Pandora Handheld [Long]

[dgame]

Hi Everyone,

Before I begin I am not affiliated with the Pandora project in any way besides being interested in how it turns out as a fan of portable computing/gaming.

Mods, If this is an inappropriate topic/post then please move or delete it. Thanks.

Since I don’t speak for the people behind the Pandora this is an edited version of two emails I received from the team:

[Begin email – Not my words]

Hello Everyone, Craig here,
 
Thank you all for signing up to the openPandora.org newsletter, this project has been going on for an amazing and exhausting 2 years and is finally reaching the launch. It's been a very long time - but with your help we have produced the most powerful, cutting edge handheld in the world:
 
* ARM Cortex-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
* 430-MHz TMS320C64x+ DSP Core
* PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
* 800x480 4.3inch 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
* GUI: gMenu, various X based desktops, Ubuntu etc. or make your own.
 
If you have not had the chance to see some of the videos we have posted, we have included some of the highlights here, oh, and we will be posting more videos before the preorder date.
 
Pandora Prototype overview (Emus, Quake etc.):


Ubuntu on the OMAP3 :


Amiga Emulator on a Pandora prototype:


The custom made analogue controller:


Pandora devboard arcade compilation:


OMAP3 Graphics demo:


SNES (running too fast!):

 
Jaguar:

 
Amiga:

 
Quake2:

 
Pandora prototype next to a DS Lite:

 
See more and get up to date via our blog at: http://openpandora.org/blog.php
 
The preorder date for the Pandora is the 30th of September, the Pandora will start shipping at the end of November.
 
The first batch will be limited to 3000 units worldwide. The next batch will be made in 2009.
 
Orders will be on a first come first served basis. If demand is too high we will start to limit the orders to one Pandora per person, although any multiple orders recieved before that would still be honoured.
 
The price is $329.99 / £199.99 (Inc VAT) / E249.99 (Inc VAT).
 
Anyone from anywhere in the world can order a Pandora, and we have special distribution arrangements for USA, Canada, Spain, UK, Ireland, Germany & Turkey.
 
You can pay via US$, £GPB or Euro.
 
Spanish orders must be ordered via the UK but the shipping charge will be normal internal Spanish rates, after this Hardcore Gamer will be the Spanish distributor.

[Snip end of first email]

[Begin second email with ordering info]

Hello everyone, Craig here,
 
Well, this is it, the Pandora preorder email, I'm sure you have seen a lot of the recent publicity on the net about the Pandora, it has taken us quite by surprise just how many of you are behind us on this project - Seeing Ubuntu running really seemed to get the pulse going for some of you!
 
Right, no messing around for those of you waiting to preorder, you can place your order from here:
 
http://openpandora.org/worldmap.html
 
There will only be 3000 Pandoras made in this batch. No more until 2009. First come first served.
 
Or if you want to go direct to your local area:
 
Germany: http://www.gp2x.de/shop/index.php/cPath/34
 
The rest of Europe: http://openpandora.org/retro.html
 
Turkey & The Middle East: http://www.pandoratr.com/
 
North and Sound America, Australia, Japan, Korea and elsewhere : http://gbax.com/pandorax.html
 
Please be patient if sites are slow - try not to keep pressing reload, it will only
make it worse!
 
You can call GBAX.com on +44 191 243 2253: 10am - 4pm GMT/BST Monday to Friday, we will try to help you in any way we can.
 
We have an interesting promotion coming up for individual Pandora owners, more info in the next newsletter - for now just tell everyone you know about the Pandora!
 
Webmasters: We are offering a good commission on every Pandora sold.
 
Sign up: http://gbax.com/afilsignup.html
 
Latest Pandora news and videos:

We have now sent off the final MK2 PCB for production and we will have some photos
and videos of the first ones around the 12th of October.
 
As some of you already know we have posted a video with real Pandora sound:
 

 
And here is a video of Ubuntu running on the Pandora - we plan to continue development
of the Pandora Ubuntu port:

 
Some classic videos we have posted in the past which you might want to watch:
 
[snip and added  to the first list]
 
 
Right, that's it for now, we must get back to work, good luck with preordering and we will be making regular updates for you all as mass production proceeds.
 
Thanks,
 
The entire Pandora Team.
 
PS you can email us on openpandorasales@gmail.com

[End of second email]


http://digg.com/gaming_news/Pandora_pre_orders_go_live


So what do you all think? Anyone interested in getting one?

[polaris]

yeah i'm tempted to get one, think i'm gonna wait 'til next year, but i could see myself slipping and jumping in if the pre-sale isn't all done in a week or so.
looks good, i'm just a bit concerned i wont be able to use it that well if the software needs lots of tweaking, thats why i'm holding back

[Hoagie_one]

gotta wait till the price drops conciderably

[SithMaster]

gotta wait till the price drops conciderably

Don't forgot about unforeseen hardware/software problems on the first batch.

[brpadington]

That looks pretty sweet. I'll think ill stick with my modded psp for now.

[northerngames]

personally I would rather buy a laptop with that kind of money wich would have a better bigger screen a large hard drive for a memory card and it could do linux windows too.