Mr. N00b Is Here Again For More Questions

[Zoppe]

so, i'm loving the development op the pandora, and been watching for some time, and i have a few questions.


1. how much the pandora team will charge for shipping?(i'm assuming it will have worldwide shipping)
2. what languages it will have out of the box?
3. will the speakers be loud?
4. will it have some type of file encrypter/decrypter? (for hiding por... erm.. i mean, confidential files)
5. will i be able to use usb 1.1 devices without a usb hub?(read about it in another post but wasn't quite clear for me)
6. will it be usable without SD cards? if yes, will be usable to what point?
7. if i use a usb mass storage device to access my data, what effect will it have on the battery life?
8. what i can use the serial port for?
9. is there any open source program related to acoustic guitar?(even a tuner will help)
10. can i use the pandora in different "modes" while connected to usb? something like, mic mode, speaker mode, game controller mode, storage mode, etc.
11. will it be able to emulate mobile phones?(just for the little java games)

OFF TOPIC (if you're a flamer, troll or anything of the likes please don't answer. thanks)

13. are CraigIX and co. associated to Satan in any way?(Just want to be sure)
14. does anyone here like tenacious d?
15. does RAM mean Read A Manual?
16. where do they sell cheap psp replacement screens?
16. did you noticed there are 2 questions number 16?
17. did you noticed that there's also no 12?
18. will you flame me?

Thats it, i hope i get some nice feedback and dont get bashed flamed or anithing like it.
(Sorry for my English, English is not my mother language)
thanks in advance

edit: cut the spaces post was(insert naughty word here) long.

 

[magicman5421]

1: One Million Dollars! but seriously, nobody has any idea but them.
2: goto 1;
3: goto 1;
4: It's running linux, and there are a multitude of encryption programs. If none of them are compatible, I'm sure a dev will write one.
5: I think so...
6: Only if you don't want to save anything to it. You can use the programs that come with it, but no new programs, as writing to the NAND flash is a bad idea.
7: If the device is powered, no effect, otherwise, it will definitely decrease the battery life.
8: Serial port?
9: There are...whether any are compatible/will be ported is a completely different story.
10: goto 1;
11: $5 says no.
12: haha you're funny...NOT!
13: Yep, didn't you see the entire forum dedicated to devil worship in the general Pandora section?
14: I'm sure someone does...
15: ... I pity you greatly. RTFM
16_1: Google.
16_2: No.
17: GTFO
18: Already did.

 

[waffles]

so, i'm loving the development op the pandora, and been watching for some time, and i have a few questions.

9. possibly, google for one with source code available for linux.

10. its possible, there was a thread about using the pandora as a usb controller.


13. not as far as we know

14. yesh.

15. RAM stands for random access memory, a computer component.
RTM is read the manual.

16.dealextreme.com

16. now i did.

17. nope.

18. assuredly.

Thats it, i hope i get some nice feedback and dont get bashed flamed or anithing like it.
(Sorry for my English, English is not my mother language)
thanks in advance


long post is looong. i replaced your questions with answers.

 

[Tom`]

1. This has not been determined, as far as I know, and it depends on where you are.

2. Since it is being distributed in the US, UK, Germany, and Turkey, I presume English, German and Turkish will be options.

3. I can't answer this, but I suspect if you want to play anything loud you connect external speakers. The sound quality will be much better this way (depending on what speakers you have, obviously).

4. I don't know whether it will support encryption out of the box, but you should be able to set it up without much trouble if not.

5. You will probably need an inexpensive adapter for the OTG port (which may or may not be included).

6. I would imagine you could boot it and use built-in applications, but almost everything useful will be saved on the SD card(s).

7. It depends on the device. A flash drive probably wouldn't drain much battery, but a hard drive would probably cut it considerably (unless you used a 1.8" drive, I don't know about the power consumption on those).

8. I don't think there'll be an actual serial port, it will be a UART that needs voltage conversion. You could probably use it for IR or other things, I don't know, maybe an old modem?

9. I don't know, but if you find one for Linux it can probably be ported.

10. If the appropriate software were written to support this. "Storage mode" at least would be available out of the box.

11. there may be an ARM JRE ported, I don't know, but probably not out of the box initially.

