New Pandora Owner here!

[ekianjo]

I am now the proud owner of one of the best handheld devices


All in all, the process from order to delivery took a little more than a month. This was unexpected as I heard some stories of people waiting for years to get their devices. The unit I received is the Rebirth edition.


A few impressions:


- the device boots into Linux FAST!


- I installed Firefox and did some browsing. I didnt expect Firefox to behave that fast on such a device. This was a pleasant surprise.


- I had a few issues at the first boot : trying to shutdown led to automatic restart, and the SD card, while available on "read" access, could not be written on. After another reboot all these issues disappeared.


- The screen quality is pretty nice


- I like the keyboard. I thought it would be worse, but actually it is "soft" and pleasant to use.


- I noticed the buttons seem to have a differente resistance to pressure. A, Y and X are similar, but B is clearly a little harder to push. I am not sure why, it's no big deal, but I noticed that.


- Digital pad is very good, as many users already reported.


- Some keys make noise when you push them. Maybe because the device is new ?


- It is more practical to use the stylus than the nubs to move around with the mouse. That's expected, but well confirmed.


- Battery life seems to be pretty good so far. We'll see how the battery ages.


- Overclocking is easy. I was expected more steps to do so, but there is very practical applet on the bottom of the screen.


- I tried a few emulators and so far everything was very smooth. No screen tearing in Picodrive for me.


- I tried to play a few videos and that's where I saw the limits of the device. Those were not HD files, but I could not play them without some slugginess in VLC, even at 800 Mhz. Maybe other players are faster ? By the way, is VLC taking advantage of hardware acceleration on Pandora?


There's more to say but that's what I can think about so far.


All in All, very good first impressions.


Let me throw a question as well: in what ways can one contribute to the Pandora community (I am no coder) ? Apart from buying the device, of course I'd like to know about the current needs and see where I could help.

 

[TrashyMG]

The buttons should be fine after a bit of use..

I tried to play a few videos and that's where I saw the limits of the device. Those were not HD files, but I could not play them without some slugginess in VLC, even at 800 Mhz.

If they're h264 or x264 encoded videos you may get a bit of sluggishness with the files.. XVID files seem to play fine even at higher resolutions.. I know there are some hardware acceleration at work, but these files may need to DSP support to fully playback.. I know there has been effort to get this done, just not sure what player can handle them well. I know smplayer2 is very optimized I'd give that a try. If your playing these over a network, the wifi may be a bit to sluggish to stream videos.

Let me throw a question as well: in what ways can one contribute to the Pandora community (I am no coder) ? Apart from buying the device, of course I'd like to know about the current needs and see where I could help.

Report bugs and such in the support section.. help out others.. what I like about the Pandora is the community effort.

 

[mcobit]

The keyboard will become less noisy with use in my experience. I have a Pandora for two years now and and thebattery still seems to be good

 

[ekianjo]

Yeah the videos I mentioned were h264 coded so that may be the reason. I ll give smplayer a try and see if it performs any better!

 

[Bosbeetle]

haha funny thing everybody seems to find the pandora snappy (I do as well) but then there is also a group (who havent used a pandora yet) that find the pandora 'old tech'..

 

[ekianjo]

If they're h264 or x264 encoded videos you may get a bit of sluggishness with the files.. XVID files seem to play fine even at higher resolutions.. I know there are some hardware acceleration at work, but these files may need to DSP support to fully playback.. I know there has been effort to get this done, just not sure what player can handle them well. I know smplayer2 is very optimized I'd give that a try. If your playing these over a network, the wifi may be a bit to sluggish to stream videos.

After testing with Smplayer 2, the video works perfectly ! Thanks for the tip

haha funny thing everybody seems to find the pandora snappy (I do as well) but then there is also a group (who havent used a pandora yet) that find the pandora 'old tech'..

Well even old tech performs better natively than all the java crap we have on our smartphones...

 

[WizardStan]

- I had a few issues at the first boot : trying to shutdown led to automatic restart,

You have the charger plugged in? One of the features not yet implemented is a "mini-kernel" which watches the battery while the device is "off". It'll turn on every time the charger is plugged in, or if shutting it off while the charger is plugged in.

and the SD card, while available on "read" access, could not be written on. After another reboot all these issues disappeared.

This can be caused by a corrupt file on the card. You can be fine for a while, and then suddenly the system encounters a corrupt file and Linux (in a bit of paranoia) locks the file system to read only. Restarting makes it forget that a file was corrupt, until it encounters that file again. You can pop the card into your desktop and do a check disk (probably easiest for someone unfamiliar with Linux) or try and do it the Linux way with fsck.

Let me throw a question as well: in what ways can one contribute to the Pandora community (I am no coder) ? Apart from buying the device, of course I'd like to know about the current needs and see where I could help.

Try everything and offer bug reports and suggestions.


Take nothing for granted and thank those doing their best to provide you with software every chance you get.


Consider buying one of the commercial games available for the Pandora. Only if you want to, of course, but if you see them, like them, and think they're worth it, then every sale proves the market just a little bit more viable for future software.

