Complete, nearly finalized Pandora gets shown off on video
By Donald Melanson 
posted Mar 23rd 2009 11:34PM
posted Mar 23rd 2009 11:34PM
Poor Pandora. It looks like the shock of actually being nearly finished has turned it stark white. The little trooper was still able to make it through its latest demo video though, and it looks to be running better than ever, with it sailing through Quake at the handheld's native 800 x 480 resolution and at a full 60 fps. Just as importantly, the d-pad, nubs, action buttons, and keypad are all now apparently in their final or nearly final states and seemingly up to their all-purpose tasks, as are the all-important blinkin' LED lights. Head on past the break for the full show, and keep your eye out for a promised follow-up video (including some Quake 3 action).
It's coming, and it will change your world forever. I CANT WAIITTT
I wish Microsoft would build one of these capable of playing games on Xbox Live.
I've been dying to get my hands on one of these. I was thinking of buying a netbook for ultra-portable computing... but heck, I could use Pandora and it'll be a good gaming device too!
The delays hurt it a bit, but it still seems promising.
Delay is a bit of a misnomer. They weren't anywhere near ready to release last Nov/Dec. It was a complete fabrication to get funding. I've been following along because when it is finally released and lives up to the demos, it's going to get one amazing device.
However, they aren't near ready even now and it's nothing to do with supply problems. They've barely finalized the keyboard, have a number of certifications to go through. There has been a long list of work that's been going on these last 4 months that in no way would have been done when they offered pre-orders. All those Pandora blog updates clearly show this and makes the idea that this is somehow slightly delayed inaccurate. Their ship date was completely unrealistic.
I'd say August is the earliest Pandora release date.
video would have been alot better without the music.
"Pandora" and "Music genome" go hand in hand in my mind
I still can't think of this gadget without thinking of Daft Punk
so true
the Pandora does everything the DS and PSP do except harder, better, faster, and stronger
Yeah, I think they're going to be sued or asked to change the name.
They did a pretty good job with this considering they aren't even a real company, let alone one as big as Sony/Nintendo/Apple
I beg to differ. OpenPandora Ltd, the company behind the Pandora, is in fact a real corporation.
But do they introduce a new gaming console/handheld every other year?
I just bought a DS lite off ebay. I can't resist after seeing the beauty that was GTA Chinatown wars.
The next handheld I buy would be a next-gen PSP (hopefully with a touchscreen for RTS games, and a 2nd analogue for FPS games). Till then, I'm holding off.
For a replacement for the next-gen PSP, you might want to buy a Pandora. It's got a touchscreen and analog nubs.
Sorry, as good as it is, I need something with the big game developers behind it. PSOne games and others won't do it for me. I'm waiting for the PSP2 for the next-gen handheld gaming experience as a whole...
Man I want this so bad, but I just payed for new tablet pc which comes this week. And then I have to buy $200 in upgrades, accessories, and software. But then again I don't need this for anything but n64 emulation, I mean I already have a dedicated mp3, a dedicated video player, a psp and a ultraportable, I don't think the n64 alone is worth $300 bucks do you>?
You don't really need any accessories except an SD card, there aren't any upgrades, and almost all of the software will be free.
you forgot speech marks
accessories i "have" to buy... :')
shiiiit, any time for a girlfriend?
Pretty sure he was talking about his laptop...
There is also the remote possibility that it will be able to emulate some less intesive dreamcast games see here : http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showtopic=47027 definitely not fullspeed yet but there is potential
The entire point of this device it that it does all that... and more you don't need the dedicated devices the pandora should even boast at least 20+ hours of mp3 with the LCD off considering it will run at 100% cpu usage with LCD at max for 8.5 hours (those are the numbers for the dev boards anyway)
By the time Pandora actually comes out, you'll have had a chance to save up for it. I wouldn't expect it to be available to anyone who didn't repreorder until around Christmas time.
Great to see after all this time.
I was initially surprised as to why the battery cover wasn't put back on after inserting the battery but got over it soon after :p
The fiddly start-up lets us know it ain't no DS; it's for geeks.
Still, looking good...though the case looks a little rough to me. I hope it succeeds financially for them and I hope they get some of the unwashed masses using the product, personally. Only by doing this will the folks at Sony and Nintendo sit up and take notice.
With first impressions, they count... and this video probably should have been made better from the start. Detailed description of the hardware from all angles, describing the features and device, then ripping into some gaming. Remember, you're not just trying to get those that know about you interested, you are trying to get others that don't know what you're about informed, too...(at least I presume they are).
Otherwise, good stuff.
