I Got My Pandora


Nearly a week in and wow, its just indispensable isn't it! my only problems still have been getting used to linux and the emulation scene. definitely making headway with that though! i have managed to crash my pandora a couple of times, always during goldeneye always trying to zoom on the sniper about 2-3 mins into playing a level. not sure if i am overclocking too hard or what but i went up to 850 when playing mupen64 and it didnt die on me. psx4pandora seems to work well and ive been having fun times with picodrive (genesis and sega cd) and snes9x. i've also spent about 60 or so hours using pidgin and xchat to talk to everyone and web browsing at the same time. it has pretty much replaced my other computers unless i am multitasking or needing a more fluent speed for typing. it really has been a game changer for me, turning my own personal computer use around completely. absolutely love it!
 
^ PSX is known to be more sensitive regarding overclocking. It might have something todo with NEON optimizations. Just lower the overclock a little bit.
 
mali said:
^ PSX is known to be more sensitive regarding overclocking. It might have something todo with NEON optimizations. Just lower the overclock a little bit.
oh psx isnt a problem, it was the goldeneye on mupen that crashed. havent had issues with psx at all but i do have to experiment further
 
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DixieDawg said:
I just got my Pandora last night and it is sweet. I love it. The build quality on mine is excellent. Only the lower screen bezel issue but it is almost not noticeable - only if you are specifically looking for it. My shoulder buttons feel great. Nubs are great. Keyboard buttons are perfect. Just tried PSX4Panodra and it seems to work very well. Just a little sad it doesn't work with my ad-hoc network on my Droid. Would be great to be able to get on the internet away from home using the Droid. Hopefully someone can come through with an updated driver to support ad-hoc. Btw, I was told to be around 350-400 in Craig's queue. For those of you still waiting - hang in there - it's definitely worth it. You are going to love it.

Is this the new shipment that came in

was told i would be in this one,
ordered 16:20 UTC, estimated to be around 350-450
 
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b1ueskycomp1ex said:
WOW! The Wifi has been fixed?!
Yes, it has. What makes you think it hasn't?
Before the fix, it didn't work at all. Now it works great for some people, while other people get slow speeds, and some others get disconnections, but it is working.
 
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I got my Pandora last monday. The pandora did not always boot then when I fixed it, I encountered the select date bug and 2 hours later, lcd flickered like crazy. Now the Pandora is with craigix and company for replacement. I wish I could have enjoyed it for a bit longer. I could have at least tested if Wild Arms US worked on the Playstation emulator. Oh well, hopefully my dingoo can sort of fill its spot while I wait until October to get it back (replacement will be shipped to another country then brought by my sister to my place). Now I'm here praying for a perfect replacement. :D .

The only thing I wish was that the Pandora had a better manual online. I found it very confusing at first, given that I already use Linux at the office and dingux.
 
Pandora review, Part III

Yesterday I received my third pandora. My first one had an unfunctional volume wheel my second one borked nubs after a month. So this third one looks even better than the previous 2 ones :) The keymat is a bit different as it has less finishing at the side, it does type a lot lighter that way. Did not use much yet checked some games quake2 I got to the 2nd level wich is really something for me and is a bonus for these nubs they are better I already than the previous units I had. Everything works nicely and its really tight now I notice that this one doesnt have the crack in the back and it looks absolutely gorgeous.

thanks again OPT
 
Bos, I'm just curious: Are you finding the newly-tested nubs to be "firmer" in how they move, too?
 
