Incentive To Buy Pandora?

[AireTamStorm]

In short, what makes the Pandora worth $330 to YOU? I think some influencing could be of some help, as my decision is teetering.

The Pandora is a Linux computer. It will be able to run anything I have access to source code, which is close to 100% of the software I use on my PC. So EVERYTHING I DO on a computer nowadays, I'll be able to do on the Pandora. Beyond that. portable web browsing, an SSH terminal, wifi / network sniffing and diagnostics? It is basically a swiss army knife. You're asking which blade I'm buying it for. <_<

Edit: Chip, you beat me to the swiss army knife analogy. Damn! Nice reasoning, btw.

 

[Pylon_Trooper]

As well as looking forward to the machine's gaming capabilities (dual analog nub FPS/TPS goodness!), I think I'm most excited about the UMPC applications it should foster. A fully-fledged word processor on the go, as well as small graphics suites, sound utterly brilliant. I've always swooned over the Sony, Samsung etc. UMPC range, but the battery life hasn't really been crash-hot. 10 battery life for the Pandora? Awesome feat!

The more I think about it, the more excited I get for the little creation.

 

[thomasmes]

Some people pay € 600,- ($ 800- 900,-) for a (i)Phone or PDA with less functionality and smaller screens (except for the dialing function), so $ 330,- is not a bad price IMHO.

Anyway, I reserved this amount of money since I read about the Pandora B)

I am more interested in what the maximum price is that people would pay for the Pandora? My maximum would be € 250,- ($ 375,-)

 

[_VWV_]

Pandora is cheap IMHO that's evident. Let's take Nokias price policy. New internet tablets cost around 500$-550$. Panda is based on a next gen SoC which is still to be used (probably) in the coming N900. The dev team could have charged a lot MORE. To my mind if people complain about the price they really must have no idea about todays handheld market.

 

[TyBO!]

There's a chance that the Pandora will be a little cheaper than $330 USD by the time it comes out. The US dollar has been making a bit of a comeback recently thanks to foreign investors buying American goods while the exchange rate worked in their favor.

Back when the price for the Pandora was said to cost $330 USD, 1 GBP was about $2 USD.

Now 1 GBP is about $1.86 USD.

 

[enigmacipher]

I love nintendo 64 emulation. That was why I came to gp32x. Because I thought the Pandora had a chance of n64 emulation at 50%+ speed. (which I consider playable with frame skip). That is not why I am buying the Pandora anymore, but it is a HUGE factor. It seems stupid, I know, but I love the n64.

It was stated earlier that there is no "killer app" for the Pandora yet. If n64 hits 50% speed with frameskip, it will be that killer app. So if I can play Majora's Mask and wave race and banjo kazooie/tooie, then I have spent the right $330. If not, I am in it for a web browser/MID better then my iPod Touch (my cursed parents won't allow me to buy a laptop). That plus excellent games from all systems under ps1 and quake III.

 

[Gaeryc]

I think the previous posters have covered most of the important features of the Pandora, but I'd like to say one more thing:

You cannot buy a device that does everything the Pandora does in a pocketable form factor for any amount of money.

If you just want to play games, then you have the PSP and DS and GP2X and soon you'll have the Wiz. But they're not that great for much beyond that. If you want an internet device / pocket PC, there are the Nokia tablets, the iPhone, and similar devices like the HTC Shift. If you want a bit more productivity and are willing to pay more / carry something larger, there's plenty of UMPCs and netbooks to choose from. If you just want a PMP, there are hundreds of them in every form factor imaginable.

But if you want all of that, your only option is the Pandora. Even if money were not an issue, what else could you buy that covers all the bases of the Pandora? Nothing. Nothing that fits in your pocket. Nothing that has an 8-10 hour battery life.

I've said numerous times that the Pandora is not for everybody. It really isn't. Not everybody wants to do everything that the Pandora can do. There is no reason to buy a Swiss Army knife if all you need is the corkscrew. But if you want the knife, scissors, toothpick, can opener, saw, awl, and half a dozen other doodads of indeterminate purpose, then you pay a bit extra and get the right tool for the job.


Amen. I have been wanting something like this for ages and pandora is the best device for me. There is nothing that comes even close to it in any price. I would say that 250€ is a good price for a pocketable machine that can emulate up to psx. I would say it's a good price for a pmp that would play almost every codec. It would even be a good price for a pocketable computer that I could use just to do basic task like surfing that had 8 hours of battery life.

