Pandora Gaming Handheld Close To Shipping Linux-based Emulating Gaming Handheld Coming Soon

We first covered the saga of the Pandora gaming handheld last year. The
small device, being backed by an open-source team and community, has had
a long three year de
velopment cycle, and it's now coming near the end as they've begun
taking pre-orders for the device as the first models are coming soon.
The Pandora handheld came around in about 2007, and it's being developed
with the 'help' of internet forum memberships and they're attempting to
incorporate several open-source ideas into the device. There is
something definitely sort of homebrew rustic about the device, and I
can't help but cheer for the underdogs.
Their website dubs the Pandora as the most powerful gaming handheld ,
and if you compare the specs to the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS, then yeah,
it edges them out. It includes a 600MHZ processor, 256MB of RAM and
PowerVR graphics. While these specs might edge out the six year-old
Nintendo DS and the five year-old Sony PSP, they aren't really
impressive today. In fact, aside from the graphics, the Nexus One has
more powerful specs.
The Pandora is more of a UMPC than a dedicated gaming handhold. It runs
a conventional desktop Linux OS, and the computer can play video and
music files like you'd expect from a full OS. The gaming solution is a
bit… semi-legal. It will include a series of common console
emulators (they say from the Sega Dreamcast, to earlier, so all your old
favorites).
After three years of development, the team has begun accepting e-mail
only pre-orders. As they explain, the project is at an early age, and
they are estimating the first deliveries of the first pre-orders any
time from now to December 2010. We contacted OpenPandora on current
pricing, and they haven't gotten back to us at press time.
Edit: OpenPandora still hasn't gotten back to my e-mails, but TFTS
commentator fischju says that the Pandora has been out for pre-order
since November, it'll cost $330 and that the first units will ship in
March.