Got my pandora a few days ago

heres the things i dont like (we all know they things we like)

No-one else has mentioned how the nubs spin around(rotate around its own pivot), quite annoying
and i have to say this, i absolutely hate the shoulder buttons, not much travel, but what makes it worse is, its got indented 'grips', when i think there should be a bump. They should point away from each other (my L one is particularly bad)
Also when i press down in the dpad it tends to move down right, bit annoying in menus and chrome

none of this really causes much harm, but id say theyre the worse things about the controls
The keypad is absolutely amazing, and the squeaky noise people talk about is nothing, very very faint, unnoticeable unless your in a dead quiet place

ive had a few mishaps, last night after i recharged it, it kept rebooting itself once it got to XFCE mouse, but it sorted it self out eventually
the mouse constantly moves up and not down (i dont think its due to bad calibration, but then again the touchscreen works fine)

the fact the screen doesnt lock in other positions, i thought it wouldt its slightly be no problem, buannoying, it seems greater than 180 at times
but if your not moving the screen holds fine at what ever angle. You could always place something behind it (into the usb?) to stop it latching

i havnt been able to find much software, just emu's
i prefer homebrew, but the file archive has some great stuff (oh btw fifa 05 works flawlessly on psx4all)

Id like it if the pandora came packaged with a better theme, and if the pandora button could bring up a dialogue of shutdown, enable disable wifi, or some other shortcuts

but this is all easily done
i do think the OS needs some tweaking, not stability wise, jsut small features, and cleaning out of some pre-installed programs
cant wait till chrome becomes default
Also i have a strange bug (i think), double tapping pnds dont work, i have to right click > execute
and some pnds just dont show up, pandora panic being one of them

oh and the battery life, i dont think im quite getting what i was expecting.....

overall, happy, not ecstatic because the most interesting part, software development is still to come
 
Prometheus said:
Bos, I'm just curious: Are you finding the newly-tested nubs to be "firmer" in how they move, too?


I think they are similar to my previous ones maybe a bit more firm. However my right nub is less firm than the left. I hope they will keep working, somehow I am a bit more careful with them up to now they work fine.
 
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Received mine on monday. After 2 days, here are my thoughts:

Hardware:
The good things already said about hardware also apply here. Very nice. Only found 4 annoyances:

- The lid going to full open position (aligned with base) after reaching a certain angle. There are some wide open angles I would like to use, but the lid wants to go to full open position. I believe this was unnecessary.

- The system must be active for charging the battery.

- You cannot use the USB port directly with HID devices (keyb/mouse/etc). You must connect them through a USB HUB. What the hell? Even the GP2X-USB adapter (which just takes a USB connector out of the Ext port) could handle HID devices directly. I have a wireless mouse with a received that is only 5mm long when plugged. It would have been perfect for Pandora *if* it could have handled it directly.

- The "Bowing LCD Bevel" problem. In my case the lower bevel pops out about 1mm.

Software:
Here things are in a really early state, at least for non-usual-linux-users and non-developer-users. Even with the latest hotfix, there are lots of small things that don't work as expected, or that contain bugs. If this weren't an open source project I'd say that software is in "pre-alpha-private-development" state. But at least here the things can only go better.

Other:
I missed some information on how to start using XFCE. Something as simple as tell how to use the NUBs for controlling the mouse would have been very useful. I had to guess what the right nub was doing.
...not to mention that I should have been told about the NUBs auto-configuration feature. For the whole first day I thought that my NUBs were defective.
 
Well, I got my Pandora – and I couldn’t be happier with it. The blessed thing is charging now, and although it’s nearly 4am I’d be happy to jump back into playing around with it before I retire (if my eyes weren’t dropping heavily).

I’m writing these impressions after 2 weeks of owning it, so things may well change after another 2 weeks. I’ll try to post any new observations if they’re significant. As for now, a potted account of information and my thoughts.

This also comes with a quick disclaimer – I’ve been playing games for around 25 years now, and been working in the games industry for approaching a decade, so my biases and opinions are very much formed from a history of games and computers, from the Atari 2600 and Amstrad CPC 464 right up to my PS3 and Wii. I’m not saying this as an e-peen thing – it’s more offering a framework for my experiences with my Pandora so far which may help build the picture of it. The detailed and varied accounts of everyone who’s owned one so far have been extremely helpful in creating a realistic expectation of the machine for myself, so I’m hoping this will help continue that, as expectation plays a large part of how you’ll react when you first get your hands on it.

