Pandora fans are definitely
partying tonight. Michael Weston and crew have uploaded the first pics of manufacturing test unit built using the mass production parts -- as team member Craig Rothwell noted over at the
GP32X forums, even if minor tweaks are deemed necessary, for all intents and purposes this is the first production unit. There's plenty more pics in Weston's Photobucket gallery, including a veritable sea of internal boards (seen after the break). Rothwell says more pics and video are coming but gave no indication of when -- if you think you can temper your excitement, it might be best to sleep tonight and check in on things again tomorrow.
Update: Video showing first boot of this ARM Cortex-A8 gaming handheld with PowerVR SGX programmable GPU after the break!
[Thanks, xmrgamerx]
posted December 9th 2009 1:49AM
Finally.
@Grahf
BOOYAAA
@Grahf
Fugly!
"Finally"
That's what I said when something actually happened in this video.
EDITING, people.
@Grahf It's only been a little over a year since the original due date, geesh!
@whatznext28
I thought it was only two months!
Following the theme of the last podcast, "consumer electronics are hard to make."
There's a video up already:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6m1y01LXtM
well I sure like the looks of it!
I'm having trouble finding information on the portable. Can somebody point me in it's direction?
@(Unverified)
Official site: http://www.open-pandora.org/
Unofficial blog: http://pandorapress.net/
@(Unverified)
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_(console)
@Invisiblemoose
Thanks both of you for the links. this looks pretty cool, I may just have to get one.
@(Unverified)
Best to inquire the Pandora team if there's any left from the first batch of production... they may have some as some people opted out of purchasing. Though rumor has it that they will be releasing a second batch sometime in Q1 of '10
Well, now I have to change my underwear
What a long, strange trip it's been. Grats to the Pandora devs.
@Chip Hey! Where've you been? Haven't seen you around the forums in a while. :D
nice! the start-up times look a bit disappointing though.
@glenskey
Normally (when they get the power state management working properly), you'll be putting it in suspend mode (which consumes almost no power) instead of turning it on and off.
Do you turn your phone or iPod on and off, or put it in suspend mode? It's the same with the Pandora.
@glenskey
I like your avatar. It made me laugh.
@glenskey I was thinking about the same thing, and i began to think "oh my! this thing boots as slowly as an unoptimized linux distro".... and Wham!!! It is linux!!! There should be no problem to obtain/compile a quick boot linux version for it. My fingers are itching to use that keyboard :D
@glenskey Could also just be that since it has 2 SD/SDHC cards it takes a while to start up initially. At least that's what I'd hope because that is an insanely long time for a start up.
But how is this possible? The Pandora is vaporware! Somewhere there's a contradiction.
/sarcasm
So...
When is the Snapdragon version coming out?
*ducks*
@(Unverified)
IMHO, the current chip they built on is good as it is - and efficient. The concept of this system was dreamed up before snapdragon, and they knew what they were going to build on based on existing hardware (the only thing was delays due to manufacturing/supplier issues, otherwise we would have had this a year ago).
It's possible to use a snapdragon board - in a second revision, yes. But it's too soon to do that yet.
Wow, looks good!
I may pick one of these up when I can afford it. Great job :)
Thanks Craigix and especially MWeston for their hard work on this project! This is going to be very awesome. I'm so excited to see what new homebrew software comes from this very homebrew driven piece of hardware!
Soon having not to worry about breaking the screen on an Pandora MK2 board or dealing with OMAP devkits will be awesome news for psx4pandora. :)
@zodttd It'll be like the Zaurus on steroids! I remember how well you managed to get psx4zaurus running on my C3200 back in the day, so this'll be awesome.
If, er when MWeston's Photobucket goes down, find the pics here: http://pandorapress.net
That video did nothing to sell the device. Not only is the boot up long but it seems to take a long time for the device to even turn on. Things look worse once the OS is up and running. The touch screen doesn't seem very responsive, or perhaps double tap sensitivity needs to be adjusted before taking a video.
I was excited about this device when it was first announced a long time ago, but it just seems pointless now in comparison to netbooks and the sony handheld. I'm curious as to whether or not this video was made by somebody in charge, because if so, they need to fire their marketing guy or get more control of what is shown.
@Tyguy
It takes a long time from your iPhone to turn on - from a cold boot. Unless your battery completely runs down or you take it out, you'll be resuming from suspend - in other words, instant booting.
