Pandora to cost $500

[ficarra1002]

http://www.openpandora.org/index.php?optio...=34&lang=en

You can now preorder a unit from the second batch!
The faster you order, the earlier you will receive your unit. The cost for a Pandora is 349 USD (without VAT) or approx. 330 EUR (including VAT).

Am I just looking at a fake site?

 

[ProtoKun7]

No thanks. A laptop is more powerful than Pandora and more afford. It is ridiculous. They are doing it for their own profits to make more money. NO THANKS!!!!

Don't you just hate it when companies make things then try to...make money from them?

 

[Paralel]

It seems like a great device, but with portable quad core ARM CPU/quad core GPU designs, 1.5+ Ghz single core ARM CPU designs expected in the 4th quarter of this year combined with next gen. AMOLED multitouch screens it is terribly under powered/underspeced. With any luck they will be able to take their current system and update it to Ver. 2 without a major redesign. However, if they updated within a year to a newer system it would really be a big "**** you" to the people who bought Ver. 1. But, then again, that's business.

 

[dryganaye]

No thanks. A laptop is more powerful than Pandora and more afford. It is ridiculous. They are doing it for their own profits to make more money. NO THANKS!!!!

Except that you're full of shit. The OMAP3 is surprisingly powerful given its age, probably more powerful than the shitty Atoms which can be found in cheap netbooks. Besides, it's an entirely different beast to a laptop. For one it's far smaller, it's got proper gaming controls including dual analog nubs, the battery life beats most cheap netbooks... It's a one of a kind device and there is nothing else like it on the market right now.

If you'd taken the time to read you would have discovered that this is not for profit, it is so more people can be hired to help assemble and the current backlog of pre-orderers can be cleared quicker.

Obviously it's not a mainstream device (since the mainstream mainly comprises of idiots who think the blue 'e' on their desktop is the internet) and thus cannot be treated as one.

It doesn't matter how powerful it may be. Its too late for the Pandora. I was pulling for this thing for months and then finally gave up on it with all of the delays and the reports of poor quality control and severe wear and tear (Yes, already!!) from normal usage.

The only people who'd buy it now are those with the money to waste or who may find it useful for personal projects. With the 3DS and now the PSP2/NGP right around the corner and all the new DAPs (iPod Touch) and Smart Phones (Androids, etc.) coming out hardly anyone is gonna develop for it or really even want it. Everyone is looking for the 3DS or the PSP2/NGP to be cracked. Look at the Rockbox project. Hardly anyone is pushing new ports for DAPs now. Its all moving to Android with the Rockbox Android app. Its great that it (Pandora) has a tactile keyboard and good gaming controls, but its not going to save it. The wave of new technology is just moving too fast and the project has already been swamped by it. You can also chalk it up to more bad luck and bad timing than anyone could wish on their worst enemy.

Me? I bought a netbook. It was a 'bit' more expensive, is a bit more larger but does things that the Pandora would never be able to do without a full hardware reinvention. I enjoy the occasional old game once in a long long while, but let's face it, Most people have pretty much played most of them to death. There are far too many good new games (Not necessarily high-end, requiring the fastest hardware) to play to be replaying old ones again and again.

Maybe its time they start thinking about a successor with better hardware and using all the headaches they've gone through now to make the production and delivery of that one alot faster and smoother for potential buyers. It'd piss the current owners off, but IMO (as I've said) the Pandora is already dead, whether those involved with it know it or not.

 

[Dunny]

Just to add my (rather biased, admittedly) 2 penn'orth -

I've had my Pandora for about a month now, maybe a bit more. The build issues are largely gone now as production gets more experienced workers. The quality of the unit is way above that of a NDSL/DSi - it really does make my DS's look bad. The screen is very much worth it with a full 180 degree viewing angle.

