qole | # 301 | 2009-10-24, 07:31 | Report

Was the May 2010 date intended to be for the first batch or for the second?

The Pandoras might be physically ready to ship soon (only two months, right?), but have they got a workable OS, with a full complement of drivers, for them yet?

qole | # 302 | 2009-10-24, 07:33 | Report

Well, here they are, releasing in Q4, and they've found a way to make me not-furious with them.

Damn those Finns.

Johnx | # 303 | 2009-10-24, 21:14 | Report

@qole: The drivers are there. The OS is pretty basic, but it seems to be Angstrom Linux (and whatever runs on it). However, you should definitely expect to see Mer on the Pandora.

@all: Maybe this is coming a bit late, but this whole us vs. them mentality is starting to depress me a little bit. I really feel like the mobile Linux community is too small (not counting Android and Pre/WebOS here) for us to afford to be so divided. Hopefully this will change once both hardware platforms are shipping. I just feel like being able to collaborate on projects would be such a huge opportunity to miss simply because people got caught up on the small details and missed the big picture.

-John

daperl | # 304 | 2009-10-24, 23:57 | Report

I always saw the Beagle Board project as a nice bridge builder for all these disparate ARM FOSS projects, and now it's inside an actual product! The glass is half full and the future looks bright, my man. There's a large silent minority that thinks you're part of an elite team of heroes. Ignore the drama and enjoy the journey.

TA-t3 | # 305 | 2009-10-26, 11:12 | Report

I'm not sure if this is what you meant, but there is no Beagle Board inside the Pandora. It's a completely separate design, the BB was not even a starting point.
The TouchBook, however, is based on the BB (and maybe that was what you were thinking of)

penguinbait | # 306 | 2009-10-26, 13:17 | Report

To be clear the intent at the time of this posting, was to show the confidence level in the Pandora project. The first post in March of 2009, several months past the first expected delivery date. My money was refunded (less than I paid) and I was told to reorder and it would be out in June. Hahahahah

OK, so talk at that time was the n900 would be out about September 2009, giving the Pandora team, lots of time to beat the Nokia to market, or so Pandora team timelines would lead you to believe. The poll should have reflected that Pandora team would beat the Nokia to market, but it did not. Nor did it in real life, I think the post has served as a useful warning to people to be weary of such "pie in the sky" dreams.

Again you also need to remember when the initial preorder happened, it was at least a year before a new Nokia product would be coming out, which made it very attractive to members in this community

I made this post as I was very mad at the way the Pandora team handled the entire fiasco.

I myself am looking extremely forward to the Pandora console, but for people who thought that the console would ship in Dec 2008, March 2009, June 2009, September 2009, now hoping for before Christmas 2009. I would say Pandora project truly deserves any and all beatings they took in here, and even the tags.

zerojay | # 307 | 2009-10-26, 13:20 | Report

As much as I would like a Pandora as well. since I'm a hardcore retrogamer, anyone that thought that a group of random dudes would put out their hardware before Nokia needs a reality check.

daperl | # 308 | 2009-10-26, 13:31 | Report

Yes, I was referring to the AI Touch Book as being an actual Beagle Board product. As far as the connection with the Beagle Board and Pandora, I thought they were both using a similar SoC and software. Didn't they both start with an Angstrom base on an OMAP3? If this is correct, my optimism thinks there would be friendly code sharing and cooperation. And that also would apply to the Nokia team that was using Beagle Boards during the Fremantle/n900 development. I thought everyone was getting along and that all the good OMAP changes were being folded back into the Linux kernel. Now, if we could just get Nokia to use an open source boot loader...

Sorry for any confusion.

Rushmore | # 309 | 2009-10-26, 13:42 | Report

You all talking about gaming makes me wish the N900 had a d-pad even more We have the Pandora guts (and better driver & OS support), but not the controls.

Any feedback on how well the N900 keys work for some retro game action?

Speaking of retro gaming, I have not seen a Turborafx emu for Maemo. Did I miss it? I was hoping for a quick port, but that assumes there is an emu to port.

Need my Galaga 90, Blazing Lazers and Raiden

zerojay- you nailed it! Great intentions do not pave the way for timely product execution

---

Last edited by Rushmore; 2009-10-26 at 13:45.

Rushmore | # 310 | 2009-10-26, 13:47 | Report

Very good perception! You said that in one the first March posts!

Looking at the history of Pandora dev postings, their assertions it was releasing in March and other dates, while taking pre-paid orders before "it ships", it had all the signs of a scam.

It obviously is NOT a scam, but this shows you how much faith real gamers have in others. Pure magic

Still, Pandora has not come out yet and their new payment method does not provide a source for confidence..... I wonder if they are sticking N900's inside the Pandora case? They must have a very understanding bank or investers to allow this much time to go by with no real product to support a revenue stream.

Pandora devs are the ultimate game fans, since this must be a pure labor of love

---

Last edited by Rushmore; 2009-10-26 at 14:03.