The Future of Homebrew - Pandora Console ?

[pkmaximum]

About the desktop/portable comment. the EEE is a subnotebook that, while small, is stil lbigger than this and has a few other belsl n whistles. Me personally, I WANT this. Its pocket portible, meaning I don't have ot have a shoulder tote or the like, just grab n go. For me this's good as my handwriting is utter Fail and being albe to take notes, or flat out write(i'm tryng to get a bit of fiction work done for a deadline in may) would be a godsend as the DS's been....less than satisfying on that count(dso, the best app for the ds Fails, constaintly eats my work, and has no text formatting capability).


Ideas on battery life? I'm guessing roughly a three hour span if we're lucky, but even so thats' a decent battery life for something of this capability.

USB, I'll definately want to know more on usb as i could see lots of uses on that one(2nd player when hooking it up to a tv, or attaching a fullsized keyboard, or an external drive, ect ect we've heard this before).

TV out. Wait is this going to be the old red/yellow/white cabling or is there so mway to hook this to newer tvs(I don't own a new hd set so i don't know if they have the red/yellow leads out anymore).

OS: Linux is a good thing. The problem is things like flash and the like on non-x86 processers are handled by open apps like gnash and such(which a friend of mine that runs linux off an imac constaintly complains about being non-working and or glitchy). So I'm not expecting youtubing or thel ike(though that would be awsome). Still, so long as the basic word processing/media player(and picture viewing)/web browsing is covered I'll be happy even if NO console specific games get put out.

Naitive Games: How're htye gonna be handled, downloadable content onto your microsd card? Pripritary flash carts? I personally ee the former since asthey don't have the ability to compete in brick and morter with the big buys they have to do a digital distribution model. The question then becomes how to stop piracy for the commercial titles, an in-built steamlike app?

Oh my bad then I misinterpreted what you said =P I get what your saying, but still the price on this I still consider great =)

[krakenx]

The real Pandora is the ASUS EEE. It's out now, it's cheaper, it's much more powerful, pretty much the same size, and flawlessly handles emulation of PS1 and below. The controls are also quite comfortable if you map them properly.

But saying that the future of homebrew is either of these is stupid. They are just x86 based ultraportable PCs, nothing more.

[Veskgar]

Call me crazy but I still consider the Slim PSP to be the best homebrew device. A lot of emulators may not yet be perfect (rarely are emulators perfect) but the PSP still has untapped potential. We should continue to encourage new releases on the PSP instead of look for an alternative hardware solution.

[Ewin24]

This isn't meant to be a PC, people. And yes, I own a PSP... it is a nice homebrew device, but it wasn't designed to be. It's a commercial device, no matter how much you want it not to be... that's just how it crumbles. A nice toy? Yes. But I've yet to find anything amazing for my PSP that isn't a port (ex. rRootage) or just a commercial aspect that's been tweaked (commercial games, PS1 emu, custom firmware...). Also, there is not a single practical aspect of the PSP. Take notes? No. Basic design? No. Basic art? No. Basic text entry? Not even that. The closest thing we get is iRShell, which is still just a GAME organizer.

The DS, on the flipside, has a lot of practical purpose. DSOrganize, Colors, Phidias, DSNotes... many a practical program there, which I use on a regular basis on my Cyclo + DSlite Onyx. But the DS lacks two things which the PSP has-- power, and a unified OS. The DS can launch .nds's. Once launched, that NDS is what the system is running. No "returning to home". Even the "return to menu" function on the Cyclo Evo is just resetting the device. And the lack of power limits us to no end... we just can't achieve certain things without more power.

So. We need a device that has 1) a touch screen [NDS] 2) Power [PSP] 3) Unified OS [PSP] 4) Text input [NEITHER!] 5) & open to the public domain of homebrew, with no ridiculous limits [gp2x].

And what does this thing have? 1) A touch screen. Check. 2) As much power as a PSP. Check. 3) Linux. Can you get a more open & unified OS? Check. 4) A thumb keyboard? Check. 5) It's a homebrew-designed device. Mr. Gp2x has shown us what Linux is capable of, homebrew wise. This is good.

This is not a computer, people. This is a portable. Look at the article... "the size of a NDS". Now look at the render, compared to the coins.... good sign.

That render is ugly. Damn ugly. But they've got 3 months to shape this thing up. And if it works, then this is what the homebrew scene has been looking for. Stay hopeful.
This is not an EE. This is not DS, a PSP, or a gp2x. This is a new device. That's a good sign.

