Hello all 
Figured I'd finally get round to doing a quick review of my pandora!
So I guess I've had my pandora for about a week now. It was quite something to finally recieve it though! I didn't have the first idea as to where I was in the queue but I'm guessing I must have been within the first few hundred or so. Quite a shocker to see the "your pandora is shipping" email. Yay!
But now onto the (quick) review.
(Note: All of my experiences etc have been done at the default 500Mhz).
First impressions? First of all even though I know the dimensions are on the wiki/website the pandora seems slightly smaller than I was expecting. Which is a good thing, that means (for example) when I go to the USA later on in the year (I'm in the UK) it means since the pandora's so small I can slip it into my hand luggage. No more leaving the laptop in the baggage for airport baggage handlers to try to smash(!). I'm just waiting 'till what happens on the other end and someone asks me "Is that a nintendo DS?" :lol:
Build quality on mine seems OK though the plastic at the bottom of the screen seems to have bent outwards by just a little. And when I close the lid, the lid is slightly up in the air at one end, moreso than the other. But it dosen't seem to be affecting the operation of the unit in any way. After all - unless the screen was literally hanging off or something it surely dosen't matter too much? It's the guts inside the thing that count (and that they work). Hope it dosen't cause any problems for the future however!
The pandora's carry case looks pretty good too and is a very snug fit. In fact it is possibly a bit *too* snug. It really is a tight fit -- I'm concerned by just a little about using it. I'm concerned that it fits so tightly pushing it in and removing it might accidentally damage or tear off the left and right buttons at the back of the pandora. If only the carry case was just slightly fractionally larger!
Early on I did have one nightmare though. My pandora could see my wireless network but would either fail to connect alltogether or connect and then drop the conenction. After some poking about on these forums I found an answer (elsewhere on these forums); the answer was to comment out everything to do with usb0 in the interfaces file, i.e.
Rather than delete it entirely (just in case I need it in the future for some reason) I just put #'s in front of the part of the file shown above. That knocks out usb0 and I'm able to connect to the internet ok. That just leaves the bug (again someone mentioned it elsewhere in these forums) in the network connection program - I find if the pandora does loose its connection it will not connect again without a reset.
Speaking of the internet, I've tried all three currently avaliable web browsers; Midori, Aurora and Fennec. Midori seems to be the fastest but it dosen't seem to display some web pages properly (for example the pandora apps page, http://apps.open-pandora.org ) dosen't display properly - there's a big empty white space where the links to games, apps, etc. should be.
Fennec I've only briefly tried but it seemed to be really slow. I tried the BBC's weather page for example as a test and it seemed to render the page *very* slowly. It just seemed to be painfully slow at almost everything. Another webpage (I forget which one it was now, d'oh) and fennec seemed to stop altogether.
Arora seems to be somewhere in the middle. It does appear to be a bit buggy though; sometimes I've found if I try to type something into the search bar (top right, the small empty white space where it says "Google") and use it arora will crash. Downloading from the open-pandora apps page also seemed to cause problems; the downloads window that pops up shows a little progress bar when you download something but has "Network error...ration canceled" underneath x.x .
Maybe netsurf (if someone could compile it) might be another option as a web browser? ( http://www.netsurf-browser.org/ ).
The pandora's keyboard is pretty good and while I guess you might not want to use it to type up your next brand new 1,000 page novel :lol: it is a lot better than I expected. I can type on it and make no mistakes! I was fearing the pandora's keyboard would more closely resemble the keyboard found on something like a blackberry which is .... awful. But it works really well. The same can be said for the screen, it is clear and sharp; I don't see any ghosting or artifacts on mine. So much so that I was able to drop down the icon and text size in XFCE and it is still perfectly readable (so I can get more onto the sreen).
Not had any trouble with PNDs yet. I've been able to make the directories on my SD card (/pandora/desktop) and PNDs show up ok. Though I can't seem to unmount SD cards (surely I should unmount them before removing them?). If I try to use XFCE to unmount an SD card I get an error; "Unable to umount SD/MMC Drive Cannot open /media/.hal-mtab").
The left nub (controlling the movement of the mouse) has slowed down a few times on mine though it dosen't happen all that often. I'm guessing as others have said this is just a case of "wearing it in"?
The speakers don't seem to be too bad for such a small device, quite loud and clear. They compare well with a small 9" LCD TV I have which has smilar size speakers in to the pandora, they are horrible and tinny compared to those in the pandora!
MP3, OGG and WAV audio file playing in the gnome player worked ok.
Now for a few questions (uh oh... )
Firstly, I installed the update with the codecs and the gnome mplayer. But how well does it play MPEG2s? I've had problems playing back MPEG2s with it -- as a test I tried recording a short video file directly from freeview (TV; which is MPEG2) on my normal linux desktop PC. The pandora tried to play the file; the window opened to pretty much full screen on the pandora as it started to play but it got no further than a black screen. I had to convert it right down to a low resolution, low bitrate file for it to work. Is this just a software problem?