I've got two 32GB SDCards in there, one packed with MAME, Megadrive, N64, SNES, PSX, GBA/GB/GBC, Speccy, C64, Amiga and Atari ST games, the other with my development files. Because this thing runs a full desktop OS (XFCE), anything I build on my main x86 linux box runs natively on the Pandora thanks to the miracle of cross-compiling. This isn't strictly a games machine - I can run OpenOffice, mplayer for HD movies, various MP3 players etc. It's a full desktop computer, just like a netbook, but it's a lot smaller and has D-Pad, face buttons and Twin Analogue nubs.

The stock 600Mhz CPU speed is easily changed - mine goes way over 1GHz without hassle and no real degradation in battery life, which is around 14 hours on full load whilst playing games - drops to about 11 hours when overclocked.

And of course, it's fully open. You don't need to root it or jailbreak it, you just download your games and run them. There's shitloads of games available - not just emulators, but most decent homebrew is being ported. Good luck getting your homebrew running on your 3DS this year. Or next year for the PSP2, if ever.

Would I have bought it at $500? Yes, I would. No, it's not a Laptop. But yes, it really is. Besides, I have mine and it cost me a mere 200 quid. Can't complain, can I? Especially when I've just been stuck in a traffic queue and been able to run off a bit of Mario64 (fullspeed, 800x480 resolution graphics) and R-Type Delta (again, full speed at high res). What's not to like about that, and which other handheld lets you do the same?

D.

 

[Another World]

If you'd taken the time to read you would have discovered that this is not for profit, it is so more people can be hired to help assemble and the current backlog of pre-orderers can be cleared quicker.

yet in the same breath they said that the device is not making them any profit and if they do not raise the cost to "hire more workers" there is no chance of a pandora v2. you can interpret that anyway you like, i see it as them saying that for $500 they can hire some more people to speed up production and move on to batch 3 quicker, AND they will be able to turn a profit for the rest of batch 2 and into batch 3.

-another world

 

[Hop2089]

$500 isn't worth it for this system (non-profit or for profit), I rather get an NGP for that much, I'll get more of what I want for my money.

 

[dragon574444]

I read this title and I thought immediately of the music streaming service...

 

[Venenodecobra]

That too pricy.

 

[.Chris]

I read this title and I thought immediately of the music streaming service...

maybe because the "Pandora Radio"?

 

[Another World]

the argument we have been having on IRC is that the device should not be thought of as a "gaming system" but rather a portable computer running linux that fits in our pocket. when you consider what the system can do (web browsing, flash, full interface, emulation, applications, etc) does that start to justify the possible price increase?

the hinge can only click at 180 degrees, how do people feel about that? there are no "middle" points at all (unlike the DS).

-another world

 

[.Chris]

And the "180 degrees" is the another part that I dont like about it.

 

[Dunny]

And the "180 degrees" is the another part that I dont like about it.

Unfortunately, a large Japanese handheld game console manufacturer not a million miles away holds the patent on any hinge design that "clicks" open at more than one position, so OpenPandora couldn't use it. It's a shame, but easily fixed with a small rubber nubble (such as can be found covering screws on laptop lids) attached to the outer hinge fixes the problem.

Patents. Love 'em, eh?

D.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

this has been around for quite some time, on CraigX's store.


but having used a Pandora, and even having a pre-order, I can safely confirm that they are shite and definitely not worth the money. Especially now that they are 3 years out of date.
The stock OS is clunky, the stock web-browsers are shite and most importantly the emulators aren't great.

oh and those nubs? they calibrate every boot - only usually they calibrate incorrectly.

 

[Dunny]

but having used a Pandora, and even having a pre-order, I can safely confirm that they are shite and definitely not worth the money. Especially now that they are 3 years out of date.

I realise that I'm beginning to sound like a fanboy here, but someone has to lay some of these ridiculous misconceptions to rest.

The stock OS is clunky, the stock web-browsers are shite and most importantly the emulators aren't great.

