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OpenSource Handheld News - Gp2X, Dingoo, Wiz, Pandora, GCW Zero and Caanoo is a News and downloads site for Open Source Handhelds, We have all the latest emulators, hack, homebrew, commercial games and all the downloads on this site, the latest homebrew and releases, Part of the
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January 11th, 2010, 18:52 Posted By: wraggster
Google's Nexus One support forums have been flooded with anecdotes about the phone's poor 3G connectivity, so one user decided to follow up with some reasonably scientific tests. The conclusion? The Nexus One is kind of terrible at basic cellphonery!
The test was simple and limited, consisting of one dude, user WV, wandering in and out of his house, recording signal strength as measured in dBm and ASU with Android's built-in metering app. Assuming the Nexus One is supposed to work like a normal cellphones—that is, it connects to 3G networks when they're available and EDGE only when they're not—something's wrong.
Since the phone is obviously finding and receiving the cellular signals just fine, but not handling them as you'd expect, randomly flipping between the two—and evidently preferring EDGE most of the time—no matter how strong its signal is. This points to a software issue, not a hardware issue. That, and this:
OK. I found "Phone Info" screen through "Any Cut". This looks like a screen not intended for average users. It clearly has settings that should not be messed with. However, it does have a pull down menu that was set to "WCDMA Preferred". I changed this to "WCDMA Only". The phone reset, and never again saw the f'ing "E" on the signal indicator- ALL 3G. After about 1/2 hour of speed tests (150k - 800kbps) and google satellite map downloads (all definitely faster), I switched back to "WCDMA Preferred". Guess what? After a few minutes, I was back on EDGE, even with a good signal. Switched back to "WCDMA Only", and 3G it remains.
This doesn't fully solve the problem, because as WV notes, if you fall out of T-Mobile's 3G coverage area with EDGE disabled, you're basically boned. But anyway, yes, this appears to be a software bug. Or, if you're feeling conspiratorial today, like WV, a software feature:
My concern is whether T-mobile is being sneaky about this and purposefully dumbing down the 3G to Edge to reduce cell frequency congestion and/or their back-end network congestion.
I'm not sure I want to draw that nexus (haw?) quite yet, since the issue was first brought to light by comparing the Nexus One's 3G/EDGE handling to other T-Mobile 3G Android handsets, and those, despite having the same data-sucking potential as the Google Phone, haven't been throttled in any way. While Google and T-Mobile say they're "investigating," the evidence keeps mounting and the question looms larger: what's really wrong with the Nexus One's 3G?
http://gizmodo.com/5445324/the-nexus...e-damning-data
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January 9th, 2010, 18:17 Posted By: wraggster
Google Nexus One Carries $174.15 Materials Cost, iSuppli Teardown Reveals El Segundo, Calif., January 8, 2010-With its new Nexus One, Google Inc. has taken many of the latest smart-phone innovations and combined them in a single product that manages to be both cutting edge and cost competitive, according to a teardown conducted by iSuppli Corp.
The Nexus One, sold with the Google brand name but manufactured by HTC Corp., carries a Bill Of Materials (BOM) of $174.15, based on a preliminary estimate from iSuppli's Teardown Analysis Team. This total comprises only hardware and component costs for the Nexus One itself and does not take into consideration other expenses such as manufacturing, software, box contents, accessories and royalties.
http://gizmodo.com/5444350/googles-n...ne-costs-17415
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January 9th, 2010, 18:13 Posted By: wraggster
It seems Google is going through some growing pains as far as customer service is concerned. Since their new phone, the Nexus One, can be bought unlocked, many people are turning to Google themselves for help, but not getting what they're used to from traditional mobile carriers. T-Mobile and HTC are also getting hammered, with many customers being bounced back and forth between the two companies' service lines."
It seems they're also taking flak from Android developers who are unhappy that no SDK has yet been released for Android 2.1, which runs on the Nexus One.
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/10/...One-Complaints
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January 7th, 2010, 01:20 Posted By: wraggster
News via http://www.open-pandora.org/index.ph...emid=2&lang=en
I'm not talking about Camelot here, but I got a download for you 3D artists out there.
