Your Holy gaming Grail for Pandora 2..?
- Thread starter Garrett
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craigix
Mega GP Mania
Absolutely.
These new Socs come with Android fully working as standard, from opening the EVM, to plugging it in to 5 minutes later running Chrome, Angry birds and thousands of other apps it's all WIN.
Good luck even getting alternative drivers for obscure Linux builds these days, I can't see the SoC manufacturers even answering your emails - we barely got what we needed for the Pandora1 back when Android didn't even exist.
Kaepora Gaebora
Member
If I wanted an android device, it probably won't be Pandora 2...
craigix
Mega GP Mania
Well you're perfectly welcome to run whatever you like on it.
diligentcircle
Well-Known Member
I totally agree. I just don't think Android should be the default, mostly because I don't think people just wanting an Android device would care for the Pandora 2.
Linux-SWAT
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I don't need this piece of crap named android as long as i can install a real Linux.
thatgui
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My biggest fear concerning this, will be that this will split the devs in two groups, some that like to hop on the android train, and some that want to develop for the geek os. As there are a lot of differences between those two os, it isn't very likely that they will provide apps for both of it.
Having an alternative OS is always nice, but having to reboot for using one application, and after that reboot to use another doesn't sound very good to me. I would rather like to see an android wrapper, that would allow us to run android applications without the need for android (this surely has also downsides).
As Craig wants to target the mass market, and to have his customers have their apps available at their fingertips, this will sure mean, that the hardware design will also have to be aligned to googles hardware specifications. Unless Pandora 2 will have the demanded features there won't be a android market without some fiddeling around, which means no easy "iWhatever - approach" craigs wants to see for his future products.
So welcome back to square one craig - maybe it is is the nature of things that creators simply don't understand the potential and motivation that is inherent in the 'monster' they bring to life.
Back to topic:
I wan't a "flippable" design ala the Lenovo Yoga or a "seperateable" ala the Asus Transformer, and as craig "pentium grade" x86 emulation
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Miner49er
Active Member
I just want working wifi...
I hope Android isn't going to be the main OS for P2 or at least there will be the option of linux. I guess though, Android will be the main OS and that will get the attention (updates, fixes etc). Hmmm, I guess Android will look more attractive to the 'normal' people though.
Whatever will be will be.
I hope Android isn't going to be the main OS for P2 or at least there will be the option of linux. I guess though, Android will be the main OS and that will get the attention (updates, fixes etc). Hmmm, I guess Android will look more attractive to the 'normal' people though.
Whatever will be will be.
milkshake
Advanced Member
yes people like hackmanplayer will love that im guessing.
Exophase
Nothing good will ever come of Exophase.
You say that but many standard EVMs preferentially support more standard Linux distributions over Android. Beagleboard, Pandaboard, Freescale i.MX53 QSB, Origenboard, Trim-Slice Tegra 2..
I'm not against Pandora 2 supporting Android out of the box but if you don't at least try to support something that lets you run Pandora 1 apps then you're going to look pretty bad..
craigix
Mega GP Mania
It might simply be a case of us being unable to support it. It depends entirely on the SoC used.
You know we can't easily support NEON for example, and most things would need to be recompiled anyway for a Pandora2.
Look at the state of the Pandora1 after devs have had units for 4 years. Trying to support anything but Android is a serious up hill and possibly
pointless struggle. 90% of users want emulators, web & games - which Android can supply.
It's business suicide to plough money in to a niche system then again in to an even more niche OS and then expect to get a return on that
investment - things have majorly moved on since 2008.
Besides, the Pandora2 is pretty different to what you might expect, so we shall come back to all this in 2013 and things may be a bit more clear.
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Prometheus
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Would I be right in guessing that the keyboard's being dropped?
Android doesn't have any proper text editors, after all (the two with the laughable one million character/couple of megabytes limit don't count - that's not a text editor, it's a sticky-note :lol: ), so having text input seems pretty pointless.
(And Android's keyboard/mouse support is pretty shonky, too, in my experience - right-click to go back in browsers until you get to the Home screen, but not always and it doesn't always do the same thing in any consistent fashion, and pressing backspace causes bizarre jumping around for no reason, also inconsisently? What? :blink: I really hope they improve that quick-sharp. I'd love to see Android do well, as more options are always nice.)
Or is it too early to be asking that?
Android doesn't have any proper text editors, after all (the two with the laughable one million character/couple of megabytes limit don't count - that's not a text editor, it's a sticky-note :lol: ), so having text input seems pretty pointless.
