What can Pandora do that Note 3 can't?

[kuru]

The Pandora can wobble around while you awkwardly hold the screen in place trying to draw...and throw off your drawing with its' touchscreen while the Note 3 can not. Yes, that's a huge plus for the Note. And I guess you would consider that when you're interested in doodling and stuff. If not, it's just a glorified notebook, in the classis sense, that annoys with Samsung account, software and Android specific bollocks.

Okay there's one great, free Samsung product, a voice for digitized speech which will read you books from FBReader using Speak+. That's quite an ace thing to have and works very well.

Since this guy mentions gaming... this discussion has a beard. Built-in controls and keyboard beat everything touch. If he can't see that huge pro...

 

[rygD]

The Pandora can wobble around while you awkwardly hold the screen in place trying to draw...and throw off your drawing with it's touchscreen while the Note 3 can not.

Good job pointing out this capability.  You might be able to get something close to this if you very loosely hold the Note 3, or lay it down to draw.  On the other hand, when I am making heavy use of the Pandora touch screen I usually support it somehow, which reduces the wobbling.

 

[kuru]

The Pandora can wobble around while you awkwardly hold the screen in place trying to draw...and throw off your drawing with it's touchscreen while the Note 3 can not.

Good job pointing out this capability.  You might be able to get something close to this if you very loosely hold the Note 3, or lay it down to draw.  On the other hand, when I am making heavy use of the Pandora touch screen I usually support it somehow, which reduces the wobbling.

The camera sticking out a bit on the note is a indeed a little downside - which is remedied by using virtually any case/bumper/whatever. The Pandora's laptop configuration makes it so I have to use e.g. a book for a handrest and support for the screen, which still leaves me in a very uncomfortable position for drawing. And there's that rim around the screen.

But yeah this is a personal woe - having all those great graphics apps like gimp and mypaint while not getting any use out of those hand-drawing. Nevermind this little rant, it's not a graphics tablet but a completely different beast.

 

[Yoyobuae]

Did someone mention the resistive touchscreen of the Pandora? That is really awesome and not comparable to the finger painting like Android approach...

I have only heard wonders of the S-pen on Note devices. It uses Wacom digitizer tech, so it should be really good/accurate

Mass storage mode (this was dropped from newer Android versions, requires rooting to renable)

 Seriously, they dropped that? Are they out of their mind ?

No, it makes perfect sense actually.USB mass storage mode has a design flaw. It exists on the Pandora as well: you must unmount the SD card in order to give the host system full control.

Actually all that's needed is an image file (or block device) formatted with a filesystem that the host system can understand. Still, it is kinda annoying having huge image files in SD card to be able to copy stuff back and forth from host system.
Instead it would be better to provide a simulated filesystem for the host to read/write. This filesystem would look like a copy of the SD card for reading/writing (ie. by reading/writing files to the original SD card). Or a more secure mode would be to allow only reads to the original SD card, and map writes to files under some specified dir (a la aufs).

There's probably other solutions as well. MTP is far from the only choice, it was just their choice.

 

[rygD]

The Pandora can wobble around while you awkwardly hold the screen in place trying to draw...and throw off your drawing with it's touchscreen while the Note 3 can not.

Good job pointing out this capability.  You might be able to get something close to this if you very loosely hold the Note 3, or lay it down to draw.  On the other hand, when I am making heavy use of the Pandora touch screen I usually support it somehow, which reduces the wobbling.

The camera sticking out a bit on the note is a indeed a little downside - which is remedied by using virtually any case/bumper/whatever. The Pandora's laptop configuration makes it so I have to use e.g. a book for a handrest and support for the screen, which still leaves me in a very uncomfortable position for drawing. And there's that rim around the screen.

But yeah this is a personal woe - having all those great graphics apps like gimp and mypaint while not getting any use out of those hand-drawing. Nevermind this little rant, it's not a graphics tablet but a completely different beast.

I hear you about the uncomfortable position.  I don't usually have issues when I am holding the screen, but that is typically for games.  I imagine it would get bothersome quickly if you were trying to be productive.  I still am amused at how you answered the question by pointing out something that can be a bit of an issue.

Since you mentioned the camera, I will reiterate what someone mentioned earlier about the device not spying on you.  The Pandora can be used without concern that the device is watching you, literally.

 

[TrashyMG]

^ Due to my forgetting my laptop charger in the office and my laptop only getting about an hour on the battery I ended up doing six hours of work on the Pandora a week or two ago.. I found myself just leaving it fully opened for the most part, I was slouching in the couch.. I was actually amazingly productive that day with it, was monitoring things at work, responding to emails, kicking off some scripts.  I would of been a lot less productive on a phone device even if I could get a keyboard and mouse on it. 