It's the 3D model of the Pandora. It comes in various parts in STL format (you can easily import it into Blender or most other 3D programs).
The parts are: Bottom, Top, Keys, Stylus, Battery Lid, Dummy Battery.
What can you do with it?
Well, you can use it to take a closer look at the Pandora or to create your own nice renderings.
You can NOT use it to create your own case. The inside of the case has been removed, so while this doesn't affect any renderings, it's not usable for any CNC machines.
Feel free to post your renderings to the boards 
Enjoy!
Download: Pandora Model http://www.openpandora.org/downloads/PandoraModel.zip
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January 7th, 2010, 01:19 Posted By: wraggster
News via http://www.open-pandora.org/index.ph...emid=2&lang=en
... run in circles, scream and shout!
Well, while the situation is not so bad, actually, it's pretty good, sometimes I do feel like doing so
As with most news posts, we have good and not so good news.
First, the good news:
The second revision sample cases have arrived quite a few days ago - and they're much better than the first ones.
Physically, they have fixed everything we wanted, it's much more easier to assemble, that's a huge success. From the usable viewpoint, it's good to go
The first silkscreen test also was decent. There are some misalignments, but it shows that it can be done. Also, for the final silk, we can use the official Bluetooth logo.
Craig did also test the hinge during the last days - meaning: Opening and closing it for about 1000 times - and not a single problem here. It still works nicely. Also, the PSUs we'll ship with the device are there and are quite sturdy.
Now, let's come to the reason I want to run in circles, scream and shout sometimes...
The finished case (with the final finishing, the last cosmetic changes, etc.) should already have been shipped last week.
This is the eMail Michael just got yesterday:
"Dear Mr.Michael,
sorry, after i discussed with our technician and we found all of
modifications would be finished on Jan.15,2010.
We compared market products with our products last week and we need more EDM
working to make the same quality.
I have to inform you and so sorry for delay."
We got this eMail when the cases should've been shipped since a few days already... and this is not the first time, actually.
Now you know where such confusing deadlines come from - we actually get dates when something will be ready and tell you.. and after it should've happened, we get such mails.
Well, the good thing is: They're working hard on making it a high-quality product (no cheap stuff) and besides some cosmetic changes (mostly in the finishing and a bit in shrinking), the case is working nicely.
So, let's scream and shout together until the best cases in the whole world will arrive.
Thanks for reading - oh, and of course a happy new year to all of you guys
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January 7th, 2010, 00:21 Posted By: wraggster
Google has officially unveiled its Nexus One Android Phone, and while it's certainly an attractive device, does it have what it takes to be a portable gaming platform?
The Nexus One is the first handset designed entirely by Google, and to some, particularly those with mobile service providers other than AT&T, it might seem like Google's answer to the iPhone. In some ways it is. It has the touch screen. It has an accelerometer. It's got the slim profile and the low weight. It can run a wide variety of applications, from office software to a Google Maps-powered GPS. It's an attractive package, but is it attractive to a gamer?
In my eyes at least, not so much.
While the Nexus One does have a faster processor and a larger, higher resolution screen than the iPhone 3GS, there are several shortcomings that will likely keep it from achieving even a fraction of the success the iPhone has had in the gaming sector.
First off, there's the operating system. The Nexus One runs version 2.1 of Google's Android operating system, an upgraded version of 2.0, making its debut on the new device. When Android-enabled phones were first introduced, several major players in the mobile gaming market took notice. Namco quickly got Pac-Man up and running, and Activision followed suit with Guitar Hero.
Things were looking up, but then in November of last year, mobile-gaming giant Gameloft significantly cut their support for the platform, with the company's finance director Alexandre de Rochefort saying that "It is not as neatly done as on the iPhone. Google has not been very good to entice customers to actually buy products. On Android nobody is making significant revenue."
A quick look at the sort of games available on the Android Market currently shows simple titles that would be perfectly at home on 2-3 year-old mobile phones. Mind you they're much prettier and probably run smoother, but overall the current selection is weak.
