Wow, Over A Year Late?

[MDave]

I hope MWeston has started designing the Pandora 2 boards with the Cortex A9, then its just a matter of swapping the old board in with the newer when it becomes available

 

[Esn]

http://roosterteeth.com/media/viewItem.php?id=1524

 

[hch]

Read this and quit asking for a damn camera.
http://news.bbc.co.u...ess/8460899.stm

kodak is known to have turned evil by the breakdown of the classical camera market. i hope they will go bankrupt soon.

but what does this have to do with webcams?

 

[Zor Prime]

I hope MWeston has started designing the Pandora 2 boards with the Cortex A9, then its just a matter of swapping the old board in with the newer when it becomes available

I like this thinking.

 

[b._.o._.b]

<removed pic>

http://roosterteeth.com/media/viewItem.php?id=1524

:lol:

 

[Pleng]

When I preordered the Pandora I bought a machine that could emulate a Megadrive, SNES and even PSX, it could browse web pages and read email.

2 years later you can add N64 and possibly even decent Dreamcast to the list of emulators, and it's also due to become a hobbiest music machine far more powerful than the one I sold to fund my pre-order.

So, no, I don't feel the unit has become obsolete.

 

[Joshwaan2k]

I'm still excited as I ever was. andora2ut4: andora2ut4: andora2ut4: andora2ut4:

What's get's me so excited is thinking about Snes emulation full speed with all features working on a handheld

I'm just thinking about it now Super Metriod, Yoshi's Island, Mortal Kombat's , Mario kart, Weapon Lord , Bio Metal list goes on

Also the big surprise of N64 so early in the game

As it's been said before, exciting times ahead

 

[Awakening]

What's get's me so excited is thinking about Snes emulation full speed with all features working on a handheld

I'm just thinking about it now Super Metriod, Yoshi's Island, Mortal Kombat's , Mario kart, Weapon Lord , Bio Metal list goes on

Yeah, it's gonna be the perfect time to revisit the classics like Zelda, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, Super Mario World, Super Castlevania IV and some more RPGs.

 

[kaprikawn]

I hope MWeston has started designing the Pandora 2 boards with the Cortex A9, then its just a matter of swapping the old board in with the newer when it becomes available

Not gonna happen I don't think. They've used up all their goodwill with the community with the delays, they're not gonna piss off the first batchers by making their machine, that they've waited for over a year for, obselete (and I use the term loosely, I know it won't be obselete, but you know what I mean). In fact, I think they've actually confirmed this is the case, that there will be no revisions to the Pandora for some time to come, I can't remember where I read that though so I can't verify it.

GPH made the mistake of quick revisions, and the OP ethos seems to be to be like GPH, but without the mistakes.

I'm not bothered personally, I'm happy with the Pandora as it is. I really want a Cortex A9 netbook though. Were any of those announced at CES, all I saw were a bunch of friggin tablets? I don't know why everyone is jumping on the tablet bandwagon, I can't see the market being big enough for all these models.

 

[MDave]

I hope MWeston has started designing the Pandora 2 boards with the Cortex A9, then its just a matter of swapping the old board in with the newer when it becomes available

Not gonna happen I don't think. They've used up all their goodwill with the community with the delays, they're not gonna piss off the first batchers by making their machine, that they've waited for over a year for, obselete (and I use the term loosely, I know it won't be obselete, but you know what I mean). In fact, I think they've actually confirmed this is the case, that there will be no revisions to the Pandora for some time to come, I can't remember where I read that though so I can't verify it.

GPH made the mistake of quick revisions, and the OP ethos seems to be to be like GPH, but without the mistakes.

I'm not bothered personally, I'm happy with the Pandora as it is. I really want a Cortex A9 netbook though. Were any of those announced at CES, all I saw were a bunch of friggin tablets? I don't know why everyone is jumping on the tablet bandwagon, I can't see the market being big enough for all these models.

Take note that I'm only mentioning the boards. Not the whole thing. They can keep the case, screen, controls etc the same, just with a different board inside for the Pandora 2. That means it's easy and cheaper to upgrade your Pandora 1 to a Pandora 2, and they don't have to worry about making a new case design and making moulds etc.

 

[Vitel]

I hope MWeston has started designing the Pandora 2 boards with the Cortex A9, then its just a matter of swapping the old board in with the newer when it becomes available

Not gonna happen I don't think. They've used up all their goodwill with the community with the delays, they're not gonna piss off the first batchers by making their machine, that they've waited for over a year for, obselete (and I use the term loosely, I know it won't be obselete, but you know what I mean). In fact, I think they've actually confirmed this is the case, that there will be no revisions to the Pandora for some time to come, I can't remember where I read that though so I can't verify it.

GPH made the mistake of quick revisions, and the OP ethos seems to be to be like GPH, but without the mistakes.

I'm not bothered personally, I'm happy with the Pandora as it is. I really want a Cortex A9 netbook though. Were any of those announced at CES, all I saw were a bunch of friggin tablets? I don't know why everyone is jumping on the tablet bandwagon, I can't see the market being big enough for all these models.

