Found What I'm Looking For?

[Quizzor]

I believe within 3 years we will see some great all-in-one portable devices. I can live without right now, but I think it would really jazz up my life to have one. I figure I'll grab one of the first few to come along and be happy with it.

I have a checklist before I'll qualify it as my all-in-one device I've been waiting for. I need it to be good at:
Entertainment
Communications
Simple office work
Generally I've only found two of those three and the third is very stunted or difficult.

These I believe I've read (correct me if I'm wrong) it already fulfills:
-Can fit in my pocket.
-Touchscreen.
-Full keyboard.
-Hardcore emulation.
-Good gaming controls built in.
-Could pick a playlist, drop it in my pocket, and have it play music for at least 24 hours before requiring a recharge.
-Around 10 hour general battery life.
-Easy to tinker with and make some of my own software as I need it.

What I'm not certain about the Pandora is:
-Basic office programs. Word, Excel, Powerpoint? Etc. I know there will be at LEAST some word processing capabilities. Will Open Office be ported?
-Decent antivirus capabilities (or the lack of viruses). With the limited nature of the Pandora, I think it will be more like Apple, where no-one even bothers to write a virus.
-Communications. Internet? Is "tethering" the ONLY option? What's been going on with that plan I heard about for widespread public wifi in the US? Will anyone make some wifi cracking tools? I should still expect to carry some sort of cellphone for emergencies when I'm in the middle of wifi-nowhere?
-XCOM

 

[fischju2000]

Open Office will run, thought it might be overkill and may be slow do to ram constraints. There are plenty of alternatives.

If a person observes standard unix security procedures (like not always running as root, or doing very stupid things) malware will not be an issue.

Widespread Wi-Fi would only happen via WiMax, the Pandora does not natively support this. But any USB modem with linux drivers (that includes the standard 3G dongles that companies like Sprint give out) will work.

Ah, yes, X-COM. There are open source initiatives for it, the original games may run in DOSBox. Check that thread. They should run.

 

[Enverex]

The Pandora isn't really designed as a phone replacement, this is shown really in the fact that it has no actual phone hardware - no 3G capability, no-where for a SIM, etc (although technically you could expand it with that via USB but that's a different kettle of fish). It's designed as a UMPC and portable gaming device/console.

You could use open source SIP VoIP clients for voice calls, but keep in mind that you'll need some form of internet access (via WiFi or USB connection) at the time and that I doubt you're ever going to see Skype on there (because it's closed source and the company that owns it likely sees no monetary benefit in porting it to Linux Arm).

Anti-virus may be possible through ClamAV but it's running Linux... how many people run AV software on their Linux installs?

Someone may port Airsnort and other apps of the sort but what you are insinuating there is starting to sound a little shady...

 

[Quizzor]

what you are insinuating there is starting to sound a little shady...

Speaking of which, what are the odds of truecrypt being ported? Anyone pointed the Tor devs to the Pandora yet? I don't suppose the ARM is up to cracking WPA2 relatively fast and that's becoming more common...

how many people run AV software on their Linux installs?

I'm already 99% certain that no-one will bother going through the effort of making AV a necessity on the Pandora. Just wanted to confirm that.

Ah well. I can live with carrying a Pandora AND a phone (the horror). Really, once netbooks finally break the 10 hour barrier (likely with new battery tech) I'll probably just end up with one of those and a micro-game controller of sorts for my other cargo pants pocket.

But the Pandora can fulfill 'entertainment' and 'simple office work' at the least then. I'll see which comes first. The Pandora, or 10+ battery hour smallish-netbooks.

 

[trooper]

I don't suppose the ARM is up to cracking WPA2 relatively fast and that's becoming more common...

Will anyone make some wifi cracking tools?

Can we please drop this part of the topic, The implications are shady at best, And are not the sort of things to be discussed on these forums.

Thanks.

Trooper

 

[typs lik dis]

^What's shady about those tools? Tor just enables partial anonymity online and Truecrypt merely encrypts files; you might as well take similar issue with discussion of compression algorithms because they can aid in the illegal distribution of copyrighted material.

Quizzor: I doubt you'll be cracking proper WPA2 with any handheld device anytime soon. Don't be so cheap and tactless, just tether your phone or get a bloody 3G dongle and a gig of prepaid service.

 

[lulzfish]

He was quoting the parts about WPA cracking, actually. Truecrypt just got caught in there somehow.
And cracking WPA is definitely illegal. Probably. In most cases.

 

[Quizzor]

The denotes I was kidding about all that.

I was vaguely serious about wifi cracking. Free wifi isn't everywhere.