Gaming doesn't seem to be as strong focus for Google on the operating system or the Nexus One itself. Scouring the internets for information on the phone's announcement today I didn't see any specific mention of the phone as a gaming machine, so while the system is certainly more than powerful enough to handle some advanced portable titles, poor support for gaming in the past might have already poisoned the waters for many developers.
Then there is the question of controls. With no keyboard and only a tiny trackball serving as a physical controller, the Nexus One relies on its touch screen as a primary user interface. So does the iPhone, of course, but the iPhone has a multitouch capable screen, while the Nexus One lacks this functionality. This means that some of the more complex iPhone games that rely on a combination of virtual on-screen controls wouldn't work on the phone.
One could argue that the Nintendo DS touch screen is single input as well, but the DS has a directional pad plus shoulder and face buttons to accent the touching.
Update: While Google's included apps don't handle multitouch, the OS and presumably the hardware as well should support it. When asked by Engadget whether future software updates for the phone would include multitouch support, Android boss Any Rubin said "we'll consider it."
That's not to say the trackball doesn't have potential. I could seem some interesting gaming experiences controlled via a combination of trackball and accelerometer. It just doesn't seem to me as if that tiny ball would provide the responsiveness needed for more advanced games.
Finally there's the question of memory. The Nexus One ships with 512MB of Flash memory, much of which will be taken up by the operating system and included applications. That doesn't leave much room for games, and while the memory can be expanded with a Micro SD card of up to 32GB, that additional storage will mainly benefit those using the device to play movies or listen to music, as security concerns prohibit launching and storing purchased applications on the memory card.
When I first saw the Nexus One, I have to admit I drooled a little, but after looking into the facts behind the device, I think I can resist. I used my job as a member of the gaming press to justify the purchase of an iPhone last year. It just doesn't look like I'd be able to use the same justification with the Nexus One.
http://kotaku.com/5440969/is-googles...ming-contender
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January 5th, 2010, 22:12 Posted By: wraggster
After weeks of speculation, Google has officially unveiled its new Nexus One Android handset, which it claims "belongs in the emerging class of devices which we call 'superphones'".
As predicted, the handset runs the latest version of the Android OS - version 2.1 - and has been made by HTC. It's got a 3.7-inch touchscreen and runs off Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon chipset.
Google has launched its own web-store to sell selected Android handsets, starting with the Nexus One. It's being sold SIM-free for $529, shipping to the US, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong.
However, T-Mobile USA will be selling it for $179 on a two-year contract. Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone will also be selling the handset from Spring, although no pricing details have been announced.
As you'd expect from a Google-branded phone, the Nexus One features all Google's apps, including Gmail, Google Voice and Google Maps Navigation. A new, whizzier version of Google Earth was also unveiled at the event, with desktop-like 3D fly-throughs.
Other entertainment-focused features include voice recognition integrated deep into the device, 'live' wallpapers, and a 3D photo-browsing gallery. The voice recognition was showed off at the launch by composing an email in Gmail by talking into the phone.
There's also a trackball for navigation below the touchscreen - interesting, given RIM's recent abandoning of trackballs in favour of trackpads. However, the fact that the trackball can pulse different colours to serve as notifications is a nifty selling point (for us ubergeeks, anyway).
One final note for app developers: Google confirmed at the event that it will soon drop its limit on the storage space available for apps on Android handsets. That means richer 3D games (for example) will be more feasible.
The official promo video for the Nexus One is below:
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January 3rd, 2010, 17:12 Posted By: wraggster
Yeah, hardware accelerating Doom is an important milestone in any fledgling system's career, but when you talk 3D acceleration, Quake is certainly a giant leap ahead of Doom in polygonal terms. The game has now been ported to webOS using the same new SDL library from version 1.3.5, and while it looks a little sluggish and crashy in the video after the break, it's clearly a landmark event just the same. Now if only we could get stuff like this in the App Catalog we'd be perfectly happy forever and ever. Or for at least a week.
