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For example, the iPad has some stuff I mentioned above (accelerometer, magnetometer, multi-touch, etc.). Also, just today I ran into something called the Archos 28 which sells for just US$100. It uses Android but can also use Angstrom Linux, has 802.11n built-in (Pandora does just 802.11b/g), ARM Cortex A8 800MHz cpu (Pandora is 600MHz), built-in accelerometer, etc.
Not that I'm saying Pandora isn't great. It is a good design. It's just beginning to show some age.
- Steve
You forgot to mention that the Archos 28 has a pitiful 320x240 touchscreen.
And I think Pandora's battery can last more than 4 hours of video playback…
All the OMAP in the Pandora are able to run at 800Mhz, most of them without changing OPP.
Some of them can even go faster, using higher OPP settings. (at the expense of lifetime of the OMAP, I concede)
Cellphone hardware was a no go, the price of the Pandora would have sky rocketed.
HDMI is expensive, it's not a royalty-free standard so to use it you have to pay royalties.
A Skype port is dependent of the good will of Skype, since their protocols aren't open sourced. (but, eventually, it'll happen since there are ARM ports now)
I don't care about Windows/X86 compatibility, I'm not running Windows on my devices since long ago
(or only when I really don't have any other choice
)
As you can see, there are many points where I can't agree with what you said.
The only thing I can agree is that the Pandora isn't as "futuristic" as it would have been 1-2 years ago.
But the hardware is far from obsolete, it's current hardware, used in mainstream devices.