Pandora pre-orders extended through the weekend

Procrastinating? Lazy? Living on the streets? Forgot to set your alarm and slept through the week? Well, you're in luck: the Pandora pre-order page will continue to accept your orders through Sunday, and production will be increased beyond the initial 3,000 units to meet the demand. So what are you waiting for? You already blew your first shot -- and this is will be your last chance to catch the open-source sensation this year. Go on, get!

[Thanks, Andrari S.]

[Jash Sayani @ Oct 3rd 2008 7:08AM]

The ultimate PMP !!

[themovielife @ Oct 3rd 2008 7:57AM]

The ultimate UNDERSTATEMENT !!

[themovielife @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:03AM]

The ultimate understatement!!

[thebackwash @ Oct 3rd 2008 7:10AM]

When do we get to see an actual working unit? I've searched high and low and wasn't able to find even a picture of the final product.

[Gruso @ Oct 3rd 2008 7:58AM]

There isn't a final product yet, that's kinda the point of preordering. ;)

[Reader @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:37AM]

Wasn't there preview of it playing Quake II here on engadget? That was pretty cool.

[dennis @ Oct 3rd 2008 9:05AM]

They never made a working prototype in order to be economical about the project. Instead, they worked on the analog nubs for $30,000 of R&D, the PCB shell, the keyboard layout, etc. I pre-ordered and I'm not even into playing homebrew or emulators.

[L.O.fucking L. @ Oct 3rd 2008 7:25AM]

Forgot to set your alarm and slept through the week? LOL!!

[mercurysunblast @ Oct 5th 2008 5:08PM]

Hey don't laugh at me!

[TareX @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:06AM]

PSone, GBA, and SNES will look heavily pixelated on that screen.

I hope it has many dedicated developers willing to port PSP and PS2 games on it.

[ryan @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:22AM]

Only if there is no filtering.

[Rob Bourne @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:26AM]

The cynic in me feels that they've extended the preorder window because they're not getting many preorders.

Hopefully it really is because demand is so high.

[Gruso @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:31AM]

It's due to demand. Over 2000 went in the first six hours, the traffic bringing down the servers on several sites. One of those sites (gp32x) hasn't recovered yet. The 3000 figure was originally given because that's the minimum they could get manufactured in one run. Now they'll just make as many as get ordered - which could be 4 or 5 thousand by Sunday.

[Rob Bourne @ Oct 3rd 2008 9:12AM]

Wow, nice.

I hope it does well, honestly. I guess I was a little cynical as I'm completely out of touch with this area :(

[dervheid @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:30AM]

This looks like an upturned VHS tape!

[konshuss @ Oct 3rd 2008 9:46AM]

so does your face.

[Lucas @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:45AM]

I'd love to snatch one of these up, though I think it's probably smart to wait for a hardware revision. Thats most likely what these pre-orders will be paying for.

[Frogboy @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:57AM]

Only if there are major bugs or quirks found. They aren't putting any el cheapo components on it so they won't be updating the screen or controls for a while. We shouldn't see any physically noticable rvisions like the GP2X has seen over the last few years. Unless you mean alterative case colors or designs. If demand stays high, I wouldn't be surprised if they came out with other colors.

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 3rd 2008 8:53AM]

Netbook + USB controller.

For if you want to you know, DO stuff later after your done playing.

[Phoenix @ Oct 3rd 2008 10:23AM]

You can do stuff on this. Web browsing certainly, probably typing since it runs Lunix.

It basically IS a netbook... just very small

[chudgoo @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:58PM]

My current setup is an Acer Aspire One with a Kensington micro bluetooth module and an old PS3 sixaxis controller.
It works great and I love the Acer, but I pre-ordered the Pandora anyway. I just really want to support the effort... and besides it's like a dream-team product hardware wise.

[wootman @ Oct 4th 2008 12:36AM]

You cant fit a normal usb controller in your pocket, let alone a netbook.
plus a netbook has less than 1/2 the battery life.

[Frogboy @ Oct 3rd 2008 9:02AM]

I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean. Sounds negative but I'm not really sure. You can hook this up to a TV and play using a USB controller if you want. All you need it a fairly inexpensive cable.

[Eric @ Oct 3rd 2008 9:23AM]

I'm really excited for there to be a big Pandora community!

[thedesolate1 @ Oct 3rd 2008 9:51AM]

I hope they use a Dual Boot system instead of packing a full OS in there. One to boot emulators and the other a linux distro. I believe it might run sluggish if it is not a slim OS. Maybe they should use SAM or DSL... something light yet functional.

[Frogboy @ Oct 3rd 2008 10:21AM]

It'll ship with a very slim and fast loading OS for pretty much instant on capabilities. If you want to run a full distro, you'll have to install it yourself. If Pandora doesn't have dual boot ability from the start, you can bet it won't be very long before someone makes that happen.