Right, onward:

- I ordered on first day, around 3.48pm GMT. Queue estimate was 300-400. My email came on August 26th, delivered to my work addy (UK) the next day.

- The machine itself is much smaller than expected. If you’ve owned an original grey DS, it’s around that sort of size, but somehow seems easier on the eyes due to the colour, dimensions and varied controls. Its retro style also works in its favour in some ways – my girlfriend (an Apple fiend) was pleasantly surprised by its form factor. Sure, it’s bigger than a regular DS Lite, but I’m from an era where a GameGear couldn’t even fit into my school bag at the time, let alone a pocket. This still fits perfectly into my jeans.

- The case feels about right. Don’t expect Nintendo/Sony finishes here, but it works, feels solid and does the job, never feeling uncomfortable. My only problem with it is it’s a smudge magnet and scratches easily. But that’s a very, very small issue. It’s durable, which is the most important thing. I’ve already had an accidental drop from about 3ft, and it shrugged it off like nothing happened. I dropped my PSP from a smaller height and that damaged the battery cover. Props to Pandora.

- Yes, the hinge makes the left hand side of the lid lift slightly. No, this isn’t noticeable unless you’re staring at it for a long time or looking for it.

- The stylus is nice and sturdy, although was entrenched deeply in its holder the first time, making it difficult to remove. That’s not an issue two weeks later, but it did make me a little cautious the first time I tried to wrench it free. Also, as suggested by others, it’s best to rub the stylus against paper for at least a solid few minutes before using it on the screen. The paint on the stylus may cause slight scratches on the screen otherwise, which is what happened with mine. Nothing is damaged and 9 times out of 10 you wont even see the scratches, but it’s worth considering for your first time usage. My screen still works perfectly, however.

- I find the buttons fine. They’re responsive and work well when I use them. The A button is a little off centre/less ‘spongy’ than the other face buttons, but it’s easily ignored. Contrary to many others, I find the shoulder buttons to be actually quite nice. They’re very clicky, rather than the smooth travel of, say PSP shoulder buttons or the tempered precision of the DS’ shoulders, but whether acting as Ctrl/Shift or as gaming buttons I’ve been more than happy with them. Go to them expecting them feel more like a mouse button rather than a shoulder button. Position-wise they’re good, even for my rangy ET-like fingers.

- The D-pad is as advertised: brilliant. Feels just right and suited for just about any game I’ve thrown at it so far.

- The keyboard is nicely done. I write A LOT, so I’ve been nicely surprised that I can hammer out a few hundred words on it and not get frustrated. It takes a short while to learn the layout (and get used to having a shoulder button as Shift) but it’s surprisingly sleek. The keys are raised to a good degree to make thumb-touch-typing quite intuitive. With the boot-up time being so swift (around a minute, tops), it’s a great little note-making machine. The number buttons are little out of the way, but it’s a small sacrifice.

- The nubs are fine. Havent quite taken to them as well as I thought I would, but that’s mainly because they feel a little too sensitive at times and I haven’t quite found their ‘throw’ quite yet. They feel good on the thumb, but the swivel of the plates when combined with the sensitivity makes for some unintentional movement at times, even after some tweaking with the software. But still, I’ve found them more than adequate for games and navigation, so I just need to get used to them a bit, hopefully.

- The screen is brilliant. Bright, clear and makes the software sparkle. Videos look great, and games look especially sharp, no matter which era they’re from. And the touchscreen is a charm, especially when you’ve adjusted it to your sensitivity preferences. After a couple weeks the hinge isn’t quite as sturdy as it was at the start (very much flopping into its 180 degree angle unless I sit the Pandora upright), but the machine is designed for that rather than tabletop work, so I don’t mind too much.

