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May 4th, 2010, 17:02 Posted By: wraggster
The BlackBerry Leaks website is reporting that RIM is working on a tablet that will be smaller and thinner than the iPad. The tablet also goes by the codename: 'BlackPad' or 'Cobalt'.
The site says it will have full BlackBerry OS compatibility and functionality. It won't be finished this year though.
Much depends on the success of iPad, which is now at one milion sales. That's impressive, but new Apple devices always do well such is the devotion of fans of the brand. Doubts still linger over its long term performance.
The BlackPad is all hearsay of course, but BlackBerry Leaks has a decent track record in this regard.
http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/36983...-on-iPad-rival
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May 8th, 2010, 19:04 Posted By: wraggster
Some great news concerning the Pandora Console from the Official Blog
That's the weight of the packages fully packaged up with painted cases (unless our friends lied to us) - and getting the plane to UK on Monday. Yay!
We'll probably get a tracking number on Monday (it took two days the last time we got a shipment from China), then we can be sure!
Where's the rest of them parts?
The batteries just got custom clearance, and will probably arrive on Monday.
700 boards are there, they have the nubs already soldered on. Another 800 boards are already populated.
The rest of the nubs are in Texas, as they are directly soldered on during population.
4000 LCDs are there. 4000 stickers are there.
10.000 speakers are there. 4000 WiFi Antennas are there.
5.000 Quick Start Manuals are in UK and also will arrive on Monday.
All the other needed small parts are there.
Keymats will arrive together with the cases... well, and that's all there is. Time to start assembly. Yay!
The OS and some software
The OS is also coming along. We installed an image to the NAND a week ago - it runs well and rock solid so far.
I tried quite a few things to break it - hard reset while it was running quite a few times, etc.
The OS survived. The only thing I managed to do was making the bootup hang when I did four Hard Resets while booting in a row - guess a hardware driver hang. Was solved by powering off and reboot again - and still the filesystem was fine and intact.
Looking good here. Bootup is still a bit slow (55 Seconds at the moment), but that's something we surely try to improve in the near future. As a test, I simply removed some services that won't be needed AFAIK and got a booting time of 33 seconds. It won't make it in the first release (as we don't have time to test if my removed scripts REALLY don't break anything!), but it's a nice view of what can be done. Switching to Upstart (a tool which enhances bootup by running scripts parallel instead of serial) will also make a difference. Stay tuned for OS updates!
Power Management has become better. The WiFi driver now supports power management - so with the standard OS settings, 7 hours with WiFi are possible. Without WiFi, it goes up to 13 hours at the moment.
For a basic OS, this is all pretty advanced already. There will surely be some settings that can be enhanced (i.e. Browser layout, MIME types, etc.), but we'll wait for suggestions from you guys and will include the best settings in future firmware versions.
Also, in case you want to meddle around and break the OS (you should only do so on the SD Card, but some probably still mess around with the NAND I guess  )
I will create a recovery bootsystem which allows you to restore the config files on your system or backup your home-directory.
Aditionally, notaz created a flasher (it's the same one we use to install the OS for the first time). With that, you can copy some files on your SD Card and restore the image completely (don't do this too often though, it will wear out the NAND over time  )
Various devs (me too, though I don't think you can call me dev) are packaging up games, apps and emulators that are ported so far.
We have Stella, Hatari, UAE4ALL, DOSBox, Vice, Colem, Exaile, Free Heroes 2, Commander Genius, Angry Drunken Dwarfs, BattleJewels, Battle for Wesnoth, Super Mario War, C-Dogs, Pandora Panic!, Quake 2, etc. and more coming up...
Some stuff needs more work (notaz wants to improve PicoDrive more before Pandora release, UAE4ALL is just a direct port of the GP2X Version, runs fullspeed Amiga 500 games, but is not as compatible, PSX and N64 also need more work), but I guess that stuff will keep you busy for a while.
