Quick Questions before deciding to purchase

[dippy]

I wont pretend to be very well educated in technical things, because im really not. I'm one of your more average people who really just needs to know the basics about some aspects of pandora because I'm really interested in it, and especially the open-endedness of the possible things for it. I have done some research, but I've compiled a few questions that (some I believe I already know the answer to, but making sure) I'd like to ask. Also, if there is already a thread with these things, please link me to it, and forgive my noobish questions.

Q1: Out of the box, what can the pandora do in terms of gaming, web surfing, multimedia, and maybe school related tasks(i.e. typing up something, saving it, moving it to a card then another computer) ?
Q2: Will we be using SD and USB Flash drives as memory, or will there also be an onboard built in HDD?
Q3: Will Linux be the only possible OS for pandora, and if so, what ways can we run other OS(if possible)? If not, what other OS can we put on pandora?
Q4: Will there be commercially available games for it in the future, and can it run most any Linux based commercial game?

Thats about it for now. If possible I hope to use pandora for some extremely simple office tasks as well as a full fledged gaming player. Thanks in advance for answers, and long live Pandora and the Homebrew community!

 

[Kyosys]

Q1: Out of the box, what can the pandora do in terms of gaming, web surfing, multimedia, and maybe school related tasks(i.e. typing up something, saving it, moving it to a card then another computer) ?

Emulate PSX, SNES, Arcade, Genesis, Some older home computers and many other things. MANY apps will pop up shortly after the release as well.

Q2: Will we be using SD and USB Flash drives as memory, or will there also be an onboard built in HDD?

No. Just 256MB NAND flash for the OS itself. You will store your stuff on SD cards (you can use USB sticks, but those use more power)

Q3: Will Linux be the only possible OS for pandora, and if so, what ways can we run other OS(if possible)? If not, what other OS can we put on pandora?

Well, technically yes. Stuff like RiscOS is possible, and in theory Windows CE is also possible, but extremely unlikely to happen. The linux on there will be easy to use and won't require you to know anything about linux.

Q4: Will there be commercially available games for it in the future, and can it run most any Linux based commercial game?

Time will tell. As for linux based commercial games, only if the makers port them. The pandora is not compatible with x86 software unless it gets ported.

 

[Mithrildor]

Q3: Will Linux be the only possible OS for pandora, and if so, what ways can we run other OS(if possible)? If not, what other OS can we put on pandora?

Some people were talking here on the forum about Maemo.

 

[mkinzler]

Isn't Maemo linux, too?

 

[Shikaku]

Q1: Out of the box, what can the pandora do in terms of gaming, web surfing, multimedia, and maybe school related tasks(i.e. typing up something, saving it, moving it to a card then another computer) ?

Nothing. Turn on basically. You have to download stuff into at least 1 SD card and open the program.

There are some built in programs like a multimedia player, the OS, a Menu, etc. But you have to download everything else.

 

[dippy]

Q1: Out of the box, what can the pandora do in terms of gaming, web surfing, multimedia, and maybe school related tasks(i.e. typing up something, saving it, moving it to a card then another computer) ?

Nothing. Turn on basically. You have to download stuff into at least 1 SD card and open the program.

There are some built in programs like a multimedia player, the OS, a Menu, etc. But you have to download everything else.

I see...

Will there be(or are there already) apps ready to download for it right now/at the time of launch?

Q5: In terms of gaming, what is there that homebrewed PSP can't already do(at launch anyway)

And thanks for the replies guys

 

[Kyosys]

Q1: Out of the box, what can the pandora do in terms of gaming, web surfing, multimedia, and maybe school related tasks(i.e. typing up something, saving it, moving it to a card then another computer) ?

Nothing. Turn on basically. You have to download stuff into at least 1 SD card and open the program.

There are some built in programs like a multimedia player, the OS, a Menu, etc. But you have to download everything else.

I see...

Will there be(or are there already) apps ready to download for it right now/at the time of launch?

Q5: In terms of gaming, what is there that homebrewed PSP can't already do(at launch anyway)

And thanks for the replies guys

Firefox + decent resolution, for example. Office apps will come fairly soon.

Otherwise, not much. The PSP scene has had plenty of time to build up, while the pandora scene has had none so far, so that's not really fair. I can guarantee you that after launch the number of useful applications the PSP won't have will grow exponentially.

 

[MDave]

Not to mention quite a lot of the remaining active psp developers are moving onto the pandora, myself included. (I did Kurok, I'll have a go at porting Quake if noone beats me to it then I'll port Kurok).

 

[polkunus]

Remember its "open".. So it will take time, but... you can expect the unexpected.

 

[TaG]

Q5 Amiga emulation on a handheld device with a keyboard.

This could be a great device to take to class/work as it fits in the pocket, has a keyboard, swappable SD cards etc. Then you can use it for most multimedia types, emulation, homebrew etc.

Linux is not as difficult as people make out, but there is plenty of opportunity to learn stuff and get a linux box to do just what you want. There is lots of software available (for free mostly) that is getting improved and added to continually.

But you got to put the cash down by Sunday...

 

[Eniko]

Q5: Dosbox emulation with a keyboard and touch screen to stand in for a mouse. Or a bluetooth/usb keyboard and mouse if you want to get fancy. Dosbox on PSP is limited in what you can really use it for because of the lack of mouse and keyboard.

 

[FrozenIpaq]

Not to mention quite a lot of the remaining active psp developers are moving onto the pandora, myself included. (I did Kurok, I'll have a go at porting Quake if noone beats me to it then I'll port Kurok).

I shall be looking forward to that port of Kurok The one thing the PSP lacked - a keyboard (although one can be used with it, few application ssupport it - Zx-81 has made several updates to several apps to include the keyboard "drivers") the pandora has, as well as dual analog nubs (would be interesting for FPS fans).

The PSP is not open-source so there lies a large problem I'm looking forward to what he Pandora community can bring to this device

 

[Tor]

Isn't Maemo linux, too?

Yes. Debian-based, armel linux. Runs on very similar hardware.