Pandora runs Angstrom, still in hiding

You might not have received your Pandora yet, but certainly you'll be happy to know that the Open Pandora team has got Angstrom up and running on the open source device. Remember a couple months back, when someone got Ubuntu running on a Pandora devboard? Prepare to relive all of the stylus-poking excitement as the developer fires up Firefox and rocks out to GIMP, all in a show-stopping YouTube video. Just keep in mind that, like the device itself, this is still a work-in-progress, with all sorts of tweaking and customizing yet to come. So check out the video if you're curious -- just don't ask us where your handheld is.

[Mike10010100 @ Dec 15th 2008 6:34PM]

Wow. Holy crap. If this thing can do games AND be a good touchscreen computer, I'm buying.

In fact, forget netbooks. I'm going for a Pandora!

[Owen @ Dec 15th 2008 7:06PM]

I agree fully! Though the GP2X games were not particularly good. Though I think this will make a very good cheap netbook

[iofthestorm @ Dec 15th 2008 7:24PM]

Seriously, way more portable and 2-3x the battery life of a netbook with similar performance AND a touchscreen, and a price around that of a netbook. If they had marketed this as a netbook type device they could easily sell a ton, although I suspect they're just trying to get a run of them out first before they worry about getting greater market penetration. I think once these get finalized and maybe the price drops a little, I'll pick one up, as now Verizon is mandating data plans with smartphones so I can't just get the Touch Pro with wifi and use that.

[-slycooper_rocker- (lorddshadow the amazing) psn: shahanasalam @ Dec 15th 2008 10:34PM]

price drop? pssh this thing's a HUGE bargain at the price it is now. if i could find the money to buy it and find a way to order it, i would be insanely happy right now.

[dennis @ Dec 16th 2008 1:30AM]

I knew there was a reason why I pre-ordered this.

[Dez @ Dec 15th 2008 6:34PM]

They need to stop calling devices/batteries/anything else Pandora.

Seriously, not long ago I was interested in finding out about devices that stream Pandora internet radio, and I figured my PSP would be capable. Little did I know, the homebrew community long ago claimed the term for a battery. It was plenty great for clogging up my search.

I'm sure one more device won't help that particular search, but on a lighter note...

Will the Pandora run Pandora? ( or better yet, Doom? )

[Stern @ Dec 15th 2008 6:39PM]

Or even better (and, surprisingly, might be possible)...

Doom 3 anyone?

[sinjinn @ Dec 15th 2008 6:40PM]

icksnay on the dommsay...

sorry , my pig latin is bad

[Stern @ Dec 15th 2008 6:49PM]

And you're basing this off of what? Even a friggin iPod can play Doom. How can you possibly back up a claim that this can't?

[Dez @ Dec 15th 2008 6:52PM]

Look, I'm just excited to fire up doom3 on this little guy =D my psp is gonna have fun in the back of my closet ^_^

[iofthestorm @ Dec 15th 2008 7:25PM]

An iPod can't run Doom 3, though, and I think it will take a lot of work before this can, either.

[atomicthumbs @ Dec 15th 2008 7:39PM]

Yes, when they get Flash working, the Pandora will support Pandora.

And it will run Doom. And Doom II, and Ultimate Doom, and Final Doom. And, when the source code is released, Doom III.

[Dez @ Dec 15th 2008 7:44PM]

That's what I'm really waiting for. If they can get flash to run well on this thing, then advantages of "other" devices really start to disappear.

[th3archiv3 @ Dec 15th 2008 6:37PM]

WHAT THE HELL IS PANDORA? God damn, I hate when you leave me clueless engadget.

[Kris120890 @ Dec 15th 2008 6:40PM]

http://openpandora.org/

[maveric101 @ Dec 16th 2008 3:02AM]

thats why they have a link to all the pandora articles in the post.

[Stern @ Dec 15th 2008 6:37PM]

Augh. Why Engadget why... I love when you post info about the Pandora, but every time you do, it lags our forums... :(

(So excited to receive mine in January.)

[rutto @ Dec 16th 2008 4:14AM]

u look very optimistic!
On the forum I bet for March, 15 but I'd love to be wrong :P

[PW @ Dec 15th 2008 6:40PM]

The waiting is painful but the payoff is going to be sweet. Great to see a new vid.

[Kris120890 @ Dec 15th 2008 6:43PM]

The waiting is painful but I don't have the money to buy one yet so its working out okay. I can't wait. Ditching the DS and the PSP for this.

[loocas @ Dec 15th 2008 6:44PM]

Did I hear "A sex sotories"? o_O

[PW @ Dec 15th 2008 6:49PM]

Uh-oh! A foreign accent! Will you be ok?

[loocas @ Dec 15th 2008 6:58PM]

You should've heard my accent, man... ;)

[Cheese McBeese @ Dec 15th 2008 7:25PM]

What a horrible commercial!!