MAJOR thanks again to ALL the devs who have helped us with the OS - despite them having few time... THANKS!
I also suspect there are some devs among the preorderers who also like to port some games (or code their own ones).
I can't await to see what's coming from you guys - I'm sure it will be worth all the trouble we went through.
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May 9th, 2010, 11:52 Posted By: wraggster
Shortly after announcing a blockbuster deal to acquire Palm, HP confessed that it would be "doubling down on webOS," with near-term plans to "scale it across multiple connected devices." We took the liberty at that point to assume this meant that a larger webOS-based device was at least sitting around in the rear of someone's mind, and now it sounds as if Palm loyalists may actually have something tangible to look forward to. According to an unsubstantiated report over at the Examiner, an "insider at HP" has informed the site that "a webOS tablet under the code name HP Hurricane could be released the third quarter of this year." This all lines up well with what we've heard over the past few weeks: HP pledged to take webOS to places it has never been, strong whispers emerged that the HP Slate was being shelved, and now, people close to the HP camp have given a name to a purported webOS tablet slated for Q3. There's obviously no telling if this is simply hot air being blown, but we wouldn't be shocked to see HP nail down a webOS slate in time for the sure-to-be-rockin' 2010 holiday buying season. Or maybe we're just crossing our fingers, humming aloud and praying to our lucky stars that this all pans out.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/08/w...umored-for-q3/
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May 9th, 2010, 23:53 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released for Pandora:
Eat The Whistle is an OpenSource soccer game originally developed by Hurricane Studios as commercial product for the Amiga platform.
Download Here
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May 12th, 2010, 23:43 Posted By: wraggster
News via http://www.summeli.fi/?p=1685
The new AntSnesQt comes with Big D-pad, which is optimized for resistive touchscreen.
I had some help for the new graphics for this release:
Thanks for Saiyaku for the new D-pad graphics and UI graphics.
Thaks for Jasper Terveer for the small d-pad and button graphics.
What’s new
Improved compatibility? (the code is much better aligned with drPocketSnes)
Big D-PAD
The new AntSnes has more realistic snes style graphics. See it yourself
http://www.summeli.fi/?p=1685
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May 12th, 2010, 23:55 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released for Pandora:
The Battle for Wesnoth is a Free, turn-based tactical strategy game with a high fantasy theme, featuring both single-player, and online/hotseat multiplayer combat. Fight a desperate battle to reclaim the throne of Wesnoth, or take hand in any number of other adventures...
Download Here
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May 12th, 2010, 23:56 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released for Pandora:
Narcissu is a free visual novel by the dōjin group stage-nana, telling the story of a terminally ill young man and woman.
It has been optimized to work on the Pandora by EvilDragon (Main Menu has been changed to fit 800x480)
Download Here
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May 16th, 2010, 22:47 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released for Pandora:
Giana’s Return aims to be a worthy UNOFFICIAL sequel of “The Great Giana Sistersâ€. There is an official sequel for Nintendo DS named “Giana Sisters DS†( http://www.giana-sisters.com/ ) and also has slightly more levels than Giana’s Return. In other words, it’s worth the money
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May 18th, 2010, 00:29 Posted By: wraggster
In a volatile Android ecosystem where bigger and better phones pop up every week, your Nexus One might be feeling a little obsolete. Frankly, there's hardly a better way to cheer it up than by installing an operating system that's a little more its speed. In the finest DOSBox tradition, one gentleman recently imbued his Googlephone with Windows 3.11, by far our favorite 1993 Microsoft OS. Realizing the futility of getting it to do anything -- ah, memories -- he set about crafting a step-by-step guide for you to do the same. If you care to give his misery company, you'll find instructions at our source link; if not, don your rose-tinted glasses and peep the video after the break.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/17/n...thing-weve-se/
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May 18th, 2010, 23:13 Posted By: wraggster
The worst of Palm's fears may be over now that HP has played the knight-in-shining-armor role, but Sprint -- the States' number three carrier -- still has a ways to go before it can claim it's out of the woods, having gone a solid string of fiscal quarters now without posting a profit or a net gain in subscribers. Of course, this is the kind of situation that puts dudes with the word "financial" in their titles on the hot seat, and sure enough, Sprint CFO Robert Brust came out swinging at an investor conference this week. Brust points to narrowing losses and an expanding prepaid presence as reasons he thinks the company can grow revenue by year-end, not to mention an expanding 4G footprint and -- on a closely related note -- the imminent release of the EVO 4G. Showing a bit of humility, he also said that the company has "learned a lot" since the launch of the Pre, acknowledging that the phone "didn't work out as well as [they] hoped." In other words: we wouldn't expect any more crazy two-phone exclusive deals with Palm lasting the better part of a year any time soon.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/18/s...l-as-we-hoped/
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May 21st, 2010, 23:55 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released for Pandora
Hatari is a very good emulator for ST and related machines (TT030, Falcon, etc, though ST support is its focus.) This is a full port of the emu, including hard drive support, etc.
