What Are The Conditions For A Successor Development?

[craigix]

"more mhz" is a shoddy excuse to release new hardware.. [snip]

You think we are just going to sit and watch sales slowly fall away over 2-3 years and do nothing? We are not Sony. We don't have anything even approaching their business model. We make money from the sales of the device itself - not the games.

 

[second exodous]

"more mhz" is a shoddy excuse to release new hardware.. [snip]

You think we are just going to sit and watch sales slowly fall away over 2-3 years and do nothing? We are not Sony. We don't have anything even approaching their business model. We make money from the sales of the device itself - not the games.

What about the App Store you're working on? If that works out to be profitable do you think you'll keep the current Pandora platform for a while?

 

[Alec]

Wait, you didn't understand, the old board would go into the new box and would be a headless system that would use the video out cable to hook into the TV. The box would be what Craig was planning on for his cube:

. . .Our 'cube' would still have the keypad and gaming controls, it would pretty much just be the lower half of the pandora, which if you wanted to play games you could just pick up like a joypad and use it.

In that case, I don't really see the point of doing that - you'll be only saving on the screen, which I don't imagine is that expensive, and except for that, you're making a complete device.

 

[second exodous]

Wait, you didn't understand, the old board would go into the new box and would be a headless system that would use the video out cable to hook into the TV. The box would be what Craig was planning on for his cube:

. . .Our 'cube' would still have the keypad and gaming controls, it would pretty much just be the lower half of the pandora, which if you wanted to play games you could just pick up like a joypad and use it.

In that case, I don't really see the point of doing that - you'll be only saving on the screen, which I don't imagine is that expensive, and except for that, you're making a complete device.

It's not cost I'm thinking about, it's The Story of Stuff. It would save on screens being produced and less screens going in landfills is just a better idea. People who have the Pandora1 and buy the Pandora2 probably won't use their old Pandora very much after they have a new one. This is just to eliminate as much waste as possible.

 

[WizardStan]

You think we are just going to sit and watch sales slowly fall away over 2-3 years and do nothing? We are not Sony. We don't have anything even approaching their business model. We make money from the sales of the device itself - not the games.

Just take it as it comes. If sales are still going strong, there's no need for a new one. If sales are falling, I don't think anyone with any business sense will really blame you for building a Pandora2 after only a couple of years, especially not if it can be kept backward compatible.

 

[mali]

Having something in the pipeline is essential and geeks like me would instantly hop on a new device. OMAP4 has really some neat benefits. Designing and ordering the new board takes time so basically the planning of a successor- or let's say- improved parallel version would need to take place while the old version is still in the process to establish, else you would have the gap Craig describes. Reading what Craig says on this matter makes me very confident thet the right decisions will be made

 

[bzar]

The next pandora should be powerful enough to emulate the next generation of consoles: xbox, ps2 and gamecube . Smaller improvements are really like pandoras 1.1-1.x

 

[SNESFAN]

The Pandora2 will most likely just have an OMAP4 stuck in the same case whenever the OMAP4 is done, which is probably going to be 2011. (don't believe any press releases saying 2009 etc. it is just for people like Nokia and samples).

CONFIRMED: Pandora 2 "two years" tm

...so it begins

 

[MonkeyChops]

I think we should just ask TI to make the OMAP 4 the same shape as the 3 so we can just pull out the old one and put in the new.

 

[craigix]

Alas it isn't and neither is the 512MB RAM.

We know we are going to see the PSP2 specs next year and I think we should reevaluate the situation from there.

 

[emil10001]

You think we are just going to sit and watch sales slowly fall away over 2-3 years and do nothing? We are not Sony. We don't have anything even approaching their business model. We make money from the sales of the device itself - not the games.

That seems like a good reason to me. I want you guys to stay in business.

 

[Phawx]

I still think you should keep the bottom half and go for a larger screen for the top and place the speakers elsewhere. Also HDMI out would be very nice.

