The Pandora's Audience

[JakeK]

Welcome back JakeK. Hope it went well. If you still want to pre-order just register on the main site. They have said 200-300 should be available.

By register you mean the newsletter thing?

 

[javaJake]

I did "retro gamer", since I'll probably end up using the Pandora more for gaming than "Linux" (productivity).

 

[PSyMastR]

Welcome back JakeK. Hope it went well. If you still want to pre-order just register on the main site. They have said 200-300 should be available.

By register you mean the newsletter thing?

Yes

 

[siphre7]

yeah i put retro gamer but I don't think that really fits. I had a psp (custom fimr) and a zune and the pandora seems like the kill-all portable for me. Homebrew/emulation/music/video/QUAKE 3!!! and all the stuff that i was all sad that the psp couldn't handle.

I'm really hoping for n64 though =)

 

[Poobik The Hare]

been around since GP32 days although i seldom use it much anymore. i come back here every so often to see how the scene is going.

i do intend to get a Pandora, but that will be when it's readily available and past the stage of any fixes being needed to the early adopters consoles. unfortunately, as of yet. i see nothing to convince me that it will ever be readily available. fingers X

 

[BaDZeD]

For me, the pandora is going to be much more than a portable gaming system: its going to be replacing my netbook (as sort of a subnetbook <_< ) Netbooks are still too big to lug around, they are great car pcs but are by no means pocketable (unless you have huge cargo pants, but it still looks weird when you whip one out (the netbook) of your pocket). With pandora, on the other hand it will look perfectly natural and it will offer true productivity on the go.

 

[Calmatory]

Retro games a bit. Linux enthusiast more, and homebrew developer/fan the most.

 

[Yannick]

I doubted a while between a GP2X and an M33 PSP
Then I sold my PSP to preorder a pandora

I am mostly doing it for the linux side. This thing runs firefox !
I like to code simple games

 

[Polossatik]

none of the actual Q's ...
I've chosen "linux" because it fits the best (= not used for gaming).
Mainly interested in the pandora for the formfactor/batterylive.

That it run some kind of Linux distro is nice not the main selling point for me.
I don't care what OS is running (Linux, bsd, windows, mac, solaris, AIX.. I use them all private or professionally) on ANY system as long as it does what I need to do in a decent way, so basically needs a decent browser, some kind of editor, a SSH client and an IM stack....

All extra like media player, gps, games etc is nice and dandy, just like on my N800, but not the core usage.

ps: please no fanboy replies , I use on some systems windows and it works very fine for that it needs to do thank you.

 

[PSyMastR]

As seen, we already have Firefox working, Abiword for a WYSIWYG editor (Im sure there will be some notepad/gedit type thing as well) and pidgin is running, and all you are missing (that we've been shown so far) is an SSH client. But Im sure that will come.

 

[sindbad]

As seen, we already have Firefox working, Abiword for a WYSIWYG editor (Im sure there will be some notepad/gedit type thing as well) and pidgin is running, and all you are missing (that we've been shown so far) is an SSH client. But Im sure that will come.

It probably already has a cli ssh client. Busybox can be configured to include it.

 

[zo0o0ot]

Linux enthusiast. I'd use this for viewing media files on my TV, as well as accessing the Internet. I'll play as many games as time allows with all the emulators and homebrew stuff. I'm still teetering between this and the slower nokia n800 due to the difference in price. I like the clamshell design and integrated keyboard with easily accessible Linux CLI buttons like "|". This would take the place of an Archos 604, which I use for viewing media files on my TV and at the gym. I also own a Zaurus SL5500 but the resolution and CPU power are just not up to snuff for most tasks.

 

[Polossatik]

Linux enthusiast. I'd use this for viewing media files on my TV, as well as accessing the Internet. I'll play as many games as time allows with all the emulators and homebrew stuff. I'm still teetering between this and the slower nokia n800 due to the difference in price. I like the clamshell design and integrated keyboard with easily accessible Linux CLI buttons like "|". This would take the place of an Archos 604, which I use for viewing media files on my TV and at the gym. I also own a Zaurus SL5500 but the resolution and CPU power are just not up to snuff for most tasks.

