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Handhelds Portables (Games) Wireless Networking Hardware

Gamepark Holdings Officially Announces the WIZ Handheld 166

Croakyvoice writes "Gamepark Holdings, the makers of the GP2X Console, have today announced the successor, which is called the WIZ. The new GBA Micro-sized console features a touchscreen, Linux OS, an Arm9 533MHZ 3D processor with 64MB of ram and will have commercial games on sale at launch in October. Best of all for fans of homebrew and emulation on the GP2X, all that needs to be done is recompiling of sourcecode."
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Gamepark Holdings Officially Announces the WIZ Handheld

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  • Additional Info (Score:5, Interesting)

    by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn&gmail,com> on Tuesday August 26, 2008 @01:21PM (#24753347) Journal
    From what specifics I could find [dcemu.co.uk] on it, they are planning on supporting Flash 7.0 and I think this means one could play swfs on it (of which I know several addictive games online).

    As for other support, I'm kind of disappointed that they went far enough to support Lyrics (Lyc) files but they only support TXT for their E-Books. I would be nice to see Plucker [gutenberg.org] supported by default so that all the Project Gutenberg books would be readily accessible in something better than just plain text. But, I suppose that's just a matter of recompiling [plkr.org] for the targeted architecture. I wonder if proprietary e-Book formats will ever be supported on devices like this? That's probably just wishful thinking--why would Amazon divert sales of the Kindle to something like this?
  • Re:The Pandora (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dreamchaser ( 49529 ) on Tuesday August 26, 2008 @02:10PM (#24754045) Homepage Journal

    Really? Just copy paste? No effort to even say something from your own head? Wow, how informative.

    It added more to the discussion than your AC whining did.

  • Re:OpenPandora (Score:3, Interesting)

    by 4D6963 ( 933028 ) on Tuesday August 26, 2008 @02:50PM (#24754601)

    How could it not be cheaper than the Pandora? The Wiz has a much less powerful SoC, the Pandora has the most powerful SoC out there (TI OMAP 3530), with WiFi, Bluetooth, a keyboard, analog dual nubs on top of the D-pad and the *proper* other buttons (a double D-pad?? What the hell are these guys smoking?). Also a 800x480 screen vs 320x240. Oh and I'm not even talking about the vast battery life in the Pandora. That's the sort of thing that make the difference between just another PMP/console and a cutting edge high end gaming console/UMPC.

    The Wiz replaces your GP2X, the Pandora replaces your GP2X, PSP (OK it doesn't have the commercial games but it will emulate all PSX games better than the PSP and it's vastly more powerful than the PSP anyways), and EEE. That's right, I said EEE, same screen resolution, a keyboard, WiFi/Bluetooth (does the EEE even have Bluetooth?), a possibility to put Ubuntu on both (no Windows though), and considered the reduced size and increased battery life it makes it an advantageous replacement.

    So yeah, comparing the two is like comparing an Audi TT with your mom's Volkswagen. You can drive on the road with both, but that's where the comparison ends, hence the necessary price tag difference.

  • Re:The Pandora (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Goaway ( 82658 ) on Tuesday August 26, 2008 @02:52PM (#24754643) Homepage

    A qwerty keyboard? Is that some kind of joke?

    That thing is suffering HORRIBLY from feature checklist mentality. Just throw more and more features at it in the hope of attracting people who just read the feature list, without any regard for making a system that makes sense as a whole.

  • Re:The Pandora (Score:3, Interesting)

    by atraintocry ( 1183485 ) on Tuesday August 26, 2008 @03:02PM (#24754779)
    Absolutely. The GP2X is a great little device, and the Wiz improves on a lot of key areas of its design. Essentially it's somewhere between a hardware revision for the '2X and a new product.

    The Pandora, on the other hand, was developed in response to what the GP2X community was interested in, with lots of feedback and every step. As a result we have two fairly different devices on the way: a GP2X "micro" with improvements all around (but an unfortunately lack of regular buttons on the right hand side) and the Pandora, which is closer to an UMPC but runs on ARM and is designed around gaming.

    In the end, though, I don't think the big difference will be the built-in controls, as both these devices do a lot more than just play games. I think it's going to be the price, and the fact that the Pandora has WLAN.
  • Re:The Pandora (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Drasil ( 580067 ) on Tuesday August 26, 2008 @03:30PM (#24755171)
    The feature list of the Pandora is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for when it comes to mobile computing. Small enough to fit in my hip pocket, while having most of the features of a full blown laptop. It makes very good sense to me.
  • Re:The Pandora (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 26, 2008 @03:32PM (#24755203)

    Do you know ANYTHING about the history, community, or purpose behind the GP32, GP2X and Pandora?

    The Pandora is not intended to compete with the likes of the PSP or DS.

    It is intended as the ultimate homebrew/retro-gaming/emulation device. As such, a keyboard has been a highly requested feature; it will be perfect for emulation of things like the C64, Amiga, DOSBOX, etc. Not to mention making it practical as an ultra-mini notebook.

    Believe me, they are not just "throwing features in" to try and attract buyers; the feature-set has been 100% community driven, this is exactly what everyone wanted. I think they've done an outstanding job and can't wait to get my hands on one.

  • Re:Obligatory (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jo42 ( 227475 ) on Tuesday August 26, 2008 @04:25PM (#24755975) Homepage

    Wot's up with naming things after urinating? First the Wii, then the Wiz. Wot's next? The P33?

  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 26, 2008 @04:43PM (#24756219)

    Are you kidding? $330 for an mp3/ogg/avi/wma/flv player that can emulate DOS/NES/GBA/SEGA/SNES/whatever-the-hell-else-you-want-cause-it-runs-linux AND has wifi and S-Video out? I'm buying two, one to use, and one to keep in my pants because I can. Err pocket, I mean. Pants pocket.

  • Re:The Pandora (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 26, 2008 @05:07PM (#24756509)

    I have the GP2X and I'm pretty happy with it. The controls are pretty horrible but many types of games are very playable. What I find most interesting about the Pandora is that it's being designed by people who had the same gripes about the GP2X as I did. There will be no "center click" for it's joypad; it will be a single piece of plastic with a center pivot.

    In addition, the qwerty keyboard is appealing to me because I like to emulate some older home computers. Ultima isn't much fun with an onscreeen keyboard and the NES ports for it aren't very good in my opinion.

    I'm skeptical that they will be able to stay on their price point, but if they do I'll probably end up buying one. eventually.

    On a side not I'd like to add that I really enjoy the indie gaming scene. Yeah there are a lot of boring/derivative games out there, but there are also people taking chances that you don't see in the mainstream market.

  • Re:The Pandora (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Svartalf ( 2997 ) on Tuesday August 26, 2008 @05:40PM (#24756869) Homepage

    I would not go so far as stating 100 hours. The rather large (for a handheld, that is...) Li-Ion battery they expect to ship it with will give it roughly 10 or so hours of runtime with the power consumption of the components on the bringup board I got. This is at the clock speed of 600MHz. Underclock it and it'll consume a lot less juice and with the DSP core in there, it should be able to play MP3's, etc. with much less juice. Something like 20+ hours, maybe.

  • Re:The Pandora (Score:4, Interesting)

    by atomicthumbs ( 824207 ) <atomicthumbs@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Tuesday August 26, 2008 @08:47PM (#24758797) Homepage
    The hardware designer, MWeston, has stated that by turning off the CPU and main RAM and screen and almost everything else, they'll be able to get 100 hours. The music will be played by the DSP, using the chip's built-in 64KB of scratch memory as RAM.

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