Nokia N900 Or Openpandora

[quadomatic]

Those are not phone things.

They are now

I don't know if anyone addressed this, but it certainly seems like Pandora will provide better emulation. PSX emulation on the Pandora seems to work better than on the N900 (videos showing FFVII on the Pandora were great years ago, but recent videos on the N900 are not so great). Watch this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkbFdJG5xuY) and then watch a clip of Ridge Racer running on the N900 - the difference is astonishing.

However...it seems likely that anything made to work well on the Pandora could then be released for the N900.

 

[Wolenber]

They are now

tel·e·phone  /ˈtɛl

əˌfoʊn/ [tel-uh-fohn] noun
1. an apparatus, system, or process for transmission of sound or speech to a distant point, esp. by an electric device.

No, they are not phone things. They are things people like to assume phones have. The relation is similar to that of moustaches and pedophiles.

 

[klikklak]

Well, connectivity is a lot more 'phone' feature than things like gaming is. So what I basically meant was that I'll use it for connectivity more than general computing features.

 

[chole]

Is the DSP something common to all of these Cortex-A8 devices, or is that something that the N900 does not have?

 

[Elanzer]

Is the DSP something common to all of these Cortex-A8 devices, or is that something that the N900 does not have?

N900 has it, pretty much all A8 devices will

 

[kingoddball]

whats the DSP actually do? i know n900's can be OC'd....

 

[Elanzer]

whats the DSP actually do? i know n900's can be OC'd....

DSP is like a specific-use coprocessor that can offload certain tasks. Things like h264 and mp3 format files can be processed by the DSP instead of the main CPU, to free up the main CPU for other tasks.

 

[jktm140887]

very good list of dsp uses

 

[elitistlinuxuser]

What games are developed natively for Maemo? How many of them are not open-source and can't be compiled for Pandora?

True but I don't know how to compile or do any of that stuff sorry(I'm a noob). I would know how to do all the basic things on both devices. There are games on ovi store which aren't open source such as angry birds and bounce evolution.

 

[elitistlinuxuser]

I have the N900, and I'm getting the Pandora. The N900 screen is physically small, 3.5" vs. 4.3" on Pandora. The 4.1" screen on my N800 is much easier to read than the N900 screen, but the N800 screen isn't good in daylight unlike the N900.

The short of it is that the N900 is the compromise device when you can't bring too many or too large gadgets around. It's reasonably good at everything. The Pandora is larger, and that's good for a lot of things, except size. I will probably use the Pandora much much more at home, and I'm not even a gamer. The N900 is still nice in that I can always bring it along everywhere.

The Pandora does have a very generous screen but hey the n900's is better than the tiny one found on the gp2x wiz.

 

[elitistlinuxuser]

To be perfectly fair I would also be carrying a ps2 gamepad with usb adapter and doing the same thing I would be doing with the n900 and a ps3 gamepad I already own a bunch ps2/ps3 gamepads.

 

[kingoddball]

Maemo specific games?
The N900 is crap for gaming. Simple?
If you want to play games IMO the best approach other than buying a Pandora is use the N900 with TV out cable and PS3 controller on a plasma!


Edit:
linuxftw: How do you compile for the N900?
It's VERY simple once you get the dev setup done.
Open terminal (osx or linux or use Madde environment in Windows):

Type 'Mad Make'
Or a VERY similar context.
I can't remember as I had some issues in OSX. It was setup by not correctly.

Or download Nokia's QT (1.3.80) and goto properties and make a link to the Madde qmake and once you have done that, it's a SIMPLE as pressing "Build"!

 

[elitistlinuxuser]

Maemo specific games?
The N900 is crap for gaming. Simple?
If you want to play games IMO the best approach other than buying a Pandora is use the N900 with TV out cable and PS3 controller on a plasma!


Edit:
linuxftw: How do you compile for the N900?
It's VERY simple once you get the dev setup done.
Open terminal (osx or linux or use Madde environment in Windows):

Type 'Mad Make'
Or a VERY similar context.
I can't remember as I had some issues in OSX. It was setup by not correctly.

Or download Nokia's QT (1.3.80) and goto properties and make a link to the Madde qmake and once you have done that, it's a SIMPLE as pressing "Build"!

Calm down serious face

 

[kingoddball]

I was telling you how to compile programs for N900. Easy. No need to calm down.

 

[elitistlinuxuser]

I was telling you how to compile programs for N900. Easy. No need to calm down.

Well if when own either the openpandora or nokia n900 I will just end up using precompiled applications.

 

[Rockthesmurf]

Get a Pandora (or two).

Steve

 

[kingoddball]

haha. I'd like a green or pink pandora.
Get BOTH! N900 and Pandora! They would go nicely together.

 

[Elanzer]

Pandora's battery alone will make it more useful for games than the N900, since it's over 3x the capacity.

On my N900, even with the brightness down to it's second lowest setting, voltages tweaked, gsm/wifi/bt/gps radios disabled et al it can only tolerate maybe 3-4 hours of full load with the screen constantly active before the battery is drained, which really sucks if you're using it as a cellphone and your battery dies before the end of the day.


When mostly idle and busting it out to quickly browse every once in awhile or using it as a cellphone/camera it's fine, but you wouldn't want to game on it. Even while overclocked to 1ghz, the battery on mine is at 62% after removing it from the charger 14 hours ago, but I've put maybe 30 minutes of actual use on it today, mostly browsing and making calls. The first day I got mine I ran the battery from 100% to ~10% 3 times in one sitting while NOT gaming, just fiddling with customization.

 

[kingoddball]

Pandora's battery alone will make it more useful for games than the N900, since it's over 3x the capacity.

On my N900, even with the brightness down to it's second lowest setting, voltages tweaked, gsm/wifi/bt/gps radios disabled et al it can only tolerate maybe 3-4 hours of full load with the screen constantly active before the battery is drained, which really sucks if you're using it as a cellphone and your battery dies before the end of the day.


When mostly idle and busting it out to quickly browse every once in awhile or using it as a cellphone/camera it's fine, but you wouldn't want to game on it. Even while overclocked to 1ghz, the battery on mine is at 62% after removing it from the charger 14 hours ago, but I've put maybe 30 minutes of actual use on it today, mostly browsing and making calls. The first day I got mine I ran the battery from 100% to ~10% 3 times in one sitting while NOT gaming, just fiddling with customization.

3-4hrs?
I have mine running either 3G or Wifi, Internet radio using the FM transmitter to my stereo and installing, uninstalling and screwing around with clock speeds and playing with Easy Debian - Screen on most/all of the time.
I got a "full" day.
Full being from 8am until 3pm/4pm'ish.
I ordered 2 batteries and a standalone charger from ebay for $13 delivered.
Well worth it. I kill a battery and have got a spare full always waiting.

 

[elwing]

actually beside the bad points for the N900:
- using maemo.
- no game controls integrated
- smaller screen

lots of people seems to forget the MAJOR advantage of the N900... it is curently avaiable... I don't forsee the pandora ship before at least 2month...(and i think i'm quite optimist)