Pandora does all of that, has god like screen, good looking controls, dual sdhc slots, usb host port and it's open so everything's a possibility. I'm hoping to be able to use touchscreen gestures :lol:

What in the hell pandora doesn't have?

 

[ashdjones]

There's a chance that the Pandora will be a little cheaper than $330 USD by the time it comes out. The US dollar has been making a bit of a comeback recently thanks to foreign investors buying American goods while the exchange rate worked in their favor.

Back when the price for the Pandora was said to cost $330 USD, 1 GBP was about $2 USD.

Now 1 GBP is about $1.86 USD.

That would be so unfair! I'll be paying the British price which works out right now as $373.

 

[Arialia]

For me it is the perfect device : little computer with gaming interface, wifi, bluetooth, SD cards ( cheaper and more robust ), it could replace my laptop to manage my phone and act as PDA with a keyboard and stylus

in reality i have yet an DS so it is not really to games , but with two analog nubs a game like wing commander or elite frontier must be great, and port of game's Realtech VR could be wonderful on this device B)

more expensive than PSP or DS

but cheaper than an old Zaurus

 

[CCmachined]

who else wants a C++ or C compiler ported to the unit? ^^

as in, so we can compile things on the go... why not? it has a keyboard, excellent for coding!

 

[Squidge]

That would be so unfair! I'll be paying the British price which works out right now as $373.

Why will you be paying the british price?

who else wants a C++ or C compiler ported to the unit? ^^

as in, so we can compile things on the go... why not? it has a keyboard, excellent for coding!

You can port GCC, but do you know how slow it would be? (and the constant out of memory errors...)

 

[closetwam]

Our government.. Our system.. Is set up to only need one thing from you; Every last penny you have. Your pennies are going somewhere, and I believe that the Pandora is a product that actually earns the pennies it demands.

 

[laurens]

who else wants a C++ or C compiler ported to the unit? ^^

as in, so we can compile things on the go... why not? it has a keyboard, excellent for coding!

You can port GCC, but do you know how slow it would be? (and the constant out of memory errors...)


I may have linked to it before: http://landley.net/code/tinycc/ - it's a, well, tiny c compiler, supporting ARM amongst other targets (and hosts).

 

[Arialia]

who else wants a C++ or C compiler ported to the unit? ^^

as in, so we can compile things on the go... why not? it has a keyboard, excellent for coding!

You can port GCC, but do you know how slow it would be? (and the constant out of memory errors...)


Where are the good old days when you can go drink a coffee in waiting compilation on your 286 :rolleyes:

Now when you wake up compilation is finish :lol: ( good at home but not at office, really to fast now )


Seriously gcc on Pandora ? why not , but only for little program, don't expect compile xserver or something like that : you must waiting all the day and night

 

[TaG]

Pandora is cheap IMHO that's evident. Let's take Nokias price policy. New internet tablets cost around 500$-550$. Panda is based on a next gen SoC which is still to be used (probably) in the coming N900. The dev team could have charged a lot MORE. To my mind if people complain about the price they really must have no idea about todays handheld market.

I agree that the Pandora is good value, but it is not cheap. Many people either cannot afford it or if they really don't want all the features it is expensive to them, for example those wanting a $100 emulation device. Had they charged more the demand would have fallen, thus the development potential would also be reduced, which in turn would further reduce demand. Things are only worth what people will pay. At $550 I would have gone elsewhere. As has been said before, its about bang for your buck. At this price it is going to bang! LOUD.

There's a chance that the Pandora will be a little cheaper than $330 USD by the time it comes out. The US dollar has been making a bit of a comeback recently thanks to foreign investors buying American goods while the exchange rate worked in their favor.

Back when the price for the Pandora was said to cost $330 USD, 1 GBP was about $2 USD.

Now 1 GBP is about $1.86 USD.

That would be so unfair! I'll be paying the British price which works out right now as $373.

If you are paying the British price it will be £199 - same as it always was.
The $ price based on todays rate would work out at $316.

 

[EmuGuy]

You cannot buy a device that does everything the Pandora does in a pocketable form factor for any amount of money.

As usual, Chip brings down the Hammer of Truth and sums it up. I'm in for the portable gaming alone, but the video playback (no converting, and a sweet screen) and real web browser add a ton of value, let alone the other features. Pandora will be a rare moment in time, so take advantage.

