A render of what the final OpenPandora will look like.
In general I try not to let myself fall into the hype of new devices. Technology can be a miserable sector to get your hopes up anticipating the release of something; there is a constant stream of companies pushing back release dates in everything from software to hardware to video games/consoles. For the most part, I find myself surprisingly good at resisting the urge to get the latest and greatest, but some times I just flat out fail.
In particular, last year the news outlets were buzzing about the OpenPandora, a device that’s half game console, half MID/UMPC. The specs were fantastic back then, a shiny new ARM Cortex A8, a good screen, GL, Blue Tooth, Wi-Fi, and (importantly, for me) an actual keyboard in a clamshell style case with gaming controls. Unfortunately, that was a year ago and the plans were that it was going to ship around October/November of last year… and as of yet there still is no complete, final run Pandora unit. Now, it’s understandable as to why this happened… the people running the project want to put out a solid product and they’ve had problem after problem to deal with including the big economics crash/financial crisis, a parts manufacturer for one of the Pandora’s parts folded on them (taking a large chunk of money with them), and also on their side several delays due to (IMO) poor planning. The most egregious of the poor planning was that they had unrealistic expectations regarding how fast it would take to design and get the case finished.
It’s a year later now and we are finally on the verge of seeing the Pandora come out. The case moulds are mere days from being done, the final boards are already being made, and we should start seeing assembled units early next month. While I was good for most of the year, I must say the anticipation is killing me. I’ve been waiting for quite awhile for a new handheld device that would fall under something that I would actually use and not just a shiny thing that I would love to have due to my love of gadgets in general.
And now I find it a bit worse. Things were easier when the Pandora and the iPod Touch were the only games in town for nice mobile devices but there are so many more options now and even more coming out in the next few months. I’ve already discussed the multitude of Android devices coming out, the Archos 5 Android IT being one of the first out. On top of that there are a massive influx of 50 or so Android phones coming out which greatly increases the chances that my brain dead cell carrier will actually have one of these for their network. Currently the only phone that might work for me that they have is the Palm Pre which I’ve heard good things about, but I’m not quite sold on.
So here I sit in anticipation. When I boil it down and think of why that is, exactly, I realize that for the first time in quite awhile I see a lot of extremely interesting devices coming out. I’m glad they are coming out, but I just wish they’d hurry up.
(Yes, I realize there is not much of substance to this post, but the last post I tried to write ended up covering so much territory that I realized I needed to split it up into 3 or 4 different posts. Those will be posted in the coming weeks along with a post about Windows 7.)