The whole thing is one long list of apologies. No internet, font size is too small, hard to hold a touch-screen and use it at the same time (WTF?), touch screen not sensitive, blah, blah, blah...

In other words, it's a piece of crap but we're all supposed to believe it will all turn wonderful and get all excited.

We'll see.

[gonintendo @ Dec 15th 2008 7:39PM]

He didn't say the screen isn't sensitive, he said that the OS hasn't been optimized yet. Same thing about the internet, screen being hard to hold, and packages needing to be selected. Sheesh.

[atomicthumbs @ Dec 15th 2008 7:46PM]

"The whole thing is one long list of apologies. No internet, font size is too small, hard to hold a touch-screen and use it at the same time (WTF?), touch screen not sensitive, blah, blah, blah..."

1. No internet because he hasn't got the wifi working yet (or there just wasn't wifi where he was filming this). Note "first image" - this is the first version of the Pandora operating system. Think of it as pre-alpha.

2. Font size is too small because they haven't optimized it for the Pandora's screen yet. Also, fonts that small will be perfectly readable unless you have bad eyesight because the Pandora has a very large and high-resolution screen for a device its size: 5.3" and 800x480.

3. "Hard to hold touchscreen and use it at the same time": yeah, just as hard as the DS. I heard that people aren't buying that because it hurts their hands.

4. "touch screen not sensitive": wat

5. This is not a commercial. It's a demonstration of the progress of the software on the Pandora. If you don't like it, don't buy one and don't bitch about it.

Sheesh.

[PW @ Dec 15th 2008 7:47PM]

lol, commercial. It's an update from the devs aimed largely at those who have already prepaid (read: invested in the project). Not everything on the internet is supposed to a sales pitch... you've just told us a lot more about yourself than you realise.

[rutto @ Dec 16th 2008 4:14AM]

You don't even have the slightest idea of the pressure developers are receiving from the community. They where months we have been expected a video like this...

[matt @ Dec 15th 2008 7:59PM]

You do realise it's not a commercial right? He's running out off a devboard, not a final product

Looks like an interesting project to compete with netbooks with reasonable gaming capabilities (Phantasy Star and Quake 3 on the same handheld gets a thumbs up from me)

[Mike10010100 @ Dec 15th 2008 8:33PM]

Wow. Such ignorance. He's holding a quarter inch (maybe less) thick lcd touch screen that is only connected to the motherboard via a thin cable.

THIS IS NOT THE FINAL PRODUCT. For one thing, it doesn't even have a case.

Also, as others have pointed out, it's not a commercial. This is simply a dev saying what can be done on the current architecture. Getting wifi on a brand new motherboard specifically designed for the Pandora working with Angstrom would take a lot of work.

[PJD @ Dec 15th 2008 8:41PM]

lol, its because he is german, man! Here in germany we will never be satisfied. The highest praise would be "you cant find anything bad about it". Thats why everybody thinks we are so harshly...

[Benjiro @ Dec 15th 2008 8:46PM]

atomicthumbs:

[quote]screen for a device its size: 5.3" and 800x480.[/quote]

Unless somebody magically added a inch to the screen, last number was still 4.3", not 5.3". We can only wish for the last one ;)

[atomicthumbs @ Dec 15th 2008 9:49PM]

Whoops, yeah. I misremembered the size. Thanks. :)

[Wormbolt @ Dec 15th 2008 7:51PM]

Where is the other screen and why didn't he show us Elite Beat Agents?

[atomicthumbs @ Dec 15th 2008 7:58PM]

You're about a year too late

[_man1c_ @ Dec 15th 2008 7:56PM]

going to get one in 09 when the next wave hits i think. want a umpc, or a netbook and think this thing can take either/or ones place pretty easily.

[Phawx @ Dec 15th 2008 10:17PM]

Have to admit, I can't wait for my Pandora!

[loosely_coupled @ Dec 16th 2008 12:40AM]

Why was that guy running linux from an SD card?? This thing could actually be incredibly fast if it has decent speed flash memory embedded in the device. Its the first device I've seen with a Cortex-A8 processor and PowerVR SGX graphics...

[Stern @ Dec 16th 2008 2:25AM]

It has 512MB internal NAND, which is what the base filesystem will boot from. Applications and the like will run off of SD/SDHC cards (so as to reduce wear on the NAND, which can't be replaced if failure occurs). It can still be very fast with removable flash memory, he just didn't have any high-speed cards on hand.

[Casper Nilsson @ Dec 16th 2008 2:06PM]

OMG I want it now, pandora will rock!

[cloud858rk @ Dec 16th 2008 6:23PM]

Well good luck, preorders are all ready over, and if the next batch will probably have orders start in mid-March.

[cloud858rk @ Dec 16th 2008 6:24PM]

^Minus the if.

[Captain Crunch Knockoff @ Dec 16th 2008 6:20PM]

Wish I would've had the money to pre-order, if only...