Getting closer... (2011 - 12 - 01)

[Prometheus]

My Pandora is currently away on RMA and I'm missing it terribly... The Sensation, while impressive... is very *meh* compared to the completely involving and frankly awesome experience I get with my Pandora.


My assessment is that the Pandora, in spite of *everything* that it's had to overcome, all the delays and what you would call inferior specs... is actually a far superior device to my Sensation... and the Sensation costs more AND is mass produced by one of the big players.

My Pandora's not away, but you're not the only one to have had an experience like that.


I had an Asus Eee Pad Transformer (1.1GHz Tegra 2-based hardware). It had allegedly "better" hardware, and yet it was the laggiest thing I've ever used - waiting an entire minute for my text to appear in the browser is not acceptable to me, or useful in any capacity. It wasn't capable of doing at 1.1GHz what my Pandora can do much faster and more reliably at 500MHz, and even though it had two batteries it also couldn't run for as long, either. I had no desire to even try to emulate anything on it, especially since that would have required extra purchases and more things to carry.


A lot of the niggles I encountered are obviously due to how unoptimised Android is (whether it's unoptimised for that hardware, or for all hardware in general, I don't know, and I won't be finding out - it was my first experience with that software, and it's 99.9999999999999% likely that it will be the last, too), but since so many people seem to take the attitude that throwing more hardware at things is the answer, I guess it's never going to improve. Of course, that's precisely why the Pandora is for me. And you. And other folks like us.


EDIT: Also, about pressure-sensitivity on resistive touch-screens: The Nintendo DS' touch-screen can do this. If you have one and can run homebrew on it, I implore you to try out the drawing application "Colors!". This is also getting an official release on the Nintendo 3DS eShop sometime soon (likely before the end of the year), but I don't know if the pressure sensitivity will remain, as it's not officially-supported due to it naturally varying between individual screen units (I gather that it's possible to calibrate around this and thus get the same behaviour on most units, but this may not be allowed under the official QA policies).

 

[Loonie]

Exactly how small are you?

Approximately 1.86 meters. If I have to lug a 7" tablet with a bluetooth keyboard and controller around, I will just grab my Alienware M11x-r3. What I want from Pandora is a pocket computer. A device, running a proper desktop, not locked down, with all the requisite input devices I could need integrated within, upon which I could even develop software, that I can shove in a pocket. That is why I want this thing.

 

[clop]

Bottom line: If you never fantisized about a device like the Pandora before discovering that some brilliant chaps have actually gone ahead and MADE it a reality... then you'll never understand the Pandora as 'A Dream Come True' like it is for most of us.

You just summarized exactly my experience

 

[WizardStan]

In the vein of pressure sensitive resistive screens, I've never really had any drawing talent, but even I was able to turn out a few pretty paintings in mtPaint on a particularly long bus ride when I was bored. And hungry.

 

[FRZ]

I have learn too that there are people who seem to be suckers for all things tablet and android. I don't try to argue with these people as they are the hays and I am a needle.

 

[Stradian]

People like to be reassured that the have the shiniest billion in their pocket, not the densest one. It will only take a splash on television to convince thousands to buy. Lest hold your patience, and see what the other suckers thought about it first.

 

[lebob23]

I already knew android was unoptimized but what I didn't know is how fast the pandora works. The device is actually very useful. I guess what I don't understand is why anybody would play games on it as opposed to a PS. But what I don't understand is why it has to be so small, is it really that hard to carry around a backpack with a 6 pound desktop replacement notebook and a smartphone?


The pandora is very unique and optimized but is it really worth it for that small amount of use?

 

[Prometheus]

Have you actually seen the controls on a PSP? Yuck.

 

[diligentcircle]

I already knew android was unoptimized but what I didn't know is how fast the pandora works. The device is actually very useful. I guess what I don't understand is why anybody would play games on it as opposed to a PS. But what I don't understand is why it has to be so small, is it really that hard to carry around a backpack with a 6 pound desktop replacement notebook and a smartphone?


The pandora is very unique and optimized but is it really worth it for that small amount of use?

One word: pocket.


There were a couple of occasions when I played something simple on my Pandora while I was waiting for the rest of my family to finish shopping (Mahjong Solitaire, Bejeweled, and exploration in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night). Obviously, a laptop wouldn't have worked in this scenario.

 

[lebob23]

Have you actually seen the controls on a PSP? Yuck.

Yes I bought one soon after it was released and it was great then I sold it after I hacked it with pandora battery and 7 games on a memory card to a kid in highschool for $300.

 

[WizardStan]

But what I don't understand is why it has to be so small, is it really that hard to carry around a backpack with a 6 pound desktop replacement notebook and a smartphone?

Ok, now I know you're just trolling. Or at the very least fishing.

 

[EvilDragon]

I already knew android was unoptimized but what I didn't know is how fast the pandora works. The device is actually very useful. I guess what I don't understand is why anybody would play games on it as opposed to a PS. But what I don't understand is why it has to be so small, is it really that hard to carry around a backpack with a 6 pound desktop replacement notebook and a smartphone?

I'm a teacher once a week and take the train to get to my students.


I have all my documents on an USB stick.


The train takes one hour, so I'm sitting in the train for two hours in one day.


I don't have a backpack with me. Only my jacket and my trousers. And my Pandora fits in there.


Why should I take a backpack with me?

