Sir_Crocodile
Member
Evildragon(Michael Mrozek), one of the guys behind the original Pandora handheld, gave a lot of detail about a successor, the Pyra at Fosdem(Free and Open source Software Developers' European Meeting) today. The Pandora was basically a handheld Linux computer with full keyboard and gaming controls, and the Pyra aims to be the same with updated components and refined controls and casing.
The entire (one hour!) talk is available for download here:
http://slackware.openpandora.org/pandora/videos/Pandora-Pyra-FOSDEM-2014.webm
But for those who don't have an hour to go through it, the main details are available on the Pyra website here:
http://www.pyra-handheld.com/specs.html
and there's a quick video showing what the cpu is capable of doing here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEbu-0kAtjU#t=55
seems to be running 2 instances of a psx emulator using no hardware acceleration, gimp, and some game which I have no idea about all at once, so power seems pretty decent.
What I got from the FOSDEM video given how far he's gotten with parts and prototyping seems to indicate that this will be coming out sometime close to the end of this year(please note this is JUST my assumption, given the debacle of the Pandora release he obviously has no intention of talking timeline this time round).
I'm super hyped for this. I love my Pandora, but it is starting to feel a bit long in the tooth(though it did a lot more then I ever dreamed, would not have thought psp had a hope in hell of being remotely playable). The talk suggests all of the niggles that I have with the original Pandora design are things he's taken on board and wishes to change.
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I'm going to add this because it's bound to come up and it'll save a lot of time if it's in the OP since you'd have to have followed the Pandora project VERY closely to have an understanding of the rollercoaster ride it was.
It's important to note that the original Pandora had a LOT of production problems, which was mainly down to inexperience, mismanagement and reliance on Chinese manufacturers who didn't have a great deal of interest in fulfilling orders for a paltry 4000 devices when they usually work in the hundred of thousands and millions - which made prototyping take an age - along with all the usual long-distance problems that outsourcing work so far away usually entails.
There was also a lot of distribution problems, with two companies set up by two of the founders of the Pandora project selling to different areas, with....different customer service experiences
one of them didn't fulfil all their orders, was on bad terms with the community and was generally thought by the community to be the source of a lot of the mismanagement of the original project. He is not involved in this project at all.
The other fulfilled all of their orders, was and still is well regarded by the community and took over management of the Pandora project and moved production to Europe. He is evildragon and is in charge of the Pyra project.
Apart from the battery (which already exists) and peripherals, the plan is for the Pyra to be designed, prototyped and manufactured in Europe, which evildragon already has experience with from moving the Pandora project to europe after it almost died a few years ago. Personally I trust the dude which is one of the reasons I'm looking forward to this even after the many problems the Pandora suffered.
The entire (one hour!) talk is available for download here:
http://slackware.openpandora.org/pandora/videos/Pandora-Pyra-FOSDEM-2014.webm
But for those who don't have an hour to go through it, the main details are available on the Pyra website here:
http://www.pyra-handheld.com/specs.html
and there's a quick video showing what the cpu is capable of doing here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEbu-0kAtjU#t=55
seems to be running 2 instances of a psx emulator using no hardware acceleration, gimp, and some game which I have no idea about all at once, so power seems pretty decent.
What I got from the FOSDEM video given how far he's gotten with parts and prototyping seems to indicate that this will be coming out sometime close to the end of this year(please note this is JUST my assumption, given the debacle of the Pandora release he obviously has no intention of talking timeline this time round).
I'm super hyped for this. I love my Pandora, but it is starting to feel a bit long in the tooth(though it did a lot more then I ever dreamed, would not have thought psp had a hope in hell of being remotely playable). The talk suggests all of the niggles that I have with the original Pandora design are things he's taken on board and wishes to change.
--------------
I'm going to add this because it's bound to come up and it'll save a lot of time if it's in the OP since you'd have to have followed the Pandora project VERY closely to have an understanding of the rollercoaster ride it was.
It's important to note that the original Pandora had a LOT of production problems, which was mainly down to inexperience, mismanagement and reliance on Chinese manufacturers who didn't have a great deal of interest in fulfilling orders for a paltry 4000 devices when they usually work in the hundred of thousands and millions - which made prototyping take an age - along with all the usual long-distance problems that outsourcing work so far away usually entails.
There was also a lot of distribution problems, with two companies set up by two of the founders of the Pandora project selling to different areas, with....different customer service experiences
one of them didn't fulfil all their orders, was on bad terms with the community and was generally thought by the community to be the source of a lot of the mismanagement of the original project. He is not involved in this project at all.
The other fulfilled all of their orders, was and still is well regarded by the community and took over management of the Pandora project and moved production to Europe. He is evildragon and is in charge of the Pyra project.
Apart from the battery (which already exists) and peripherals, the plan is for the Pyra to be designed, prototyped and manufactured in Europe, which evildragon already has experience with from moving the Pandora project to europe after it almost died a few years ago. Personally I trust the dude which is one of the reasons I'm looking forward to this even after the many problems the Pandora suffered.