First the ram upgrade, now the faster processor?


MarkoeZ

arr matey?
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Well that about does it for me, yet another hardware upgrade..


And dont come shouting that i can upgrade. I waited 3 years for my unit, and now i can upgrade for ONLY 500 dollar....


The whole point of the pandora was that it was unified hardware.


It is looking more and more that before the first final production starts, mine is outdated.


Also STILL waiting for the TV-Out cable i ordered..


Keeping the pandora, but think I'm done here.


Edit: Mild edit, not trying to start a riot
 
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sad to see you go.The 1ghz units have been some what divisive and only time will tell how it all pans out.I think the 600mhz pandora was considered a bit out of date and they were thinking it might not sell much beyond theoriginal preorders.A whole new website will be up soon maybe they will clarify some stuff then.
 
Sure, if you can give me a good reliable source where I can get the old SoC cheaper than the new one AND find the customers willing to buy it for that price, I'm very much happy.


The Pandora is still unified, the OS is the same on every unit, but thanks to the massive amount of time we lost due to some companiy unable to properly to produce the PCBs, it's getting harder to even get the old parts... and if you get them, they're way more expensive.
 
They really have to look forward to newer soc's and other parts according to pricing and availability. I dont think you can really hold that against them as its the nature of technology. All of the part changes are drop in replacements. Most of these issues wouldnt have happened if CC had produced according to the plan.


The only thing I dont really agree with was the increasing of the price for the 1 ghz units.
 
The hardware you initially paid for didnt get any worse, time simply went on and certain parts werent made any more. Its actually more out of OP's control then anything that they had to upgrade certain parts.
 
I still happily use my 256MB 500Mhz clocked Pandora after all these years. Don't see what the problem with other people paying more to get something better is, but that's your prerogative and it is truly sad to see you go.
 
My point is that soon the 1ghz will probably be the standard, once they used al the older socs.. ED said himself above that it will get harder and harder to find the old parts.


And i never said i did not like my pandora, but for instance the new Android developments will Definitely take advantage of the extra ram, and now the faster processor.


Its not mayor now, but eventually applications and games will be more suited to the higher end machines, since those will form the vast majority then.


People are just less likely to optimise if their port/.game/application/whatever works fine on their machine.


p.s. i slightly edited the original post. Too harsh at some points.
 
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No offense, but it's a kinda egoist point of view quitting like this.


I assume it's the result of this consumerism religion that is brainwashing us since ads exists, especially TV ones.


Regarding the OP history, you do no effort, dude.


OP team have tons of debts because of this project, and now that it goes, let's scream it, AWESOME WELL, with all hardware updates, and so on, it is the perfect time to be happy.


All OP users should be proud and should feel very lucky to own an OP.


And what are you doing, your are complaining about a boost in RAM, and a boost in CPU ?
 
Its not mayor now, but eventually applications and games will be more suited to the higher end machines, since those will form the vast majority then.


People are just less likely to optimise if their port/.game/application/whatever works fine on their machine.

This is just not true. Nearly all programs that are ported are not optimized to minimize their RAM footprint or CPU usage. And when programs are optimized for CPU (like the ARM dynarec in pcsxr), GPU (porting to GLES2), or NEON (like the gpu in pcsxr), then they are about optimized as much as can be regardless of which Pandora model you have.
 
Ah a mod better just lock this topic plz.


I'm just bummed, and nothing good comes of these threads anyway.


sorry guys

On the bright side, maybe in 1 year it'll be a good excuse to send your Pandora in for a refreshed board when they're cheaper and you're anxiously anticipating the Pandora 2. :)
 
Yeah try and look at it as a positive rather than a negative dude. :)


Also Droid stuff works pretty well on my 1st Batcher here.


If things continue to go well for OP, there will ALWAYS be a better model available... It's just a shame that due to the issues, we have a new model before the original pre-orders are fulfilled.


