Has the pandora been released yet?

[Fatriff]

Hi all, I've been watching this products development for about 8 months now, Has anybody actually got one yet?

 

[alfaalex101]

Some developers have gotten early builds to start making programs with them but a final build isn't out yet.

 

[Fatriff]

Ah I see

When it was announced I was excited about this thing, the specs were amazing.. now the specs aren't that great compared to handsets like the Toshiba TG01 which I have now pre-ordered..

4.1 inch cinematic screen

The first ever device with 3D gaming in WVGA

1 GHz of processing power

Technology is moving so fast it's difficult to keep up

 

[alfaalex101]

Ah I see

When it was announced I was excited about this thing, the specs were amazing.. now the specs aren't that great compared to handsets like the Toshiba TG01 which I have now pre-ordered..

4.1 inch cinematic screen

The first ever device with 3D gaming in WVGA

1 GHz of processing power

Technology is moving so fast it's difficult to keep up

True but no one is going to bother porting CS1.6, Quake 3, Doom 3 and a whole load of other games to it like the Pandora

 

[second exodous]

Whew. . . . For a second I thought the Toshiba TG01 was going to be a ARM/Linux netbook or something that compared to the Pandora. I've already pre-ordered the Pandora and the Touch Book so I think I've overspent on the small-Linux-hand-held department.

Like alfaalex101 pointed out, the Toshiba TG01 won't have near the variety of software on it.

 

[Mithrildor]

Goodluck with your Toshiba, we dont need a topic with a title in caps just so you can tell you got your toshiba without any gaming controls and which obviously is a iPhone clone.

EDIT:

Im good at this stuff I should be a mod at OpenHandhelds.org

 

[(naw)mcx]

Goodluck with your Toshiba, we dont need a topic with a title in caps just so you can tell you got your toshiba without any gaming controls and which obviously is a iPhone clone.

EDIT:

Im good at this stuff I should be a mod at OpenHandhelds.org

I like that Tosh, lovely stuff. The stripe UI is rather lovely.

(Heh, I say we have a board moderated by Discussion Cube regulars, that's would be awesome )

 

[danielpwnsricky]

if you've been watching this project for 8 months, you'd know already.

 

[lingenfr]

we dont need a topic with a title in caps just so you can tell you got your toshiba without any gaming controls and which obviously is a iPhone clone.

Agreed, please get a life and go gloat on a Toshiba forum.

I've already pre-ordered the Pandora and the Touch Book so I think I've overspent on the small-Linux-hand-held department.

The Touchbook looks neat and the 802.11n is nice. The lack of any confirmed video out would be a deal breaker for me.

 

[lulzfish]

Is a handset a cell phone?

Cell phones are a bitch to develop for, the Pandora has a regular GNU/Linux + X11 interface. You just compile a program and run it.
I don't want any more devices that I can't program.

 

[Consequence_9]

IS YOUR CAPSLOCK JAMMED?

 

[second exodous]

I don't want any more devices that I can't program.

I agree, if I can't do what I want with it and I can live without it I don't want it. I guess that cuts out every hand held from Nintendo, Apple, or Sony, and I'm ok with that.

 

[lulzfish]

I might have to cut out a small exception for the PS3 once ICO 3 comes out, but there are technically ways to run Linux on it, so it won't be a total loss.

 

[second exodous]

Well, I make an exception to anything that my TV uses. I can't play Blu-ray on Linux yet, so I need something to play that. I'm mainly talking about computers/hand helds.

 

[Capn_Fish]

Is a handset a cell phone?
...the Pandora has a regular GNU/Linux + X11 interface. You just compile a program and run it.
I don't want any more devices that I can't program.

That sums up my views perfectly. Now I know what to tell people when they point out various "awesome" phones/PDAs/etc.

 

[anexanhume]

I edited the OP because all caps are extremely annoying, as everyone has said.

The TG01 is a nice looking phone, but it's still just a phone. It doesn't have any hardware gaming controls, so you'll either need external devices or you'll be limited by what a resistive touchscreen will let you do in terms of control. That being said, it's a gorgeous handset with a nice screen. All it needs is some android love.

 

[Exophase]

Meh, a Snapdragon wasted on another touch-screen only phone. What a shame.

 

[TheRain]

You know, I like to think I'm pretty open to new devices... but it amazes me that this 1Ghz handset seems to have slightly not-smooth animated transitions. I guess it must be WinMo that's the issue.

Granted, no handset has really matched the iPhone's ui fluidity, but some have come pretty close and the Pre will probably be a match I believe.

 

[dflemstr]

You know, I like to think I'm pretty open to new devices... but it amazes me that this 1Ghz handset seems to have slightly not-smooth animated transitions. I guess it must be WinMo that's the issue.

Granted, no handset has really matched the iPhone's ui fluidity, but some have come pretty close and the Pre will probably be a match I believe.

(my added emphasis)

This is the most important thing when it comes to touchscreen devices. If it ain't smooth, it's not worth using.
Hopefully the Pandora devs will think about this when designing GUIs: if it doesn't have transitions, it feels too static and not touchscreen-friendly at all. Better to use GL acceleration and lose 1h of battery time, or use Cairo or something, so as to get smooth effects, than to get static menus à la Windows95/WindowMaker/pretty much anything lo-fi and/or non-modern.

 

[TheRain]

You know, I like to think I'm pretty open to new devices... but it amazes me that this 1Ghz handset seems to have slightly not-smooth animated transitions. I guess it must be WinMo that's the issue.

Granted, no handset has really matched the iPhone's ui fluidity, but some have come pretty close and the Pre will probably be a match I believe.

(my added emphasis)

This is the most important thing when it comes to touchscreen devices. If it ain't smooth, it's not worth using.
Hopefully the Pandora devs will think about this when designing GUIs: if it doesn't have transitions, it feels too static and not touchscreen-friendly at all. Better to use GL acceleration and lose 1h of battery time, or use Cairo or something, so as to get smooth effects, than to get static menus à la Windows95/WindowMaker/pretty much anything lo-fi and/or non-modern.

Totally agree. It won't be a deal breaker for me since it *IS* a much more open system. But I do think UI will suffer a bit in Pandora due to using X Windows and not enforcing standardized UI elements and transitions appropriate for a mobile device. That's why I'm hoping that the Android platform, or possibly Maemo will grow in popularity on this system sometime down the road. I'm already thinking about and considering how much time it will take for me to modify the open source apps I wind up using most on the Pandora and modernizing/unifying the UI's.