Usability As A Pda ? As A Laptop ?

[Clad]

Hello !

I was primarily planning to use the Pandora as my universal portable gaming device (being an 8-bits gamer, this kind of handled with a keyboard is everything I would even need gaming-related. (and if it can emulate an OCS Amiga as well, god...)

But I was thinking. Could the Pandora be a centralized hub for all my 21st century needs ?

First, as a PDA. I'm always using my PDA to write anything that goes through my mind. Things I should consider thinking further, appointements, todo lists of all sorts, misc ideas... Could the Pandora handle that efficiently ? I mean obviously I'd have to forget about beeping reminders of all sort (the beast is too powerful to have an efficient sleep mode), but appart from that, is there any reason I didn't think of that would prevent that ?

Second, as a laptop. Pandora could handle some word and powerpoint compatible office software right ? I mean, the resolution is not really an issue (never been with my EEE 701), neither is the keyboard (having an USB keyboard with me while I need to use it as a laptop is ok)... Storage is also ok (again, the EEE with 4 g built in and a 8g sd is enough to me, and I would consider getting 2x8g or even 2x16g SD with the pandora), but what about the memory ? Would OpenOffice be happy with only 128 megs ? If not is there other fully MS-compatible softwares that could do the trick ?

There is other issues as well. What about battery ? Would the system be happy being constantly switched on and off while used as a PDA ? And what about boot time ? (a PDA can't afford to take as much time as booting as a laptop does... boot time like my GP2X "first edition" and an unofficial fast booting firmware I forgot the name (Open2X ?) would be ok, but not more)

And most importantly, what issues did I miss with using a Pandora as I mention ? Is there anything I failed to consider ?

Thanks

edit: And while I am at it, is there any hope to ever use it efficiently as a GPS ? I'm not talking hardware side (there is enough GPS receiver working with linux already), but software side. Tracking and guiding softwares, maps, radar list and such...

 

[Thunder]

I'm not really an expert in Pandoralogistics (In fact I've only very recently discovered it).

But my guess is that you'll be perfectly able to use it as a PDA, when questioning it's efficiency, I guess you could just underclock it so it'll use less power.

A laptop, I'm not so sure, most of the software you listed could work, it however would need some proper optimisation and you can forget about underclocking...

Boot time and constantly rebooting, I don't know.

GPS, as you already said, it's all software related.

 

[cb88]

you could just write a program that uses cron to play a reminder sound... would use next to no CPU time

if you are comfortable with the CLI you could just write a CLI app to enter the date of the event and perhaps even set it up so that a program like flite (text to speech) would read it off a sentence or something you could add

of course writing a gui to do that should't be too hard either basically a text editor with add event and remove event etc... puppylinux has a similar bash/gtkdialog utility

also you have to remember this thing has 10+ hours active (meaning a load on the CPU) battery life... and WAY more idle

also there is no need to underclock... it has technology similar to laptops speed step or AMD cool and quiet.... so it automatically halts the CPU when idle....

you can start openoffice with 64mb + swap (takes about a minute though... so *might* be usable with 128mb ram if it is cut down and optimised)

also last time i check Openoffice itself was not 100% compatible with MsWord ... so stop useing word and use open formats already

 

[TaG]

This topic has come up a few times, including here just a week or so ago.

Try the search function as I'm sure there have been a few more mentions - sorry I haven't got time to provide any other links right now. The bottom line seems to be most of these things are likely to be possible if somebody ports or writes the apps. OpenOffice is probably too resource (RAM) hungry but there are other possibilities. Going into a sleep state is also not going to cause problems.

 

[Clad]

Using open format is a nice idea in theory, and as a matter of fact I do use OpenDoc when I can, but in a business context it's quite had to apply.

What you expect would be idle autonomy ? What part are deactivated ? Is the screen 100% not fed ? CPU as well ? GPU ?

I expect ram would still need to be fed, unless it's content is written into flash, which seems unlikely (I wouldn't want a system that would make me wait for ram->flash and then flash->ram copy each time it goes idle)

edit: Checking Tag's link now, thanks.

 

[Chip]

The Pandora can do absolutely anything a full sized computer can, provided it works within the CPU speed and RAM constraints and somebody writes the software for it. There is no hardware limitation that would prevent any or all of the applications you suggest.