The pnd-file includes setup documentation, just check the Documentation link in xfce or minimenu.
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May 21st, 2010, 23:56 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released for Pandora
Kronos is an interpreter for text adventure story-files.
Currently supported are Magnetic Scrolls games, though Infocom and Scott Adams (and others) will be supported soon.
Currently features are limited (you can play the games, save, etc, but nothing fancy), but will be adding automapper, touchscreen support for word picking, and other conveniences.
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May 22nd, 2010, 23:42 Posted By: wraggster
Looks like the Dream is going to happen very soon with the assembling of Pandora Consoles at full steam now, heres the details from the Official Blog
... I'm slightly maaad!
Well, yes, that's basically also true... but this time, another thing came true: The Pandora!
Yep, we started assembling and already shipped out some of our babies yesterday! What a relief!
Craig, Michael and Fatih are already working together with other folks to build Pandoras, I'll join them on Monday. I'll also setup the webcam when I'm there.
Hopefully, it will work, as Craig told me internet connection in that hall is not too reliable, but we'll see.
While this certainly is a big step for us, there's still a lot of work to be done. We have to try to finish the first batch as soon as possible and also have to manage parts and production for the second batch.
Please bear with us if this could take a while, we're still humans (no cyborgs) and are working as fast as we can.
Thanks to EVERYONE helping us - our devs, our wifes / girlfriends, and - of course - you. The community. Let the fun begin!
http://www.open-pandora.org/index.ph...emid=2&lang=en
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May 23rd, 2010, 17:47 Posted By: wraggster
The open-source Pandora handheld has had a long and arduous time to market, but the days of delay are apparently at an end. You gaze upon the very first Pandora off the assembly line -- the fruit of over two years labor -- and project leaders are presently shipping out the rest of the first completed batch, with scores if not hundreds already on the way. GP32X forum mod X68000 got this unit for his help in construction, which means you can see Pandora's box literally opened at our source link (har har). Puns not your thing? Spot a batch of handhelds at the soldering station instead, right after the break.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/23/p...-unit-unboxed/
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May 23rd, 2010, 22:22 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released for Pandora
The Hammer of Thyrion project is a cross-platform source port effort: We continue the development for Linux, BSD and Mac OS X people, with continued support for Windows users as well. Many bugs are fixed and even new features are added: New sound modes, improved mouse handling, improved video modes, OpenGL glows and more. You can go to our project page for more information.