How long does the battery in the pandora last exactly? I understand it is ~7 hours but is that ~7 hours doing nothing, or with the screen on or off or with the internet being used or not? I've not done any accurate timing on my pandora's battery and I'm not sure but it dosen't seem like it has lasted that long at all. Not sure -- am I right in saying using the 'net will eat the pandora's battery a lot more quickly? And using USB devices? - I'd bet will *really* eat the batteries for breakfast!
Is there any way right now to record audio with the pandora?
Pandora panic works fine!
One more thing. One thing I wish there was avaliable was some sort of pre-installed or pre-setup pandora development/compiling system. Setting up a full development system and configuration is a bit beyond me. I'm no programmer though I *can* do the usual linux "./configure; make; make install" mantra which often works on a normal x86 system. What I'd wager is that there are more people out there (and programs with code of varying complexity) that do not know how to setup a development enviroment but can compile. If it was possible to knock together some sort of linux distro with everything all set up for compiling that would help increase the amount of compiled programs on the pandora.
Speaking of programming maybe it would be good to have some sort of simple programming langugage on the pandora, like basic? I know of two which have code but I don't know how well they'd work (if at all). The first is wxbasic ( http://wxbasic.sourceforge.net/ ) it is not compiled and allows simple gui-based programs to be easily made though it is pretty long in the tooth. Also bacon basic ( http://www.basic-converter.org/ ) can be used to make GUI based apps but it would require BASH or KSH and a C compiler. Maybe SDL Basic (not sure if it would work at all; http://www.sdlbasic.altervista.org/main/ ). Or what about an old fashioned basic that works from the command line -- BBC Basic anyone? ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/brandy/ ) !
Overall I'd say then the pandora was certianly worth waiting for - it definately puts my EEEPc to shame which dosen't have anywhere such a good screen (even though it is larger) and spends most of its time getting hot meaning I get 2 hours out of its battery max.
BTW ... I wonder if the pandora cube (was that its name, the idea to have a pandora with no keyboard) will go ahead?
That's All 4 now !
ljones
Figured I'd finally get round to doing a quick review of my pandora!
So I guess I've had my pandora for about a week now. It was quite something to finally recieve it though! I didn't have the first idea as to where I was in the queue but I'm guessing I must have been within the first few hundred or so. Quite a shocker to see the "your pandora is shipping" email. Yay!
But now onto the (quick) review.
(Note: All of my experiences etc have been done at the default 500Mhz).
First impressions? First of all even though I know the dimensions are on the wiki/website the pandora seems slightly smaller than I was expecting. Which is a good thing, that means (for example) when I go to the USA later on in the year (I'm in the UK) it means since the pandora's so small I can slip it into my hand luggage. No more leaving the laptop in the baggage for airport baggage handlers to try to smash(!). I'm just waiting 'till what happens on the other end and someone asks me "Is that a nintendo DS?" :lol:
Build quality on mine seems OK though the plastic at the bottom of the screen seems to have bent outwards by just a little. And when I close the lid, the lid is slightly up in the air at one end, moreso than the other. But it dosen't seem to be affecting the operation of the unit in any way. After all - unless the screen was literally hanging off or something it surely dosen't matter too much? It's the guts inside the thing that count (and that they work). Hope it dosen't cause any problems for the future however!
The pandora's carry case looks pretty good too and is a very snug fit. In fact it is possibly a bit *too* snug. It really is a tight fit -- I'm concerned by just a little about using it. I'm concerned that it fits so tightly pushing it in and removing it might accidentally damage or tear off the left and right buttons at the back of the pandora. If only the carry case was just slightly fractionally larger!
Early on I did have one nightmare though. My pandora could see my wireless network but would either fail to connect alltogether or connect and then drop the conenction. After some poking about on these forums I found an answer (elsewhere on these forums); the answer was to comment out everything to do with usb0 in the interfaces file, i.e.
Code:
cat /etc/networks/interfaces
# Ethernet/RNDIS gadget (g_ether)
# .... or on host side, usbnet and random hwaddr
#iface usb0 inet static
# address 192.168.0.202
# netmask 255.255.255.0
# network 192.168.0.0
# gateway 192.168.0.200Rather than delete it entirely (just in case I need it in the future for some reason) I just put #'s in front of the part of the file shown above. That knocks out usb0 and I'm able to connect to the internet ok. That just leaves the bug (again someone mentioned it elsewhere in these forums) in the network connection program - I find if the pandora does loose its connection it will not connect again without a reset.
