I'm Sorry But...

[linc186]

Why do people drop the pandora for the god damn n900? Okay yes same processor..... Great. That doesn't define the whole device . The n900 is lacking a full OS, dedicated gaming controls... BUTTONS!, open sourceness, 5.4 inch screen, USB ports, 10+ hours of battery life, a thriving community of friendly developers, etc. So you've got the processor, .... But absolutely nothing else. Is it just me...... Or does the n900 in the same league as the pandora.... Or completely un comparable. I'm sorry, but I saw some idiot on eBay sell a brand new just opened pandora and in the description he said that it just cane that day but he doesn't need it because he got an n900 which has the same processor. That got me flared.... Atleast do some research... Jesus...

 

[gruso]

Calming amber ale, drink some.

Not everyone sees the same thing in the Pandora. Most of us are all about the gaming controls and the homebrew scene, but many bought it just because it's a compact Linux device with a keyboard. They can get that in the N900 and have a phone too.

I think the delays have changed priorities for some people too. What they ordered in 2008 isn't necessarily what they want now.

But it is mildly interesting that people would take a discontinued product over one that is just beginning.

 

[Iorgy77]

Different people want things for different reasons. If the n900 meets the needs of the ebay seller in question then he doesnt need a pandora.

 

[mali]

Hail Pandora!

 

[-Tj-]

Who knows? But to each is own. Maybe the n900 has something that they aren't getting on the Pandora, and/or they need phone functionality, too. To be completely honest with you, if there was a phone that had game controls AND a physical keyboard AND a thriving community, I'd be all over it. Maybe I'd even sell my Pandora upon receiving it as well. But no such device exists, and I'd much rather carry around a phone and a Pandora instead. I kinda already do that with my PSP... but then again I'll eventually be carrying around my PSP, my phone, and a Pandora.

 

[Mr B]

The n900 is lacking a full OS, dedicated gaming controls... BUTTONS!, open sourceness, 5.4 inch screen, USB ports, 10+ hours of battery life, a thriving community of friendly developers, etc.

I'm sorry, while i agree with you on a lot of your issues, i have to input a few words here. I actually wanted a N900, and never wanted a Panda. (Well, after the clamshell design was decided on, i never wanted one) Anyway, on with whats wrong with your statement.
The N900 has a full OS. It might not be the design you want it to be, but it's there. Your free to use it, or replace it with something else on your own. It's also very much open source. As usual with commercialization there are parts that are, have to be, for legal licensing reasons, closed source, but thats no different from RedHat and others. As with any enthusiast piece of hardware, users take it where the developer never intended for it to go, or perhaps intended to, but couldn't say due to certification issues. Hence there have been a fair bit of work done on enabling USB host modes on the N900, and so far it's proven to be possible. Nothing in the hardware stops it from working, but there is the issue of creating a working driver... Just like it wasn't possible to send MMS, and was said by people who "knew" it wouldn't be possible to write an app that did it. They were, of course, wrong.

Yes, the screen of a N900 is smaller, at 3.5", and stupid width vs hight. It's a phone, it's supposed to be smaller.
Which also addresses the lack of gaming controls. It's not a gaming unit. It's a UMPC, with phone capabilities. The Panda is a UMPC with gaming capabilities. Nobody said it sucks since you cant call with it, or since it doesn't have integrated accelerometers, camera, or compass? You really have to put things in perspective. If you bought a Panda to have with you and take notes with, play music, and browse a bit of the web, then yes, you could probably just as well managed with a N900. And the exact same is true in reverse.

But really, what makes me look at you like your some sort of alien creature, is the last bit. As if a thriving community of friendly developers is exclusive to the Pandora. You do know there are other forums out there, aside from this one, yes? Hell, even the PSP has a thriving homebrew development scene. And thats a piece of kit that is intentionally closed, no system source available, and everything has to be hacked together by trial and error, or reverse engineering.

No, the N900 isn't a great device. It turned out to be to expensive, and have to poor battery time to be of any interest to me, but then again, the Panda wasn't even on my radar anymore when they decided on the clamshell design. So who knew that when they started out.
B!

 

[andys]

Why do people drop the pandora for the god damn n900? Okay yes same processor..... Great. That doesn't define the whole device . The n900 is lacking a full OS, dedicated gaming controls... BUTTONS!, open sourceness, 5.4 inch screen, USB ports, 10+ hours of battery life, a thriving community of friendly developers, etc. So you've got the processor, .... But absolutely nothing else. Is it just me...... Or does the n900 in the same league as the pandora.... Or completely un comparable. I'm sorry, but I saw some idiot on eBay sell a brand new just opened pandora and in the description he said that it just cane that day but he doesn't need it because he got an n900 which has the same processor. That got me flared.... Atleast do some research... Jesus...

I actually own an N900 (and am waiting patiently for my Pandora).

The N900 has a very nice OS - I'm not looking forward to trying to use an X desktop on a tiny screen tapping with a stylus. I don't exactly have the shakes, but some of the N900 ports with tiny buttons are a pain to hit with a stylus. Monkey Island 2 was completable though, but it did have some moments, but Broken Sword 2 is a bit more of a pain with tiny target areas.

The N900 is super-debian tastic. You can install .debs, you have proper X, but it runs a sensible window manager and has a swish (if sometimes slow) UI. Things slide in and out and it's very nice. It's actually a LOT nicer than the Ubuntu Netbook Edition that I'm running on my (more powerful!) Netbook.

I'd love to have Maemo (or Meego) on the Pandora. It's simply a much nicer UI.

That said, as you say the N900 is crappy for games. I've been using the Genesis emulator, and it's not much fun using that on the keyboard. Scummvm is a bit of a pain due to the lack of hardware buttons (right clicking is a pain, although not impossible) - something that triggers would resolve. Also obviously it's not going to be fun to play Amiga games, and I gave up trying.