The N800 has no tv out. And you will need to reencode a lot of movies if you want to be sure playback is smooth. It's a very nice device (I have one) but it's only current merit is that you actually can get one . Even for browsing it's sometimes a bit underpowered (=slower then you would like) . But , assuming you don't want to type a lot (forums or so), then it's really a very useful internettablet. I can't miss it on trips.
The build in map application is a "extra" that is quite usefull. Having a detailed map at hand *everywhere* is so handy. Not especially talking about GPS/navigation, just having a goo'd old map in the pocket...

Thinking about it, this is the only thing of "extra" that I going to miss on the pandora while away (OpenStreetMap is not very mature yet in big parts europe), Google maps is also very nice, but then will need to find a backup connection solution for this as you don't have *everywhere* wifi .
maybe just back to the good old guide books and a map then as backup ?

 

[zo0o0ot]

The N800 has no tv out. And you will need to reencode a lot of movies if you want to be sure playback is smooth. It's a very nice device (I have one) but it's only current merit is that you actually can get one . Even for browsing it's sometimes a bit underpowered (=slower then you would like) . But , assuming you don't want to type a lot (forums or so), then it's really a very useful internettablet. I can't miss it on trips.
The build in map application is a "extra" that is quite usefull. Having a detailed map at hand *everywhere* is so handy. Not especially talking about GPS/navigation, just having a goo'd old map in the pocket...

I'm aware that the N800 has some drawbacks- no integrated joypad or keyboard, no S-video out, slower processor, less battery life. It does have hot-swappable batteries, though, the same resolution screen, and a couple other cool things. I've been going back and forth on these two devices, and I'm still undecided, so I'll keep saving money before making the plunge. I do like that there is already software for the n800 by virtue of it being on the market for a while already, and I'm not sure how wide an array of software the pandora will end up with. I'm wondering about apps like vnc, rdesktop, a logmemin.com app, and that sort of stuff. I've been checking in on the dev process of the Pandora, and it looks like the dev community has been doing a pretty good job so far. I do like that they are basing the OS on Angstrom. I've considered flashing Angstrom onto my SL5500 but it's not officially supported any more.

 

[mali]

As an N800 user I say go for Pandora. This is the (r )evolution

 

[ninjaturtle]

I was going to get a F200 until I saw the Pandora.

 

[Tor]

I'm aware that the N800 has some drawbacks- no integrated joypad or keyboard, no S-video out, slower processor, less battery life. It does have hot-swappable batteries, though,

NO, it doesn't.. it needs the battery in at all times. You have to shut it down before you switch batteries, or otherwise it'll be like pulling the plug for a desktop computer. Unlike the Pandora it can't actually work even when plugged in unless the battery is in.

On the other hand, running out of battery isn't something I've experienced very often. That's only happened when some software problem let the CPU spin over night. The battery has held up very well, only now when it's about two years old is there a visible reduction of capacity.

QUOTE

[...] I do like that there is already software for the n800 by virtue of it being on the market for a while already, and I'm not sure how wide an array of software the pandora will end up with. I'm wondering about apps like vnc, rdesktop, a logmemin.com app, and that sort of stuff. [...]

The N800 is a very nice device as long as you use it for what it's best at (and I use it all the time and I bring it everywhere). However, the software you're mentioning will be available on the Pandora (well, I don't know what logmemin.com is, sounds like as DOS command line program to me but..). The popular 3party software for the Nokia platform will also come to Pandora, these are all pretty straight forward to port.

 

[zo0o0ot]

I'm aware that the N800 has some drawbacks- no integrated joypad or keyboard, no S-video out, slower processor, less battery life. It does have hot-swappable batteries, though,

NO, it doesn't.. it needs the battery in at all times. You have to shut it down before you switch batteries, or otherwise it'll be like pulling the plug for a desktop computer. Unlike the Pandora it can't actually work even when plugged in unless the battery is in.
....(well, I don't know what logmemin.com is, sounds like as DOS command line program to me but..)

You're right. I read about hot swapping the battery in the maemo UI improvements blog, and I made the assumption that this is a current feature, and it is not. It was a suggestion for future N series tablets. Sorry about that.

Logmein.com is a remote access program that uses the logmein.com website as a gateway to remotely access your machines from any Internet capable machine. There was an alpha port to the N800, but it sounded like it had some issues.

I'm currently leaning heavily towards the Pandora after reading posts from current n800 owners, but I don't have a pre-order, so I guess I'll just see if there are any consoles left over from the first batch via the email newsletter.