Questions About The Pandora.

[alexg1989]

Pandora really seems like an amazing system... I have some questions for the experts or those who've purchased and received one.

I'm big on ebooks and really love the multimedia functions of all these new gaming devices. That's why my modded PSP takes up loads of my day. Does this have a PDF reader and is it better than the PSP's Bookr? Bookr is fairly good but it struggles to load PDFs with alot of images like art books and such. What about a comic book reader?

Can it read Word Documents? There is a fairly well-made .txt editor on PSP that exceeds the typing functions of the built-in digital keyboard without using an ir keyboard. I'm assuming as a txt editor The Pandora would best PSP in this since it actually has a keyboard. But can it read word documents? Can it edit word documents? That would be a big plus for me.

Video playback. What formats does it support? Is it like the PSP where I have to format my videos to a certain format in order for it to play? That would be such a draaag.

How is n64 emulation coming along? Can it run Project64? Hmmm, I see Mupen64 is the one you're going with. I looked at the compatibility list (I don't know if it's updated or how much has improved) but right now it doesn't seem to be running any better than the PSP's Daedalusx64. Most games that don't run on PSP also don't run here and some that do run on PSP don't run on here. Pandora is alot more powerful so I'm sure it'll run them mcuh better eventually.

and finally, any possibility of a price drop? $330 is just waaay out there... Think of the little people man... Any place I can buy one used? There's none on ebay so far.

I just don't know what to buy. Pandora is so expensive and the 3DS may be around the corner and it's opening price will probably be cheaper than what the Pandora costs now and it will probably even be more powerful. But I don't know how long it will take to be hacked so I could really give it life. I might just get a DingooA320, lmao... I'm just itching for a new portable.

 

[Tom`]

Pandora really seems like an amazing system... I have some questions for the experts or those who've purchased and received one.

I'm big on ebooks and really love the multimedia functions of all these new gaming devices. That's why my modded PSP takes up loads of my day. Does this have a PDF reader and is it better than the PSP's Bookr? Bookr is fairly good but it struggles to load PDFs with alot of images like art books and such. What about a comic book reader?

Yes, it can read PDFs - it should be able to run Xpdf/evince, maybe even okular (has anyone tried this?). There are a few videos showing this, e. g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlM8S4DyFBw (check around 3:30).

Can it read Word Documents? There is a fairly well-made .txt editor on PSP that exceeds the typing functions of the built-in digital keyboard without using an ir keyboard. I'm assuming as a txt editor The Pandora would best PSP in this since it actually has a keyboard. But can it read word documents? Can it edit word documents? That would be a big plus for me.

Yes, Abiword comes preinstalled and generally works fine, although in my experience it occasionally mangles .doc files with complex formatting. OpenOffice also runs, and should have full compatibilty, but it's big and fairly slow.

Video playback. What formats does it support? Is it like the PSP where I have to format my videos to a certain format in order for it to play? That would be such a draaag.

It should be able to play standard-definition (say 720x480 or smaller) video in most reasonable formats (you might have some trouble with high-compression h.264, I don't know). Up to 720p is possible, but requires software that still needs some work.

How is n64 emulation coming along? Can it run Project64? Hmmm, I see Mupen64 is the one you're going with. I looked at the compatibility list (I don't know if it's updated or how much has improved) but right now it doesn't seem to be running any better than the PSP's Daedalusx64. Most games that don't run on PSP also don't run here and some that do run on PSP don't run on here. Pandora is alot more powerful so I'm sure it'll run them mcuh better eventually.

Project64 is x86-only, unfortunately - such high-performance software is very difficult to write, and PJ64 has taken years to reach the level of speed and compatibility that it has. In fact, I could be wrong, but I'm fairly sure Ari64's is the best (only?) dynarec on ARM.

and finally, any possibility of a price drop? $330 is just waaay out there... Think of the little people man... Any place I can buy one used? There's none on ebay so far.

Yes, it's expensive, but remember it's being produced on a small scale by people from these boards - it's the only product of its kind, and development was entirely financed by a few individuals. Right now the major issue is that demand far exceeds supply, a situation which appears unlikely to be resolved in the near future.

 

[WizardStan]

and finally, any possibility of a price drop? $330 is just waaay out there... Think of the little people man... Any place I can buy one used? There's none on ebay so far.