 

[Neelix]

Bottom line: If you never fantisized about a device like the Pandora before discovering that some brilliant chaps have actually gone ahead and MADE it a reality... then you'll never understand the Pandora as 'A Dream Come True' like it is for most of us.

That's it exactly!


For me its about the form factor and the flexibility.


I remember when I first conceived my 'dream' version of the Pandora. I was looking at my Gameboy Advance SP, and thinking how much it resembled the tricorders in Star Trek TNG. It bothered me that what had to be a fairly powerful CPU set in such a useful form factor was restricted to only being used for games and only then the games that the manufacturer deemed to publish. (I hadn't yet encountered the homebrew scene.) Could you imagine what Spock would say if you told him he could only use his tricorder for games and that there was no way to program it to do anything else? (yes I know I'm mixing up my trek, sue me)


So that was my first vision of the pandora; a pocket-able clam-shell computer with the flexibility to do anything I wanted it to do and be programmed on the fly from the device itself if need be. I never imagined I'd see it realised, but when I found the Pandora I knew it was *exactly* what I'd been imagining for so long. Nothing else has even come close.


- Neelix

 

[Jamie]

Have you actually seen the controls on a PSP? Yuck.

Yes I bought one soon after it was released and it was great then I sold it after I hacked it with pandora battery and 7 games on a memory card to a kid in highschool for $300.

I don't plan to buy a pandora any time soon but i'm intrested in the project because im love the idea of the machine keyboard dual analog sticks it could do anything and its cute and small.


I still have my psp they are games on it i'd just not want to let go. if games make a system then the psp is a great system.

 

[Prometheus]

Bottom line: If you never fantisized about a device like the Pandora before discovering that some brilliant chaps have actually gone ahead and MADE it a reality... then you'll never understand the Pandora as 'A Dream Come True' like it is for most of us.

That's it exactly!


For me its about the form factor and the flexibility.


I remember when I first conceived my 'dream' version of the Pandora. I was looking at my Gameboy Advance SP, and thinking how much it resembled the tricorders in Star Trek TNG. It bothered me that what had to be a fairly powerful CPU set in such a useful form factor was restricted to only being used for games and only then the games that the manufacturer deemed to publish. (I hadn't yet encountered the homebrew scene.) Could you imagine what Spock would say if you told him he could only use his tricorder for games and that there was no way to program it to do anything else? (yes I know I'm mixing up my trek, sue me)


So that was my first vision of the pandora; a pocket-able clam-shell computer with the flexibility to do anything I wanted it to do and be programmed on the fly from the device itself if need be. I never imagined I'd see it realised, but when I found the Pandora I knew it was *exactly* what I'd been imagining for so long. Nothing else has even come close.


- Neelix

When I was a kid, I drew up a pretty detailed sketch of a machine that, at the time, I hoped to somehow be able to pitch to some big company or other (as you do when you're a kid). It was way before the existence of the Game Boy Advance SP, so clamshell designs on handheld consoles were mostly unheard of (some LCD games in the early 1990s had used them, but those were pretty limited in functionality; Closer to what my idea was at the time, laptops and Psion palmtops did use them - these were part of what inspired the design I doodled).


In a recent clear-out, the sketch I did back then was found, and a relative let me know about it. Their exact words? "We found this drawing you did when you were younger, of an idea for a handheld system. It's EXACTLY like the Pandora!", and they sounded a slight bit spooked by it. :lol: I imagine that's part of why I get on so well with the Pandora - it's precisely what I had always imagined (and made a detailed design sketch for as a kid ), plus more.

 

[EvilDragon]

In a recent clear-out, the sketch I did back then was found, and a relative let me know about it. Their exact words? "We found this drawing you did when you were younger, of an idea for a handheld system. It's EXACTLY like the Pandora!", and they sounded a slight bit spooked by it. :lol: I imagine that's part of why I get on so well with the Pandora - it's precisely what I had always imagined (and made a detailed design sketch for as a kid ), plus more.

Pictures


Uhh... now we need to be scared that you don't sue us because we stole your idea

 

[Prometheus]

I don't think they kept it, unfortunately. :lol:


And like hell I'm going to sue you guys - you made what I always dreamed of. You're stuck with a customer for life, now, as long as it continues.

 

[valhalla]

But what I don't understand is why it has to be so small, is it really that hard to carry around a backpack with a 6 pound desktop replacement notebook and a smartphone?

Carrying is not the only problem: sometimes using is also. A desktop replacement notebook usually requires a desktop or some other flat surface, some models can't even be used on your lap. The pandora can be used while standing or even walking, which is hard enough to do even with the smallest netbooks.

 

[Writing Ronin]

You're stuck with a customer for life, now, as long as it continues.

Yep, in all seriousness, same here, ED. Despite the problems which, are sadly part of the biz and a natural learning process, I've had great customer service and my Pandora is the most used machine I've owned in a long, long time, so my support is locked in.


My poor g/f thinks I love my Pandora more than her (so far the only other thing she thinks I love more than her is Aston Villa, as I'm a near lifelong/suffering fan). She's wrong on both counts, but I certainly love my Pandora more than most other consumer electronics I own*. Which says a lot


*No, not in THAT way, you dirty buggers.

 

[WizardStan]

And about a girlfriend ?


Better have a capacitive or a resistive one ? Multitouch or pressure sensitive ?

Resistive, totally. Much more fun when they play hard to get.