[Frogboy @ Oct 3rd 2008 6:42PM]

I just read that they might actually ship with a dual boot option.

http://forum.openpandora.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=36

[Scatpack @ Oct 3rd 2008 10:15AM]

How can there be a "big Pandora community" when they are only selling 4000 units?!?

[Chad @ Oct 3rd 2008 10:51AM]

Because almost every one of those 4000 will be developing. Obviously there is a -much- larger install base for PSPs and DSs but I'd bet less than 1% of those people do any development on them.

[Eric @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:07AM]

That is actually a pretty large community for this sort of a thing, and given the dedication that the Pandora users have to the device versus PSP users for example. It's really different kinds of people.

[Eternalodyssey @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:05PM]

The Pandor has a huge community of over 16,000+ members. This is a rather large amount for such a new product and one that has not even been physically produced. The developers took the opinions of many people and came up with a product based on preferences and useability research & development.

[atomicthumbs @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:26PM]

I'm learning Python just so I can write Pandora software. :)

[Nightstar @ Oct 3rd 2008 10:25AM]

Size of a DS and ~10x the cpu speed. If this holds together PSP and DS are in trouble.

[Frogboy @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:28PM]

That's wishful thinking but Pandora will become the most successful open source handheld out there. It would be interesting to see how well this would do if it were made for commercial gaming and backed by a large company that had the money to go up against Nintendo or Sony.

[jopp @ Oct 3rd 2008 10:51AM]

I don't even know what this is and I have ordered one.

[Yomero @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:02AM]

LOL seems like I'm from Sound America...

From http://gbax.com/:

"North and Sound America, Australia, Japan, Korea and elsewhere :
http://gbax.com/pandorax.html"

[Tor @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:30AM]

Take away the keyboard and it looks very much like a Nokia N-800 on heavy-duty steroids, without the Nokia's FM receiver (but who knows, it's in the bluetooth chipset on the Nokia) and camera, but with S-video.

[Duke @ Oct 3rd 2008 11:49AM]

I am fighting the urge to order one of these. The specs look great...but its hard to send out that much cash without knowing what the final unit comes out like.

[TareX @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:33PM]

OR what it's capable of actually doing, away from fanboy fantasies.

[ChuChu @ Oct 3rd 2008 12:44PM]

From the Pandora wiki:

"The Pandora uses a Texas Instruments OMAP 3530 System-on-Chip. This includes the ARM Cortex-A8 processor, the TI C64X programmable DSP, the PowerVR SGX 530 3D accelerator and supporting components. "


These are known quantities. If you want to see what it's capable of, look at other implementations of the OMAP platform. It's quite powerful.

[Hooterman @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:02PM]

I'm very excited for this platform, and can't wait to see where it goes. But the price is to high for me to jump on before seeing more of what it can do.

[MIke @ Oct 3rd 2008 1:58PM]

I have a very good feeling about this box. I would *so* get one if A) I were traveling as much as I used to and B) I was not going through a rough economic time.

I am an extremely happy owner of a GP2X, which is still amazing. fullspeed genesis, neogeo, MAME, nes, and more. Lots of really sweet free homebrew as well - nearly all of which will be easily ported to the Pandora. It is a safe bet that much of the best emulators for GP2X will surface for Pandora near or at launch.

plus it's a nice little media player. They are putting a monster-components under the hood here. THere is no doubt that this thing will be worth every penny. but keep in mind, like the GP2X, this is for those who don't mind getting their hands a little dirty. It's not going to be as easy as plugging a disc / cartridge in, such as with current commercial handhelds. But not too bad, no harder than a basic PC emulator install. put files into the right folders and viola.

[Frogboy @ Oct 3rd 2008 3:07PM]

Doubt you'll need to files in specific folders or anything but other than that, your dead on. :)

[j.pickens @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:01PM]

I don't develop, but I just ordered one.
I think a very small portion of the 4000 will actually develop on it, but I don't care.
Open source, Forums-based feedback loop, dedicated group of developers, excellent specs.
That's what I'm paying for.
I expect a lively development process for this device.
And it runs Firefox at 800 by 480 resolution with 802.11g, so it is a great candidate for sofa-top computing.

[Loonyx @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:20PM]

it needs a touch screen keyboard mkay.

[atomicthumbs @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:27PM]

I can see you're one of those people who doesn't like tactile feedback.

[wootman @ Oct 4th 2008 12:41AM]

Thats the great part about it, just use one of the linux touch keyboards or make your own.

[jercb123 @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:29PM]

I'd Love To Order One But Don't Have The Money So I'll Wait For Round 2

[Will @ Oct 3rd 2008 7:59PM]

I've never heard of this before, and I'm the furthest thing from a developer, but this thing has me really interested. Now I have to decide between this and an Aspire One.

[wootman @ Oct 4th 2008 12:44AM]

Go with the Pandora, and ill give you a dollah.