Preloaded Content?

[Megamixman]

256mb cards are also quite useless. Do you really need another SD card to put into your storage somewhere? Besides, the inclusion of something like that means more packaging, box assembly, etc. It will increase the cost of multiple areas of the operation, even if not very significantly

 

[craigix]

With the collapse in the pound vs. dollar this last 4 weeks the £199 price point is not looking great anymore in the UK, so maybe we will use some deep compression on the NAND rather than including an SD card. Or maybe a download for your own SD card 'Best of Pandora... so far 2008' or something like that.

Also remember there will be no video or music player built in - it's to avoid the silly licensing you now have to pay for MP3 decoders etc. and they enforce this with a huge hammer.


Edit: Just confirming the £199.99 price isn't changing, it will always be that for the preorder customers.

 

[Megamixman]

With the collapse in the pound vs. dollar this last 4 weeks the £199 price point is not looking great anymore in the UK, so maybe we will use some deep compression on the NAND rather than including an SD card. Or maybe a download for your own SD card 'Best of Pandora... so far 2008' or something like that.

Also remember there will be no video or music player built in - it's to avoid the silly licensing you now have to pay for MP3 decoders etc. and they enforce this with a huge hammer.

Edit: Just confirming the £199.99 price isn't changing, it will always be that for the preorder customers.




Craigx, how big is the base system? Will it not fit on the NAND sans compression?

 

[Tensuke]

This should play at boot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1WWpKEPdT4

 

[craigix]

1 in every 1000 boots and you get rickrolled, I'd love to be able to get away with something like that.

 

[Chip]

Craigx, how big is the base system? Will it not fit on the NAND sans compression?

No, the system will fit just fine. He meant the compression for the "extras" that people are asking to be included.

 

[peca]

Do you realize how cheap 256MB SD cards are nowadays?
-God Ginrai

I look at store and find that lowest available capacity of SD card is 1 GB. MicroSD with SD adapter is cheaper than full size SD. Cheapest card coast about 2€ (exclude 19% VAT) + about 0.5€ (exclude 19% VAT) pay for OSA (like IFPI or MPAA parasite - we pay about 0.2€ for every 512MB of flash card capacity - :-( ).

..., so maybe we will use some deep compression on the NAND rather than including an SD card. Or maybe a download for your own SD card 'Best of Pandora... so far 2008' or something like that. Also remember there will be no video or music player built in - it's to avoid the silly licensing you now have to pay for MP3 decoders etc. and they enforce this with a huge hammer...

Understood. But rather than include some "demo stuff" I like some "useful stuff" (if fit) and something like "download basic contents" and "download media content" or so directly to inserted SD card. So card be plugged in, config wi-fi and wheee let's play.
Simply, I mean if some option or functionality can be included in NAND that provide online instalation of some basic SW, at least Firefox browser for Pandora archive accessing

 

[ashdjones]

Also remember there will be no video or music player built in - it's to avoid the silly licensing you now have to pay for MP3 decoders etc. and they enforce this with a huge hammer.

Will it available from the off as an update, as with Ubuntu?

What about OGG Vorbis?

 

[PoisonedV]

Also remember there will be no video or music player built in - it's to avoid the silly licensing you now have to pay for MP3 decoders etc. and they enforce this with a huge hammer.

Will it available from the off as an update, as with Ubuntu?

What about OGG Vorbis?

i seriously hope its available as soon as possible, because thats one of the main reasons for me getting a pandora. also, FLAC support

 

[mechanizeddeath]

I would be very surprised if they didn't have better media options available for download on day one. Like craig said, it's to avoid the silly licenses. Remember the DVD playback kit for the original Xbox? IIRC it was $30, and with the IR module and remote worth maybe a third of that, most of the cost was actually paying for the license to play back DVDs. :rolleyes: Yes it was very silly, I know.

My best guess is there will be some instructions, either on paper or as a readme file on the Pandora itself, that will direct users in whatever way to "update and enable full functionality" or something of that nature. Another way to think of it is that it is shipping with a "lite" interface and firmware that simply needs to be upgraded to the "full" version... for free.

 

[Chip]

My best guess is there will be some instructions, either on paper or as a readme file on the Pandora itself, that will direct users in whatever way to "update and enable full functionality" or something of that nature.

There will be a fully functional (except possibly h.264) media player available at launch. It will not ship with the Pandora for licensing reasons, but it will only be a download away. Here's your instructions:

1. Go to the file archive

2. Download MPlayer

3. Install and enjoy

It's that simple.

 

[AireTamStorm]

Extras preloaded? All I want is gcc and htop.

 

[sindbad]

And vim.

 

[cb88]

vim pfft... htop nano mp (aka mped in debian) gcc ....X11 and a plethora of other stuff

 

[techrock]

...

Edit: Just confirming the £199.99 price isn't changing, it will always be that for the preorder customers.

Is £199.99 for the preorder customers only, or everybody even after pre-orders and the first batch?

 

[mechanizeddeath]

There will be a fully functional (except possibly h.264) media player available at launch. It will not ship with the Pandora for licensing reasons, but it will only be a download away. Here's your instructions:

1. Go to the file archive

2. Download MPlayer

3. Install and enjoy

It's that simple.

thanks chip. that's pretty much what i expect to be doing. i'll likely have apps on the SD card before my Pandora even gets here, as i did with the GP2X. hopefully there will be some pointer for those buyers who heard about it at a place like Engadget, and may not be familiar with the archive.

 

[javaJake]

I understand the love of cool little tidbits created by the devs, but honestly, with the Pandora, I'd just rather have it be a clean slate for me to work with, rather then have to worry what scraps I have to clean out when that initial "wow" factor wears off.

 

[peca]

Is £199.99 for the preorder customers only, or everybody even after pre-orders and the first batch?

What do you expect? If coast increase then price increase too. It is business, not charity.

 

[mika13]

I understand the love of cool little tidbits created by the devs, but honestly, with the Pandora, I'd just rather have it be a clean slate for me to work with, rather then have to worry what scraps I have to clean out when that initial "wow" factor wears off.

i totally agree

and i suppose we will all have sd cards loaded with some stuff anyway, long before we actually get pandora - especially if pandora archive will be already full of software.

 

[TaG]

...
Edit: Just confirming the £199.99 price isn't changing, it will always be that for the preorder customers.

Is £199.99 for the preorder customers only, or everybody even after pre-orders and the first batch?
It already jhas changed - it's gone up 99p.

There is certainly a hint at the price going up some time after pre-orders.

Hope those servers can cope with 3000 people downloading everything they can, depending what is available from the archives and when.