Will You Buy It Now?

[Jarska333]

"Now"? It ain't even out "now"...

Not sure I could justify the price... It's still just specs and mockups. Will there be actual software for it? Games, emulators, office suite... I'll consider it after someone ports UAE to it.

 

[Yuglooc]

"Now"? It ain't even out "now"...

Not sure I could justify the price... It's still just specs and mockups. Will there be actual software for it? Games, emulators, office suite... I'll consider it after someone ports UAE to it.

Debian ARM repository.

 

[pupnik]

In short: More Eee, less Pepper Keeper/Maemo.
BTW: I don't like Maemo much, so open or not, don't put it on the Pandora, please.

What 'full linux for ARM/ARMEL eabi' works well out of the box with 800x480 screen and a stylus (without right mouse click), on 128MB RAM? On limited flash space? What has a lightweight X server, and UI framework and bunch of apps available?

For the emulators, it will hardly matter what OS ships; they will be ported quickly. My question is whether pandora can make a splash on product launch by supporting a basket full of existing internet, media and productity apps.

It doesn't have to be maemo/hildon, but that OS has gone through a few years of development and has solved issues that most gp2x fans haven't begun to think about yet.

I just want to see pandora take off and be successful - not just in hardcore linux emuholic land. Building on an existing, successful ARM linux distribution seems to me to be the most important choice now that the hardware features are settled.

Will I buy one? Yes. Will thousands of other people (non-gp2x hardcore fans) buy one when they see the announcement on engadget and other sites? That depends...

 

[whiskthecat]

My question is whether pandora can make a splash on product launch by supporting a basket full of existing internet, media and productity apps.

It doesn't have to be maemo/hildon, but that OS has gone through a few years of development and has solved issues that most gp2x fans haven't begun to think about yet.

I was thinking the same thing. Basically my big question is will it be able to play youtube videos. I have an older laptop that isn't capable so I really hope that the Pandora can handle it. :blink:

 

[Lobo]

I'll buy it when it has the following:

1. Ebook reader(.txt at least, but PDF would be excellent)
2. MP3 player
3. Divx/Xvid/MPG player
4. Photo Viewer (JPG, BMP, PNG and animated GIFs)
5. Text editor app or something for taking notes.
6. PSX Emu running 3D games at decent (playable) speeds
7. PicoDrive
8. C64 emu (Frodo or Vice)
9. GBA emu (Gpsp)
10. SNES emu
11. Doom (ZDoom would be cool because then we'd have Doom, Heretic, Hexen and Strife all in one app)
12. Quake 2
13. A version of MAME which lets me play "Aliens"

I assume 1 to 5 will be there right out of the box.
It must have 1 to 10: everything after that would be an (expected) bonus.

 

[foft]

Yes of course... I like the dual analog/digital controls. I like having a keyboard. Long as we get a control key and it boots linux in under 5 seconds I miss the GP32 startup time still on GP2X...

 

[whiskthecat]

Do you think it will have a web browser out of the box? It seems even big companies like Nintendo can't pull this task off.

 

[Squidge]

I should be able to choose my user interface to be any window manager I want, change the input method (HWR, different keyboard layouts) and generally do the things I can do on a "generic" Linux install. Heck, if ever ARM Ubuntu comes to be, I should be able to install it as well.

Sure, but of course you would need drivers for the various hardware (such as LCD, keyboard, etc) so you couldn't just download "ARM Ubuntu" and expect it to work without modification.

What I would not like at all is a Nokia Internet Tablet/Pepper Pad situation, where a proprietary user interface sits on top of the kernel/distro and the user is limited by what applications that UI tolerates, often up to the point that critical system services (battery, input methods, file management) are locked up by that UI, so outside applications cannot access/display/change them.

Well, it may end up with an app launcher like on the gp2x, where the gui is a single (or several) standard apps. Of course you'll be able to run X and your favourite window manager instead, but you may want to run a cut down version made for a handheld to increase performance and decrease resource usage.

 

[javaJake]

The community will no doubt be working on that, Karel, no doubt at all.

11. Doom (ZDoom would be cool because then we'd have Doom, Heretic, Hexen and Strife all in one app)
12. Quake 2
13. A version of MAME which lets me play "Aliens"

I'm 99% sure on all but the quoted points, though the quoted points are probably just a matter of porting and getting the ROMs needed.

Do you think it will have a web browser out of the box? It seems even big companies like Nintendo can't pull this task off.

Yes, it'll have Firefox or similar, but I doubt it'll be running Flash. This isn't anything Craigix and Co. can do, either, since Adobe hasn't supported ARM processors openly yet.

 

[whiskthecat]

Yes, it'll have Firefox or similar, but I doubt it'll be running Flash. This isn't anything Craigix and Co. can do, either, since Adobe hasn't supported ARM processors openly yet.

Sweet. Out of the box browser will be nice.
Really sucks that ARM flash isn't open yet, that could take forever.

 

[Magnulus]

I'll buy it when it has the following:

Sounds like a list that would take about two weeks to fulfill considering some of the prolific coders around here. And not even because you want it, just because they're that awesome. ^_^

 

[whiskthecat]

I'll buy it when it has the following:

Sounds like a list that would take about two weeks to fulfill considering some of the prolific coders around here. And not even because you want it, just because they're that awesome. ^_^

The most fun I ever had with my GP2X is when I first got it and mass amounts of apps were flowing in and I was in a constant upgrade cycle. Good times. Why the hell would you want to miss out on that.

 

[Lobo]

Ah, who am I kidding: I'll probably end up pre-ordering the damn thing!

 

[gavie]

I'm convinced this device will be totally awesome, and I will buy it..

 

[pupnik]

Yes of course... I like the dual analog/digital controls. I like having a keyboard. Long as we get a control key and it boots linux in under 5 seconds I miss the GP32 startup time still on GP2X...

No, don't think "turn off, turn on and boot". Booting into a full fledged linux - the kind that will let you run the broad range of apps that pandora is capable-of - will take a lot longer.

Think 'close lid and enter sleep mode, open lid and have instant-on'. Implemented properly in the OS, OMAP based devices can remain in sleep mode for 1-2 weeks. That's plenty of time between charges, and gives you the awesome instant-on capability for the quick game on-the-go.

 

[n8archer_XI]

Let's see: I need Quake 3 playable and a more reasonable price ($320 is ludicrous) in order for Pandora to be a must buy...

 

[Karel Jansens]

Let's see: I need Quake 3 playable and a more reasonable price ($320 is ludicrous) in order for Pandora to be a must buy...

Yeah!

And I want Oblivion. Oh, and the Pandora must be free, or I won't buy it! There...

:blink: B) :angry:

 

[Shiny]

Let's see: I need Quake 3 playable and a more reasonable price ($320 is ludicrous) in order for Pandora to be a must buy...

You're kidding, right?
Try finding an equivalent device for less than $500.

 

[Clad]

Plus, it's not really Craigx fault if the US $ is so low. If you want the Pandora cheaper, email the president of your country and ask him if he could improve economy if he has a bit of spare time.

You should be grateful already it's sold cheaper to the US than to the rest of the world. If you bought it from the UK it'd cost you $400.

 

[Shiny]

Plus, it's not really Craigx fault if the US $ is so low. If you want the Pandora cheaper, email the president of your country and ask him if he could improve economy if he has a bit of spare time.

You should be grateful already it's sold cheaper to the US than to the rest of the world. If you bought it from the UK it'd cost you $400.

Can we please keep the whole "my currency is better than yours" argument out of this?
This is a forum for talk about the pandora, not inflation and exchange rates :/