Anyway, short summary - don't knock on the N900, it does rock and it gives us a nice cross-pollination of similar devices. Secondly, it has a nice OS with a nice UI which would rock on the Pandora. Seriously, the way multitasking is done absolutely rocks. There's plenty wrong with it, but that's mostly Nokia being idiots.

 

[Spirit]

I do own a Pandora and am currently browsing Smartphones to see if I can replace my old phone and the Pandora with one. It turned out that I just do not do the things I thought I would be doing with the Pandora. Partly because I expected it differently, partly because I just don't. N900 or one of the Android phones with keyboard seem nice. Once I tried them in real though, I had to admit that the Pandora's keyboard is lightyears better (obviously). It's just that the Pandora's gaming controls are not made for my style of playing (placing the whole knuckle/joint of my thumb on the dpad) so I can't game properly with it anyways. And I could use a gamepad for a phone just like for the Pandora. I personally would be better off with a smartphone and maybe also a netbook.

Now, I have to add that the more I feel like getting a smartphone instead, the more I feel attached to the Pandora. It offers sooo much more in theory.

 

[maximus]

yeah, i wanted a n900 AND a pandora
now i have the n900 and despite the fact that nokia's support is kinda weak, the maemo community seems very good, and i really like it.
vim, ssh, etc in your pocket is awesome.
i don't plan to play on it, this is for my (soon to arrive i hope ) panda !
kisses

Mac

 

[Miner49er]

After seeing my mates N900 I REALLY wanted one. Trouble is whilst waiting for my Pandora I've bough a netbook AND a smartphone (HTC Hero) and both purchases were to make up for the fact that my Pandora wasn't in my hands :-(

So I'm holding out on getting a N900 for now...perhaps if I still don't have my Pandy in another couple of months I may re-consider...

N900's are cool. Very cool. But if I get my Pandy then I can get the same functionality when combined with my rooted HTC Hero (it can act as a wifi access point now!)

 

[EdCa22]

Because it's a phone and the pandora isn't? Surely in many cases there isn't much more to it than that. I personally use a Motorola Milestone/Droid, and love it. It has the same processor as the pandora, runs Linux and has a keyboard. But I wouldn't dream of playing quake 3 on it, or doing any serious web browsing.

 

[Karel Jansens]

People are stupid. Live with it.

As for those loving Nokia´s «commitment», wait till they drop support for your device´s OS for the third freakin´time and basically tell you to buy a new tablet or go to hell.

 

[WizardStan]

Nobody said it sucks since you cant call with it, or since it doesn't have integrated accelerometers, camera, or compass?

Actually, a lot of people have come and said it sucks because it doesn't have an integrated phone. Those posts amaze me in almost the same way that linc's post does, for all the reasons that have already been mentioned.

 

[skeezix]

I'm mostly amazed by our human tendancy to put up blinders -- "this is not what I want, or it upsets me, so it sucks for everyone" The N900 is great; the Pandora is great; the Wiz, the NDS, the PSP are all great. Not all of them for every person, but any person will find something they like. Nothign says we all have to drink the same koolaid

Bah, you humans!

jeff

 

[mali]

As for those loving Nokia´s «commitment», wait till they drop support for your device´s OS for the third freakin´time and basically tell you to buy a new tablet or go to hell.

Heh, support already has been dropped Flash 10.1? Nope. MeeGo? Nope.
Knowing how things evolve with Nokia devices I got a Milestone instead

 

[Mr B]

As for those loving Nokia´s «commitment», wait till they drop support for your device´s OS for the third freakin´time and basically tell you to buy a new tablet or go to hell.

Not entirely sure what your trying to say here. At least with Maemo5 you got a full commercial dev team to spend a few months on the software, b4 handing it over to the enthusiasts, and letting them take care of keeping it up to date, and fresh. Not to disrespect anyone, or the work they put in, but how many full time employed developers do you thing the Open Pandora group have dedicated to the Pandas OS? I'd go as far as to say that everything on the Panda is hacked together in conjunction with the community, and if that work can turn out a fully working Panda, with regular updates and patches, i have no doubt that the same can be said for the community surrounding the N900.

Better or worse? Just different.
B!

 

[Trip]

As for those loving Nokia´s «commitment», wait till they drop support for your device´s OS for the third freakin´time and basically tell you to buy a new tablet or go to hell.

Heh, support already has been dropped Flash 10.1? Nope. MeeGo? Nope.
Knowing how things evolve with Nokia devices I got a Milestone instead

I got behind Nokia by buying an N800 but I won't fall into that trap again.
I'll buy normal phones from Nokia (throw away kind of phones) but not smart phones or Internet tablets.

 

[MonkeyChops]

... I saw some idiot on eBay sell a brand new just opened pandora and in the description he said that it just cane that day but he doesn't need it because he got an n900 which has the same processor. That got me flared.... Atleast do some research... Jesus...

I think he just wanted to give a reason for selling it besides "I'm selling it because I can make a huge profit off it right now"

 

[xopher]

I own both, enjoy both. They serve different niches for me. I still keep an n810 around also, why; because I like it, it also serves a purpose, nice bedside alarm clock sort of thing. Funny thing is I picked up my PSP yesterday and TBH it no longer felt as comfortable in my hands as the Pandora does after playing that the past few months. It is really a well thought out design for gaming, the UMPC aspect is just gravy on my birthday cake!

 

[Khan]

The n900 is lacking a full OS, dedicated gaming controls... BUTTONS!

I´m sorry but...


By the way, wasn´t power management in N900 (including under/over-clocking on demand) efficient enough to make up for its poor battery? (1320 mAh)