13. No, no one would dare to ship Satan bent PCBs.

14. not really

15. no, it refers to random access memory, a type of volatile memory used to store programs and data to be executed.

16. I have no idea, try ebay?

16. now I did

17. yes

18. I currently have no such plans.

 

[plopperz]

1. Depends on where you live.
2. Dunno

3. Probably not too loud

4. Dunno

5. Good chance

6. Well you can't store on the internal memory so unless software is included on the NAND, not very

7. Hard drives yes, flash drives, not so much
8. Docks and things.

9. There was a thread about this earlier, somebody is thinking of making a tuner or something.
10. Probably not, I would just assume for mass storage only. There was some talk of using it as a game controller.

11. The GP2X had PhoneME so I'm sure somebody will port that or something similar.


13. I don't think so.
14. No.

15. Random Access Memory, you're thinking of RTFM (Read The Fucking Manual)
16. eBay

16. Now that you pointed it out
17. Yes
18. Probably

 

[nubie]

Most of your questions we won't know until we get one.

The rest should be asked in their proper threads.

Satanic_V is probably the guy associated with Satan, I ignore him though.


1: What is the flight speed of an unladen swallow?

2: African or European Swallow?

3: What is your favorite color?

4: Wear a hat to hide your P erm.


One more thing re: 6. will it be usable without SD cards? if yes, will be usable to what point?

I think it would be in your best interest to have an SD card:

This 4GB one is $13 with free shipping: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820220216

This 8GB one is $30 with free shipping: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820148158

Not too bad eh? Of course this is for the US.

 

[Zoppe]

Het Tom, best answer yet, thanks.

nubie answers

1 and 2 http://www.style.org/unladenswallow/ (god save google)

3. usually red and black together but i like almost all colors

4. i usually use folderlock

i know about newegg, but thanks anyway, just wanted to know

useless note: i know 'bout the rtfm acronym, just wanted to see the answers.

**BONUS QUESTION****BONUS QUESTION****BONUS QUESTION****BONUS QUESTION**

12. Does anyone here know about any other el cheapo sites like dealXtreme?

**BONUS QUESTION****BONUS QUESTION****BONUS QUESTION****BONUS QUESTION**

 

[nubie]

12. Does anyone here know about any other el cheapo sites like dealXtreme?

:lol:

http://www.ledshoppe.com/

There is another one that sell MP4 playing watches for $30, but I forget its name (basically mini motion Jpegs in 96x96 pixels.)

 

[Zoppe]

There is another one that sell MP4 playing watches for $30, but I forget its name (basically mini motion Jpegs in 96x96 pixels.)


OOH PLZ TELL MEEEEEEEEE..... (free shipping?)

do they charge you for importing, here in brazil it 60% of the price of the product.... crap

 

[nubie]

I think this may be it, although I think I found 2 sites and this one is more expensive (although I was only looking at the chinese watches). It turns out they were $40, less in bulk, I am not sure about shipping.

http://www.chinavasion.com/index.php/cName...player-watches/

(I would have to dig through my dozen backups to find all my bookmarks, I reformat a lot, assuming I saved them at all.)

More China crap:

http://www.tradestead.com/


This might be the site, still not sure though (just googling around)

http://www.epathchina.com/mp4-mp3-watches-...es-c-22_43.html

 

[whiskthecat]

Tenacious D has a few good songs.

 

[thomasvdp]

14. POD: pandora of destiny ?

tenacious D is awesome.

 

[cosurgi]

.....
6. will it be usable without SD cards? if yes, will be usable to what point

AFAIK there is 128MB RAM and 128MB ROM. So you will have a 128MB worth of applications without the possibility to save anything there.

Can anybody correct me on that? I was searching the forums and FAQ to verify this information, but still I'm not 100% sure.

 

[TaG]

.....6. will it be usable without SD cards? if yes, will be usable to what point
AFAIK there is 128MB RAM and 128MB ROM. So you will have a 128MB worth of applications without the possibility to save anything there.