 

[ekianjo]

You have the charger plugged in? One of the features not yet implemented is a "mini-kernel" which watches the battery while the device is "off". It'll turn on every time the charger is plugged in, or if shutting it off while the charger is plugged in.

Yeah charger was plugged-in.

You can pop the card into your desktop and do a check disk (probably easiest for someone unfamiliar with Linux) or try and do it the Linux way with fsck.

Thanks for the tip! I'll keep it in mind

Consider buying one of the commercial games available for the Pandora. Only if you want to, of course, but if you see them, like them, and think they're worth it, then every sale proves the market just a little bit more viable for future software.

I have seen these 2 games and from what I can recall people on the forum did not have much praise for them... Are there any other commercial games projects going on ? I guess it depends a lot on the installed based on pandora owners out there, as well. Chicken and Egg...

 

[peacelovefleshbones]

You can help out by bug reporting and beta testing. That's what I do anyway. I also made a couple threads devoted to giving new users my first experience with the pandora to help make things a little easier to start. Things like what programs I prefer to use or minor workarounds.

 

[diligentcircle]

I have seen these 2 games and from what I can recall people on the forum did not have much praise for them...

I'd like to review both of these some time in the future, but here's the short version:


Arora Rift 32X is not a game I recommend unless you really like 3D scrolling shooter-like games. The graphics are an ugly mix of 3D and 2D graphics, the music is lame, the collision detection is questionable, and the game itself is extremely repetitive.


PolloPollo, on the other hand, might be worth checking out. It's actually a kind of fun game similar to Dr. Mario. Graphics and sound are good, too. The controls aren't that great, though (you can only rotate in one direction), and it has a stupid digital restrictions management system requiring you to wait for the developer to E-mail you a key. I'd say the digital handcuffs are probably a huge reason for not a whole lot of people trying it.

Are there any other commercial games projects going on ?

VVVVVV is a great game. Getting it on your Pandora is a little more complicated, but worth it. And it's DRM free!


I think there might be some other games similar to VVVVVV in the way they're distributed for the Pandora, too, but I'm not sure what they would are. In a sense, Doom is one of them, but it's old, so it doesn't really count.

 

[EvilDragon]

You can also spread the word


Now that production is running reliable and there won't be a Pandora shortage anymore, every sale helps us going towards a Pandora 2 and as well will help fulfilling the old preorders faster

 

[Binky]

slashvertisement anyone?


Failing that, I think the best way to make people buy a pandora is to show them one - on paper/screen pandoras are ugly and outdated...

 

[Trezker]

Impression before facts

 

[Binky]

Impression before facts

That's the idea

 

[ekianjo]

slashvertisement anyone?


Failing that, I think the best way to make people buy a pandora is to show them one - on paper/screen pandoras are ugly and outdated...

The problem is that you can't just make a good case for the Pandora in only a few minutes. This machine is a complete computer, and it takes a while to go through all its possibilities. Retro Gaming is a huge thing for the Pandora, but if we could also demonstrate what "games made for the system" looked like, it would probably speak even better for the system

You can also spread the word


Now that production is running reliable and there won't be a Pandora shortage anymore, every sale helps us going towards a Pandora 2 and as well will help fulfilling the old preorders faster

Sure thing, I will


One question, is the Pandora 2 going to be designed to be compatible with the Pandora 1 ?

 

[EvilDragon]

One question, is the Pandora 2 going to be designed to be compatible with the Pandora 1 ?

We'll most probably continue to use ARM CPUs (nothing else makes sense), and we're planning to keep the current OS, so about 95% of the current stuff should work out of the box (only the ones that are using special hardware features of the Pandora 1 would cause problems).

 

[ekianjo]

We'll most probably continue to use ARM CPUs (nothing else makes sense), and we're planning to keep the current OS, so about 95% of the current stuff should work out of the box (only the ones that are using special hardware features of the Pandora 1 would cause problems).

Good to know - that will be a good base, in terms of software, to start from!


About the Angstrom distribution, is it still being actively developped ? When I last checked their official website, there were not so many news since 2011.


I am not sure if you are thinking about keeping the same form factor for the Pandora 2, but if you do, please consider using the same kind of batteries so that we can re-use the ones we already have


I know there are some topics about the Pandora 2 on the other forums, but is there any official topic I should refer to ? Are you looking at what members ask/want for the design ?

 

[diligentcircle]

I know there are some topics about the Pandora 2 on the other forums, but is there any official topic I should refer to ?

No official topic, just speculation and random design concepts by users. Do remember that the Pandora 2 (assuming it happens) is quite far into the future, probably well after the Wii U and its competitors in the 8th generation are established in the gaming world. The Pandora is what's being focused on right now.

 

[Binky]

Although product3 is set to give us a clue regarding the P2 somewhat sooner

 

[ekianjo]

Although product3 is set to give us a clue regarding the P2 somewhat sooner

WHo is Product3 ?