Thoughts on wireless hardware

[xiongxioi]

All of those are kinda cool to have. This way I can throw away most of my stuffs and have an all in one system. (not the x-bone)

However, Pandora has no competitor, it has no points to make (besides remaining awesome), even if P2's just an average cortex a9 unit, most of us are still willing to pay 600 bucks for it. 

Adding these without raising the pricetag even more will only reduce ED's profit margin and his overall income. (remember he's quite a bit of debt to pay back) Unless we can get these functionalities cheap, there's not much point in doing these. We may make the best thing ever, but the purpose is defeated if ED went bankrupt for it. 

As a specific tea drinking failure scandal monkey has proven, giving people something is better than nothing. I would rather have an improved pandora every few years than have nothing at all. That being said, ED can always add these in futher down the line to an enhanced version. (Dragonbox Pyra 2ghz edition with 3g, FM radio, gps, and VR output support. ) 

 

[hedwards]

In the UK, the best music radio stations are on DAB. It's not essential to me that the Pyra contains a DAB decoder (or even DAB+) but it'd save me buying and carrying another device if it did.

I don't think it makes much sense to include DAB support in the Pyra. Looking at the availability of DAB signals, it's pretty much Europe, Australia and China, which means that a considerable chunk of the Pyra user base would be paying for hardware that wouldn't serve any purpose.

And that of course assumes that people in DAB territory would all want it.

OTOH, if there's a way of making it an addon with those extra headers, that might be a thought, but I get the feeling that it might not be practical to do that.

 

[Binky]

^ Do the Americans have anything equivalent?

 

[TrashyMG]

^ Do the Americans have anything equivalent?

HD Radio (IBOC) is the closest.. still only available in populated areas.. Still not that popular, people stick with AM/FM for terrestrial radio or Satellite Radio (XM) for the most part.

 

[Natsu]

All of those are kinda cool to have. This way I can throw away most of my stuffs and have an all in one system. (not the x-bone)

However, Pandora has no competitor, it has no points to make (besides remaining awesome), even if P2's just an average cortex a9 unit, most of us are still willing to pay 600 bucks for it. 

Adding these without raising the pricetag even more will only reduce ED's profit margin and his overall income.

More people will buy and more people will take notice.

 

[Tenka]

Like what's their names said about themselves, I would love to invest in both 3G/4G whatever and a built in GPS.  I don't care if the other features are present, but IR sounds like a feature which would be present in something like this.

 

[comradekingu]

GPS often is nonfree, and it is easy enough to do over usb. One of those corner-case things that could be good if done right, but in the end isnt for everyone.

 

[Tenka]

I haven't seen any USB GPS adapters which weren't large things on long cables, and GPS isn't very useful if it isn't very portable.  I don't know very much about GPS though, perhaps you need one of a few different hardwares depending on the signal you plan on using.  If that is not the case though, and any hardware would do no matter which free or non free signal someone may use, then totally build it in.

 

[sebt3]

a good BT and wifi and I'm all set, as should very most of us

 

[Binky]

GPS devices normally output standard NMEA strings over serial (or serial over USB).

That can't be too hard to process - there's even an areduino library for it

 

[Granitehead]

a good BT and wifi and I'm all set, as should very most of us

Why not open a poll to test this?

We could include all of the mentioned options which are available world wide, that is: cellular radio, FM radio, IR, GPS. Maybe with an estimate of the additional cost when included.

If the Pyra had cellular radio and GPS it could replace my smart phone, which would be nice. Then when you leave the house you could just take the Pyra with you and would be all set. If it doesn't have both of those I would still need my smart phone. Which would probably result in me leaving the Pyra at home because I hate carrying too much with me (too much = more than one device).

 

[Binky]

It might still be worth doing a poll on the region-specific stuff.

If DAB (Europe + Australia + China) proves to be exceptionally popular (and I would be surprised if it does) it might still be worth including, even if the Americans would have no use for it.

--

When we talk of GPS, is there an implicit magnetometer included in that?

 

[WizardStan]

When we talk of GPS, is there an implicit magnetometer included in that?

Ooo, now that's a feature I'd be very interested in. It's a $5 part (significantly less in quantity) and measures just a few mm square so shouldn't greatly impact anything, but having a compass... ok so I can't actually think of anything practical to do with it, but I'm sure something would come up.

 

[TrashyMG]

^ Not that I care too much about it, but does most Android phones have a compass? I believe every phone I've had does, I think it gives the mapping software a general idea what direction you're pointed in.

 

[Granitehead]

Okay, so let's include the region-specific stuff too.

GPS - rather expensive?

magnetometer - $5

Cellular radio/3G/etc - rather expensive?

DAB+DVB (if this is on the same chip I guess it should be one option?) - rather expensive?

IR - cheap?

FM radio - cheap?

But does anyone know what that would cost? Obviously can't be accurate, but knowing it's in the $5 range or in the $50 range already helps.

 

[Natsu]

Wouldn't there have be a mic and speaker on the bottom or top so you can use it as a phone?

 

[TrashyMG]

Wouldn't there have be a mic and speaker on the bottom or top so you can use it as a phone?

There doesn't have to be.. It could be used like a speaker phone or just plug in a headset. Personally phone features is still on the bottom of the list of things I would like to see.


Edit: Also:

 

[Granitehead]

Oh, I wouldn't use it to do phone calls. I rarely do phone calls. What I would use it for is accessing the internet and sending text messages.

And if I wanted to do calls, then, yes, I would use a headset.

Doesn't anyone know anything about the costs?

(I don't. I guess I could try finding gps/etc modules for sale somewhere, but I'm not sure how much that would help considering how little I know about that stuff. If there are additional fees, how to integrate it into the system, etc.)

 

[Natsu]

Wouldn't there have be a mic and speaker on the bottom or top so you can use it as a phone?

There doesn't have to be.. It could be used like a speaker phone or just plug in a headset. Personally phone features is still on the bottom of the list of things I would like to see.


Edit: Also:

Lucky with prya, talking from the buttom/under it won't look so weird, but a headset makes sense,especially if there's a slot for it.

Oh, I wouldn't use it to do phone calls. I rarely do phone calls. What I would use it for is accessing the internet and sending text messages.

Yeah, that what most people are doing nowadays.

 

[WizardStan]

Doesn't anyone know anything about the costs?

IR would cost pennies.AM/FM receiver chips seem to cost about $10 with a LOT of features packed into it. NXP sells a chip that looks like it may be an AM/FM receiver with fewer features (which means more interface work required) for about $7.

Edit: Yeah, $7 to $10 seems to be the range for AM/FM receivers.

Edit edit: Silicon Labs has an FM/FMHD/DAB/DAB+ receiver chip for which I've found online prices of $11. No AM though.

edit edit edit: DVB tuner chips are in the $5-$15 range, but I have no idea how this would interface with the rest of the system. The FM/DVB chips can communicate via i2c and digital audio, very easy to interface: these are entirely different beasts that would probably require a lot of extra work to make work, even if they can be had for cheap.