Now, the only thing that could make it 100% perfect is 3G phone capabilities...

[Jeric]

As I said. I'd buy it. I know me too well. It would see daily use both for practical and 'fun' stuff as everyone knows The Internet is

[Exophase]

The real Pandora is the ASUS EEE.

Hm... no.

It's out now, it's cheaper,

No it isn't. EEE is $400, Pandora is estimated to be $320-$340.

it's much more powerful

You don't really know that. The CPU might end up being more powerful (when clocked all the way on EEE), but I'm going to bet on the GPU on Pandora (it has shaders for one thing)

The thing is, because of all the ARM based handhelds that have been out a lot of high performance ARM code has been written. I imagine that no one is going to bother writing a DS emulator that's fast enough to run well on EEE. On Pandora it's a totally different story.

, pretty much the same size,

Wow. No.

EEE dimensions:

225mm × 165mm × 21~35mm

Pandora dimensions:

140mm × 83mm × 27mm

I assume the EEE depth is open vs closed, so we'll go with closed. EEE takes up 1300 cubic meters, Pandora takes up under 314. That's less than a fourth of the volume.

and flawlessly handles emulation of PS1 and below.

You can practically say the same thing about PSP.

The controls are also quite comfortable if you map them properly.

Let's see. I've emulated console games on a PC keyboard before and there's no way I'd ever use it over a gamepad, especially if analog is involved. I've used laptop keyboards, and they're much less comfortable than desktop ones. And finally, EEE's keyboard is supposed to be even less comfortable. I think I'll pass, give me a d-pad, face buttons, shoulder buttons, and analog for emulation and 2D games.

But saying that the future of homebrew is either of these is stupid. They are just x86 based ultraportable PCs, nothing more.

Pandora isn't that at all. For one thing it's ARM (like GP2X, Nintendo DS), NOT x86 - therefore it doesn't run PC software. It really is a homebrew oriented handheld, much unlike the EEE which really is just a small laptop (not even really a UMPC by formfactor). People are getting confused here because they're seeing a keyboard. This is a gaming device and an internet tablet, not a laptop. The keyboard helps for emulation as well as doing other things (emulating any computer. Think DOS PCs, C64, Amiga..), and for providing extra functionality for programs. It's going to be much easier to have a unified interface when you have a ton of keys to throw at it that most programs won't need to use.

One thing you didn't mention is battery life - because EEE is an x86 design (and not even using an especially low power x86 CPU, although those are quite a bit less powerful) I can promise you that the battery life will be much worse than it will be on Pandora.

Please try to research more before saying these things, you were wrong on several counts.

By the way, to those who think the renders are ugly: I agree, but they're renders. Does anyone remember how ugly the first PSP renders looked?

Look at this plastic model: http://youtube.com/watch?v=djt2uLnJk6g

That's much closer to how the actual Pandora will look, and IMO it looks quite good.

[argor]

"When and where can I buy it?
Sometime around April/May 2008 via UK, USA, Germany and Turkey."

Hmm,Is this is an April Fool ???

Musti

nop this not a April Fools

if you just wait cople of days you may see some pix of it

from http://www.openpandora.org/

Hello everyone,

We will be at the TIDC (February 26-28) in Dallas, Texas, we hope to have a prototype Pandora with us.

Selected devs from the GP32/GP2X/Zodiac scene will receive a Devboard free of charge very soon (some already have these).

Ordering for the 'First edition' Pandora may start in March, note that these will be beta versions of the console mostly for devs or hackers to try out and report back on.

[insurgentstain]

It seems to have an exponential amount of power for a portable, I love the touch screen, and the gaming controls seem about right, but...

Ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly.

This thing looks like a prop for a straight to video 80's sci-fi movie. It says it's portable, but I wouldn't dare bring that thing out in public.

I really agree typing sucks on the psp, but one thing I'll give the psp is it looks like a console, not a damn english translator.

Yes I am glad that they are paying attention to the fact that we need a good way to access things online, but common hide that $#@! somehow. Make it slide out of the bottom or something.

[LeprechaunIV]

Drooling.

[the_eternal_dark]

Come on people, you are complaining on how it looks as opposed to how it will function? What the f*ck, are you all Paris Hilton clones? Who gives a flying $#@! if it is uglier than a PSP or NDS, as long as the functionality is better, why worry?

I can't wait to see what is coming for this system, in terms of emulation. N64 full speed, PS1 full speed (an actual emulator, not one offered in the PSP firmware, since there is no open source code to play with). Marathon would be nice, the one for GP2X is good, but buggy.