How About Wifi 802.11n Than 802.11b/g?

[t.s]

first posting here

my suggestions:

1. well, how about putting 802.11n rather than 802.11b/g on next batch? I heard they only have a slight difference on price and 802.11n is covering 802.11b and g (the Asus put on their Eee box) and a better performance. Sorry, dunno about the chip dimensions.
2. How about putting uSIM Card slot to pandora? so it can use 3G or that-kind-of-stuff too?

ps: sorry if I post it in wrong place.

 

[TrevorBradley]

first posting here

my suggestions:

1. well, how about putting 802.11n rather than 802.11b/g on next batch? I heard they only have a slight difference on price and 802.11n is covering 802.11b and g (the Asus put on their Eee box) and a better performance. Sorry, dunno about the chip dimensions.
2. How about putting uSIM Card slot to pandora? so it can use 3G or that-kind-of-stuff too?

ps: sorry if I post it in wrong place.

*Plays Jaws music, waiting for the sharks to show up*

Any hardware modifications wouldn't occur in the second batch, but rather as development on some sort of "Pandora 2" which would come after development of Pandora Hardware. Up front development costs are too much for any significant hardware changes to the Pandora at this point.

 

[Yigguth]

There will be no differences between batches, and any changes will be out of necessity and probably not noticeable

 

[PoisonedV]

Make early adopters feel even worse... perfect plan

 

[likwidoxigen]

Make early adopters feel even worse... perfect plan

Huh?
That implies early adopters should feel bad as things stand for some reason. There is none.

 

[belthos]

Pandora can probably use 3g phone networks that use tiny usb dongles, I have a couple myself.
One sprint and one alltel.

the smaller of the two is the size of a thumb drive.

Internal 3g would raise cost dramatically, lower battery life by a lot and most 3g cards in the us are locked to a specific service and the typical service cost per month is US $60/month.

If the card prices are an example they would add around US $200 to pandora's price, unless you set up an arrangement with a phone network to subsidize the cards and then you would be tied to a typical 2 year contract 24 months @$60 month = $1440 in internet costs.

This is of course additional to the original $330 cost of pandora.

If these ball park figures are added together 2 years of pandora would suddenly run about $1970.

I don't think that would fly.

Belthos

 

[likwidoxigen]

Internal 3g would raise cost dramatically,
Belthos

How bout you go re-read. He wasn't the next iteration of wireless 802.11 tech. Not phone tech.
How bout I go re-read. I'm an ass and didn't read through the first post fully. My bad.

 

[t.s]

hm.. I see...

Yeah, for 3G I think it is just too much (locked service, monopolize, etc..etc).
But, for wifi? It's just too bad it can't be there for 2nd batch (when we look for 802.11n specification). I understand the cost for development isn't 'cheap', but I think it is not too hard to snap it in 'cause we just need adding the 802.11n module(s)? Oh and yes, Eee Box that came with linux has enabled the 802.11n, which meant, we have? a working 802.11n modules, yes?

Just hope pandora can rock! ehehe..

 

[mali]

hm.. I see...

Yeah, for 3G I think it is just too much (locked service, monopolize, etc..etc).
But, for wifi? It's just too bad it can't be there for 2nd batch (when we look for 802.11n specification). I understand the cost for development isn't 'cheap', but I think it is not too hard to snap it in 'cause we just need adding the 802.11n module(s)? Oh and yes, Eee Box that came with linux has enabled the 802.11n, which meant, we have? a working 802.11n modules, yes?

Just hope pandora can rock! ehehe..

Do you really need more speed right now? What for? If there is a drop in replacement for the dual purpose wifi/bluetooth chip some day, it might be feasible to sell updated P.s with a faster chip.

[off topic]
There is a new forum category "Beta Testing"
[/off topic]

 

[Tor]

Is 802.11n even through the standards yet? Last I looked it wasn't. There are lots of '802.11n' devices out there, I know, but they're not really 802.11n, as the standard wasn't finished when they were made. And many of the devices creates problems for other networks. An N8x0, for example, goes completely network blind when some of those fake (at this point) 802.11n APs are near.

 

[t.s]

Is 802.11n even through the standards yet? Last I looked it wasn't. There are lots of '802.11n' devices out there, I know, but they're not really 802.11n, as the standard wasn't finished when they were made. And many of the devices creates problems for other networks. An N8x0, for example, goes completely network blind when some of those fake (at this point) 802.11n APs are near.

Seems like you said, Tor. Yep, it didn't become standard yet, although some company used them with some kind of 'certificates?' on Draft N version. On November '08 there's draft 7. Wikipedia said that It will mature on 2009. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n)

Like that my previous sources is not valid, hehe.. sorry for that. Well, like that we still stuck on 802.11b/g. Thanks for the Info, Tor

 

[PoisonedV]

Make early adopters feel even worse... perfect plan

Huh?
That implies early adopters should feel bad as things stand for some reason. There is none.

Do you realize how many people are ready to jump ship due to the 2 re orders, constant delays, and perceived lack of information?

 

[conso]

I don't think hardware revisions are impossible, esp. when they are not critical for games/apps.
Noone will be unable to play a pandora-game because of missing 802.11n or 3g-networking. There won't be a "dreamcast-emulator will only be for pandoras with 802.11n".

If the chip is easily replaceable, cheap and functional, there is no reason to not think about it.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Why not include USB 3.0?

Why not include a credit card slot so that it can be used as an ATM?

 

[Tobriand]

Ok, I think the two questions have been answered, but basically it boils down to this:

Hardware changes, especially those requiring any changes to the PCB or case (as opposed to a simpler chip-exchange where the old and new chips have identically functional pinouts - e.g as with the ram) will not happen at this stage.

If you ask why...

1. There's a good chance the feature was already considered and discounted. There will indubitably be a reason for this. True as of about 2 months ago, maybe 3.

2. There has been too much money invested in the current design for a radical change - in particular, the PCBs have already been ordered (which are *really* expensive to make, if I understand correctly), and the case will have been completely designed, and (I hope, though I don't know) moulded and sent to the manufacturer for production. Such costs would turn Pandora from something that is cost-neutral for the first batch, and profitable thereafter, to something that would make a very heavy loss indeed.

Ok, I think that is enough on the issue. I'm closing the topic because new hardware requests are very very likely to result in flames. Hopefully your question has been answered sufficiently, though.