Lightning Posted October 3, 2008 Report Share Posted October 3, 2008 http://openpandora.org/ Sexy little handheld that's almost exactly the size of a fat DS. Has a 800x480 pixel touchscreen, a QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, WiFi, USB, SVideo, two SDHC slots, gamepad + analog nubs, fairly powerful CPU/GPU. Ships with a Linux-based (Debian-based specifically, I think) firmware. Perfect for emulating stuff on the go, like PSX, SNES, GBA, probably DS, etc.. Or just using it as a tiny laptop. Apparently preorders will be going until Sunday and they're going to try to get that many made (originally, they only planned on letting 3000 people make pre-orders). Everyone else will have to wait until 2009 =) I personally am very excited. Surprised I didn't see any threads about it on a quick search of the boards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyran Posted October 3, 2008 Report Share Posted October 3, 2008 The specs are rather nice, though I think a little more ram would have been nice. I have every intention on getting this thing... eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pheonix Gamma Posted October 3, 2008 Report Share Posted October 3, 2008 $330 Damn man. I'm not dropping that many bones on a doomed handheld. Reminds me of all the other multimedia portables that no one ever talks about anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aerosol Posted October 3, 2008 Report Share Posted October 3, 2008 I want one. End of. I would gladly drop that many "bones" on it, especially since I'm going to be in the UK soon enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ila Posted October 3, 2008 Report Share Posted October 3, 2008 The ultimate open source handheld? Lame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Epon Posted October 3, 2008 Report Share Posted October 3, 2008 Processor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naoshi Posted October 3, 2008 Report Share Posted October 3, 2008 Do want. DO WANT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serephim Posted October 3, 2008 Report Share Posted October 3, 2008 Damn man. I'm not dropping that many bones on a doomed handheld. Reminds me of all the other multimedia portables that no one ever talks about anymore. Pretty much. I have a perfectly functional desktop at my house that can do all the same things, and im almost never so bored outside the house that ill whip out a handheld and try to surf the internet at near dialup speed. Even if i AM that bored outside, theres nothing a handheld computer can do to entertain me at that point, as i would much rather just pull out a DS/PSP, or maybe even my cellphone to play tetris. No matter how good this thing is, if it actually starts selling then another company will most definitely come out and meet it/ surpass it. However the way i see it, this is mostly an appeal to homebrewers and gamers. I doubt i will ever find an adult with one when newer cellphones are definately more stylish and to-the-point. And if it doesnt even surpass the graphical power of a PSP then that further makes it useless. Edit: Oh dont get me wrong, its a damn awesome machine. I just dont see the point in buying one at this particular time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DimensionWarped Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 Unfortunately, it costs too much to hold my interest. At 150, I'd probably go for it, but 330? Nope. Sorry. That just crushes my balls. I'd rather get a PS3. Or that many more XBox 360 games. Or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightning Posted October 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 For some perspective: it's approximately as powerful as the Wii. I wouldn't call it doomed, considering its main draw is homebrew and open-source support =) And as we can see with the Dreamcast, even a dead console's homebrew scene doesn't like to stop. Some people call this the "spiritual successor" to the GP2X, which was the successor to the GP32. Both of which did good enough, at any rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DimensionWarped Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 For some legitimate perspective: Any cheap laptop you buy on the market will have much more processor/gpu power than a Wii. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightning Posted October 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 But most laptops don't fit in my pocket or have a gamepad+touchscreen =| If nothing else, I'll probably use this to replace my laptop for taking notes in class; rather than lugging my laptop around in a bag, I can just have this in my pocket (where I normally have my DS anyway). That is, assuming I can bring myself to stop coding and go to class once I get my hands on it =P Obviously it's not for everyone though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serephim Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 just because its as powerful as a wii really doesnt mean anything if your just talking about its processor. Game Machines really dont need as much processing power as a computer due to only (really) having one real function. So i highly doubt it can run any higher than a dreamcast/ps2 emulator, if even that, without getting raped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khorney Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 i sincerely doubt PS2, even high end rigs struggle with PS2 emu's as they are completely unoptimised. dreamcast perhaps, but i'd wait until they've completely sorted out the emulation for that before considering it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DimensionWarped Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 But most laptops don't fit in my pocket or have a gamepad+touchscreen =|If nothing else, I'll probably use this to replace my laptop for taking notes in class; rather than lugging my laptop around in a bag, I can just have this in my pocket (where I normally have my DS anyway). That is, assuming I can bring myself to stop coding and go to class once I get my hands on it =P Obviously it's not for everyone though. No, but there certainly are cheaper PocketPCs which will. Maybe not quite as open, but software development is pretty open. The only thing that really makes it seem worthwhile is the high resolution screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shadix Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 i sincerely doubt PS2, even high end rigs struggle with PS2 emu's as they are completely unoptimised. dreamcast perhaps, but i'd wait until they've completely sorted out the emulation for that before considering it. Have you tried NullDC? DC emulation has been pretty much perfect for several years now. I don't know if this system will be able to handle it given that, while NullDC is pretty optimized, it probably isn't optimized enough to work on a handheld. It'd be great if it could though. DC emulation is still much faster than Saturn emulation at least >.> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serephim Posted October 5, 2008 Report Share Posted October 5, 2008 Have you tried NullDC? DC emulation has been pretty much perfect for several years now. I don't know if this system will be able to handle it given that, while NullDC is pretty optimized, it probably isn't optimized enough to work on a handheld. It'd be great if it could though.DC emulation is still much faster than Saturn emulation at least >.> NullDC has to struggle to emulate alot of games on my PC at any kind of decent framerate, unless i Unsync the sound and increase priority. I cant IMAGINE a handheld device with a fraction of the processing power of this thing to run SA2 / Powerstone 2 and not play at half frame rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neo Hazard Posted October 5, 2008 Report Share Posted October 5, 2008 If this thing could run DC emulation, I'd pick it up just for. It'd be pretty awesome to play Sonic Adventure on the go. Still like my PSP though. :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightning Posted October 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2008 there's a hint-of-a-possibility. the GPU, like that of the dreamcast, is by PowerVR. so if there are any major similarities, there could be the potential of some high-level rendering emulation there... can't be too sure until we experiment a bit with it of course. but it is very exciting nonetheless =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKsoft Posted October 5, 2008 Report Share Posted October 5, 2008 For now, my GP2X does its job well. While an upgrade would be nice, I can live with it... so I'm waiting to see how much better this is. And I'm also waiting for a possible price drop in maybe a year or so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khorney Posted October 5, 2008 Report Share Posted October 5, 2008 @shadix, i said PS2 emulation was crap, not dreamcast, although i'm still sceptical as to whether they can get it working at a playable speed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aerosol Posted October 6, 2008 Report Share Posted October 6, 2008 The PSP and the Dreamcast both use a PowerVR chip? The nullDC developer hasn't said that, and I can't find any info on that anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightning Posted October 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 The PSP and the Dreamcast both use a PowerVR chip? The nullDC developer hasn't said that, and I can't find any info on that anywhere. ...the Pandora has a PowerVR chip. Top left of the page. Whether or not it's similar enough to the DC's to allow for any sort of higher-level emulation is still up for question, however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aerosol Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 OH. I thought you were saying that the PSP has a powerVR chip. My bad dude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyborg_ar Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 its so awesome, too bad they are sold out :S (almost 4000 units sold, yay!) the next batch comes next year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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