Agreed - it's actively being developed. This isn't just your average gaming handheld where the OS has very little to do beyond booting a cartridge and enabling Wifi; It's a full desktop OS (XFCE - if you find that clunky then I suspect you're more at fault than the OS as it's identical in every way to the x86 desktop version). It's also being developed by a bunch of guys in their spare time for no pay, as are the emulators for that system. Agreed also that the emulators are rough around the edges, but the PS1 emulation is damned near perfect, Megadrive *is* perfect, N64 is 90% compatible with a new update out very soon (MUPEN64 source updated, binaries not yet available), SNES perfect barring the glitchy SuperFX support... Amiga is pretty bad, but works well when it works. Atari ST is also perfect. Best part is that the emulators that require a keyboard have one.

The web browsers are crap, yes, that's why I run the latest Chromium-Dev edition. Many others run Firefox 3.6 or the v4 beta. I do believe that the next hotfix will likely include firefox pre-installed, though the fact that you couldn't install a better browser is quite a surprise to me - it's just a case of downloading one file and putting it on an SD card... and from that point on, it's available on the desktop and "start" menu. Are you sure you've played on one recently? It sounds like you used a very early build when you come out with crap like this:

QUOTE

oh and those nubs? they calibrate every boot - only usually they calibrate incorrectly.

You don't follow the official forum then? Ah yes, you're registered to the old forum, but only have 3 posts - one of which is a troll about how you'd like to use it to disrupt Wifi signals, and one asking for a free review Pandora for your site (DSTemp.com - site going well, is it?).

The nubs don't do that anymore, and haven't since the 300th Pandora was built. I suppose you missed the delay in production where they fixed that very issue then? I had problems with my nubs needing a reset every so often; a firmware update has fixed that.

3 Years out of date? That's a laugh. Mine runs at 1GHz+ and still gets more than 10 hours of battery life. Name me a handheld that does that. And of course, I'm looking forward to seeing you run any homebrew or emulators at all on the new Nintendo or Sony hardware. The PS3 was only broken due to programmer stupidity, and I don't think they're going to make that mistake twice. With the Pandora you don't have to worry that a firmware update will disable your cool stuff - each update actually makes the device better.

Next time do some research before you come off like an idiot.

D.

 

[Cuelhu]

@Dunny: XFCE is not an OS. It's a lightweight Window Manager, like Gnome and KDE (these being heavy).

The Open Pandora is really capable, and has a lot of potential, but it costs a lot of money as well and takes too long to people to purchase one.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

but having used a Pandora, and even having a pre-order, I can safely confirm that they are shite and definitely not worth the money. Especially now that they are 3 years out of date.

I realise that I'm beginning to sound like a fanboy here, but someone has to lay some of these ridiculous misconceptions to rest.

The stock OS is clunky, the stock web-browsers are shite and most importantly the emulators aren't great.

Agreed - it's actively being developed. This isn't just your average gaming handheld where the OS has very little to do beyond booting a cartridge and enabling Wifi; It's a full desktop OS (XFCE - if you find that clunky then I suspect you're more at fault than the OS as it's identical in every way to the x86 desktop version). It's also being developed by a bunch of guys in their spare time for no pay, as are the emulators for that system. Agreed also that the emulators are rough around the edges, but the PS1 emulation is damned near perfect, Megadrive *is* perfect, N64 is 90% compatible with a new update out very soon (MUPEN64 source updated, binaries not yet available), SNES perfect barring the glitchy SuperFX support... Amiga is pretty bad, but works well when it works. Atari ST is also perfect. Best part is that the emulators that require a keyboard have one.

The web browsers are crap, yes, that's why I run the latest Chromium-Dev edition. Many others run Firefox 3.6 or the v4 beta. I do believe that the next hotfix will likely include firefox pre-installed, though the fact that you couldn't install a better browser is quite a surprise to me - it's just a case of downloading one file and putting it on an SD card... and from that point on, it's available on the desktop and "start" menu. Are you sure you've played on one recently? It sounds like you used a very early build when you come out with crap like this:

QUOTE

oh and those nubs? they calibrate every boot - only usually they calibrate incorrectly.

You don't follow the official forum then? Ah yes, you're registered to the old forum, but only have 3 posts - one of which is a troll about how you'd like to use it to disrupt Wifi signals, and one asking for a free review Pandora for your site (DSTemp.com - site going well, is it?).