Another bottom line: No other product will be this 'open'. If it's not doing what you want, it probably can, and likely will.

 

[sold]

I think the pandora will be an excellent replacement for alot of devices. That could actually save some people money because we're gonna be able to do the following with just the pandora:

-Play awesome (or depending on your tastes, crappy) games + music + video, plus view text files and images no problems with excellent battery life.

-Use as a PDA

-(Hopefully) Run some decent audio apps

-Run heaps of Linux apps

-Control pc through vnc/some other remote access thingy (hopefully lag free on a home wifi network)

-Streammygame (maybe)

-Have 64 GB of storage (maybe more as SDHC may cards increase in capacity)

-Use pandora as a remote for a media center pc, or as a gamepad through bluetooth using joy2key or qjoypad or something similar.

-Surf internet from wifi hotspots or by tethering to 3g phone or wireless internet dongle thing.

-Impress our fellow geek friends with "73|-| 5|_|p3r 1337 H4x0r |\|1|\|j4 5k1llz" we now possess because we own a pandora. h34r:

All this seems likely and possibly heaps of other cool stuff I can't even think of. PLUS open source goodness. PLUS hi-tech paperweight capabilities FTW

For me, I'm gonna actually save money buying this device cause I'm not gonna need to buy one of the several other gadgets I was considering (iphone, ipod touch, nokia n810 are all either similar price or more expensive where I live + no good for gaming + screw apple). And now I wont need to cough up $100+ for a decent quality media center remote either if all goes according to plan.

Thats my incentive anyway.

The only way the deal could be any sweeter is if they threw in a free set of steak knives. But not just any old steak knives. Fully functioning miniature light saber steak knives - with key chain attachment.

Hows this for a new slogan: Pandora - All Your Gadget Are Belong To Us.

EDIT: Forgot to mention my favorite bit. Good gaming controls!

 

[t22r91s]

When I first found out about the Pandora, I was really excited about it, but soon I started considering finances and it kind of killed my buzz.

Assuming the Pandora is about $330 USD, plus whatever shipping might be, what functions does the Pandora have to justify such an expensive purchase?

As far as I've read, emulation for a wide array of systems is nowhere near 100%, and we've yet to see any PC functions in action, so I'm wondering why so many people are willing to blindly take the fall and pre-order something, that is at this stage, a write-up for what we'd actually want.

I see the Pandora as something I'd like to have, I'm just not sure it's worth putting down the cash for.
Is the emulation of a number of platforms worth $330+ when you can purchase a current console near that price range?
It's certainly worth SOMETHING to me, but is this the best option when it comes to portable emulation? Is this the definitive answer? And the PC functions it's supposed to have, will they actually be practical enough to use?

In short, what makes the Pandora worth $330 to YOU? I think some influencing could be of some help, as my decision is teetering.

Go buy a zephyr

 

[_VWV_]

Yeah, but Nokia DOES charge more. Each new IT device costs about the same and then the price slowly reduces. They've divided
the market into segments. If a device belongs to premium segment it should cost X whatever the production expenses are (to some extent ).If you buy a top device from Nokia you pay for brand and for the fact that it's a top device from Nokia. Do they care about devs and platform development? We can say they do since they've handed some devices for free to some devs. But it doesn't prevent them from squeezing some additional juice from the market. Why not allow them to pay if they will?
I agree that the higher the price is the the lower amount of customers we get, but price is a comparative thing. Yeah, comparativeness is somewhat complicated in this case, coz Craig doesn't have a Nokia-like brand to support andora1: and doesn't have that huge advertising capabilities. But imagine they're equal. Imagine that the coming n900 is based on the same soc (as it probably will be, I believe) and it costs 550$. Will you buy P for 500$? My opinion is as follows: if each time there are willingers to buy a new IT from Nokia there will be some to buy P for a smaller sum of money. Unfortunately (or maybe to our luck), the starting potential of andora1: dev team and Nokia differs "a bit", that is why P costs 400$ with taxes - the sum n900 will be worth in 6-8 months after release.

 

[canguy247]

You can port GCC, but do you know how slow it would be? (and the constant out of memory errors...)

This has been covered before but I use gcc (and of course g++) regularly on my Zaurus with a swap partition on SD (256mb.) The Pandora is miles ahead of that in processing and double the RAM. The biggest thing I have compiled is Equinox desktop environment and efltk, which took about 20mins or so combined. Not so bad for small to medium projects on-the-go.

Canguy