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It may not be outselling them, but it is selling out.

If anything, this is pretty cool for the Pandora project.

And the Dell Lattitude ON : basically, an embed OMAP like Pandora's, which can boot (speedy) instead of the main Intel CPU, and thus allow the user to check mails, surf web, etc... without starting a full fledged Vista nor eating the battery fast.
(think like SplashTop, but running on a separate CPU that eats a ridiculously small amount of Watts)

And also for the Beagle Board : basically a bare-bone pandora-like motherboard.

I second these thoughts fully - I _WANT_ to see Ubuntu on ARM as a hobbyist.

Downside: It might make the next batch of Pandora preorders sell out that much faster.

If anything, this is pretty cool for the Pandora project.

ah, for those who don't know what I'm talking about, here's the website http://openpandora.org/

That is true, but wouldn't you run into a major performance hit when running x86 software on other processors, assuming it didn't just blow up?

Seems like this would work between processors with a very similar ISA.

If they could run stuff compiled for one processor on another processor with a different ISA at near full speed,... that would change more than just virtualization. Run Wine on a PowerPC, emulate old consoles easily on a Pandora, etc..

Why cant they come out with a $100 android WITHOUT the phone capabilities? It would be a great and useful platform

A smartphone without the phone is called a PDA. And yes, there is a Linux PDA; you will just have to wait for the next preorder.

The only thing this new device can offer is a somewhat lower price ($175 instead of >$400 for the N810).

That and it's cheaper than the Pandora too.

Everything the owners of N8xx's wish they were but aren't. Particularly the USB host support in addition to the half-assed USB on-the-go crap. 600MHz ARM overclockable to 900, 3D graphics hardware that you can actually use. You can easily install a real version of Linux and not be stuck with the Maemo cut-rate stuff like on the N-series. I know that's fixable but it isn't easy. Support for up to 64 GB worth of SDHC cards. S-video out, the list goes on and on. They have a video on the site of it running Xubuntu and Firefox 3 quite snappily. The only reason I'm sticking with my N770 for now is the Pandora looks a little bit bigger than pocketable.

Right now I feel like times are changing back again. With low-cost netbooks on the rise, SSDs and OSes burnt on to Bioses we're going to see more of this stuff creeping out into the computing world. It's the only way MS can attempt to enforce their Windows Family lockin. By providing inflexible hardware with some locks bolted on to them. I feel like the 80s are coming back, with Atari, Comodore and Archimedes stepping back into the ring.
Oh well, time to switch to the Pandorra for handheld gaming then.

Yet another reason I cannot wait to get my hands on Pandora. My primary gaming handheld is currently a GP2X, but I am starting to outgrow it for non-gaming purposes.

even if you do something stupid like turn off the PSP while flashing the firmware, you can unbrick it with a Pandora's battery.

That name is going to become very confusing over the next few months. I haven't seen the Pandora PDA yet, but I seriously doubt that the unit I preordered will come with a PSP-compatible battery with serial number -1.

If you really want to do homebrew, look at the Pandora which is more powerful than the PSP, and is very open source friendly. (It isn't completely open source because the 3d driver is currently a binary-blob, but the rest is Open Source)

I have this book sitting in my Amazon cart, because I might get it for developing 3D stuff on the Pandora.

I preordered the Pandora, and should get it by Christmas, so I haven't gotten this book yet.

Oh and why did't netbook manufactures use OMAP3 yet?

No idea, but OpenPandora made a handheld with one. It was released on Tuesday, with an initial run of 3,000 units. They sold 2,000 of these in the first six hours. One of these with a bit more RAM and HDMI output would be my ideal portable. The next generation OMAPs are based on the ARM Cortex A9, which supports up to 4 cores on a single die, which makes them even more interesting - especially if you can shut all except one down when you're on battery.

Damn if everyone have a life goal of that standard I would have much better self esteem. I am sure there will be development of n64 emulator for this thing, but probably not right away since it's difficult to emulate. BTW, this link is where future developed softwares for the Pandora can be downloaded: http://archive.openpandora.org/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi It's offline right now, due to server overload, but should be backup sometime. There isn't anyright now until people begins to receive the device and more softwares can be developed, so I suggest you wait a bit until perhap the second batch in 2009. There are many many emulators for the GP32X devices and many of those are probably going to be ported to the Pandora.

http://openpandora.org/worldmap.html

Actually I should have just posted this.

There's also price. Of course pandora has many more features, perhaps a comparison is in order. @#$!@#$ slashdot doesn't support tables, so this is the best I could do :

Pandora

Pandora
ARM Cortex-A8 600MHz CPU
128M ram
3D opengl ES 2.0 acceleration
800x480 4.3" touchscreen LCD
Wifi
Keyboard
dual SDHC card (both expansion and storage)
Internal battery and USB charger
$329.99 / £199.99 (Inc VAT) / E249.99 (Inc VAT)

GP2x WIZ

Wiz
533Mhz ARM CPU
64M ram
3D opengl acceleration
OLED Touch Screen 2.8" 320x200
No wifi (BUT easy to add because of USB host)
No keyboard (BUT again, easy to add because of USB host)
single SD card (both expansion and storage, 99% sure SDHC card)
Internal battery and USB charger (thank God ! compared to GP2X F-200 this is heaven)

US$ 179.90 (~124.32 EUR)

PSP

PSP
PSP cpu 333Mhz
32M ram (64M for the psp slim)
3D acceleration (?)
480x272 LCD screen (great screen imho)
Wifi
MS pro duo expansion (expensive, only storage)
Internal battery and USB charger
Probably USB host capability but not useable

US$ 213.99 (179 euro)

Surprisingly of all these devices it's the PSP that has the largest library of emulators (even a "somewhat playable" n64 emu, something the pandora devs think impossible (read the gp2x forums ... well ... euhm tomorrow should be better, right ?)

