Should I?

[x86Daddy]

They are crap. The screen looks horrid, the buttons feel cheap, it doesn't sound good, battery life is not best, and it has cheap easy-break components. My sister was SO excited when she was getting hers, but It turned out to be a worthless piece of junk to rip off teens on a budget.
I know because it is right around the corner in the shelf, unusable.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with one. I will agree that the device feels somewhat flimsy compared to higher-end electronics, and that their intended original business plan was all about getting subscriptions from teens (or parents) to use it as a mostly IM/SMS device with few other features. I don't know what the original OS's battery life is like, but mine has been greatly extended since I found the commands and scripted ways to dim the screen and keyboard backlights.

I flashed mine to a different kernel and distribution immediately after opening the box, and have been enjoying a feature-set that is rapidly approaching what I had with my Sharp Zaurus... in several ways, this hardware is more advanced. I've also been carrying it, nearly daily since October '09 in a cargo pants pocket with no damage occurring... the device looks practically brand new. Meanwhile, my girlfriend is a little more violent with her possessions, and her charging jack has a flaky connection...(probably fell while plugged in and hit the plug at an angle) we need to pop the case and touch solder joints soon. So mileage will vary with environment and build/batch variables.

For your sister's idling on the shelf, if the software was the main reason, you should check out some of the latest developments, literally from the last few days. This site has a lovely new userland image that is very functional. This site has covered a lot of the things you can run on it and provides some great step-by-step flashing instructions and good comment threads. And my site has a few more tips as well.

 

[Pleng]

Be cautious of people telling you things like 'it looks like it is only going to be a few weeks before the Pandoras are delivered'. We all hope it is, but people have been saying similar things for months. There's still approval of the cases, shipping (cutoms) the cases to the factory, building the units at the factory (all kinds of potential pitfalls there) and shipping completed units to distributors (another chance for customs issues) to go yet. I've probably missed out some other steps where things could go wrong.

If everything goes smoothly then the units could ship in a few weeks. But if everything had gone smoothly up until now units could have shipped before Christmas, in October, last July....

 

[mali]

^There are no distributors, afaik.
But yes, one step at a time. Getting prematurely excited has never done any good in the past.
The "green light" is next. It might come with these sample case or it might not.

 

[kuru]

I'm probably not the best person to give advice.

I had pictured the Pandora in my mind like 90% identically to how it's going to be prior to finding out about it. Talk about memes independently developing almost the very same direction without ppl even knowing of each other. Still a mind-boggling experience for me.

I worked through two weeks of holidays to have the money on the ready when preorder would come up. I've been waiting since that and have successfully resisted buying anything gadgetlike even when I had the money lying around and was bored like hell. I even lent my DS to my GF, my PSP to a m8 who stepped on his and my notebook to my cousin. Can't say I miss any of those devices.

I'll still wait more, now that it looks like we're finally bringing this to an end. I don't suggest buying something to hold you over to the real deal. Seldom works in my experience.

 

[elwing]

I'm finding it really hard to resist buying a dingoo right now...

 

[Kangal]

I have been following the Pandora for quite some time. I think it looks awesome, and love the clam shell. I am a bit tough on screens, and I really need them. But I have a problem. My psp has recently died, as did my Ramos T12. So my q is should I wait till the pandora is fully out, or get something like the jxd v3 to tide me over till I can get one?
I don't think I would preorder, is it going to take months for it to get into a more general release? I really want to have a pandora, but it is a bit of a slow release.

I think you should wait for the first batch to come out.
I mean after it does, the forums will be flooded. And that's your chance.
It would be good for you to see pros/cons.
As you know things arent always as good as on paper.

Wait for it, then decide from honest suggestions/reviews.
If you want one, you can buy from eBay (you will pay premium) or wait 4 or so months for second batch.
Yes, you might regret that you'd have to wait 4 months, but in that time the rough diamond will be polished (updates, programs, visuals etc).
And if you do get it, and you aren't satisfied, I think you will regret it more.

I'm just suprised, no one has posted this yet.
It's your money, you decide.

 

[Monk]

I even lent my DS to my GF, my PSP to a m8 who stepped on his and my notebook to my cousin. Can't say I miss any of those devices.

Got any tech left to loan me?

 

[Theredbaron]

Dang, I didn't expect this much a response. For me the jxd v3 would kinda be just to have a thing in my pocket. I have way too much free time just sitting in a van on the way to a job, sitting at the office, just alot of sitting. I have ADHD bad, right now I am listening to 2 different radios , so I got to have something to do. Right now I have to carry my EeePC 901, but the battery is about an hour. So I want at least a video player for cheap to tide me over. And as I said, got to be clamshell or I would be getting another one too soon.

Also, I don't really have the money to shell out for a preorder right now. 200+ is going to be the biggest thing I bought for myself since my computer 2 years ago. So if I preorder, I am out of luck on getting any new game, movie, ect for quite some time. And then I don't get it for some time too. Don't get me wrong, I am GETTING ONE. But I don't like the wait that occurs with preorders.