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/03/q...-within-reach/
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January 1st, 2010, 00:40 Posted By: wraggster
You know it’s getting a bit ridiculous when hardware that hasn’t hit the streets is being rooted. That’s exactly what has happened, root access can now be achieved on the Nexus One. [Paul] found an exploit and packaged it nicely so that anyone can do it. We do wish he had shared the details of the exploit but we’re not complaining.
If you’re not in the know, the Nexus One is the fabled Google Phone now come to life. It’s slated for release in 2010 and some think that will be officially unveiled at a January 5th press conference. That’s right, unveiled. The device has been cracked yet it doesn’t officially exist. What it does do is join a growing number of rooted android phones.
http://hackaday.com/2009/12/31/nexus-one-rooted/
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December 31st, 2009, 17:51 Posted By: wraggster
Pre homebrew has certainly come a long way in its short but happy life -- and now it's just gotten another little notch in its belt. Apparently, with the release of webOS 1.3.5, Palm has included a software library called SDL (or Simple Directmedia Layer) which allows developers low-level hardware access -- like the kind needed to tap into accelerated 3D graphics. With a little bit of elbow grease, webOS hacker extraordinaire zsoc was able to put together a port of Doom which can be run within a card in the OS, and completely functions (including keyboard controls). You've got to get your hands a little dirty with the Terminal app to make things happen right now if you want to try it for yourself, though the experimenters promise an easier solution in the coming days. Exciting stuff for webOS users hungry for a little more horsepower... now let's see if Palm puts this into play come CES.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/31/h...es-to-the-pre/
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December 30th, 2009, 20:30 Posted By: wraggster
The new Google phone, the Nexus One, is rumored to cost $530 unlocked and will work on any GSM network. A subsidized version is also available for $180 and will get you a T-Mobile Even More Individual 500 Plan for 2-years with a $350 termination fee. Access to the phone is supposed to be invite only at first, with January 5th being the supposed release date.
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/09/...0-Or-180-wPlan
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December 29th, 2009, 12:31 Posted By: wraggster
News from the Pandora Blog:
First of all, since this is what most of would want to know: The Pandora did pass the CE testing! Yeah!
Now, for those interested in some more details on the test... here you go.
The quick test we did last time was just one of seven tests. The one that you can easily fail: The radiation testing.
This was the one we failed last time - but using tons of copper tape (well, not exactly tons... but quite a few stripes ), we shielded it good enough to pass it.
The other tests are more or less brutal: They all do test how sturdy the Pandora is.
Some are harmless, like shooting frequency waves from 80Hz to 1GHz onto the running Pandora to see if it will somehow flicker, crash or fail.
Well, it didn't. Linux doesn't crash, so the Pandora didn't even think of crashing just because of a few frequency waves.
The same thing has been repeated - this time with transmitting those frequencies into the power line, not directly onto the device.
Nothing. Angström was still standing there and smiling at us.
Of course, another similar test which had those frequencies directly from the power mains also didn't disturb our little friend.
The next test was easy: What happens when there's a power failure? Well, nothing of course, as the Pandora will simply run from battery then. Easy. Still, some devices do crash if the power failure is only for a few milliseconds. Well, some do. But not the Pandora.
Nothing to worry about here, now onto the more brutal tests.
(Note: If you are in risk of suffering a heart attack or something like that, you'd better not read on)
Next we have the ESD testing. Yep, electrostatical discharging. We did use a small device to fire statical electricity all over the Pandora. You could hear the LCD suffer, but it did survive without any damage. Of course, the OS was still running fine.
The next test is the most brutal one: What happens to the device, if there is a thunder struck near your house and the Pandora is connected to the mains via the AC Adaptor?
About 20% of the devices fail that test... they go down with a lot of sparkles and are dead. Yep. Dead, Jim.
So... we did try to fry the Pandora with peaks of 500V and 1000V. Nothing. Not even a blink. The OS was still working.
So, what did we learn here?
CE testing is brutal. And Linux is stable.