Those two features with a chipset generation increase would be a nice Pandora2.

 

[Exophase]

I think we should just ask TI to make the OMAP 4 the same shape as the 3 so we can just pull out the old one and put in the new.

Expecting an SoC with a highly different design to have a completely compatible pin-out is very unlikely. Having said that, no one would be able to do such a thing without a rework station; these chips are on grid arrays.

 

[Rayek]

Wait, wait, wait.... Can the Pandora handle SDIO?

If so, here's you're swivel camera for 150 bucks more:

HP PHOTOSMART MOBILE CAMERA (SDIO) - 1.3MP, 4X DIGITAL ZOOM

 

[MonkeyChops]

I think we should just ask TI to make the OMAP 4 the same shape as the 3 so we can just pull out the old one and put in the new.

Expecting an SoC with a highly different design to have a completely compatible pin-out is very unlikely. Having said that, no one would be able to do such a thing without a rework station; these chips are on grid arrays.

yea, I guess I should have used sarcasm tags. Watch the "history of stuff" video, then you'll laugh.

 

[neko]

Alas it isn't and neither is the 512MB RAM.

This? http://www.micron.com/products/dram/mobiledram/mobileddr2partlist?den=4Gb

If they are switching to a 64-bit bus for the OMAP4 memory then of course it will need a new pinout.

 

[Exophase]

Wait, wait, wait.... Can the Pandora handle SDIO?

If so, here's you're swivel camera for 150 bucks more:

HP PHOTOSMART MOBILE CAMERA (SDIO) - 1.3MP, 4X DIGITAL ZOOM

It can, or at least the hardware can. I don't know what the driver support is like right now.

This thing isn't that good for the price, I'd personally rather go with a much cheaper USB webcam like camera.

 

[mindlord]

Wait, wait, wait.... Can the Pandora handle SDIO?

If so, here's you're swivel camera for 150 bucks more:

HP PHOTOSMART MOBILE CAMERA (SDIO) - 1.3MP, 4X DIGITAL ZOOM

It can, or at least the hardware can. I don't know what the driver support is like right now.

This thing isn't that good for the price, I'd personally rather go with a much cheaper USB webcam like camera.

And who wants a camera that only looks at your feet or up your nose.... besides pornographers that is?

 

[Polossatik]

While eventually hardware will need to be upgraded "to keep up" the actual software stack is in the short run (talking 1-2 years) far more important.
Check out the Nokia tablet history, while N770 , N800 and N810 each are "upgrades" the actual difference in hardware did not make *that* much of a splash. ok, you can multi task a bit better and N810 has a (crappy) onboard GPS, nice.
But at the end it's the software stack that actually "makes" the device.
So I would think that the next "revision" would be a "minor" update (bit more ram or bit faster cpu if that can be implemented "cheaply") and will still be able to play "ball".
After all the difference between a "mid range" PC (700 euro / no screen) from now and 2 year ago is not that much (unless you are using it for high end gaming or workstation applications).
It might be now more Mhz, or more ram but the only thing that actually "eats" in that case the difference is XP vs Vista

The only "thread" would be a similar device that has far more power (while not eating battery's like a netbook) and even with access to OMAP4 that's still not such a "big" leap (besides a 4 instead a 3 on the box).

 

[Rayek]

Wait, wait, wait.... Can the Pandora handle SDIO?

If so, here's you're swivel camera for 150 bucks more:

HP PHOTOSMART MOBILE CAMERA (SDIO) - 1.3MP, 4X DIGITAL ZOOM

It can, or at least the hardware can. I don't know what the driver support is like right now.

This thing isn't that good for the price, I'd personally rather go with a much cheaper USB webcam like camera.

And who wants a camera that only looks at your feet or up your nose.... besides pornographers that is?

I was really kinda joking.

But still, SDIO also has GPS devices, so if you want to track where you are AND video chat with your millions of friends, you can do it without a USB hub. BONUS!