Take note that I'm only mentioning the boards. Not the whole thing. They can keep the case, screen, controls etc the same, just with a different board inside for the Pandora 2. That means it's easy and cheaper to upgrade your Pandora 1 to a Pandora 2, and they don't have to worry about making a new case design and making moulds etc.

Moreover, Cortex-A9 is basically two A8 in one chip. So this upgrade won't require lots of software tweaks.

 

[craigix]

We do plan to use the Pandora case for a Pandora2, but I can't see A9 SOCs shipping until 2011 in any major numbers. Sure maybe some phone manufacturers will be able to get them in 2010, but smaller companies won't.

 

[Jumpman]

We do plan to use the Pandora case for a Pandora2, but I can't see A9 SOCs shipping until 2011 in any major numbers. Sure maybe some phone manufacturers will be able to get them in 2010, but smaller companies won't.

Yeah, that's great news. I really don't see the need to ever really change the current case. Although I haven't used it yet, it appears to really cover any and everything in regards to controls and screen size. Just slapping in a new board at some point, really seems to be the best option IMO!

P.S. Maybe some differant colored cases would be nice at some point, but the cases really don't need to physically change for anything else!


Chris

 

[Nova]

Yeah I'm fine with buying a new board a year down the line and just using that. As long as there's minimal soldering. I hate soldering.

Mind you, It'd bring me and other users more peace of mind to think that the device I purchased which still isn't here yet, won't be old news less than a year down the road. It's like why noone bought the Wiz because they were happy to wait for the Pandora, a more powerful console.

 

[MDave]

We do plan to use the Pandora case for a Pandora2, but I can't see A9 SOCs shipping until 2011 in any major numbers. Sure maybe some phone manufacturers will be able to get them in 2010, but smaller companies won't.

Yep, 2011 was the earliest and pretty reasonable date I imagined Question though, would you still produce Pandora 1 boards if you released Pandora 2 ones? If you don't, that may mean we will only see about a year or 2 from the Pandora 1 boards. And with that 6 month or so gap between batch 1 and batch 2 Pandora 1's, that means even less life? Not sure what to think of that

 

[Exophase]

We do plan to use the Pandora case for a Pandora2, but I can't see A9 SOCs shipping until 2011 in any major numbers. Sure maybe some phone manufacturers will be able to get them in 2010, but smaller companies won't.

Given the number of Tegra 2 devices showcased by several manufacturers it's evident that the chips have been sampling for at least several months. I have a hard time imagining that it'll take nVidia another full year to make them publicly available, unless they have no intention of making them publicly available at all. This isn't like OMAP34xx/35xx where nothing was shown to be using it until a very long time after it was announced, and there the time gap between when real devices were previewed and the chip was publicly available was relatively short.

Having said that, Tegra 2 is not a very good idea for the next Pandora, for a number of compatibility reasons and because it'd necessitate more board design and OS changes. But I do think that TI needs to become more aggressive in its OMAP release cycles or the competition is going to start burying them.

 

[craigix]

We do plan to use the Pandora case for a Pandora2, but I can't see A9 SOCs shipping until 2011 in any major numbers. Sure maybe some phone manufacturers will be able to get them in 2010, but smaller companies won't.

Yep, 2011 was the earliest and pretty reasonable date I imagined Question though, would you still produce Pandora 1 boards if you released Pandora 2 ones? If you don't, that may mean we will only see about a year or 2 from the Pandora 1 boards. And with that 6 month or so gap between batch 1 and batch 2 Pandora 1's, that means even less life? Not sure what to think of that

I'd expect the development and the software development would take another year on top, so you're already looking at 2012.

 

[Nova]

We do plan to use the Pandora case for a Pandora2, but I can't see A9 SOCs shipping until 2011 in any major numbers. Sure maybe some phone manufacturers will be able to get them in 2010, but smaller companies won't.

Yep, 2011 was the earliest and pretty reasonable date I imagined Question though, would you still produce Pandora 1 boards if you released Pandora 2 ones? If you don't, that may mean we will only see about a year or 2 from the Pandora 1 boards. And with that 6 month or so gap between batch 1 and batch 2 Pandora 1's, that means even less life? Not sure what to think of that

I'd expect the development and the software development would take another year on top, so you're already looking at 2012.

2012 sounds perfect to me. I bet you can't wait to do all this over again.

 

[Poem58]

In any case I am terribly happy to see that there is the possibility that in 2012 I can put a new board into my current Pandora and keep on moving. That idea alone should be something that is verified as doable as soon as possible as it would be a HUGE selling point that upgrades will be simple board drop in's as well as the availability to replace any parts that wear out.
A completely repairable and upgradable device lowers overall cost, allows you to keep the comfort of what you have grown used to and this could be one of those factors that allows the Pandora to be so much more than any major company could offer.

 

[worzyl]

Would the whole motherboard need to change, or would it just be the chip?

Might I add that this is a really superb idea of upgrading the motherboard/chip, while keeping the same case that your working on so very hard to get right. I also agree that this really does add to the value and overall sweetness of this device in a huge way. This alone makes it a worthwhile purchase in my eyes.

It's like upgrading an older Thinkpad....