How Long Before The Pandora Becomes "nothing Special"?


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mazza558

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Considering that next year there'll be a deluge of ARM-netbooks coming out, how long do you think it'll be before the Pandora is considered nothing special in terms of specs and capability? Since we won't be seeing it in our own hands for a month or two, could another ARM device steal its thunder in that time?
 
I don't think it will happen anytime soon. The specs are pretty awesome. I could understand later in 2009 but not early or the middle of 2009. I mean Christmas has just passed, normal people have no monies... who knows.
 
mazza558 said:
Considering that next year there'll be a deluge of ARM-netbooks coming out, how long do you think it'll be before the Pandora is considered nothing special in terms of specs and capability? Since we won't be seeing it in our own hands for a month or two, could another ARM device steal its thunder in that time?
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Specs and capability? Right now.


Size and controls? Possibly never.

(PS, it isn't a Netbook, unless there are netbooks the size of a Nintendo DS. I might call my Toshiba Librettos "netbooks", I used them to play emulated Sega Genesis games 3+ years ago, and they ran full Windows, I even had mine on DOS/98 with a CompactFlash card for a Hard drive.)
 
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that's a fairly good question.

My thoughts are that notebooks will be used for notebook stuff...

Pandora is mainly meant to be a hand held gaming system. But, since it's open source will easily be able to do notebook stuff too. I believe that the Pandora will last for a long time. Long enough to get everything that you will want on it.

Thats my $0.01... sorry id give $0.02 but im saving for the pandora.
 
mazza558 said:
Considering that next year there'll be a deluge of ARM-netbooks coming out, how long do you think it'll be before the Pandora is considered nothing special in terms of specs and capability? Since we won't be seeing it in our own hands for a month or two, could another ARM device steal its thunder in that time?
Click to expand...
Well, being the most powerful handheld by far on this size, plus having the longest battery duration by today standards, is only part of the story. Having linux, the focus on HW quality and openness is the second half. And the community that inspires, develops and supports it its the third half ;)

Havin' sayed that... I picture myself using it for at least 5 years more from the day it arrives, if she resists the up and down I'm gonna give to her B) . Many things should change suddenly for a better device to come soon (taking into account those three important aspects). But who knows. If it had Psion 5 keyboard, hdmi out, Cortex A9, transflective touchscreen, all the comm ports alredy present in Pandora and linux, I'd seriously think about buying that one too.

EDIT: grammatical errors
EDIT 2: quote from the future QUOTE

If I had a tinfoil hat, I'd say that certain companies were getting nervous about Pandora and trying their best to delay it until it is nothing special. DDOS attacks, buying up LCD supplies, bribing FedEx, feeding disinformation to banks. They've got a "new" and grossly underspecced version of the PSP to sell, after all.

You totally read my mind on that, lol :D
 
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If I had a tinfoil hat, I'd say that certain companies were getting nervous about Pandora and trying their best to delay it until it is nothing special. DDOS attacks, buying up LCD supplies, bribing FedEx, feeding disinformation to banks. They've got a "new" and grossly underspecced version of the PSP to sell, after all.

But I don't have a tinfoil hat.
 
Well "if" Sony ever release a PSP with dual analog controls and possibly a low-level development kit for gaming enthusiast(I believe they did that for the PSX and ran a contest as well) that could steal away some thunder from Pandora. But that's a big "IF".
 
ish420 said:
Well with Nvidia now making gpus for Intel's Atom. Netbooks will become a more sought after portable pc. Maybe a new company will pick up these new boards and create a Pandora-like project using this new Atom-Nvidia combination.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/sff_ion.html




Oh yeah, because netbooks aren't 5 times the size of the pandora, so it should be easy.

Just to bring it into perspective: With a battery larger than the entire pandora it can't even manage the same battery life.