- Encountered very few bugs. The infamous date bug (where the machine kept asking for me to set the date but refused to accept my entry) came up prior to Hotfix 4, but that’s now a thing of the past. There was a scare when it suddenly stopped recognizing my home wireless router, but 30 minutes later that ceased to become a problem as well, and there’s been no issues with the wi-fi since. Bluetooth has been a tad flaky (in terms of data transfer rather than connectivity), but without further testing it’s hard to say if that’s from my phone’s side or the Pandora – likely the latter, but will investigate further. Oh, and the PND system is superb. Quick and easy. Take in mind I haven’t use a Linux based machine before, so to find everything so relatively user-friendly on a whole was reassuring.

- For internet usage, the screen is a tad too small for unoptimised software (such as Firefox) as expected, but I’ve been able to get by, especially now Chromium has been refreshed. Some sites still struggle with the resolution, but it’s a decent browsing machine.

- It’s now my favourite portatable machine to watch videos and read documents on. Versatile and fuss-free, especially compared to my iPod Touch. Not being forced to faff around with the video formats has been a particular blessing. It’s a tad too unwieldy (both software and hardware-wise) to be a replacement music player, but it still performs admirably in that area, with the little speakers coming out surprisingly well in terms of sound quality and loudness.

- Games-wise, it’s virtually everything I wanted. I took a version of my Day of the Tentacle disc, played it and fell in love all over again. Jumped from that to a few of my old Amstrad games... bliss. These games have never looked or sounded so good. And the ability to play them on the way to work, waiting for a train or just lying down in bed is charming beyond belief. Obviously there’s a bit of messing around in terms of knowing where to put what for the folders, there’s little consistency between emulators in terms of presentation and reading the documentation is a MUST to save jumping into a game and not being able to get back out without lots of frustrated button pressing and such – and many of the ports are still being optimized for bugs and efficiency, but... it’s just lovely. When it works - and it does when you get the swing of it - it really clicks. For a guy who spent much of his life playing games, this is a dream machine.

I’ve droned on long enough, but as I said at the start, I couldn’t be happier with my Pandora. Two years of waiting and I can’t help but feel that it’s been worth it. It’s a regular part of my day, barely two weeks in of owning it, drifting from making some writing notes, to listening to a little bit of music, to reading one of my comics, to playing some classic games, to watching a DVD-rip, to web browsing, checking a pdf, doodling... it’s just indispensable. Whether or not that will change in the coming weeks/months, we’ll see. For now, warts ‘n all, it’s already one of my favourite machines. And I’ve owned a lot of the buggers.
 
Thank you very much Writing Gaijin, it seems we have more or less the same "profile" and I'm happy to read that the Pandora will fulfill my expectations brilliantly! :)

Thanks for taking the time to write this. Now waiting for my Pandora is a little bit more painful, lol! (around 450-550 in the queue) :D
 
Michoko said:
Thank you very much Writing Gaijin, it seems we have more or less the same "profile" and I'm happy to read that the Pandora will fulfill my expectations brilliantly! :)

Thanks for taking the time to write this. Now waiting for my Pandora is a little bit more painful, lol! (around 450-550 in the queue) :D

No problem - hope that you're not waiting for much longer and that you're as happy with it as I am when it finally comes!

EDIT: And I'm a MASSIVE fan of the Lone Wolf books too, so the sooner we see those on Pandora the better ;)
 
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Writing Gaijin said:
EDIT: And I'm a MASSIVE fan of the Lone Wolf books too, so the sooner we see those on Pandora the better ;)
+1 :)
 
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Hooray! I got my first batch Pandora! ...well except it's not really mine. :) I'm Borrowing it for a while to see how well emulators play compared to the GP2X. I haven't really paid to much attention to the Pandora until it was recently released... and even more recently that it's sitting in front of me.

Since I haven't kept up, I still need to read the what to do after you boot up for the first time thing. From the first few minutes, the build is certainly a lot better than I expected after all the drama in the last couple of years about it's design, feel, etc.

Onto why I like my gp2x and why I hope I'll like the Pandora... emulation. Is this the best consolidation of emulators: http://apps.open-pandora.org/cgi-bin/viewarea.pl?Emulators ? Or is there a better more up to date place to look? thanks!

http://imgur.com/DsE1S
 
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