

Pandora: Community driven linux based hardware project, actually shipping units. - wozname
http://www.openpandora.org/
I just discovered this system today, looks really cool.
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mikeryan
Wow talk about brand confusion. I thought it was going to be a music player.

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frou_dh
OFFTOPIC: That zany version of Tux the pengiun looks awful yet gets used
everywhere. The original one is much more tasteful.

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ZeroGravitas
It's not actually "open source hardware" in the sense that you can build your
own. They were a bit paranoid that it would get ripped off to the detriment of
the project if they did that. But it is very community driven and based on a
lot of open source software.

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nickik
the just didn't want to show that stuff to early. The will realeas the plans
and in the meantime you can ask MWeston (he is the hardware designer of the
team) he will help you if you have questions.

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gcb
releasing the plans AFTER you've ordered some thousands from the factory seems
to defeat the purpose of being open

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nickik
Would you have taken the risk there is no compony behind this (like with Neo
Freerunner). And open is not all about finding bugs is alsow about learning
from what others did.

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dotBen
I just don't see how they are going to attract developers to make games for
this. The GP2X suffered similar problems.

Sure, this will attract emulator crowd but why do I need a separate device for
that when my smartphone will do it (there are even emulators running in
javascript/html5 which circumvent any Apple iPhone store issues).

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wtracy
This device has dedicated gaming controls. Most smart phones don't.

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NHQ
except for that multi-touch screen stuff

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wtracy
There are a lot more classic console games that use a rocker and a/b buttons
than ones that use multitouch. (This thing is targeted at emulation,
remember?)

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jonprins
Neat project... except for the 8 games available on it. Why develop for
something with 20 users when you can develop for a (more powerful) mobile
phone with several orders of magnitude more potential customers?

Pretty cool that it's open and finally (after what.. three years or so?)
shipping units, but I doubt it'll ever gain steam.

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ZeroGravitas
It came out of the retro emulation community, so it has a couple of magnitudes
more games available than that. Whether those old games appeal to you is a
very good indicator for whether or not the Pandora is for you.

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jonprins
I spent about twenty minutes googling around trying to find a central
repository/library/listing of games available/ported to it... with no luck.
That would probably be important for gaining traction.

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city41
A community around these small handhelds such as the GP2X Wiz and the Dingoo
A320 [0] has sprung up over the past couple of years. These small devices are
cheap (about $100) and typically made in China somewhere. They are almost
exclusively used to run emulators for classic games.

The OpenPandora is basically a response that the existing solutions (such as
the GP2X Wiz) just aren't that great (which is true, I have a Wiz and I really
don't like it). The OpenPandora will almost exclusively be used to run
emulators, a smidge of web browsing, and that's about it.

[0]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-33IdcH3Wb8&t=6m36s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-33IdcH3Wb8&t=6m36s)

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nickik
Hi all, I acully am one of the first who ordered a pandora and I waited for
2,5 years. Last week I got mine. I think its fantastic that they pulled threw.
You would belive what problems hit them. It was a wild trip.

I really like my pandora its a full linux computer for you pocket. I play N64
most of the time, reliving my early gaming days.

Here you can find games and stuff:
[http://www.openpandora.org/index.php?option=com_content&...](http://www.openpandora.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=203&Itemid=42&lang=en)

The OS is not perfekt but it gets worked on quite a bit.

I would recomand the pandora for everyone that wants linux in his pocket or if
you want to play games with really good controles (the nubs are just
fantastic)

That my little report.

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wtracy
Also in a similar niche are the Always Innovating products:
<http://alwaysinnovating.com/>

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natmaster
Seems a lot like the phone from 2009: Nokia N900. (In specs, obviously that
wasn't a flip device...and the N900 isn't as bulky)

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bobds
Anyone else thinking about all the ways the gaming controls can be used on
non-game applications?

I'm pretty sure you'd be able to code efficiently on the Pandora, given some
custom key-bindings.

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momotomo
Surprised it's not android based given that it has an app store and some
reasonably popular games already. Anything that would stop them moving in that
direction?

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amock
It was around before Android so that's one reason why it's not Android based.
I think that becoming just another Android device wouldn't be a good business
move either, but I don't have any data to back that up.

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mustpax
Is trying to attract developers to a niche micro-platform a better business
move? Android market might be crowded but it is for good reason. Getting
developer mindshare is _very very_ hard.

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momotomo
Sums up my thinking on it exactly. I can't see this being more than a curious
news item if it stays in this format.

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amock
I agree that it probably won't become a huge success, but I think that if they
switch to Android they'll end up with nothing since there's nothing special
about the hardware. They'll lose the interest they have now and no one will
have a reason to choose this over a cheaper and more available device from
another manufacturer.

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JoachimSchipper
Looks like a nice SSH terminal, actually.

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pedanticfreak
OpenPandora had great promise. When they started it there was nothing more
powerful. But now it's slower than even the most dated Android phones on the
market.

600 mhz A8? We're in the 1.2ghz range right now. Two, three, and four core
designs are about to be commonplace.

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nickik
True, but who cares if you smartphone has 1.2ghz? Its not open and you want
get costum optimized stuff like an the pandora.

Its not all about the numbers.

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inoop
I bought a pre-paid zte blade
(<http://www.okmobile.ch/de/mobile/index.php?id=smartphone>) for 90 euros the
other day to use as a dev phone. It has a 800x480 TFT touchscreen, 512mb ram,
hardware accelerated graphics, GPS, 3G internet, WiFi, bluetooth, and
accelerometers/magnetometers. It's pretty open as it runs Froyo 2.2,
jailbreak/root is easy, kernel source is available.

Sure, it doesn't have any buttons, you can use a bluetooth joystick/keyboard
(i.e. [http://www.talkandroid.com/guides/using-a-bluetooth-
gamepad-...](http://www.talkandroid.com/guides/using-a-bluetooth-gamepad-with-
your-android-phone/)) if you really want to.

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gcb
why only gaming videos?

what about sshing into a crashing server and fixing it? editing code in vim on
the bus?

those would be cool videos too. And knowing the emulator scene a little, i bet
the keyboard will be used more than the joypads... or you will only play the
'easily' portable ones and not try that game that no one got working yet?

