I'm wrong), there's no true way to force a shutdown when it's locked up besides yanking the battery. If I'm not frozen, I can hold the power button and it'll force it, but when my plane starts boarding and my game doesn't want to go to low-power mode for some reason and locks up the system, I need that device powering off, not burning a hole in my pocket until I have more time.
All that being said, I have an N64, PSX, Genesis, SNES, Gameboy, NES, and computer in my pocket while I travel. Welcome to the fucking future bitches!
This may have ended up a little negative towards the end, but what I'm trying to say is that I'm incredibly thrilled I have the opportunity to relive my childhood on a system that can finally handle the games and controls my gp2x couldn't crack, but please understand that your experience will be even better as the software is further developed and bugs kinked out. Yes it's possible that more devices in more hands can lead to better developed software, but the devs that exist have really knocked out some amazing first drafts at what's possible on this tiny device. They deserve all the credit we can dish out. Please let me know if there's anything you'd like me to try on my device, I'll try to find the time. Peace.
I'd like to start by saying this is really for the people still waiting. You've got a bit of a pickle on your hands..I know, I've been there too.
I've had my unit for a few weeks now and I must say I'm insanely impressed with what's been accomplished with such a small dev base. The device feels solid and I doubt a few drops would cause major damage to its innards (hope I didn't just jinx it). That being said, it does have a fun squeak and creak to it when I'm grasping it in intense gaming situations. Just enough to remind you that this is the dream child of a small team and not the latest money drop from a major mega corps. I'm so glad the silkscreen idea fell through. I'd hate labels all over it ruining its simplistic design.
Now on to the gritty. I was worried that the controls would be too tiny, and I'd have to get used to them. Honestly, I'm pleasantly surprised. The spacing feels natural and after hours of use, I find my forearms getting tired before my fingers. I've had many foldout keyboard phones in the past and the only thing that feels unnatural to me so far is finding the spacebar and tab. And sure enough it takes me even longer to realize they are the same button. Give it time, I'm sure it'll move into muscle memory.
The screen is simply stunning. Like many, I noticed some ghosting while moving the mouse around and playing some games during the first few days and somehow, it's not there anymore. Perhaps the screen takes some time to break in, or maybe I'm just noticing it less now that I'm used to it, but I can assure you it's no big deal. Don't panic! As for the dimming and brightness, It's certainly bright enough that I have to turn it down in bed at night so as not to blind myself, but I've also had it at full blast with an airplane window-shade open next to me and I was shocked at how crisp the comic I was viewing looked. If I had any gripe with this aspect it's that I seem to have to hit the brightness up and down buttons a few times for it to 'tick' to the next level. You find yourself hitting that button about 40 times to get it all the way up or down when it seems there are only about 10 or so levels.
Moving to audio...holy shit. The speakers pack a trebly punch when listening as a standalone, but when I plugged my headphones in is when I was really impressed. These guys chose well, you won't be disappointed. In the plane, I was not only next to the window, but also the wing/engine and I had no problem hearing my movie when the audio was cranked up. Great job here!
Nubs nubs nubs. They feel fantastic. You really have to try them yourself to understand the effort put into them. The travel is more than anticipated. A few rounds of Mario64 and star fox and they feel great. I'm guessing it's yet another thing I have to get used to but it seems that sometimes they travel faster on one diagonal direction than the other. It's definitely random, and sometimes, I'll feel a slight 'click' and they then go full-speed. Like I said, I'm guessing after more use, this won't be an issue.
Ok, now onto the place I'm guessing I'll get a little flamage. Let me preface this are by saying this is the point I want to make it known that you have much to gain by waiting a little longer. The software isn't quite there yet. I understand that this is inevitable when only a few are actively developing, and I'm not trying to rag on it in any way, but it is beta software, and here's why. I'll start by saying the OS is impressive, but could still use some further tweaks. I had my device in low power mode the other day and started wiping off my screen. Much to my horror, I loaded it back up and noticed a few of my icons were missing from the dock. I can only assume this means that the screen still registers commands when it's in low-power mode and I was moving things around. One of those icons was the pandora menu. After trying a few things and hitting the pandora button, I couldn't find a way to bring back that logo'd button but did manage to find the Xfce menu button which works the same. It's a little annoying, but so's life. My other major gripe with the base OS is with unmounting your cards. It's great that I can simply hold the stylus on the desktop icon for an SD card (or right-click) and select unmount, but guess what?...even though it unmounts, the icon remains on the desktop. When you're unmounting an App card, you can see your Apps disappear from the desktop so you know it's done, but for simple storage, you either guess, or open a file manager to check it's status from there. A simple message pop-up or the icon disappearing would be a nice addition to a future update, which brings me to my next point. It's possible many balloon notifications aren't enabled because they seem to be glitched. I believe it's the messages having to do with network passwords or the like, but i seems that when I select the checkbox for "do not show me this again", and hit ok or cancel, that balloon stays up..until when I open a new app. Onto the internet, many of us I have to assume will first try using the internet icon on the dock to browse. I'm sure it's been addressed, but that browser just isn't a realistic option as a default item. If it was quick, or correctly parsed the pandora app store, it'd be a different story, but unless there are licensing issues involved, Chromium should really be the default browser off the get go. It's fast and also the only browser I've seen tackle the App store in a real way.
Noobs keep in mind that especially at this point, you'll need to learn a bit of linux directory structure just to do everyday things from the Pandora. Even after you get through the better browser hurdle, if you try and download an app, you'll soon find that you have no clue where it's gone. You can't launch it from the downloads tab like on other OSs, but by default, you'll find them in the tmp directory. From there you can simply cut and paste them to the directory of your choosing, or change the default download directory. Here's where I'll save you the agony of finding out for yourself how to navigate offscreen menus. Of course it's to be expected that most programs weren't designed for the Pandora's rez, and when they overflow, you have to hold left shoulder button and drag the menu off screen. Holy shit I wish this was common knowledge from the start of things. I spent so much time trying button combinations in tandem with tabbing to try my desired settings. This leads me to my next point.
You will without a doubt become very frustrated trying to exit out of some emulators/Apps. Such is the nature of an open source device, every App has it's own control scheme and unfortunately, most open to fullscreen by default. To get out of them, sometimes it's as easy as clicking the 'x' in the corner, but sometimes, it's space, x, p, esc, pandora button, both shoulder buttons + pandora button, etc. You will find yourself playing the keyboard like a piano trying to find the right button / button combo and I'm ashamed to admit, may like myself end up yanking that battery out when nothing seems to work and you're in a hurry. Granted you can force the pandora to restart, but (please correct me if I'm wrong), there's no true way to force a shutdown when it's locked up besides yanking the battery. If I'm not frozen, I can hold the power button and it'll force it, but when my plane starts boarding and my game doesn't want to go to low-power mode for some reason and locks up the system, I need that device powering off, not burning a hole in my pocket until I have more time.
All that being said, I have an N64, PSX, Genesis, SNES, Gameboy, NES, and computer in my pocket while I travel. Welcome to the fucking future bitches!
This may have ended up a little negative towards the end, but what I'm trying to say is that I'm incredibly thrilled I have the opportunity to relive my childhood on a system that can finally handle the games and controls my gp2x couldn't crack, but please understand that your experience will be even better as the software is further developed and bugs kinked out. Yes it's possible that more devices in more hands can lead to better developed software, but the devs that exist have really knocked out some amazing first drafts at what's possible on this tiny device. They deserve all the credit we can dish out. Please let me know if there's anything you'd like me to try on my device, I'll try to find the time. Peace.
