Why Should I Buy A Pandora?

[cobaltage]

I don't know if you should get one or not.

But I do think the Open Pandora is interesting for more reasons than just games. This is just based on looking at the UMPC, MID, internet tablet, and netbook markets over the past couple years. I've owned a Nokia 770, a Fujitsu P1510, two Nintendo DS's, and now an iPhone 3G.

What I think makes the Open Pandora unique includes:
1. Great CPU performance to power usage ratio.
2. Unusually large battery capacity. (OpenPandora = 4000 mAh, iPhone = approx. 1400 mAh; most smart phones use batteries between 1000 mAh and 1250 mAh)
3. Not a tiny notebook PC. (IMO, a tiny notebook form factor is just an ergonomic disaster.)
4. Not running XP or Vista. (Just for performance reasons. I'd rather have a Pandora than an Atom-based MID running Windows.)
5. 480p video resolution, hardware accelerated graphics, high quality audio DSP, and video-out.
6. Desktop web browser.
7. Dual SDHC slots. (More than enough capacity for a large volume of audio and video files.)
8. Probable Flash support (I'm just guessing.)
9. Hardware keyboard.
10. Compatible with USB (and BT) input devices, etc.
11. Small size.
12. The fact that you can actually get one.

I think the iPhone 3G is great specifically for the fact that I don't have to travel with a notebook PC anymore, and yet I'm better able to access internet content than I was with a notebook PC. It also provides enough entertainment to supplant my Nintendo DS. However, there are things that I dislike about the iPhone OS, including the limited browser, lack of Flash support, lack of hardware controls, lack of expandability, etc. That got me thinking, if I were to want a secondary device, what would it be? Let's say I got a tethering plan, or jailbreak the iPhone and hack some wifi tethering, or get a Nokia Symbian phone and the Joikuspot app that allows sharing the phone's internet connection with another device. What would that second device be?

I think the Open Pandora is it. In some ways it gets me around the limitations of a smartphone. If I want to get songs from Amazon instead of the iTunes store, I can download them on the Pandora and put them on the iPhone using one of the wifi networking apps that play music. Not perfect, but it works. The iPhone still doesn't have full document editing support, and it has no real file system, so you can't download a document attachment, edit it, and send it out. The Pandora can do all those things. The iPhone doesn't even get full access to MobileMe services, but Firefox will be able to access MobileMe just fine. If the Pandora gets Flash support, which I anticipate, maybe I can watch Hulu and even put the video on a hotel room TV. And there are apps for the iPhone (and probably for Symbian) that would enable the iPhone to act as a wifi input device (keyboard and mouse, or MIDI/OSC) for the Pandora(!). If I need to have a computer with me, I'll bring a notebook anyway. So, I'd rather have a Pandora than a netbook, for the same price, and with a much longer battery life.

I've gotten burned on electronics choices before (Dreamcast; Atari Jaguar; Nokia 770), but I think there's enough interest in the hardware alone (see Maemo 5) to keep the Pandora interesting. And just the fact that these guys are actually pulling this off is interesting enough for me to get behind.

As for games, well the only other thing I would want to do on a secondary device is play games. After playing iPhone games for a while, the thing I miss is good old fashioned hardware controls. I played the online Flash version of Desktop Tower Defense more than I've played any Nintendo DS game anyway. Any platform can give rise to a great game. IMO, the best (and worst) iPhone games are written by independent developers or small companies, and the most mediocre are by large and established game developers. So far, anyway.

That's basically why I'm in. Maybe that will help you decide.

 

[zzaz3]

QUOTE
I'd guess we won't see as much development as quickly as the iPhone, since Craig, ED, et al just don't have the marketing juggernaut that Apple does -- the community will build itself rather than being pre-established and fanatical. The up side of this is that we also won't be seeing any ridiculous light saber, bubble wrap, or "I am rich" apps released for the Pandora.

But we will see some pretty quick development. As others have said, the Developer's Corner is rife with people steadily hacking away at various projects. We've seen some of the interface work ED and others have been doing, and it's pretty impressive. Most of the 'productivity' class apps you could want should work pretty well from the get-go. It's also important to note that anything developed for/on the BeagleBoard will run on Pandora, as well as much of the work that's been done for Maemo -- some of the apps written for the Nokia N810, for example, will run on Pandora with only minor modifications (N810 uses ArmV6 vs Pandora's ArmV7a, which should be backward-compatible -- I haven't tested this, so YMMV). If anything, I'm looking forward to having too much software to play with when mine finally arrives. It'll be less a matter of having nothing to install and more a matter of not having enough time to tinker with all of these great software packages.