Not really. When you consider it's capabilities, it's not really expensive. It's got a lot of the same features as a $500 phone without the phone. Or did, anyway, at the start of the year. Delays are making it a little harder to compare and justify, but in my opinion it's still way up there. If it's out of your price range then you may want to consider some of the cheaper alternatives. They lack the same power (Pandora is just about the only handheld that can play N64 consistently (I believe the iPhone and N900 can as well, but you're looking at between $400 and $800 for those)) but can be had for half the cost or less.
If you want performance, you pay for it.

 

[Letalis Sonus]

There's none on ebay so far.

Every now and then one appears on ebay, but usually with a very high price. The first one that found its way to ebay was sold for almost $2000! You should better watch the Forum's marketplace if you want to get a used one, maybe someone will sell one for a moderate price.

 

[Prometheus]

and finally, any possibility of a price drop? $330 is just waaay out there... Think of the little people man... Any place I can buy one used? There's none on ebay so far.

As others have said, not likely. The units sold at $330 were sold at a loss - the price for batch two has actually gone up a bit, and at one point used units were selling for a lot more than the original price. Definitely keep an eye on the Marketplace section, as Letalis Sonus suggests.

EDIT: I haven't looked for this auction, but have you seen this?

I just don't know what to buy. Pandora is so expensive and the 3DS may be around the corner and it's opening price will probably be cheaper than what the Pandora costs now and it will probably even be more powerful. But I don't know how long it will take to be hacked so I could really give it life. I might just get a DingooA320, lmao... I'm just itching for a new portable.

The question is, what are your requirements, and which hardware best suits them? (In my view, it's not at all about what's "powerful" - it's about what's well-optimised and what uses the power well. )

 

[alexg1989]

My requirements are as follows: decent mp3 player, good video player, emulation equaling or surpassing the PSP's. Ebook reader equaling or surpassing the PSP's.

I would prefer a video player where I wouldn't have to convert everyone of my videos. I'd like to directly play rmvb, avi, mp4 (not the PSP type) and so on...

I want like a mini computer where I can read, write, play emulators, watch movies etc...

Right now the DingooA320 seems like it could fulfill most of those, except a few, and it has some nice extras (FM radio, voice recorder, both of which can be useful to me, AND built in 4 gb internal storage, and it's cheaper) but installing Dingux seems like it could be troublesome. And I'm still not completely sure how good the SNes and GBA emulation is on Dingoo. I haven't been able to find updated info on that.

Does the dingoo support IR Keyboards and does it even have a .txt editor?

How is the Dingoo's ebook reader?

The guy in that Pandora auction is selling it for 389.... Out of my range right now.

 

[alexg1989]

hmmm, I just found out about Letcool Multiplatform Handheld Gaming Entertainment Station. Is it legit? Is it better than the DingooA320? I'm gonna do more research on it. It also is cheaper than Dingoo and the advert claims it's better. It was just released this year also. It's an emulation machine that plays old school games, videos, music... It seems like a freakin awesome deal. What do you guys think?

 

[codemaster]

My requirements are as follows: decent mp3 player, good video player, emulation equaling or surpassing the PSP's. Ebook reader equaling or surpassing the PSP's.

I don't have a Pandora yet, but the videos on Youtube show a "decent" mp3 player, so it should suffice.

The ebook reader available already seems at least to be on par with the PSPs.

Emulation-wise, the emulators are shaping up nicely. It will definitely surpass the PSP, but may take time.

I would prefer a video player where I wouldn't have to convert everyone of my videos. I'd like to directly play rmvb, avi, mp4 (not the PSP type) and so on...

Mplayer runs on the Pandora and can play just about any format you through at it. You shouldn't have to convert any files; however, the software does not yet make full use of the hardware yet so more complex videos may be jittery. The chipset has been demoed elsewhere showing smooth 720p videos playing, so it is a possibility, but will take time to achieve.

I want like a mini computer where I can read, write, play emulators, watch movies etc...

There are many different programs for text editing, email, Instant messaging, etc.

