Open Pandora

[puduhead]

Most probably already know about it:



ARM® Cortex™-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
430-MHz TMS320C64x+™ DSP Core
PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
800x480 4.3" 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD
Wifi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth & High Speed USB 2.0 Host
Dual SDHC card slots & SVideo TV output
Dual Analogue and Digital gaming controls
43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
Around 10+ Hours battery life (yes, really!)

http://www.youtube.com/user/EvilDragon1717
Check out the 1 video per day for 30 days in uploads

I Must have one!

 

[Lillymon]

Damn, I have been looking for the sort of ultra-portable that can meet my exacting specifications, and this does seem to check all of the boxes. Can't believe I forgot about it. Incredibly portable, solid-state storage, Linux-based, Wi-Fi connectivity, gaming focus, it really has got it all.

Yeah, I want one too now.

 

[Reaper man]

Eh, 500 dollars feels a bit steep. Then again, I'm poor. ;/

 

[Lillymon]

Yeah, it's just over £300 at UK prices, which is about £100 more than I'd hoped to spend. But Linux-based, solid state drive ultra-portables like these really don't seem in fashion at the moment, and this one really does have all I'd hope for, so it would probably get a lot of usage at least.

It's also rather more powerful than I expected. I thought it'd be a case of NES games running well, with the possibility of pushing it to SNES/GBA games with some difficulty. As it turns out, all of that is no problem for it. Even PlayStation games can hit full speed pretty easily, and even Nintendo 64 emulation is possible with overclocking, though I think PlayStation games are about as far as I'd want to push it.

 

[puduhead]

The price point is a bit high (why i haven't ordered it yet). But its not a corporate production with outsourced assembly so its to be expected.

I'm enticed by it because its so much more than an average hand held. Running on an adapted version of Linux means things are fairly easy to port so long as the hardware will support it. Example: ScummVM port comes out at the same time as all the other derivatives (and with full touch screen support! Sexy).

With full size USB port on the back, virtually any USB device supported by Linux is an option.

So compact (about the size of a 3DS) and just so geek. I don't know for you, but half of the fun I have with computing and running software is the thrill of setting up and configuring. Other handhelds are geared more towards the standard consumer experience (besides the jail breaking). That's good for making money with a low common denominator, but for people that like to get into the technicals - this is good. Very good.

I think its the antithesis to the stand-alone console you have to mod/jail-break for additional software options or a smart-phone that you're corralled into buying apps for at the app store. Not saying the process of paying for software breaks the experience, but rather, it often results in different offerings. Like to see an excellent DOS port of a game like Descent run on this beast - That's a unique handheld console-computer gaming experience. The product is in a category of its own.


PM me if you care to make a charitable donation to the Puduhead 4 Pandora Fund. All proceeds go to awesomeness.

 

[Lillymon]

The price point is a bit high (why i haven't ordered it yet). But its not a corporate production with outsourced assembly so its to be expected.

Actually, it's worse than I thought. As I said to Reaper_man on AIM, the UK price quoted on the site does not include shipping or VAT upfront. The final price works out at £375. I'm not happy about them withholding shipping and VAT from the upfront price, that's just deceptive.

So compact (about the size of a 3DS) and just so geek. I don't know for you, but half of the fun I have with computing and running software is the thrill of setting up and configuring. Other handhelds are geared more towards the standard consumer experience (besides the jail breaking). That's good for making money with a low common denominator, but for people that like to get into the technicals - this is good. Very good.

That's a big part of it to me. Being able to also use it as a low-power computer is as big a part as using it for gaming to me. But considering that the machine, shipping, VAT, and accessories are likely to be pushing £500 all-in, that's half of what my main PC cost!

Being an anti-corporatist rebel is more expensive than I'd thought...