(And Android's keyboard/mouse support is pretty shonky, too, in my experience - right-click to go back in browsers until you get to the Home screen, but not always and it doesn't always do the same thing in any consistent fashion, and pressing backspace causes bizarre jumping around for no reason, also inconsisently? What? :blink: I really hope they improve that quick-sharp. I'd love to see Android do well, as more options are always nice.)Or is it too early to be asking that?
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WizardStan
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Craig, you know that we are on your side, right? We want you, Evil Dragon, and the Pandora (and everyone associated with it) to be commercial successes. All I'm imploring is that when someone from the community expresses concerns about your direction, especially when many people express the same concern, you at least take the time to consider those concerns and address them. I came in several months late all those years ago, but I did take the time to read the origin thread; the Craiginator and the resulting Pandora were designed heavily with community input to design the device that was wanted by this community. If you are building something now for mass appeal then by all means, I applaud this, but know also that if you do not at least listen to the concerns of the loyal customers who have stuck by you for four long years while you produced the machine that they believe in so fully you will alienate and embitter a lot of people in expecting it to be treated as a spiritual successor to the Pandora.
Exophase
Nothing good will ever come of Exophase.
I doubt it'll be flat out impossible. It's probably going to be more a question of just how much work. Even GP2X and Wiz support on Pandora was made possible..
Why on earth can't you easily support NEON? There is only one Cortex-A series based SoC I'm aware of that doesn't have NEON and that's Tegra 2. Even nVidia has opted back into NEON support with Tegra 3. And OPT would be pretty dumb to make a Pandora 2 using Tegra 2.
So I don't think that most things would need to be recompiled, if you were still using a normal Linux kernel with some form of X11 running and provided the same control devices..
I support Android on Pandora 2 (already said this), but I don't see why that means you can't run something else too. And a lot of that software work for Pandora was already done and wouldn't have to be done again. Emulators are one of the biggest things Pandora users do want and you'll note that Pandora still has better emulator devs than Android, which only really gets ports. Maybe if Pandora had Android the serious emu devs would be more compelled to work on it directly, but there are also nice aspects to developing with a more normal Linux environment. Give it both and you'll see at least some developers make things for the Linux OS then gradually port them to Android. There'll be plenty of incentive to do so since the latter will open up a much bigger market, but having to go Android right from the start is a big step and will scare some people away.
Right.. wasn't most of the software work on Pandora done for free? But first thing's first, if you want to talk about making a less "niche" system then figure out a way to manufacture some orders of magnitude more.
Differences pointing to dropping possibility of compatibility with Pandora 1 don't sound good..
I'm not going to assume anything but IF you drop the keyboard and go Android only you will get eaten alive by Chinese manufacturers doing the exact same thing.
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But what makes people buy Pandoras is real linux + keyboard.
Surely entering an already populated market with little funding is even sillier than making a device for a specific (trapped) market.
Wrath Of Khan
Soul soother...
Yes surely pandora 2's would have to be mass produced in large volumes in order to be a sucess in the larger android market.A linux os and an android os for users to choose from makes sense. The pandora market is tiny so backwards compatibility as much as is possible is surely a must so as not to alienate the pandora faithful.
YMMD! Best comment ever in on this boards
I agree with the rest here though. I want the pandora to be a micro computer capable of doing all the PC stuff. Designing it as a android only gaming machine would not really satisfy me.
Mr_Loon
Can't Remember
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Interesting times, from what little I understand of the device that Craig is planning, it does not seem to be what most of the community would think of as Pandora 2. However, from my understanding any Pandora 2 from Open Pandora GMBH (ED's company) certainly would not be based around android but would be a more natural evolution of the Pandora.
What I sincerely hope is that this does not lead to any sort of schism in the community, or bad feeling about who has the right to release a device called 'Pandora 2'.
From a personal perspective I'd love to see Android running on the Pandora never mind the Pandora 2, however I would not like Android to be the default / official OS choice. My guess is that the vast majority of Pandora owners would feel the same way.
RIght, better scoot now and buy the Android humble indy bundle.
What I sincerely hope is that this does not lead to any sort of schism in the community, or bad feeling about who has the right to release a device called 'Pandora 2'.
From a personal perspective I'd love to see Android running on the Pandora never mind the Pandora 2, however I would not like Android to be the default / official OS choice. My guess is that the vast majority of Pandora owners would feel the same way.
RIght, better scoot now and buy the Android humble indy bundle.