As explained in multiple threads, The Pandora will be able to run in extremely low-power mode, as well as being able to suspend to RAM and suspend to flash.

 

[callumshell1]

You know, there are 32gb SD cards out for about £50, so a couple of them and you got more than enough space.

 

[TaG]

You know, there are 32gb SD cards out for about £50, so a couple of them and you got more than enough space.

Assuming you've got 100 quid lying around doing nothing...

 

[Clad]

You know, there are 32gb SD cards out for about £50, so a couple of them and you got more than enough space.

Uh, why would I ever need that much ?

I had 12 gbits on my EEE (more like 10 actually with all that space wasted by UnionFS) and it was more than enough already ! I never reached the limit and I had tons of roms on it.

I really plan to get 2x16 instead of 2x8 'cause those are cheap enough those days if you know the good (online) shops, but I'm not even sure I will use that extra 16 gbits. 32gbits SD seems like a total waste of money to me. Why the hell would you need to carry... 100+ standard 650/700megs divx with you ? If you have that kind of need, you don't need a pandora, you need an USB hard disk.

Hell, I didn't even feel limited with the 128megs limit of the GP32's SMC. (can you believe it ? as much storage space as the Pandora got ram !)

 

[Gilrad]

Not to mention, last I checked, I couldn't find any class 6 32gb cards... I think 16 will be fine for me too.

 

[trooper]

@Clad: Sorry to be a pedantic asshole , But 8/12/16/32gbits etc, does not equal 8/12/16/32GBytes etc.

Trooper

 

[junker]

i tell that to my friends all the time. they don't know the difference between a bit and a byte

 

[quadomatic]

i tell that to my friends all the time. they don't know the difference between a bit and a byte

Yeah, lol. Imagine the surprise of those who bought 4Gbit DS cartridges, only to find out that they hold 500MB.

 

[Megamixman]

A bit has 1 tooth mark and a Byte has several teeth marks. That's the sole difference....
So stop nibbling on your gadgets people!

 

[cb88]

nibble == 4 bits && half a byte

 

[IceBerg303]

The pandora can only be used as a pds if you write an you can put the system into suspend and still have the cron run. In a pda this is done with a hardware alarm system. This will be the most difficult thing to get around, everything else is quite simple in comparison.

Though with the HTC Dream Google Android phone being released on the 17th who needs the pandora to be a PDA?

 

[Gilrad]

Though with the HTC Dream Google Android phone being released on the 17th who needs the pandora to be a PDA?

People who want to buy only one piece of expensive hardware?

 

[Megamixman]

The pandora can only be used as a pds if you write an you can put the system into suspend and still have the cron run. In a pda this is done with a hardware alarm system. This will be the most difficult thing to get around, everything else is quite simple in comparison.

Though with the HTC Dream Google Android phone being released on the 17th who needs the pandora to be a PDA?

.... Except the Pandora using a Mobile SoC has 1 GP timer and 1 WDT that are always active and can function as a source of a wakeup event for the entire SoC. On top of this, it is flexible enough to keep it's other 11 GP timer and 1 other WDT powered if needed. A good kernel would just schedule the next wakeup with the GP timer and power down the other GP timers though.

The HTC Dream is all good and dandy but it doesn't run generic Apps. It runs special Java Apps which means a whole host of programs have to be developed for it. Pandora on the other hand has access to Maemo and Debain ARMEL. Which means a lot of linux apps are already available for it. Personally the combination of Pandora + a good Bluetooth phone with Tethering will likely be a better option for anyone who is even thinking of buying a Pandora.

 

[Clad]

@Clad: Sorry to be a pedantic asshole , But 8/12/16/32gbits etc, does not equal 8/12/16/32GBytes etc.

Trooper

I assume that people geeky enough to lurk around here would know the difference and understand the typo.

Btw, in french we say "octet" for "byte", which makes way more sense. No way you can mistake the words, and "octet" is pretty much self-explanatory.

Wonder why the choice of those two words in english. Maybe you just enjoy to complicate things ?

 

[ashdjones]

Wonder why the choice of those two words in english. Maybe you just enjoy to complicate things ?

Because computer engineers like to give things funny names, especially the british ones.