But I say to heck with the V3 now, I think I will get the Zipit, a nice small little clamshell, and it runs linux. Very cool. And at half the price, that will give me some more money to add the Pandora fund, maybe even letting me get it on the second round. If I have something to use, I am not so worried about the wait time. Second round also allow most of the bugs to be worked out too, cause all new products have bugs of some sorts.

Thanks for the response people. Very helpful.

 

[x86Daddy]

But I say to heck with the V3 now, I think I will get the Zipit, a nice small little clamshell, and it runs linux. Very cool. And at half the price, that will give me some more money to add the Pandora fund, maybe even letting me get it on the second round. If I have something to use, I am not so worried about the wait time. Second round also allow most of the bugs to be worked out too, cause all new products have bugs of some sorts.

Thanks for the response people. Very helpful.

Glad to help! Another plus with a Linux / ARM device like the Zipit is that any useful little scripts you write and any awesome apps you discover and get used to... those will run and run equal to or better on the Pandora when it arrives... The Pandora's features are a pure superset of the Zipit's. Even stuff you custom compile should end up binary-compatible with the Pandora.

 

[Dunny]

I had pictured the Pandora in my mind like 90% identically to how it's going to be prior to finding out about it. Talk about memes independently developing almost the very same direction without ppl even knowing of each other. Still a mind-boggling experience for me.

Waaaaaay back in the 80s, me and my school mates all had portable computers. You'd call them programmable calculators these days. They had a single line LCD screen with a qwerty keyboard and a few Kilobytes of RAM. Our design teacher challenged us to come up with a better one bearing in mind that there would be no limit of components or size, so we did. It had to be usable.

Most of us opted for a clamshell with large screen in the top with speakers either side for "STEREO SOUND". Then a small joystick (we failed on that part - we'd never seen a DPad what with the NES not having been invented at that point - where would the stick go when you folded it up? I got around that by having it slide into a recess in the side of the machine) and a QWERTY keyboard. A full 64kb of RAM with a 64kb OS ROM.

Looking back, aside from the colour, it looked a lot like a Pandora. Except mine was orange.

But the point is, when you're designing something to be functional your choices are quite limited - that's why most of us came up with a similar design to the current Panda, barring stuff that we never knew about or dreamed about like touch screens and analogue nubs...

D.

 

[Pleng]

^There are no distributors, afaik.

Sorry I should have perhaps been a little clearer.

I was referring to Craig and ED, who will be distributing them. The complete units will need to be shipped to them in bulk.

 

[kuru]

I even lent my DS to my GF, my PSP to a m8 who stepped on his and my notebook to my cousin. Can't say I miss any of those devices.

Got any tech left to loan me?

I'm sticking to my N95. You'd have to pry it from my dead fingers, awesome phone.

I had pictured the Pandora in my mind like 90% identically to how it's going to be prior to finding out about it. Talk about memes independently developing almost the very same direction without ppl even knowing of each other. Still a mind-boggling experience for me.

Waaaaaay back in the 80s, me and my school mates all had portable computers. You'd call them programmable calculators these days. They had a single line LCD screen with a qwerty keyboard and a few Kilobytes of RAM. Our design teacher challenged us to come up with a better one bearing in mind that there would be no limit of components or size, so we did. It had to be usable.

Most of us opted for a clamshell with large screen in the top with speakers either side for "STEREO SOUND". Then a small joystick (we failed on that part - we'd never seen a DPad what with the NES not having been invented at that point - where would the stick go when you folded it up? I got around that by having it slide into a recess in the side of the machine) and a QWERTY keyboard. A full 64kb of RAM with a 64kb OS ROM.

Looking back, aside from the colour, it looked a lot like a Pandora. Except mine was orange.

But the point is, when you're designing something to be functional your choices are quite limited - that's why most of us came up with a similar design to the current Panda, barring stuff that we never knew about or dreamed about like touch screens and analogue nubs...

D.

You should have built that thing back then, our consumer tech would have advanced by 20 years! De Lorean, anyone?

 

[VRAndy]

At most there are 2 months before release.

People have said that before.

And don't give me "But this time for sure! After all they've just finished [step X]!" because we've heard that too.

 

[mali]

Sorry I should have perhaps been a little clearer.

I was referring to Craig and ED, who will be distributing them. The complete units will need to be shipped to them in bulk.

The US units _should_ ship directly from the assembly factory, afaik. It was said by Craig, that the factory does it for other clients, but it has never been finally confirmed that Pandoras _will_ ship from there to US customers.

 

[Theredbaron]

Thanks for the help here people. I got me a zipit Z2 and got Debian on it fully updated. Very nice. Love it. Don't get me wrong, it sucks, compared to the Pandora, but it is a nice thing to have on trips, and I go on one tomorrow. Plus, for 50$, I got something to test out some programs on for when I do get a pandora. Found out some low resource music players I like that can be background processes, even on the slow zipit. The battery life sucks though, at about 2 hours for mp3's, but still. I got me a fullish laptop for 50$ that fits in my shirt pocket. Very nice.

Just one Q for you people. Anybody know some good deb arm repos?

Once again thanks alot.