Mer on Pandora?
 

Is it known if any of the active Mer devs are on the Pandora pre-order list?

With most of my fears about the N900 confirmed (including price), if the Pandora is released it is probably going to be my next mobile device when I can get one (which I think would be a long time - I am not on the the list so would have to wait for a second round) and I am wondering: Is Pandora likely to be a Mer-supported platform? (assuming it ships)

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Yes, I think someone's on the pre-order list. Pandora is likely to be one if it ever manages to ship.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Though I am not very active, I am a Mer developer and I did pre-order a Pandora. I do intend to get Mer working on it as soon as I get it.

BTW, you can still pre-order a first-batch Pandora, and get it sometime in 2010 (hopefully) like everyone else.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Stskeeps: if you were referring to me i (was) going to buy a Pandora, but due to the status of that project (witch seems to be in a shaky state - no definite release date sadly, numerous issues with manufacturing parts (case molds to be specific),people are dropping out of the project resulting in delays due to a shortage of funds, ect)

so it looks like I'm getting an N900.

(not flaming)

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Well, I'll also chime in that I pre-ordered a pandora with the idea of making sure Mer runs on it. In fact that was one of my chief reasons for sticking with it through so many delays. I'll be there waiting to get hacking as soon as I have on in my hands. :)

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

I too will start looking harder at Mer when I get my Pandora.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

I hadn't realized that - Thanks! So now I am on the list too. By the way, in e-mail the estimate I got said only one month away - I guess a certain estimate needs to be updated. ;-)

So if it ships, I too will be able to contribute how I can. (Probably bug reports mostly.)

- David

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Well, They said one month when I ordered it one year ago. Since they said "one month", I assumed they had a final device constructed already. They did not have one, so they did not deliver within one month. They do not have one yet, so I am afraid that even now the two months from now estimate is too optimistic.

At least they did not decide to leave out a core functionality of the device with the "we do not have the time to do this" excuse.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Meanwhile the CPU they decided on using is sloooowly becoming more and more outdated. I hope they quickly rev into gear for the next iteration and not spend too much time on it, now that they'd finished doing all the hard work on an older revision.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Just in case it's not obvious - refresh that page and pay attention to the time....



...The joke being that it is Always two months away. (Which has been the status quo on the forums and blog posts) I think now perhaps they are a bit closer, so it should be Always one month away instead.

More seriously, it seems to me like they have been doing a lot of "1 step back, 1.1 steps forward" but are genuinely closer to release than they were even 3 months ago. At least they have the boards. "sometime in 2010" does seem to be a realistic guess to me - if they don't fail completely.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Actually there was newsflash that the cpus should be able to run on 720 MHz instead of the declared 600. A cortex A8 is hardly outdated, it's mainstream (if you think it's outdated, a tegra is ancient history :) )

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Considering they originally announced it to be released in November 2007... then April 2008.. and so on and so on.. and now it's 2009... I'm still not instilled with confidence.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

That is why he wrote 'sloooowly'. Cortex A8 has been available for a while now. If Pandora was released end 2008 it'd have been one of the first devices with that processor. If Pandora comes out in summer 2009 it may be one of the last because OMAP4 is on the rise.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

True enough. But I'll be happy as long as the CPU and GPU are sufficient to play .FLVs from youtube and (at least) 640x480 videos at full frame and bitrates without skipping while I'm commuting. 720p would be awesome if it can do it, but the screen res means that it won't look better anyway. This is stuff my N800 can't do, and why I want the dual full-size SDHC slots.

The other linuxy stuff I want to do with it is not CPU bound, and games will of course be optimized to run on it.

(Really the N800 is almost there already - but it falls just short. Also I really miss the hard case from the 770 which the Pandora's clamshell makes up for - "Pocketable" is not merely size.)

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

In any case, upgrading to OMAP4 is far easier than making a whole new device - if there will ever be a followup device, which I doubt :( Also, if there will be a higher spec 35xxx, that would be trivial to pop in. BTW I expect the first OMAP4 devices to appear just before next xmas at best, so no rush there if they want to stick to TI...

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Maybe they will marry Intel ;) Ahem. Thing is, if you build a device and keep delaying the release the features it provides are becoming less and less interesting because of fierce competition and hardware development. Although not always; see popularity of N800.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Don't tell Nokia that. If they find that the CPU in their not yet released crown jewel is outdated, they'll immediately stop working on its software and will concentrate solely on the next device.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Wow. Someone is angry...

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

[deadpan] Yay. What a boost.

I didn't say it's outdated yet... I said it's sloooowly becoming outdated. At this rate, by the time it's finally released, there's likely going to be a much more interesting crop of similar small ARM architectures worth hacking about.

I wholeheartedly agree with pretty much everything you said, right down to the clamshell design.

That's precisely my point. Although I disagree about the N800--the only reason the N800 is still overwhelmingly the most popular is because it was such a well designed piece of hardware but it's showing its age and it makes me ache for something more capable, JUST outside of its current abilities: play unconverted video, have more memory resources and to do openGL and so on. I don't need an N900. I need an N800 with increased resources. It seems like the Pandora would fit that bill VERY, very nicely.

"Fixed in Harmatten" is the new "Fixed in Fremantle!" Cripes.

Who are you talking about?

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Yes, but Nokia N800 has some features no other device provides as of now. Some of which Pandora has too. Like 2 SD cards. That Nokia N800 becomes less relevant over time is logical, and that people who love the features would eventually love a device akin to it but with some better hardware (like OMAP3) is also logical. Yet, we don't see that. I agree Pandora fills very much the niche N800 did which N900 won't but Pandora lost some of its credibility, and its being delayed and delayed, slowly but surely making it less relevant because of alternatives.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Agreed, Now WHO is angry?? TELL ME NOW! ;)

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Oh, Matan. Pandora isn't out, whereas N900 doesn't have USB OTG.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

I don't know why you insist on making it personal, but the N900 is also not out, and the USB OTG does not matter much to me, since with its high price and small screen, the N900 was not going to replace my N810 anyway.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Nooooo, they'll never do that :p

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

It is a device closely matched to N900 specs. We should welcome it as another device that can run maemo(mer). Having more platforms running your OS is a good thing (tm).

Congrats to the Pandora team for having made it through to production boards; they made a gutsy enterpreneurial move and a great personal effort (next to their day jobs) to get this far, and the design reflects a truly iterative, community-driven process.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Sorry, I don't get it. We don't see what?

And the alternatives are?

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

Good point by fanoush there. Which alternatives? There weren't any a year ago and there aren't any today.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

That would depend on everybody's definition of just what the Internet tablet essence is. For some, the Sharp Netwalker, Archos 5IT or maybe even SmartQ V might qualify as an alternative. For some, these won't even come close, but hey, let's not judge other people's requirements and needs.

Re: Mer on Pandora?
 

We don't see a device much akin to Nokia N800, that is: 4"3 touchscreen, 2 SD, USB OTG, no HW keyboard, no 3G or camera, open source Linux-based OS, with more horsepower than Nokia N800 (ie. OMAP3, OpenGL ES, 256+ MB RAM). The only thing close to this thus far is Pandora although it is rather optimized for gaming with its 2 dpads.

...

Really depends on your one's needs, why one likes Nokia N800, but not Nokia N900.

Maybe you missed it, but there are various humans (ie. with profile not pos(t)ers with 2 posts) on this forum who chose something else than Nokia/Maemo based device while they had to wait for Nokia N900/Maemo 5. And OMAP3 devices are also more common.