Edit: Just to clarify, I will probably be buying one of these Atom/nVidia netbooks or set-top-boxes/PC's. I have been waiting for one of these for about 6 years, light-weight processor and video card able to play 3D games with aplomb. Just hoping that XP drivers are rock-solid and compatibility with my retro-games collection is good (DX7-9.0c titles minimum.)
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nubie said:
ish420 said:
Well with Nvidia now making gpus for Intel's Atom. Netbooks will become a more sought after portable pc. Maybe a new company will pick up these new boards and create a Pandora-like project using this new Atom-Nvidia combination.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/sff_ion.html




Oh yeah, because netbooks aren't 5 times the size of the pandora, so it should be easy.

Just to bring it into perspective: With a battery larger than the entire pandora it can't even manage the same battery life.

I take it you didn't notice the board is about the size of Pandora's PCB. Battery size, that's a different issue all together.
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I doubt there will be really like it in 2009.

Most vendors of "netbooks" go for x86 , the closest I see there is the Raon Digital Everun (aldo still far bigger), but you can see for yourself what a battery live this has...

Edit:
.Gogeta§§J4BR. said:
that's why they have to release the pandora as early as possible... it wouldn't stand a chance against a similar product built around atom-nvidia =`(
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I see no indication that it's even remotely possible to build a similar system (I mean by this , same size, same batterylife and "good enough" horsepower to do decent browsing and some other stuff) due power consumption and heat.
/end of edit

For ARM I guess the only "similar" architecture close on the heals is the successor of the nokia N800/810. But this still a good time away afaik and will have most likly a different formfactor. While the N8x0 formfactor has a few things about it, it's not (yet) a "competitor" for the Pandora. We will have to see for the N900.

If you have some other data about ARM devices coming up then please share.


The unique fact of having 2 sd slots giving it lots of storage and a "open" architecture on both software and HW side will still make this things "special" even if "similar" devices come out.

I doubt the Pandora will go "mainstream" but that is also not really the intention.
I do however see a huge potential for "non gamers" power users taking a big interest in this.
Only once example: if your a network admin/dba and need to do standby's ... well I can assure you you really want a thing like this. Got a call fro the boss or some watchdog framework while out? Reach out to your pocket in the pub, connect, vpn / ssh to your system, get the crappy thing back up and order an other pint of beer.

IF the Panordora will deliver what is promised then I think there will be for a good while nothing else on the market that is that flexible on the software front (thankx to OSS) and small with such good battery life specs.
 
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Pandora will occupy a comfortable niche. It will have time to mature and build up a decent community with loyal users and developers. People will appreciate the real thing and avoid knock-offs. Other UMPCs, MIDs netbooks will come and go, but Pandora is here to stay. There will be a Pandora 2 waiting for us somewhere in the future. We will be willing to continue the journey when the time is right.
 
hey

Hah, I just came across the NVIDIA Ion myself.

Anyhows to go on I don't think we will see anything with gaming controls and such as the Pandora any time soon, but I think we will see very portable laptops, or handhends/palms (or whatever) quite soon with decent graphical power.

edit
As I mentioned in an offtopic thread I made not long ago about the NVIDIA Ion, it kinda makes me think of a Pandora II, hehe. Anyhows I dunno, the first one needs to kick off first, and some might wanna stick with ARM for better compatibility with the first Pandora, and it would probably be a few years before we see a Pandora II, if ever, anyhows, hehe.

cyas
 
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Atom is bad for products such as the Pandora. It's not good to have a x86 architecture, it consumes too much power, heats too much, etc, etc.
I'm perfectly ok with ARM and I have no complaints about the current Pandora design.

I don't think there will be a device such as the Pandora anytime soon, most of them should be exclusively Video Games (portable consoles) or should have weak gaming capabilities (Nokia internet tablets and some Nseries cell phones).
 
hey

Yep, according to the graph mali refered to in the thread I linked to in my previous post above, the ARM Cortex is far far far more power efficient, which really makes me lose interest in the NVIDIA Ion.

cyas
 
Am i the only one who wants ARM to win this sudden netbook/mobile handheld war and for intel to gtfo with x86?
 
Ryuu said:
Am i the only one who wants ARM to win this sudden netbook/mobile handheld war and for intel to gtfo with x86?
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Obviously not. My guess is that it's a pretty common feeling in this community ;)
 
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