 

[rygD]

Yeah, that kinda redirects me back to my first post.  I have never really been to fond of Android phones, even those that have a physical keyboard.  The Pandora isn't a laptop, but I treat it like one.  It may not have the power of a real modern laptop, but a real laptop doesn't have this kind of battery life, and it isn't as portable.  For primary input anything is better than a touch screen for me in most cases.  I wouldn't be too happy about using a word processor with just a touch screen, but then again is LibreOffice available for Android?  I know other stuff is, which I have on a couple of the phones around here, but I am far more productive with my Pandora, when I don't get distracted, than I ever was with any Android device.  For me the Pandora is just a low spec ultra mobile computer.  There was a time when I wanted a big name really expensive UMPC with thumb keyboard and such, but the Pandora has proven to be better for me since I can type on it normally or with thumbs, the nubs and buttons work well as a mouse, and I can set the screen at an angle so that I can set it down and still see everything while I am working on other stuff or watching tv.  Also, I like to support the little guys, especially when what is offered seems like it was made just for me.

I have yet to come across any smartphone that has a battery that can make it through a day of moderate use with me, which the Pandora does often.  All of the smartphones I have used heavily make it maybe a few hours before dying.  I really hope the Pyra battery will fit into my Pandora so I can go longer between charging until I have enough saved for a Pyra.  ED, if the batteries are good can we start getting them shipped before the Pyra is finished being developed?

 

[x1212]

Did someone mention the resistive touchscreen of the Pandora? That is really awesome and not comparable to the finger painting like Android approach...

I have only heard wonders of the S-pen on Note devices. It uses Wacom digitizer tech, so it should be really good/accurate

Well I don't know about Note3 but at least with the Note1 I think the pandora is a little better if it comes to accuracy but that might just be me being unable to use it properly ... but for drawing I prefer a PC + Wacom-Tablet anyway. (I should plug that into the pandora sometime ...)

btw: Did someone mention full-size USB already? I have even been able to connect my pandora to LAN with that (using a USB to LAN adapter that was sold to be used with a Wii) ... also mouse and keyboard can be plugged in (OK someone had done this with some android phone as well but there you need special connectors to get fullsize USB)

 

[ZXDunny]

Seems to me that there's times and usages when the Pandora shines, and ditto for the Android hardware. I myself have an N7 - I use it as a media consumption device and use it with apps where the touchscreen really shines. Gaming is crap on it unless it specifically lends itself to a touchscreen - card games and whatnot. For emulation/platforming/FPSing it really sucks, and the Pandora gets one over on the touchscreen devices there.

The Pandora is where I can be creative with a keyboard and has gaming controls for those games and emulators that need them. That's it for me.

Strengths and weaknesses for both, and overall satisfaction comes from using each to their strengths.

D.

 

[FaeMinx]

His response so far:

From what I gather as I did last time I argued with the creator.

>Gaming (If I can't play at least Half-Life 2, I'm not sold on it, android with an Xbox 360 controller, wabam for everything the Pandora has. Speaking of which, I was playing GTA: Vice City because it was ported to Android and it works great.

>Mass Storage. I don't know about you but I don't use my phone for sitting back and watching a 2 hour movie or for that matter putting important files on a portable device. 

>Updates: Never update unless you need to. If it isn't broken don't fix it, my phone was never broken.

>Code::Blocks on an ARM device. It's not Visual Studio, moving on. C++ is my favorite sorry.

>Raising the stakes. I bet I could make a slightly bigger NUC form factor 'laptop' that could make this device scream in terror and it would cost probably $100 less.

 

[TrashyMG]

Code::Blocks on an ARM device. It's not Visual Studio, moving on. C++ is my favorite sorry.

?? wow this guy is a moron.


Edit: it's best not to get worked up over a person like this that on a forum.. 

 

[NearTao]

As someone who has both...

I'll keep moving along.

 

[Exophase]

Yeah if the person doesn't understand that you can use C++ outside of Visual Studio (and indeed, with Code::Blocks) then he's not really worth arguing with. Not to mention that he they could make his own NUC that'd only be slightly larger than Pandora while putting it to shame. Either he has no idea what size the thing really is or he is very clueless about the realities of such a project.

And don't even get me started on those font colors.. please tell me that's just an artifact of the forum it was copied from...

Still don't really get the point of this in general, when almost all of this boils down to personal preference. Pandora (and likely Pyra) is one of those things where if it makes sense for you you'll know pretty quickly. If it doesn't no arguing is going to change that. Unfortunately, some people aren't happy with their purchases on a personal level and have to get into arguments with everyone else that their device is the best for everything and everyone.