As an ebook reader the PSP blows the socks of the WIZ though, even if just because of larger screen, and it is also larger than the pandora, so I wonder.

This list is limited to devices with actual useable gaming controls. The iphone/ipod touch and the nokia n810 are obvious competitors, but lack (decent) gaming controls. Actually the n810 is kinda nice, I ought to try one.

I wonder how this fares in comparision to Open Pandora and similar devices. The only extra thing I could wish for with regards to the Pandora is some sort of 3G data connection so I wouldn't be tied down to WiFi for wireless connection, but, since the pandora has specific slots for soldering on your own mods I possibly could add it myself.

The idea of crossing a gameboy with a cellphone isn't exactly new, but so far noone has been making a serious attempt at it (N-Gage was more or less doomed from the beginning due to it's crappy input methods and other stupid design decisions). Will be interesting to see what happens next...

"they" in the sense of the big guys, aren't likely to do so anytime soon; but there are some random pacific rim outfits that you've never heard of that are shipping EEE PC-esque boxes based on ARM or MIPS:
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS9413803799.html
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS2361851277.html
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS4650708621.html
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS9047481010.html

Somewhat more expensive; but in my opinion more exciting, is Pandora: http://openpandora.org/

That's very nice of Pandora to cease its activities for the arrival of the Pandora UMPC/console. Helps clear the confusion out.

Which is why I for one will be doing my laptopish gaming on a Pandora. Close enough in shape and function to be on topic, after all it's like a DS-sized EEE with good gaming controls and keyboard theoretically usable enough to use the device both as a laptop and a gaming console.

* ARM® Cortexâ-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux * 430-MHz TMS320C64x+â 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

It's no Indrema console, and better designed. At $350 per unit, It's not cost effective as a Sony PSP or Nintendo DS, but competitive to a mix between a QWERTY PDA with usable RAM/TV-out/redundant-expansion. In other words, it's a trade-off of a better Motorola A12000 CellPhone without the lock-in, more battery life, and better than the bulk of a laptop.

I'm somewhat nervous towards the that communist KOREA government-sponsored Gamepark Holdings' GP2x Wiz. It may be better designed as a gaming system, but it lacks the keyboarding of a Pandora

Arm9 533mHZ processor, 2.8" oLED touchscreen, 3D Accelerator, and 64MB RAM

GP2x Wiz is looking more like a MagicEyes Pollux SOC board.

That's getting closer to reality all the time.

So you want something with roughyl these parts:

CPU: check! ARM or Sparc (or maybe ZPU, or OpenRisc)
boot system: check! OpenFirmware or EFI (or maybe LinuxBIOS)
disk system: check! MMC, SDC, maybe PATA, SATA or SCSI
open hardware for USB, PCI, and Ethernet controllers: check!

ARM and Sparc are famously open. There are also versions of the MIPS I think that are. Plus, there's all sorts of open source CPU, DSP, SoC, and device controller cores on OpenCores.org.

The challenges, of course, are getting the parts all together, figuring out the supply chain, and manufacturing it in such a way that it performs well for a decent price.

The Open Pandora will hopefully be enough computer for many of my needs. It's a spiritual descendant of the GP32 and GP2x. It's an ARM-based system with some other open hardware that will run Linux and lots of stuff on top of it. It has a QWERTY keyboard and WiFi, so hopefully it'll be touch-typeable enough that I can ssh into my devel systems remotely. Oh, and it plays games, too, but not anything like Supreme Commander or Crysis.

I dunno about this one. The Open Pandora looks like it might be all this and more. That "more" probably includes the price, though. At $330 in the US--ouch! I'll probably wait for the price to come down.

Speaking of the 35xx, check out Pandora for one example of what people are building with that chip. Heck, even last generation's OMAP2420 had enough oomph to run Linux with acceptable performance (Nokia N800/N810) and the 35xx is expected to be about 4x the speed.

Unless Intel gets their act together soon with Moorestown, they might find that the UMP market is eaten by Cortex-based ARM SoCs; at least the part of the market where x86 compatibility isn't important. One can at least hope, the Cortex certainly has enough performance for most tasks one would want to do with a handheld.

I know it's a little more expensive, but I'm holding out for one of these.

> gp2x, google it No longer manufactured according to the website. They are now working on a handheld called 'Pandora'... http://openpandora.org/

http://www.icontrolpad.com/

it's an ipod/phone cradle device with gaming style buttons, being made by the same people who are working on the pandora linux based handheld console

Then have a look at this little machine: http://openpandora.org/

Patience...

Pandora comes...and it is looking like it's going to largely deliver on the "promises" it makes.

This one will do WiFi, is as big as a DS, with a keyboard, a 800x480, a reportedly impressive battery life and Linux.

If you want a solution like this, perhaps you should just use a Pandora when it comes out this summer. http://www.openpandora.org/ But it still isn't a phone, I am sad to say.

C'mon, don't reward those websites with ad-hits, link to the homepage for it instead.

OpenPandora.org

A less-than-2-hour battery life is a huge problem for a machine touting itself as an ultra-portable.

Which is why I can't wait for that one. Well it's a tad bit more DSish than the EEE and it's ARM and not x86, but they're putting the biggest battery they can fit into that thing so that it can run for 10 hours (they're using the least leaky version of TI's OMAP 3530 too, that helps)

You mean something like the Pandora?

Also, more information here.

While it's technically meant more for a gamer market like the GP2X, the arm + linux + wifi + usb host + decent resolution screen might make it a more general purpose machine.