Can anybody correct me on that? I was searching the forums and FAQ to verify this information, but still I'm not 100% sure.
Answer from the wiki
QUOTE
The first revision of the console will include 128MB of DDR RAM, and 256MB of onboard flash memory.

But it has been said that it is not envisaged that normal users would use the 256k NAND, as that could crash your Pandora.

 

[cosurgi]

Answer from the wiki
QUOTE
The first revision of the console will include 128MB of DDR RAM, and 256MB of onboard flash memory.

But it has been said that it is not envisaged that normal users would use the 256k NAND, as that could crash your Pandora.

Thanks, somehow I have missed that page

So it's an onboard flash memory, which means that it is RW in the same way as SDHC flash cards. So in fact it will be possible to save some data there, etc. Hmm... maybe even a part of it would serve good as a swap partition? Just a thought that crossed my mind.

 

[WizardStan]

Answer from the wiki
QUOTE
The first revision of the console will include 128MB of DDR RAM, and 256MB of onboard flash memory.

But it has been said that it is not envisaged that normal users would use the 256k NAND, as that could crash your Pandora.

Thanks, somehow I have missed that page

So it's an onboard flash memory, which means that it is RW in the same way as SDHC flash cards. So in fact it will be possible to save some data there, etc. Hmm... maybe even a part of it would serve good as a swap partition? Just a thought that crossed my mind.

NAND is SLOW, constant rewrites in the form of swap could damage it very quickly, and it's been said many times over that you will not have write access to it, or rather that Craig and company don't want you writing to it. It makes firmware upgrades a lot harder to do. Most likely, if you do manage to write anything to it, a firmware upgrade will wipe that out since it's not expecting there to be anything extra there.

 

[AireTamStorm]

Yeah, it has been iterated that you will not have access to the NAND, and any FS writes will likely be done on a union. The idea being, you'll have SD card 1 with KDE / Xfce / Gnome / etc and a whole ton of apps setup on it, but be able to remove that, and boot the Pandora to its original firmware.

You have a piece of paper (NAND). You write an important note on it. You put a piece of glass over it (SD card in UnionFS), and write on top of the glass with a dry erase marker, but it almost seems as if you're writing onto the paper itself. Don't like something, or the glass gets broken? You can remove the glass, and you're back to the original important note.

That is basically how the union will work on the Pandora, and probably why dual SDHC slots are so important: 1 SDHC card that is "always in", for the OS, apps, and data, and a free slot if you want to read / write to another card, or store larger files like media (video, audio, roms / isos).

Leave NAND alone for the firmware.

 

[Zoppe]

Thanks for all the feedback. but there's still one thing that i didnt understood.

somebody said that i would need an usb hub in the usb HOST port to use usb 1.1 devices, is that true? and what about the usb OTG port, what do i need to do to plug a controller into it? joystick are usb 1.1?

sorry for my newbie questions

thanks in advance

 

[nubie]

Zoppe,

The OMAP processor only likes talking to a USB 2.0 device in the main USB port, that is OK because all you will need is a USB 2.0 hub, then when you plug into that it will send your info over USB 2.0 into the Pandora.

There is supposed to be a way to use the USB mini as a USB 1.1 port, but we don't know very much about that.

Have you tried looking here for the information the developers have posted in our forums? http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=43063

Read this post: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?s=&am...st&p=636380


I wouldn't mess with the NAND, it will probably be accessible from a bash shell or with a script to mount it so the GUI can see it. But how will you get those on the unit without an SD card in the first place unless there is a bash on the unit?

8GB is $25-30, just get one. (I am sure a friend or relative has a 128mb-1gb card that they never use, ask if you can borrow it.)

 

[Zoppe]

thanks nubie, now its quite clear. before you pointed it to me, i had already read your post, that led me to asking that question because it wasnt quite clear.

Question.

i heard that quake 3 is possible, but besides quake how many quality 3d games will pandora have?(maybe for show-off factor) ps1 not included nor n64.
what apps would be helpful for school?
will it come with headphones? if yes, they will have media controls(play, next, previous etc)? if no, i suggest it. is it considered a hardware change?