Novena seems like a great example of a niche product working. To me it'd be nothing more than an expensive and underpowered desktop replacement, with the laptop version making even less sense since there's no way I could use that in a way that resembles using a laptop. Yet if I wanted to do FPGA development that fits in the one it has embedded it'd be heads and tails over any other solution - what else would let you write and test FPGA code on a long plane trip? It could be worse in every single way but for those to whom it applies that one feature makes the purchase and breaks anything else. And the hundreds of thousands it has gotten in funding speaks for itself, those people know what they're doing and don't need to be told they're wrong. It's insulting to say they could just as well hook an FPGA dev board up to a laptop, and it's insulting to say you could just hook an XBox 360 controller to a phablet to replace a Pandora. People have this mentality that a buy or no buy decision is nothing more than adding up points from several different categories, and if it's worse in every way but one that'll always outweigh it being better in one really critical way. That's not how it works. Maybe for mainstream devices where no one really tries to do anything very unique, like phones, tablets, laptops, and TVs. But not with stuff like this.

 

[thatgui]

His response so far:

...

Why waste time with that guy? He obviously has his mind already set and isn't interested in any discussion at all, otherwise he would not blatantly hurt his own orginal argument.

 

[FaeMinx]

I guess I just rose to the bait. He said some things about the Pandora that focused solely on it's outdated specs by the time it came out and that he hoped the Pyra wouldn't follow suit. I tried to express that in spite of it's specs, there's still nothing quite like it. He responded by saying:

The GP2X did come first, I didn't hop on because I didn't see any practical use for the Pandora. It seems more like a lot of the Pandora crowd went into Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and alternative ARM electronics.

....


P.s. @Exophase: Yes, that's just an artifact from the other forum.


=~. O =

 

[kuru]

He talks about being able to play HL2 but mentions Android plus 360 pad.


*coughs*


Well, moving on.

 

[WizardStan]

Instead it would be better to provide a simulated filesystem for the host to read/write.

Giving block level writes to a simulated file system is a very challenging problem. If you think it can be done, do so and get your code into the next release of Linux.There are other problems as well. On new phones that use MTP the whole thing, the internal storage chip and the SD card, are treated as a single huge storage device and formatted with EXT (I think, probably 3, I should probably check that). MTP is the translation that allows Windows to read the non-FAT device. Putting in a translation so it still works as a USB mass storage device violates USB standard and would give the host machine either too much control over your phones internal storage chip or not enough control over the SD card.

 

[Neelix]

Is it just me or does merging internal storage and removable storage into one volume seem like insanity? Wouldn't that mean the internal storage gets corrupted if the SD card is ever removed?

- Neelix

 

[Yoyobuae]

Is it just me or does merging internal storage and removable storage into one volume seem like insanity? Wouldn't that mean the internal storage gets corrupted if the SD card is ever removed?


- Neelix

Yeah, I was wondering that too.

From what I understand, both storage devices are still kept seperate at the OS level. It's just that user applications (and MTP) see all media on both devices combined (ie. the OS pulls the media from both devices and puts it in its library, so that apps can access it).

On my MTP-only Android handset I can launch the file browser and browse (the FAT partitioned) SD card just fine. It is not merged with internal storage at all, as far as I can tell. I can even pull out the SD card into a card reader and browse the contents from PC (ie. just like USB mass storage mode would allow).

@FaeMinx: Yeah that guy doesn't know even half of what he's talking about. Yet another ignorant PC+Windows+Xbox guy not worth paying attention to (there's millions more like him out there).

 

[WizardStan]

Well, that would be different then how it was explained to me, and how it is on my tablet.

Is it just me or does merging internal storage and removable storage into one volume seem like insanity? Wouldn't that mean the internal storage gets corrupted if the SD card is ever removed?

It's only for the data partition where applications you've installed and music and videos you've downloaded go. The system partition remains untouched. Worst case, you pull the SD card and it boots up with just stock apps complaining that the data partition is corrupted.

On my MTP-only Android handset I can launch the file browser and browse (the FAT partitioned) SD card just fine. It is not merged with internal storage at all, as far as I can tell. I can even pull out the SD card into a card reader and browse the contents from PC (ie. just like USB mass storage mode would allow).

What phone is this? Remind me to avoid this manufacturer for using a feature but not actually taking advantage of it for the benefits it gives.If the data storage is not merged into a single unit, and the SD card is in fact formatted FAT, then definitely agree that there is no reason to do away with USB mass storage, all you're left with are the drawbacks.