There's a more detailed video coming soon, but the devs have been fantastic about showing every little tiny thing that happens. This is, infact, sort of a boring video but it shows us everything is working great.
unlike the larger companies OpenPandora does relatively frequent updates and often videos of progress what you see here is the final shape of the pandora but not the color since it is still a CNC prototype the final unit is supposed to be black and made with an injection molded process
also OpenPandora is a community the devs actually talk back to us and in general its just sheer awesomeness so kindly take a second loog at the video and realise that what you see here is not some flash over hyped/commercialised device but a device that speaks for itself it doesn't need a fancy flash site or super duper professional videos
first impressions do count.. mine is dang!! its running openarena 2x as fast as my 2004 PC through a graphics wrapper that makes it slower!!!
This video wasn't meant to be a press release. It was just made for the people who preordered to see the first fully functional prototype. It's not a bad thing that it's been picked up by Engadget, Gizmodo, etc, but all the complaints about how "unprofessional" the video looks are a bit ridiculous since it wasn't MEANT to be professional. As the notes on the Youtube page indicate, a professionally produced video will be made in the coming days.
I had preordered one but had to get my money back to pay some bills. I already have a hacked PSP. I will probably end up getting a netbook instead. And then just wait for a powerful phone that will do what the openpandora claims it will do.
Maybe even buy a NDS. My friend's kid has one and it looks pretty cool.
What kind of game can you play? im not really into old emulator... can it play older pc games like Morrowind? or some psx love?
DC emulator is WIP
It maybe technically capable of N64, but nobody is working on one
PSX is working nearly flawlessly
-- just about everything before PSX --
Old DOS games in Dosbox, no Morrowind
DS emulator is speculative, as the open source one has horrible compatibility.
There will be a WindowsCE port, those games may work eventually.
Homebrew and other open source games, maybe some commercial development
thanks for the reply!!
Older PC games that have had source releases or their engines reverse engineered can be considered possible on this device. The hardware is fairly capable, the problems with getting those games to run are similar to the problems with getting them to run on an x86 Linux machine.
Ho... and I just wanna say the ENGADGET AWARDS results are totally ridiculous. I will not tell why, its obvious.
If they had a category for Linux Distro of the year, somehow the iPod Classic would win it.
Sorry but thats Quake 1 not 3..
The article says the -follow up- video will be Quake 3. And it will. ;-)
What band is that playing in this video?
Pet Shop Boys.
1:13 wtf touch screen????? 8D
We've always known it had a touchscreen...
I'm surprised this haven't been asked yet,
But will it run Crysis?
The original nullDC authors (the dreamcast emulator) are doing a port for the Pandora, it's running at half speed in game on the beagleboard right now. Might have a few games playable in a couple of months when the Pandoras go out.
If my exchange rate was better I would be getting one
This is a really cool device, perfect for people who want to play home-brew and emulators (obviously). I think its kind of a shame that not too long after this is released, the PSP2 and NDS2 will be out (I'm thinking ~2011), offering far greater power. Its too bad those can't be more open-minded towards open-source.
Greater power? LOL
Really doubt so... The Pandora is state-of-the-art hardware wise
The only thing you win is commercial games... But the open-source games/emulators are good enough for me.
[quote]The Pandora is state-of-the-art hardware wise[/quote]
I beg to differ.
In Q3 you can expect the 45nm version off the OMAP that the Pandora uses. With the difference:
a) 20% faster cpu
b) 75% faster gpu
c) 25% less power drain
At this moment it still looks like the release will be mid 05/2009 and the final customers off the first batch around 06/2009 ( with any luck ).
In other words, by the time that all the customers have there Pandora, it will already be a generation behind the "state of the art" hardware. Thats the problem when it already took +-7 months between the initial ordering, and the not yet finished product.
Things that still need to be done:
** Done ** # CNC prototype Done!
# Completion of factory mold for keymat
** Done ** # Finalize keyboard layout Done!
# Completion of factory mold for case
# CE/FCC testing
# Mass production test run
# Stability testing
# Arrival of last bits and pieces for production
# Commence mass production
# Commence final testing
# Start shipping
A case mold take 30 to 35 days.
CE/FCC testing is going to take at minimum 5 days to 30 days.
...
Even if some things can be done in parallel, they still are at minimum 40 to 50 days off before the actually mass production.
Benjiro, what you have to remember is that just because TI have announced more powerful OMAPs, doesn't mean they're going to be in any products in the near future. Pandora incorporated the OMAP3530 into its design not long after TI released it. A couple of years later, Pandora is close to release. Other products can now be built around the higher spec OMAP - but you're looking at one, maybe two years before those products hit the shelves.
