Over the past few months there have been reports of the Pandora handheld completed in the wild, however yesterday we started hearing reports of actual customers who pre-ordered the device receiving theirs. This handheld has been in development for nearly 2 years (being one of the first stories we covered) and so far about 60 units have been completed and shipped to their respective customers.

The Pandora Handheld is designed as an open-platform for developers and consumers with a lot of power to tap into. You’ll be able to browse the web using Firefox, play emulators of your choice using the gamepad buttons, write up word documents using the hardware keyboard and much, much more.

Several customers of the device have reported receiving their devices, some even offering unboxing videos and plenty of pictures to go around. You can read about all their impressions via the source link below. It’s also important to note that the Pandora team took the initial reports seriously and will be tweaking their assembly process to iron out any faults before shipping out any more.

It was a prestigious project when it was announced in 2008 and it’s great to see it all coming together; congratulations guys!

Hellollo [PandoraPress]

If you were with us since the beginning of this site you might remember an article I wrote well over a year ago about the Open Source Pandora Handheld. At that time they were about ready to take pre-orders and anticipated shipping the handheld in a few months; a year later the project is finally seeing the finish line.

After many delays the Pandora handheld is finally finished. Those that have pre-ordered should be receiving their Pandora systems later on this month or early next month. All the parts are finalized, now mass production just needs to start. Some respected developers in the scene have already received their system and all give positive remarks.

The Pandora is the spiritual successor to the GP32x and was built by the community, for the community. The ARM Cortex A8-powered device will run a full Linux distro and has the capability of emulating PSX games. With dual analogs, a full qwerty keyboard and several face buttons, the Pandora is the perfect gaming console. Also with over 10 hours of battery life and expandable SD storage (x2!) the possibilities are endless.

I’m eager to get my hands on this device to see if it truly delivers. You can read more about it on the OpenPandora website and more developments on the community blog.

Zodttd [GP32x Forums] & Pandora Blog [OpenPandora]

In case you hadn’t noticed from product photos and the like, the PSPgo lacks a user removable battery. Meaning, it can’t be replaced unless the unit is sent back to Sony, or you are a daring soul that doesn’t mind voiding the warranty.

The long and short of it is that this design decision was made solely in prevention of piracy. While Sony seemingly did a sound enough job of blocking the infamous Pandora battery hack on PSP-3000 units, it wanted to take things a step further with the PSPgo. SCEA marketing man John Koller explains:

You won’t be able to rip your games and play them on the system, the firmware precludes that, Koller explained. There’s no external battery, so there’s a number of protections put into place on the system.

Considering the situation at hand, we can understand the motivation behind this decision, but all things considered, this is stepping into the territory of punishing legit end-users for the nefarious actions of pirates.

Why You Can’t Remove the Battery From the PSP Go [PSInsider]

Koller Blames Pandora Battery Hack for Lack of Removable Battery On PSPgo - [eXophase.com]

EvilDragon just posted a new item on the OpenPandora blog showing off a new video of the Pandora in action. The Pandora is shaping up to be a very impressive gaming device which is focused on the open source community. Previous videos have had the LCD connected to the PCB with no body/shell of any kind; This new video released by MWeston2 shows off a FDM prototype which has fully functioning controls and touch sensitivity for the LCD.

In the video he shows off the resistive touch screen and the fully functioning keyboard as well as some games and videos playing. It’s finally good to see some solid progress on the device, which was originally slated for a holiday ‘08 release.

The Pandora Team has gone through some tough times with this bad boy but hopefully we will get the device in our hands soon. The latest estimate has a release around April, so just a bit longer folks! You can check out our previous coverage of the device here and check out the newly released video after the break.

Pandora Video [Pandora]

The brains behind the GP2X open-source community have been hard at work on a new homebrew-specific device known as the Pandora. We first got real word of it just under a year ago and since then the open-source community and gamers alike have been following its every step.

The Pandora which originally was to have 128mb of RAM will now see an upgrade to 256mb of RAM which will make everyone happy (20% speed increase in Ubuntu anyone?).

The Pandora will be a mix between a portable gaming device and the popular UMPC (Ultra Mobile PCs) at a price point of just about $320. Pre-orders are no longer being accepted for this device so if you have been late to the punch you will have to wait a few months (end of Decemeber most likely). You can read more about what the Pandora can offer and what Craigix (one of the minds behind the project) has said about the RAM upgrade after the break.

[Source]

[Pandora Homepage]