The touchscreen is responsive - MWeston is just having trouble hitting the right spots on the touchscreen while it's tilted so the camera can see what's on it. :P
You can't put a netbook in your pocket, they don't have gaming controls, they don't get 14 hours of battery life, and which Sony handheld are you referring to?
The video was made by Michael Weston, the hardware designer for the Pandora. The marketing is done by the team, and by the community.
MWeston is the hardware designer. He shares this stuff as soon as he can, because we ask for it. It's not supposed to be a promo video.
FYI, suspend to ram (or similar) will offer instant-on functionality like a PDA.
@Tyguy
My bad. While the video still doesn't float my boat, I didn't realize this was an opensource project. I was actually confusing this with Paul Allen's Flipstart.
@atomicthumbs
see my reply below for some correction on my part... however, I did have to put your statement to the test with my ipod touch. Don't know if the iphone's startup is slower than the touch but I hit my power button the same time that he hit the power button (the second time) in the video and my ipod touch was completely loaded almost a full 40 seconds before this was into its desktop environment. That is way slower. Yes, I know you can use suspend mode, but I'm just saying....
@atomicthumbs : Thanks for clarifying some points... I shared some of @Tyguy's reservations....until I read your reply...
@Tyguy
The Pandora loads a full Linux system. The iPhone/iPod Touch load a stripped-down version of OS X. One is going to take much longer than the other to boot, but once they're both turned on, there will be no delay between when you push the power button and when you can use it. The only time you'll have to wait is if you run the battery completely down, or take it out entirely.
@Tyguy
Whats with the comparison man?..ipod touch is not a full fledged gaming console not matter what apple says.This baby can run full desktop ubuntu if you load it.You are comparing apples to oranges.My old nokia smartphone has tons of games as well and boots in less than 10 seconds.Does that make it a better device than my iPhone?Obviously not.
@aashish bhagya
But, where are the games for this?
@Badison
They're waiting for you to make them.
@Badison
There are several in development for it, but most likely can't be completed till those devs have a unit in their possession. Some people got dev units, but not many. There's a boatload of emulators already working for it (or in development) so there won't be a shortage of games in that respect, they just won't be original or new games.
For your consideration, here are some of the games in development:
http://pandorapress.net/2009/10/02/brewed-at-home-brewed-for-pandora/
There's also an app store in the works for developers to distribute their wares.
@aashish bhagya
The point of my comparison was merely because atomicthumbs brought up the iphone so I wanted to test his hypothesis of boot times.
Yet, I still wonder what the point of loading a full linux system is on a device targeted at gaming. Is this cool? sure and I'd love to have the option. But do I really need to load up something that can run apache, mysql, and a variety of other services, just to run games? Not really!
The statements made that some suspend mode will solve this problem needs to be verified. While various types of suspend to ram and hibernation schemes tend to work, they aren't always perfect, especially on full blown operating systems. In my experience, the more trimmed down the OS is the better a suspend mode works. I'm not saying that they won't be able to make this work well, but why assume that it works great?
@Tyguy
Do you need to load up something that can run apache et al? Absolutely not. That's what Pmenu is for. :P It's a lightweight launcher which looks more like what you get on the DS or PSP. It's also a LOT faster. Both the full XFCE desktop and Pmenu are included, and you select the one you want. It's configurable to always boot into one or the other, but changed at any time.
Regarding suspend mode, you are correct: suspend to RAM is very tricky and can be buggy. Eventually the Pandora hopes to do this, giving months of "suspend" time. Right now it just goes into an artificial suspend that is really just an ultra low power mode. The ultra low power mode extends the battery life about 30 times or so, giving an estimated 10 days before it needs to be plugged in.
wow i remember placing a pre-order for this in september of last year
Great to see that this thing has come together over the past year or so! Impressive considering the nature of the open development process.
Wow, that looks craptacular. So wait, who was actually waiting for one of these again?
@(Unverified)
oh, just the four thousand or so people who preordered
@atomicthumbs Yeah that sure is a lot for the launch of a new piece of hardware.
@(Unverified)
This isn't your typical "new piece of hardware" launch. The preorders were their capital.
@(Unverified)
I was one of those 4000, and I preordered without blinking an eye at the price. If you have to think twice about the price, you're probably better off spending that money on something else.
Btw, your argument about the price for new hardware isn't a new one. Practically every new hardware comes with a high price. PS3, 360, NDS, PSP, PS2, Xbox, and on and on... they all had prices many scoffed at at launch, and those devices were sold in the millions.
@(Unverified) Uhh, I was talking about the number of people who pre-ordered, not the cost. Read, comprehend, reply.