I'm content to do just gaming/music/movies and documents on the Pandora. Just wanted to know if tethering really was the only option otherwise.

What's with the mic anyways?

 

[lulzfish]

Either tethering or a USB cell modem.
The mic is for voice recording, silly sound-based games, VoIP, things like that.

 

[VRAndy]

What's with the mic anyways?

Perhaps it's for blowing on during games, like the DS mic.

 

[Lorkile]

You should have no real issues fitting it in your pocket, has a touchscreen, and a nearly full keyboard. The emulation scene has taken off fast, even with the initial batch not yet out, and the gaming controls are likely going to be some of the best you find on a portable in a very long time. I do think the idea of even 24 hours worth of battery life for music, at least by launch, may not be realistic but 10+ hours should be. And as it's an open platform, should be about as easy as you could expect for tinkering (such as making your own software, porting software and such) so I doubt you'll have a lot of issues with software.

On your initial checklist I would say communications are likely the worst aspect on the Pandora. And as it will be comparable to most netbooks, I think it should be fine.

Still, I think the others here could help you with any specific concerns far better then I ever could.

 

[senquack]

X-COM has been statically recompiled for ARM devices by M-HT, the GP2X specifically. You will no doubt see a port of it for the Pandora.

Wow, antivirus software on a Linux ARM device? I can't think of why that'd be necessary to be honest.

 

[tristan.clark]

X-COM has been statically recompiled for ARM devices by M-HT, the GP2X specifically. You will no doubt see a port of it for the Pandora.

Wow, antivirus software on a Linux ARM device? I can't think of why that'd be necessary to be honest.

The only reason I can think of for antivirus software on a LinuxARM device is containment. So you don't pass something on to someone else. Would you like to be responsible for the death of a Windoze computer

 

[valhalla]

What I'm not certain about the Pandora is:
-Basic office programs. Word, Excel, Powerpoint? Etc. I know there will be at LEAST some word processing capabilities. Will Open Office be ported?

Porting openoffice may take some time and I'm not so sure it would be the right office suite for this kind of device, but I'm quite certain that we could be seeing the lightweight alternatives Abiword and Gnumeric from the start (I believe that they have already been shown running, and I know that they work on the beagleboard)

-Decent antivirus capabilities (or the lack of viruses). With the limited nature of the Pandora, I think it will be more like Apple, where no-one even bothers to write a virus.

Since pandora uses linux, writing viruses is harder and gives less gain, so nobody bothers doing it; there may be some malaware that tricks you in installing it, but that's solved by checking the sources of what you install.

-Communications. Internet? Is "tethering" the ONLY option? What's been going on with that plan I heard about for widespread public wifi in the US? Will anyone make some wifi cracking tools? I should still expect to carry some sort of cellphone for emergencies when I'm in the middle of wifi-nowhere?

tethering from a cellphone and an USB GPS modem are two options that should work mostly everywhere, if possibly slow.
as for widespread public wifi I don't think that the ISP will be very glad to let them grow too much, but I may be wrong; maybe you can take a look at FON to chech if the areas you need are covered.

 

[valhalla]

I don't suppose the ARM is up to cracking WPA2 relatively fast and that's becoming more common...

Will anyone make some wifi cracking tools?

Can we please drop this part of the topic, The implications are shady at best, And are not the sort of things to be discussed on these forums.

While I sort-of-agree with the second point you quote, the software in the first quote is perfectly legit and a good idea if you plan to use your pandora for private stuff; I wouldn't trust the random provider of free wifi with my browsing habits and my personal details.

 

[danielliu88888]

Wow, antivirus software on a Linux ARM device? I can't think of why that'd be necessary to be honest.

yes, to prevent the honor system virus. it's a pop box i plan on making that reads "please delete all of your files".

 

[Kramy]

I plan to have an ecrypted Truecrypt file for all my important stuff, like passwords/email/etc.

If it isn't available at launch, it won't take long.

 

[dflemstr]

I plan to have an ecrypted Truecrypt file for all my important stuff, like passwords/email/etc.

If it isn't available at launch, it won't take long.

Why TrueCrypt when there's LUKS and dm-crypt?

I have not to this day found anything that's easier to use.

 

[whiskthecat]

Will anyone make some wifi cracking tools?

Can we please drop this part of the topic, The implications are shady at best, And are not the sort of things to be discussed on these forums.

Thanks.

Trooper

Guess we shouldn't discuss emulators either.

 

[trooper]

Guess we shouldn't discuss emulators either.

Ouch!, Ok, I`ll edit my quote, I was actually responding to the WPA and wifi cracking comment.

Everyone satisfied now ?.

Trooper