My advice is take a deep breath and don't look at this as an "up yours" to the original pre-orderers. Some people can support the project with money, others with patience.
 
The only thing that bothers me are the newer sgx chipy in the 512mb and 1ghz pandoras, as they seem to run stuff more stable and don't seem to have the issues in android the original boards have, but I got good use of my original unit and I am still happy owning it.


If I only had the money to upgrade... But that 500 dollars are just too much :(
 
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I understand that parts move on and improve and you have to go with what's current. That's fair enough and I understand that. I guess I think of it as like a galaxy s1, 2 or 3 or Iphone 3,3g,4,4s. It's slightly harder to swallow after waiting so long for a unit and I understand where people can feel a little dismayed.


I do struggle with the upgrade price as surely a board is slightly cheaper to produce than a complete unit and $500+ seems a little steep to me. If I'm honest I've hardly touched my pandora and have moved on to other devices that are much faster but on the other hand I do like the controls of the pandora and miss them on my other devices. If I hadn't of noticed the android builds I guess I'd never have come across all the ram / speed increases.


As for TV out cables... I still of course want one and I did pre-order one along with pandora but my attitude is slightly different due to the kind and helpful people I've dealt with at OP. So one day I may find one pop through my letterbox.... :) No doubt the next batch after this will have a HDMI socket welded on somewhere as SVideo is so 256mb! :)
 
as they seem to run stuff more stable and don't seem to have the issues in android the original boards have
Such as? I've thrown all kinds of stuff at my years old original Pandora in Android and not had any problems. I'm using it to watch Netflix and learn Japanese now.
 
I know this isn't the right place but as you've thrown so much at your pandora via android how the eck do you mount an SD card and get android play store. I want to play all the games I've brought over the years. :)


Plus if I mount an SD card I can play my own android game I'm making :)
 
Just as a reminder, the "old" pandora is still fit for purpose for the most important of all tasks: 60pfs emulation of 8 bit and 16 bit consoles and home computers. Not only this, but with a fantastic LCD and dream DPad. It is a fracking sexy machine regardless of soc.


After 3 years of course new developments will happen, and OPT will struggle to source older parts. I continue to support these guys as they are unique in a games industry that seems less and less concerned with physical controls and the value of open source.


Sure it can be a pain when you don't get an email for months, or premium pandi bump you in the queue, but the end product is in my opinion totally timeless, and my enjoyment of 16bit games in 10 years will be the same as today, so I bought two pandora to ensure that I have the same platform available when my first unit is worn out.


I honestly wouldn't bail so late in the game, and am sure you will be delighted with the end 256mb result. I also think people should be allowed to vent some steam like you did, when waiting 3 years for a preorder, but at the end of the day the team (Craig and Micheal especially) have put a lot on the line to supply us a device that was unique. So the balance to such frustration must surely also be thanks to the team for sticking with it.


I am still astounded with the software support and coding magicians like Notaz are impossible not to admire. I hope things go better with the new pandora pcb supplier and that the focus switches to the great work of the development community in the coming period. For those on the fence to drop their orders, if you can survive without the cash for some more months, then I hope you manage to wait out the final stretch in this curious, long and roller coaster journey.
 
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I know this isn't the right place but as you've thrown so much at your pandora via android how the eck do you mount an SD card and get android play store. I want to play all the games I've brought over the years. :) Plus if I mount an SD card I can play my own android game I'm making :)

Not sure what you mean mount SD card, generally just putting a SD card in will make it work.


As for the App store Try the instructions here:


http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php?/topic/8626-android-gingerbread-in-a-pnd/page__st__340#entry158356
 
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I think I was one of the first to grumble about the different versions of Pandora hardware but now that I've thrown Android at it and it works fast with little overclocking I've changed my mind and wound down my fears that the older Pandas won't run the newest and best software. It's not just a matter of memory and speed apparently. Linux has always been the best to run on older hardware and Android is nothing but Linux repackaged so the specs do not make much difference as somebody pointed out to me.
 
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