Other products of note using the OMAP3530 are the Beagleboard (a bare bones developer board) and the OSWALD (an Oregon State University educational project). The Beagleboard is not yet using the revised 256MB RAM + 512MB NAND configuration that Pandora is using. The OSWALD is even more niche than the others, and still in the early stages of development. Both are great projects, neither are anything for Pandora to be concerned about.
No other gaming handheld will have the processing power of Pandora, not this year, probably not next year. The OMAP3530 might not be TI's latest product, but in the consumer market, it is indeed cutting edge.
The 45nm OMAP3630 will not be availble for sale in Q3. Q3 is just a limited sample run. You can expect it to be availble for the market some time in late 2010. The Pandora can't be delayed that long.
I am so getting a second-run OpenPandora.
Emulators, DOS, and ScummVM games here I come!
They were running Quake 1, not Quake 3.
Once again: Read the article closely, it says Quake 3 will be in the NEXT video.
"and keep your eye out for a promised follow-up video (including some Quake 3 action). "
Not in this vid, in the next to be released vid.
Are there any index finger controls? I would like to see somebody actually be able to play quake in a pratical manner on one of these things.
A practical manner to most, would be real gaming controls... which is the whole point of Pandora. You could even use a mouse + WASD if you wanted to. I was tempted to say that if you want to play Quake with hobbled touchscreen controls, play it on the iPhone. But in reality, someone in the GP32X scene will probably implement this for Pandora at some stage anyway. :-)
I wouldnt say its practical to attach a mouse to the pandora unit. and where did the playing with touch screen controls come in???? i was refering to practical controls for a unit such as this would be to have index finger controls like the psp and the 2 analog controls such as a the pandora. I think you have iphone on the brain chap.
By index finger controls you mean action buttons? It has 2 of those at the back of the unit. Easy to reach with your index fingers.
My mistake Tony, when you said index finger I pictured a finger on a screen. Sounds like the buttons you're referring to are shoulder buttons. ;-) And yes, Pandora has them.
IAM SO GETTING ONE!
The reason why the case in this video is white is because they wanted a white case for the final case prototype so it would be easier to see flaws and the like during stress testing. The final case will still be black, and so you won't see all of those lights and whatnot shining through while you're playing.
They would have been better off getting a cast urethane prototype enclosure instead of that gawd awful looking SLA.
It's not SLA, it's CNC. The CNC case was made by the same factory that is manufacturing the injection-molded production cases. This way we know that the production cases will be EXACTLY like the prototypes and there won't be any surprises.
There's a lot that can happen between making a CNC'd plastic positive and actually cutting metal. There's flow issues, knit lines, mold temps, expansion, contraction, etc. etc. I'm not sure any type of prototyping can predict all the maybe's in injection molding.
All 3 quakes are running on the pandora. This quake engine is actually tyr-quake, and its actually using a wrapper for parts of opengl, it could run faster if it was converted to use opengles only.
You can see more here on my dev board: http://www.youtube.com/user/Pickle136
I have now decided I really want one of these.
I would actually love to play quake on a handheld, and iphone quake is terrible.
aww I thought this was AVATAR related, oh well
cool though
Didn't see it mentioned anywhere so I'll add that the reason the case is a somewhat translucent white is because that just the prototype CNC case. The actual case will be opaque black.
omgz diz hting is tarible!!! hwo wud uo kno tht wud buy 1 of dis? its liek not even a spowerfull as a ds maebe a psp but i dont rly think so.
lol troll is lol troll
this looks like the perfect thing for a recession antidote
Man, forget a netbook, wait a few more months & get this bad boy for about the same price & have the ability to up the memory space.
Why do gadgets that do everything always look ugly? Is it to difficult to to manufacture perfection?
Fugly. That's all I can say. I won't touch that thing with a ten foot pole. On top of that, it's ridiculous how long it takes them to stuff a relatively simple TI OMAP based design with LCD into a case. The software is going to be great, too. Oh, and it is actually quite expensive. Yeah, this is going to be the next big thing. Definitely. Rrrright.
I think i might go out and buy some hens teeth, and 3 bags of rocking horse shit.
I might be able 100% to get the above items than a pandora.
Has anyone considered plugging a bar code wand into this, adding one SDHC containing an ap and a database and thereby creating a nice tool for the guy on the forklift?
Wouldn't it be possible to make this read the diagnostic codes from whatever automobile Joe Mechanic is trying to repair at the moment?
Sure, the games are great... but if you call the thing Pandora you got to open the box.