We all know what it CAN do


Blue Protoman

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The Pandora is always touted as a handheld everything console. It's certainly no slouch in the games department. But let's take a moment and set aside a thread for things the Pandora CAN'T do. This thread is for things the Pandora is NOT CAPABLE of ever doing, not for things it currently can't do, but could later.


Let the discussion begin.
 
Aside from performance limitations generally, one of the few things it can't do is run programs that aren't compiled for ARM. So, no Windows games that don't have source and haven't been ported to ARM. WoW is out.


Other than that, I think the only thing left is that it can't paint your toenails. It could cook you dinner if your oven had a USB port.
 
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^ I agree. Give us our boxes. Let us open them. We can do whatever the eventual community can think of. Yes, I realize maybe not the best or most effecient way..... If you build it they will program.


I mean what do you want ps3 emulation? How about the ability to play your xbox games? Ooooo... In reality besides sheer power it does what we want it to do.
 
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Definitely a vague sort of topic... There's a lot the Pandora can't do. I would like a handheld pc capable of making toast, but that won't happen.


The pandora is a ARM-based, 256mb RAM linux computer. If you've got a linux computer with similar specs of the pandora, chances are that as long as the source code of your programs is freely available, the Pandora will be able to run exactly the same stuff.
 
Stuff missing:


- HDMI port


- GPS


- Cell phone sim card slot


- Front and/or rear facing cameras


- USB 3.0


- Wifi 802.11n


- WiMax


- Multi-touch capacitive touch screen


- 3D viewing


- 3 axis accelerometer


- Magnetometer (compass)


- True "instant on"


- 1GHz CPU before overclocking and without fan


- Skype (audio, but video would be nice too)


- An x86 compatibility mode for running Windows apps.


- Or a built-in x86 processor (like VIA Nano) in addition to or instead of the ARM processor. (But I should mention that I'm biased, since I help design the VIA Nano x86 processor).


Some of these can be made up for by purchasing add-on peripherals. Like a USB 2 to USB 3 converter (but what's the point?) or a wifi 802.11n USB dongle or video cameras. Etc.


But I see that the Pandora design is now showing its age a bit, with the newest hardware out there starting to handle these sorts of things. And a lot of that hardware can be had for cheap nowadays. I wonder if the OpenPandora design team is already planning for the future to incorporate some of these things.


For example, the iPad has some stuff I mentioned above (accelerometer, magnetometer, multi-touch, etc.). Also, just today I ran into something called the Archos 28 which sells for just US$100. It uses Android but can also use Angstrom Linux, has 802.11n built-in (Pandora does just 802.11b/g), ARM Cortex A8 800MHz cpu (Pandora is 600MHz), built-in accelerometer, etc.


Not that I'm saying Pandora isn't great. It is a good design. It's just beginning to show some age.


- Steve
 
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The Pandora cant:


- Healing Cancer, AIDS, Bird or Pig flue, Cold, etc


- Cocking Coofee or Tea


- Beam you to the Enterprise


- play CDs DVDs, Bluerays etc, unless you put an Extern Drive on the USB


- survive an EMP Pulse


- find Osama Bin Laden


- deveat you from Chuck Norris...


- i dont know what else..
 
[…]
For example, the iPad has some stuff I mentioned above (accelerometer, magnetometer, multi-touch, etc.). Also, just today I ran into something called the Archos 28 which sells for just US$100. It uses Android but can also use Angstrom Linux, has 802.11n built-in (Pandora does just 802.11b/g), ARM Cortex A8 800MHz cpu (Pandora is 600MHz), built-in accelerometer, etc.


Not that I'm saying Pandora isn't great. It is a good design. It's just beginning to show some age.


- Steve

You forgot to mention that the Archos 28 has a pitiful 320x240 touchscreen.


And I think Pandora's battery can last more than 4 hours of video playback…


All the OMAP in the Pandora are able to run at 800Mhz, most of them without changing OPP.


Some of them can even go faster, using higher OPP settings. (at the expense of lifetime of the OMAP, I concede)


Cellphone hardware was a no go, the price of the Pandora would have sky rocketed.


HDMI is expensive, it's not a royalty-free standard so to use it you have to pay royalties.


A Skype port is dependent of the good will of Skype, since their protocols aren't open sourced. (but, eventually, it'll happen since there are ARM ports now)


I don't care about Windows/X86 compatibility, I'm not running Windows on my devices since long ago
laugh.gif
(or only when I really don't have any other choice
dry.gif
)


As you can see, there are many points where I can't agree with what you said.


The only thing I can agree is that the Pandora isn't as "futuristic" as it would have been 1-2 years ago.


But the hardware is far from obsolete, it's current hardware, used in mainstream devices.
 
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so uhhh....how hot can we make the sd slots? and how tiny can toast be? but yeah playing 1080p x264 through hdmi output would be the one thing i wouldnt mind the pandora to do, but i also understand the reasons why its not a possibility atm
 
god dammit! I don't have that kind of money... I'll make one myself!


EDIT: and if i'm not back tomorrow I'm dead.
 
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Sorry but the USB Toaster was just a fake.., i dont know if something realy exist..


Confirmet: You Cant Toust Toasts on your Pandora..
 
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My reply from the duplicate topic that nobody is posting in:


HD video output.


Emulate an amiga with HD and extra ram/accelerator at decent speed or run whdload.


Emulate anything after a dreamcast.


Watch youtube videos without first downloading them locally.


Play portrait mode MAME games holding the console sideways with any degree of comfort.
 
The problem of not being able to make toast stems from the lack of usb ports. But the Pandora doesn't turn into a ray gun when I hit the pandora button.


Edit: (PEW PEW PEW)
 
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I dont see the point of this thread.


We could write millions of things down that the pandora cant do.

one of the few things it can't do is run programs that aren't compiled for ARM. So, no Windows games that don't have source and haven't been ported to ARM.
That isnt true. It allready does run none ARM code in emulators with dynamic recomilation. And there are allready ports of none ARM games that are closed source, like Albion and X-COM 1+2.


And for windows programs i dont see why it should be impossible. As i wrote here, this is something i will give a try in the future.
 
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