Speaking of the internet, I've tried all three currently avaliable web browsers; Midori, Aurora and Fennec. Midori seems to be the fastest but it dosen't seem to display some web pages properly (for example the pandora apps page, http://apps.open-pandora.org ) dosen't display properly - there's a big empty white space where the links to games, apps, etc. should be.
Fennec I've only briefly tried but it seemed to be really slow. I tried the BBC's weather page for example as a test and it seemed to render the page *very* slowly. It just seemed to be painfully slow at almost everything. Another webpage (I forget which one it was now, d'oh) and fennec seemed to stop altogether.
Arora seems to be somewhere in the middle. It does appear to be a bit buggy though; sometimes I've found if I try to type something into the search bar (top right, the small empty white space where it says "Google") and use it arora will crash. Downloading from the open-pandora apps page also seemed to cause problems; the downloads window that pops up shows a little progress bar when you download something but has "Network error...ration canceled" underneath x.x .
Maybe netsurf (if someone could compile it) might be another option as a web browser? ( http://www.netsurf-browser.org/ ).
The pandora's keyboard is pretty good and while I guess you might not want to use it to type up your next brand new 1,000 page novel :lol: it is a lot better than I expected. I can type on it and make no mistakes! I was fearing the pandora's keyboard would more closely resemble the keyboard found on something like a blackberry which is .... awful. But it works really well. The same can be said for the screen, it is clear and sharp; I don't see any ghosting or artifacts on mine. So much so that I was able to drop down the icon and text size in XFCE and it is still perfectly readable (so I can get more onto the sreen).
Not had any trouble with PNDs yet. I've been able to make the directories on my SD card (/pandora/desktop) and PNDs show up ok. Though I can't seem to unmount SD cards (surely I should unmount them before removing them?). If I try to use XFCE to unmount an SD card I get an error; "Unable to umount SD/MMC Drive Cannot open /media/.hal-mtab").
The left nub (controlling the movement of the mouse) has slowed down a few times on mine though it dosen't happen all that often. I'm guessing as others have said this is just a case of "wearing it in"?
The speakers don't seem to be too bad for such a small device, quite loud and clear. They compare well with a small 9" LCD TV I have which has smilar size speakers in to the pandora, they are horrible and tinny compared to those in the pandora!
MP3, OGG and WAV audio file playing in the gnome player worked ok.
Now for a few questions (uh oh...
)Firstly, I installed the update with the codecs and the gnome mplayer. But how well does it play MPEG2s? I've had problems playing back MPEG2s with it -- as a test I tried recording a short video file directly from freeview (TV; which is MPEG2) on my normal linux desktop PC. The pandora tried to play the file; the window opened to pretty much full screen on the pandora as it started to play but it got no further than a black screen. I had to convert it right down to a low resolution, low bitrate file for it to work. Is this just a software problem?
How long does the battery in the pandora last exactly? I understand it is ~7 hours but is that ~7 hours doing nothing, or with the screen on or off or with the internet being used or not? I've not done any accurate timing on my pandora's battery and I'm not sure but it dosen't seem like it has lasted that long at all. Not sure -- am I right in saying using the 'net will eat the pandora's battery a lot more quickly? And using USB devices? - I'd bet will *really* eat the batteries for breakfast!
Is there any way right now to record audio with the pandora?
Pandora panic works fine!
One more thing. One thing I wish there was avaliable was some sort of pre-installed or pre-setup pandora development/compiling system. Setting up a full development system and configuration is a bit beyond me. I'm no programmer though I *can* do the usual linux "./configure; make; make install" mantra which often works on a normal x86 system. What I'd wager is that there are more people out there (and programs with code of varying complexity) that do not know how to setup a development enviroment but can compile. If it was possible to knock together some sort of linux distro with everything all set up for compiling that would help increase the amount of compiled programs on the pandora.
Speaking of programming maybe it would be good to have some sort of simple programming langugage on the pandora, like basic? I know of two which have code but I don't know how well they'd work (if at all). The first is wxbasic ( http://wxbasic.sourceforge.net/ ) it is not compiled and allows simple gui-based programs to be easily made though it is pretty long in the tooth. Also bacon basic ( http://www.basic-converter.org/ ) can be used to make GUI based apps but it would require BASH or KSH and a C compiler. Maybe SDL Basic (not sure if it would work at all; http://www.sdlbasic.altervista.org/main/ ). Or what about an old fashioned basic that works from the command line -- BBC Basic anyone? ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/brandy/ ) !
Overall I'd say then the pandora was certianly worth waiting for - it definately puts my EEEPc to shame which dosen't have anywhere such a good screen (even though it is larger) and spends most of its time getting hot meaning I get 2 hours out of its battery max.
BTW ... I wonder if the pandora cube (was that its name, the idea to have a pandora with no keyboard) will go ahead?
That's All 4 now !
ljones