The main thing to note is that there are only about 1000 units worldwide and software developers with Pandoras (outside of the creation team) have only had half a year of work so far. We are nowhere near the full potential of the Pandora, every software category has tremendous room for improvement, but will take time. In only a few months time, the Mupen64 library has grown to rival that of the PSP.

Everything is going to improve. I can't wait to compare how much the software will have changed.


Look through the Youtube Video Thread to see the different software options available so far.

 

[alexg1989]

I've been thinking that I may just work a little extra to get the money for this beaut but I've got some more questions.

Can the Pandora really be used as a mini-laptop of sorts? For example, would I be able to, let's say download stuff to it from the internet? Like let's say I'm away from my computer for whatever reason and I want to download a song or an ebook off some website, can I do that? Moreover, let's say I'm writing an article for a customer or whatever and I need to use the internet to research. Can I do that using the Pandora? Is it complicated? Would I need to exit out of the text editing program and then open up the web browser? And then close the web browser and open up the txt editor to continue? Is it limited in the websites I can browse? I think the PSP is limited like that though I've never used it's online features. Basically, can it do the normal functions of a computer and internet? Can I depend on it like I could a desktop or a laptop?


If it can be as useful as a real laptop AND can emulate all these systems and be that small then I will definitely be buying from the 3rd batch since I think the 2nd batch is already sold out, right? I haven't got a clue atm so some info on that would be nice.

I know there's alot of Youtube videos circulating showcasing everything that the Pandora can do but I can't view them, see I'm on dialup so.... yeaaah...

 

[Letalis Sonus]

The Pandora runs a full desktop Linux system, you are not limited by some GUI system or the like.
See, you can just put a PND of Firefox or Chrome onto an SD card and use that for browsing and downloading stuff while having a simple text editor or Abiword running in the background to take some notes while a music player is playing music. The XFCE desktop looks pretty similar to what you know from Windows.

 

[WizardStan]

Can the Pandora really be used as a mini-laptop of sorts?

Yup, full blown Linux desktop. We've got Abiword (basic word processor), mplayer and VLC (audio/video players), Firefox and Chromium (web browsers), and all three of them can be running at the same time.

I will definitely be buying from the 3rd batch since I think the 2nd batch is already sold out, right? I haven't got a clue atm so some info on that would be nice.

nope, people still buying form second batch. Craig's been sending out the purchase url to people on the email list very slowly to prevent a huge flood, but you can contact them directly by emailing openpandorasales@gmail.com. Just tell them you're interested in buying from the second batch and they'll tell you how to proceed.

 

[alexg1989]

by when can I expect to receive if I order in about a month?

 

[alexg1989]

I've pretty much decided that I probably will get a Pandora now, whether it's from the 2nd or 3rd batch doesn't matter. I'm definitely getting one. I have one more question, any prospects on a Nintendo DS emulator? I realize the Pandora lacks the double screen but would there be any work-around for that?

 

[WizardStan]

I've pretty much decided that I probably will get a Pandora now, whether it's from the 2nd or 3rd batch doesn't matter. I'm definitely getting one. I have one more question, any prospects on a Nintendo DS emulator? I realize the Pandora lacks the double screen but would there be any work-around for that?

The screen is not in any way, shape, or form a limiting factor. Many solutions have been found to displaying both screens. Worry not about whether two screens will cause a problem. The difficulty lies with the memory and CPUs.
A Nintendo DS emulator is theoretically possible (or at least nothing immediately makes it impossible), but it would require someone very skilled and patient to make it happen. We may see one eventually, or maybe never, that is impossible to say.

 

[danielliu88888]

The Japanese 3DS is going for 25000 yen, which is about 300 US dollars. The price difference is not that much.

 

[alexg1989]

Yeah, I just read that... What a drag... Oh well... On the 3DS I can at least expect a price drop on the original within a year or two when the next editions start releasing, and the same goes for whatever new handheld SONY comes up with but it doesn't look like Pandora will be getting a price drop so I probably will stick with the Pandora. The pandora is two things I've been needing badly lately, a handheld system that can emulate Nintendo 64 and a laptop.

 

[MarkoeZ]

Hi,

I normally don't refer to my own topics, but this one pretty much sums up why, to me at least, the pandora is much more versatile than any other handheld. And nice read i hope

A weekend with the pandora

Cheers!

MarkoeZ