Website: http://uhexen2.sourceforge.net/
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May 24th, 2010, 23:25 Posted By: wraggster
At this point, we don't even know if HP's Slate is still hitting the market -- but one thing we do know is that there's no evidence to suggest that the company will be releasing it with webOS instead of Windows 7. In fact, the two platforms are so wildly different and targeted for such disjoint devices -- never mind the fact that HP and Palm aren't yet united in the legal sense of the word -- that there's virtually no chance that the existing Slate hardware could be effectively used in time for a near-term webOS tablet launch (at least, not a tablet that anyone would want to buy). There's word on Gizmodo today that the Slate will be offered as a webOS device, but that appears to be a misinterpretation of a DigiTimes report from HP Taiwan that the company intends to use Palm's operating system to underpin both "smartphones and tablets," while avoiding porting it to netbooks since they're "more similar in functions with traditional computers." Given the Slate's lukewarm reception, we can totally understand HP canning it in its current incarnation -- but you can't just drop a flashy mobile platform onto it and call it good. Interestingly, the DigiTimes report goes on to say (on an unrelated note) that the Slate will come to market before October, but it's unclear whether they're taking into account the most recent round of rumors that it's been deep-sixed; guess we'll know soon enough.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/24/h...ws-7-to-webos/
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May 26th, 2010, 00:53 Posted By: wraggster
News via http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php...dpost&p=856335
Just after we started shipping the first Pandoras, we found out that some Python packages had gone missing in the OS - and that the kernel had one bug.
We fixed those problems already, so we suggest you install the HotFix package when you receive your Pandora.
If you don't install the package, Python games like Angry Drunken Dwarfs will not run.
Aditionally, we released the Community Codec Package, which installs Gnome-MPlayer and a lot of restricted codecs which allow you to play videos and audio.
Due to licensing issues, we can't include them in the normal OS installation, that's why we released that codec pack.
Some programs like Exaile won't run without it.
Installing both packages is easy: Simply put them into either the /pandora/menu or /pandora/desktop-Directory of your SD Card, start them, enter your password and follow the on-screen instructions.
After it's installed, you can remove the PND-Files.
You can grab them and more information about them here --> http://www.open-pandora.org/index.ph...=178&Itemid=32
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May 27th, 2010, 01:06 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released for Pandora:
Arora is included in the Pandora firmware, and runnable from xfce's menu. Minimenu will use it for showing PND file documentation, but doesn't include a default way to launch it if you just want to run the browser.
This pnd file is just a wrapper to run the built in Arora.
Place it in /pandora/mmenu on an SD card, and it'll show up in minimenu, but not in xfce/etc. (They already have it, and you don't want a second icon for it in the xfce menu.)
This will show an "Arora Browser" icon in your Network/WebBrowser categories in minimenu
http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/...0,0,0,0,112,69
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May 29th, 2010, 00:36 Posted By: wraggster
News from http://www.open-pandora.org/index.ph...emid=2&lang=en
Wow, what a lot of work! But so far no bigger problems, but lots of positive reports, really assuring us
I've been helping out here for the 2,5 days already, and we're managing it quite good.
Speed is improving, we don't make too many mistakes we need to fix and based on the feedback from the first users, we optimize the building process.
At least 60 units should have reached the customers so far and there were only a few problems.
A dead battery, a dead PSU (which can happen, unfortunately), one broken WiFi and a broken backlight.
For the very first units, that's a good quote - basically only one two broken ones.
As some guys were asking about quality checking - here's what we did for the first units:
1. The boards including all the hardware are being tested in Texas after population.
2. After we assemble them, we have a special bootloader where we can test all controls and the LCD.
3. Then we install the firmware - ready to ship.
Based on the feedback we got and the one broken WiFi one, we changed that a bit.
Before we install the firmware, we do a WiFi test (it connects and downloads a small file).
As another user had the problem that his unit shutdown during first boot (flat battery) and then he couldn't login, we're also doing that first boot (which configures the system and takes a while) right here.
And we do that completely from the battery - so most faulty batteries should also be recognized.
So right now, that's what we do:
1. The boards including all the hardware are being tested in Texas after population.
2. During assembly, we test the controls and the LCD.
3. After screwing them together, we do the WiFi test and a different person tests the controls as well.
4. We install the firmware and do the complete first boot from battery.
5. After that, the unit is ready to ship.
This helps to make sure that no faulty unit should reach you. And if one slips through our hands (well, we can't possible charge all batteries for 6 hours to see if they work well), then we will replace it, that's for sure.