So, even though it's a new device, its openness will lend us a pretty sweet suite of software from day 1 -- it'll just take some time to get it polished and shiny for the masses. Bearing this in mind, I'd say you shouldn't order a Pandora just yet unless you're willing to wrangle it into submission. Hold off until batch 2 or beyond when the software will do the hardware some justice, or be prepared to get your hands pretty dirty!




Thanks so much! That's just was I was hoping to hear! I heard something about there not being much shipped this entire 1st year. If you haven't already noticed noticed, I'm not the most patient guy around. Wouldn't that mean I'd have to wait a while until the second batch of Pandora?

QUOTE

That'll be up to the individual developer, but I believe most of them have indicated that they'll be open-sourcing their efforts.



Lol, whoops. What I meant to ask was: Would they tell us how to port stuff ourselves or just tell the developers?

 

[gaterooze]

zzaz3 - check out some of ED's videos, there's already a ton of software working on Pandora via the Linux install. There are also some great emulators ready to roll. And the GP32/GP2X dev community is the best around, so you will see exciting stuff all the time, I'm sure - you've seen some of the homebrew games being worked on already, that's just a taste.

 

[zzaz3]

I don't know if you should get one or not.

But I do think the Open Pandora is interesting for more reasons than just games. This is just based on looking at the UMPC, MID, internet tablet, and netbook markets over the past couple years. I've owned a Nokia 770, a Fujitsu P1510, two Nintendo DS's, and now an iPhone 3G.

What I think makes the Open Pandora unique includes:
1. Great CPU performance to power usage ratio.
2. Unusually large battery capacity. (OpenPandora = 4000 mAh, iPhone = approx. 1400 mAh; most smart phones use batteries between 1000 mAh and 1250 mAh)
3. Not a tiny notebook PC. (IMO, a tiny notebook form factor is just an ergonomic disaster.)
4. Not running XP or Vista.
5. 480p video resolution, hardware accelerated graphics, high quality audio DSP, and video-out.
6. Desktop web browser.
7. Dual SDHC slots. (More than enough capacity for a large volume of audio and video files.)
8. Probable Flash support (I'm just guessing.)
9. Hardware keyboard.
10. Compatible with USB (and BT) input devices, etc.
11. Small size.
12. The fact that you can actually get one.

I think the iPhone 3G is great specifically for the fact that I don't have to travel with a notebook PC anymore, and yet I'm better able to access internet content than I was with a notebook PC. It also provides enough entertainment to supplant my Nintendo DS. However, there are things that I dislike about the iPhone OS, including the limited browser, lack of Flash support, lack of hardware controls, lack of expandability, etc. That got me thinking, if I were to want a secondary device, what would it be? Let's say I got a tethering plan, or jailbreak the iPhone and hack some wifi tethering, or get a Nokia Symbian phone and the Joikuspot app that allows sharing the phone's internet connection with another device. What would that second device be?

I think the Open Pandora is it. In some ways it gets me around the limitations of a smartphone. If I want to get songs from Amazon instead of the iTunes store, I can download them on the Pandora and put them on the iPhone using one of the wifi networking apps that play music. Not perfect, but it works. The iPhone still doesn't have full document editing support, and it has no real file system, so you can't download a document attachment, edit it, and send it out. The Pandora can do all those things. The iPhone doesn't even get full access to MobileMe services, but Firefox will be able to access MobileMe just fine. If the Pandora gets Flash support, which I anticipate, maybe I can watch Hulu and even put the video on a hotel room TV. And if I need to have a computer with me, I'll bring a notebook anyway. So, I'd rather have a Pandora than a netbook, for the same price, and with a much longer battery life.

I've gotten burned on electronics choices before (Dreamcast; Atari Jaguar; Nokia 770), but I think there's enough interest in the hardware alone (see Maemo 5) to keep the Pandora interesting. And just the fact that these guys are actually pulling this off is interesting enough for me to get behind.

