Ah, I see you also fell for /.'s wonderfully accurate reporting.

Pandora only has S-video output, which is definitely not "a tv or other display", but just a tv. Of course, USB-to-VGA might work (some adapters have Linux drivers), but I wouldn't expect too much of those.

Personally, S-video out is plenty for me: it's a portable device after all. I used to hook up a tv to my Archos PMA430 in "emergency" cases and it was more than satisfactory, even for office work.

Interestingly, those gaming controls might become useful for other things than gaming; I proposed they could be used to emulate multi-touch gestures and sofar nobody has called me an ignorant fool yet, so I'm hopeful...

Just to give you a heads up: not everything on the Pandora is open, at least not in the way OpenMoko is supposed to be. There are binary blobs in the firmware, but the developers have stated that it would be trivial (not for me, but for someone who actually knows this stuff) to hook them up to a kernel of your choice.

was there not supposed to be a hdmi port as well?

sure, its still primary tv, but more and more tv's can do a nice job as a computer display these days. hell, the only thing really seperating them is that the tv is expected to have all these legacy inputs for other entertainment devices.

oh, and i distinctly recall svideo being present on say projectors

Because it was mentioned in Slashdot doesn't mean it wasn't in other reporting such as BusinessWeek, InfoWorld, Arstechnica, etc. There's certainly more out there reporting on open-source community news than Slashdot.

Good choice quote from the Arstechnica article:
"We want to educate open-source developers. There are certain business rules [developers] need to obey, such as DRM, IPR [intellectual property rights], SIM locks and subsidized business models," Jaaksi said, according to BusinessWeek. "Why do we need closed vehicles? We do. Some of these things harm the industry but they're here [as things stand]. These are touchy, emotional issues but this dialogue is very much needed. As an industry, we plan to use open-source technologies but we are not yet ready to play by the rules; but this needs to work the other way round too."

Could it be that different people have different needs and thusly should be able to choose to continue along the 'Nokia blessed' path.. or choose their own with the flexibility that Linux affords? Closing off portions of the kernel isn't helping to make a device any more useful to a more broad audience of potential customers and certainly gives them a good reason to go elsewhere when someone else doesn't do that. DRM and SIM locks have proven themselves out to the point that even the general public is well aware of how crippling they are. Why are consumers and open-source developers being told that they need to accept it?

Later, he tries to backpeddle in his blog but that's not much consolation given the clear intent to suggest that the open community "needs to work the other way round too." I deeply disagree with that stance but the dialog on this is welcomed. Although, with previous faux pas such as the suggestion that OGG is full of patent problems, without actually pointing out what those problems are, isn't particularly constructive to their arguments.

Yeah, I've read as much--but at least the mindset in that organization is to start out as open as possible and try to work toward it. So far, I haven't heard anyone from the OpenPandora project come out to say that the community needs to learn to be more accepting of closed standards/architectures/software or any other other such closed-minded mentality such as DRM. So far, my impression is that the mentality there is a much more developer and consumer-friendly attitude that TOLERATES closed-minded IPR not EMBRACES it.

As tso mentioned, it's used for projectors too. Most types of office projectors I've seen recently have had S-video support. I could definitely have used S-video if the N800 had had that feature.

Ah yes, good points on the other hardware differences indeed.

If I go to OpenPandora.org I see a woman playing an old classic game though. Then I remember one of the differences is 2 dpads (and further mostly comparable to `N900' as GeneralAntilles put), and the rest I forgot...

One also has to remember Nokia comes from a different world; they're learning and changing.

What other usages does S-Video hypothetically provide?

Pandora also has a different design (reminds me of a Nokia Communicator).

Compared to a N800/N810/N810WE (and `N900') these devices also have their advantages & disadvantages. For example, a N810 has a GPS chip, and a N810WE also has WiMAX.

If I go to Nokia.com and search for Nokia products (obviously, mostly (smart)phones) I can easily compare the differences. Websites, heck even webshops, should provide this feature for a customer; its very useful.

Competition is usually good.

What would I use my second dpad for though?

Does Pandora fund open source developers?

EDIT: as for mobile, see qole's observation on OSiM

The quote you're replying to is taken out of its context.

did a quick bit of digging, both LG and samsung have computer display lines that have more in common with tv's then with the old vga and power one of old. s-video, vga, dvi, hmdi, the works.

heh, some even had good old coax antenna connectors and tuners, but still they sorted them under displays, not tv's...