Linux

RockChip Acts On Their Promise, RK3188 Linux Source Now Available

In a video I posted back in April, RockChip Vice President Chen Feng promised that they were working towards becoming a more open company. Ultimately most people are hoping this means releasing their Android source, but for now the first step has been taken and they’ve released a Linux source code for their RK3188 SoC. …

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OUYA: Initial Thoughts

First off, I don’t want to call this a review. There are a number of reasons why – the main one being I don’t think you can accurately “review” a console. There are too many variables. Secondly, the OUYA hasn’t officially even launched yet. Yes, all the Kickstarter backers have been sent their OUYAs, but …

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Another Indie Home Console On The Horizon

What is the PawByte NextGen home console? All will be revealed in a press event on the 14th of this month apparently. Up ’til now no exact specs have been revealed, but we do know that it’ll be running a customised version of Arch Linux, will run on an x86 architecture CPU and will cost …

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Yinlips Replaces YDPG18A with… wait for it… the YDPG19!

And people think Nintendo updates the DS series a bit too often… Amateurs! Yinlips have updated their flagship Android gaming handheld. Following on the heels of their recently upgraded YDPG17, they have announced an upgrade to their 5″ offering, the new YDPG19. The G19 shares a lot of specs with its predecessor  the G18A, in that it …

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GCW Zero Final Payments Made, Release Date Announced

The GCW Zero slipped its late August release date as most people thought it would, but just a couple of days ago invoices were sent out requesting the final payments for the device. We are told that the Linux driven handheld will now ship on October 1st from the USA. The GCW Zero is a project …

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Some SNES Games Tested On The GCW Zero Prototype

Qbertaddict is back to test some requested SNES games on the new GCW prototype. It should be noted that these are not finished ports of the emulators and things should be improved by release, having said that it’s looking pretty sweet so far. GCW team are offering a bonus for pre-orderers. The RAM will be …

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Panasonic Ventures Into New Territory – The Jungle

Well this is an unlikely and rather surprising turn up for the books. Japanese firm Panasonic (or their newly founded offshoot company ‘Panasonic Cloud Entertainment’) are reportedly working on a new handheld device with the sole purpose of playing MMO games on the go. The machine is said to run on Linux, have a super high resolution screen and a full keyboard as well as gaming controls of some sort.

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Pandora. The holy grail of handheld gaming?

Pandora is marketed as the most powerful gaming handheld on the market to date. Although it has full gaming controls, it also boasts a keyboard and runs a full Linux desktop environment meaning it can also be used as a very tiny PC of sorts. Check the specifications out below:

  • ARM® Cortex™-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
  • 430-MHz TMS320C64x+™ DSP Core
  • PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
  • 800×480 4.3″ 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD
  • Wifi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth & High Speed USB 2.0 Host
  • Dual SDHC card slots & SVideo TV output
  • Dual Analogue and Digital gaming controls
  • 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
  • Around 10+ Hours battery life

The machine was designed by the community at the GP32X forums, and steered in a workable direction by the OpenPandora team. The final result was this; a fully functioning computer that can do everything a computer can do, with full gaming controls and the ability to play graphically impressive games, both natively and emulated. The software is completely Open Source, meaning anyone can take any piece of its huge library of software and modify or improve it as they feel fit. This includes the Operating System!

No, the cup isn’t big – the machine is small 🙂

I am the proud owner of one of these, and I’d like to share with you some of the things I have discovered in the short time I’ve owned it.

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