Some other questions have occured regarding the firmware, so I'm going to give newcomers some tips here:
1. Right now, WiFi is always enabled on Bootup. This eats some battery power - especially, if it keeps looking for networks and can't find any. So unless you want the unit to be always-on, you should probably disable it. That can easily be done: Go to Settings / Startup and disable WiFi on bootup. After you did that, you need to Toggle WiFi (that's in the system menu) before you use it.
2. It seems the Network Manager has a problem: When it disconnects, it can't reconnect. It seems that's also the case on standard Linux desktops. We'll look into this, however, if you lose connection at the moment, you need to reboot. You should only lose connection though if the WiFi signal is flaky - we ran some units for 48 hours as a test without a single reconnection.
3. When you use the nubs, they need to some time to calibrate. Usually, it automatically happens while using them, however, to make sure they work fine, slowly move them into each direction (Up, Down, Left, Right) and stay there for 1 or 2 seconds. Let them go back to the center each time before you move it into the next direction.
4. Just switched on your unit and right while booting the screen switches off? No worries, your unit is NOT broken. It's a feature that also turned into a bug: When you shutdown the unit, it saves the brightness value and applies that on startup, which is a good thing. However, if you shutdown the unit and close the lid, then the brightness value goes to 0 - and that's what the unit saves. So on next startup, it will switch off during booting process. That's not a big problem - just wait until it booted and use the brightness control on the keyboard to make it bright again. Another fix for a firmware update
5. Not firmware-related: But be sure to first CHARGE the unit before using it
That's it. So far, we got a lot of positive reports, which is pretty cool.
Funny thing is that some users bashed the Pandora - without even having one (well, we know where we ship the units to).
I have no idea why they do this, but we're sure: The more Pandoras are out there, the more positive posts will appear.
So, it's back to work for me, so that more units can find their way home
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May 29th, 2010, 23:07 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released for Pandora:
Credit to Sience (http://boards.dingoonity.org/dingux-...%29-v20100330/) for most of the work
This is probably a shoddy port, but it runs Killer Instinct, Yoshi's Island, etc, at full speed.
With some optimization thrown in, this will rock!
Press SPACE to bring up the menu.
Build 003
---------
- better audio
- supports 7z archived roms
- stores SRAM to your appdata on SD instead of home directory in NAND
Download Here
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May 30th, 2010, 20:28 Posted By: wraggster
News via http://www.gbax.com/
Wow. Sorry for the lack of updates this month. It's been very very busy. Well I'm sure you know the Pandora is shipping and being built here in the UK.
Batch 2 will be available for order in June. We have a Pandora apps site here: apps.open-pandora.org where you can see the current software being added daily.
Now I must get back to work, don't forget you can keep up with what is happening day to day on twitter, or the forums.
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May 31st, 2010, 12:03 Posted By: wraggster
Uberjack posted this news concerning his Spark project for the Android:
With regard to Spark, I’m working on the service that will implement automatic updates and notifications for new messages. Once that is completed, testing and bug fixes will follow, after which a release is imminent. The Gamercard widget is complete, and you can see a picture of it below.
Gamercard Widget
If you’re an Android developer who’s working on other projects, and would like to work on Spark, let me know. I can’t promise anything at this point, but I’m considering opening the project for other developers, including the possibility of going open source, and knowing how much potential interest there is will likely make a difference. Please include the name(s) of the projects you’re working on.
http://0xff.akop.org/2010/05/25/movi...he-south-side/
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May 31st, 2010, 22:58 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released for Pandora:
Freeciv is a Free and Open Source empire-building strategy game inspired by the history of human civilization. The game commences in prehistory and your mission is to lead your tribe from the stone age to the space age...
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