The nubs don't do that anymore, and haven't since the 300th Pandora was built. I suppose you missed the delay in production where they fixed that very issue then? I had problems with my nubs needing a reset every so often; a firmware update has fixed that.

3 Years out of date? That's a laugh. Mine runs at 1GHz+ and still gets more than 10 hours of battery life. Name me a handheld that does that. And of course, I'm looking forward to seeing you run any homebrew or emulators at all on the new Nintendo or Sony hardware. The PS3 was only broken due to programmer stupidity, and I don't think they're going to make that mistake twice. With the Pandora you don't have to worry that a firmware update will disable your cool stuff - each update actually makes the device better.

Next time do some research before you come off like an idiot.

D.

That account - it actually isn't me. pokemongalaxy was behind it, please do notice how he's banned (apparently me working with him was enough justification for him to pose as me on numerous forums). I've been following the news from the official site, and have yet to see anything remotely impressive. Also, I use OpenBox and XFCE on my installs of Arch, and it's rather silly that you're confusing XFCE with the operating system, which is itself based off Angstrom linux. So yeah, at least try to get your facts straight if you're going to try and insult me.

While it is true that people are developing (for) it in their spare time, after 3 years I'm sure that even you can admit that something is off - and yet it's amusing how despite the lack of any sort of standards, fanboys like you remain to passionately defend their every move.
...and in the time that the Pandora community has existed, it is still much smaller and far less productive than the Dingoo community, which not only received much less hype but also revolves around a product with consistent build quality (I'm making this reference purely because they're both equal in terms of the level of drama surrounding them).

After the 300th unit you say? does that mean there were at least 300 units produced, that had this problem? Considering the amount of time it took for these to be produced, that just shows that the team didn't even test the units before shipping.

Finally, we're seeing cheap netbooks (and not-so-cheap phones) with better specs than the Pandora being released every day. That was not the case back when the Pandora was announced - hence all the excitement at the time. However now that it is not the case, I believe I am entitled to call it "out of date" as even my technologically inept neighbors have portable devices more powerful than the Pandora.

 

[cwstjdenobs]

He said 300th not 3000th.

Here's the thing, it's a Beagleboard in a nice case. You could do that with a nice OLED touch screen for less. With a system almost twice as powerful (the BeagleboardXM). As a toy for people prepared to mess around with this sort of stuff and be arsed having to sign up to a dev programme to get access to proper 3D drivers etc that would probably be a better option too.

Or the dual core cortex A9 based pandaboard. Still for less and much, much better.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

He said 300th not 3000th.
right, thanks, amending post now
QUOTE(cwstjdenobs @ Jan 29 2011, 04:03 PM) Here's the thing, it's a Beagleboard in a nice case. You could do that with a nice OLED touch screen for less. With a system almost twice as powerful (the BeagleboardXM). As a toy for people prepared to mess around with this sort of stuff and be arsed having to sign up to a dev programme to get access to proper 3D drivers etc that would probably be a better option too.

My point exactly, the Pandora was a cool project when it was announced 3 years ago - but nowadays it is nothing more than an average device with a bad reputation.

 

[Dunny]

He said 300th not 3000th.

Here's the thing, it's a Beagleboard in a nice case. You could do that with a nice OLED touch screen for less. With a system almost twice as powerful (the BeagleboardXM). As a toy for people prepared to mess around with this sort of stuff and be arsed having to sign up to a dev programme to get access to proper 3D drivers etc that would probably be a better option too.

Or the dual core cortex A9 based pandaboard. Still for less and much, much better.

I'd be interested in doing that! Can you let me know how much it would cost? I'd like it to have two analog nubs (sticks preferably), clamshell with keyboard and about the same size as the Pandora. Basically, a Pandora case with the latest Beagleboard inside.

Any ideas how much that would cost? I'd drop the Pandora like a shot if I can make something like that myself for a comparable amount.

Antoligy: Apologies, but you did sound like a total dick, so I stand by my comments.

D.