Nuff said. I will get the PDFs with the detailed testing reports tomorrow
http://www.open-pandora.org/index.ph...emid=2&lang=en
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December 29th, 2009, 11:47 Posted By: wraggster
We'd heard webOS 1.3.5 would be coming to the Pre on Sprint today, and here we go -- it's being pushed to devices right now. The official changelog is quite long, but the big-ticket tweaks include the removal of the app storage limit, better performance, and improved battery life. We'll let you know how our update goes -- you let us know the same now, kaykay? Kay.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/28/s...-5-to-the-pre/
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December 29th, 2009, 11:37 Posted By: wraggster
The NY Times reports that German encryption expert Karsten Nohl says that he has deciphered and published the 21-year-old GSM algorithm, the secret code used to encrypt most of the world's digital mobile phone calls, in what he called an attempt to expose weaknesses in the security system used by about 3.5 billion of the 4.3 billion wireless connections across the globe. Others have cracked the A5/1 encryption technology used in GSM before, but their results have remained secret. 'This shows that existing GSM security is inadequate,' Nohl told about 600 people attending the Chaos Communication Congress. 'We are trying to push operators to adopt better security measures for mobile phone calls.' The GSM Association, the industry group based in London that devised the algorithm and represents wireless operators, called Mr. Nohl's efforts illegal and said they overstated the security threat to wireless calls. 'This is theoretically possible but practically unlikely,' says Claire Cranton, a GSM spokeswoman, noting that no one else had broken the code since its adoption. 'What he is doing would be illegal in Britain and the United States. To do this while supposedly being concerned about privacy is beyond me.' Simon Bransfield-Garth, the chief executive of Cellcrypt, says Nohl's efforts could put sophisticated mobile interception technology — limited to governments and intelligence agencies — within the reach of any reasonable well-funded criminal organization. 'This will reduce the time to break a GSM call from weeks to hours,' Bransfield-Garth says. 'We expect as this further develops it will be reduced to minutes.
http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/12/2...tion-Published
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December 28th, 2009, 18:19 Posted By: wraggster
Well, lookie here: it's not up on Palm's support site yet, but Sprint is showing a release date of December 28 -- that's today, by the way -- for webOS 1.3.5 on the Pre. This is a pretty nifty little upgrade, you might recall -- nifty enough to get none other than CEO Jon Rubinstein to name-drop it during the company's most recent earnings call -- thanks to the removal of the platform's troublesome app storage limit, better performance, better battery life (particularly in weak cell coverage), and a host of bugfixes sure to put a smile on your pretty face. Let us know how those updates go, alright?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/28/s...the-pre-today/
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December 25th, 2009, 22:54 Posted By: wraggster
Whilst the Pandora isnt here yet heres yet another reason to want one, heres Commodore 64 emulation on the Pandora
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December 22nd, 2009, 22:45 Posted By: wraggster
With Advanced Battery Saver from WebGate you can adjust the power consumption of your phone functions, services and applications depending on your needs. Use Advanced Battery Saver to get up to 30% more uptime for your phone. Three predefined power-saving modes: Saver off, Basic saver and Max saver, help you quickly switch your power-saving configuration Option to define your own power-saving modes to extend the life of your battery by selecting which phone functions and applications to shut down according to your needs.
http://my-symbian.com/s60v3/software...Auto=776&faq=1
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December 22nd, 2009, 15:59 Posted By: wraggster
The long (long!) awaited Pandora gaming handheld is inching closer and closer to reality, with all but a few i's and t's left to dot and cross (respectively). It's so close to ready, in fact, that personnel from the device's production team invited a mere mortal (also known as a forum member) to their homes in order to test out and tinker with a pre-production model. Naturally, his hands-on experience was nothing short of glowing -- but really, we wouldn't expect anything less from a devout forum member who clearly digs even the idea of having a Pandora to hold and snuggle with. There's no denying the awesomeness that awaits you in the video past the break, though, and if the unit really does handle everything as smoothly as it does Super Mario 64, we're all in for a treat.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/22/n...wn-playing-su/
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December 21st, 2009, 23:58 Posted By: wraggster
News from http://www.open-pandora.org/index.ph...emid=2&lang=en
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