As for games, well the only other thing I would want to do on a secondary device is play games. After playing iPhone games for a while, the thing I miss is good old fashioned hardware controls. I played the online Flash version of Desktop Tower Defense more than I've played any Nintendo DS game anyway. Any platform can give rise to a great game.

That's basically why I'm in. Maybe that will help you decide.

Yes, this defentally helps! I was thinking about buying an iPhone recently, but screw the iPhone, it's way to expensive anyways. I'm getting this. From the looks of things, a iPhone/iPod touch app could be made easily. I think if I get this I'll have a much larger variety of things I can do with it. Thanks so much!

 

[es87]

At this point, you'll likely be able to read reviews, and look at some of the early software before the second batch can be ordered.

 

[sterling976]

Lol, whoops. What I meant to ask was: Would they tell us how to port stuff ourselves or just tell the developers?

Hmm.. that's a pretty tricky question, depeding on your use of the word 'port.' If you mean, how to get program x to run on the Pandora, I'm sure there will be plenty of how-to love on the wiki or on the individual project site. Most anything you'll want will either be installed in the base OS or easily run via PXML (drop a .zip file or directory on your SD card and presto! -- it works like magic).

If you mean, how to take source code for x86 architectures and tweak it so it compiles and runs on ArmV7a, that's a several-month learning curve which I'm still in the middle of. Granted, I'm not a C or C++ developer, so that's slowing me down some with the projects I've targeted.

 

[zzaz3]

Lol, whoops. What I meant to ask was: Would they tell us how to port stuff ourselves or just tell the developers?

Hmm.. that's a pretty tricky question, depeding on your use of the word 'port.' If you mean, how to get program x to run on the Pandora, I'm sure there will be plenty of how-to love on the wiki or on the individual project site. Most anything you'll want will either be installed in the base OS or easily run via PXML (drop a .zip file or directory on your SD card and presto! -- it works like magic).

If you mean, how to take source code for x86 architectures and tweak it so it compiles and runs on ArmV7a, that's a several-month learning curve which I'm still in the middle of. Granted, I'm not a C or C++ developer, so that's slowing me down some with the projects I've targeted.


I mean the 1st one. Thanks for your help. Do you know what code it uses?

 

[keaft]

Homebrew will last indefinitely.

If you have a perfect idea for a handheld game/app/whatever it's possible for the Pandora. Development for it is probably already in progress.

What bases has the Pandora not covered? The answer is or will be none.

- Emulation, Games, Applications in the masses, Internet Browsing.

No but really if it isn't listed above it still may be possible on the pandora.

Can it make you a sandwich? Why yes, yes it can.

 

[Svartalf]

I just remember being in the PSP scene since it 1st started. There used to be nothing but hello world, Dr. Mario, Snake, Tetrix, ect... It took years to get where they are now. With so many different apps. I sold my psp a few months ago and I'm wondering if the developing possess will be as slow as the PSPs was or will they be as fast as the iPhone?

Much more like the iPhone than the PSP...

 

[Shadow of Chaos]

Maybe the next pandora can use a desktop cpu and run windows, it would only require a small heatsink and im sure you can get some pretty powerful cpu's that run fairly cool at the moment.

 

[WizardStan]

Maybe the next pandora can use a desktop cpu and run windows, it would only require a small heatsink and im sure you can get some pretty powerful cpu's that run fairly cool at the moment.

*sigh*

 

[Zeno Arrow]

Maybe the next pandora can use a desktop cpu and run windows, it would only require a small heatsink and im sure you can get some pretty powerful cpu's that run fairly cool at the moment.

But why? Why would you want to run Windows? To play Crysis or something? Go and buy a MID. Something like this would probably be up your alley (no Crysis though)... http://www.umpcportal.com/products/Wibrain/i1

ARM FTW.

 

[Eniko]

For what it's worth, I think the Pandora attracts a different breed of homebrewer than the PSP has. I've used homebrew on the PSP, but I don't think I'm the kind of wild-west frontier material to ever actually try creating anything.

On the other hand there's the Pandora. Because it's an open source console it has a lot less of the frontier thing going on. Familiar languages, familiar libraries, stuff that lets you get going in a semi-comfortable way to what you're used, so I am going to develop something for the Pandora.

So hopefully the fact that the Pandora will be less "hackish" will attract people who will make nicer programs, or maybe even just more people altogether. Course that's all speculation, but I could see it happening.