Pandigital Planet, 7" 800x600 resistive model R70A200

IMPORTANT UPDATE: A Facebook user going under a nick "I Love The Pandigital Planet" (John M. Chilson in protein-based life) has apparently made a critical discovery about presence and functioning of USB Host in the device:

I Love The Pandigital Planet
THE USB PORT ON THE PLANT IS A HOST PORTWhich means the you can hook up outside devices such as wifi keyboards (testing other devises and will post at a later date) but caution must be taken to ensure you dont mess up your unit a usb adapter( "dongle" USB A Female to Mini USB B 5 Pin Male Adapter is needed to hook up other usb devices this can be found at www,gamedroid2.webs.com)
STEPS FOR CONNECTING OUTSIDE BEVICES
1.power up the PDP2. insert adaptor (usb dongle)3.connect outside device via usb cable4. power up outside device
TO DISCONNECT OUTSIDE DEVICE
1. go to the home screen on the PDP2.turn off outside unit3.power off the PDP4. disconnect the usb cable5. remove the "dongle adaptor"6.reboot7. power down the PDP (this will reset the unit8.reboot to use.
THESE STEPS MUST BE FOLLOWED TO ORDER TO ENSURE YOU DONT DAMAGE YOUR UNIT. 

See http://www.facebook.com/LoveThePandigitalPlanet. Jury is still out on this development (Slatedroid developers for PDP are testing the trick, as we speak), but one thing is clear: AML8726-M chip has a support for USB Host mode 2.0, and it would take a concentrated effort of original "developers" and "designers"to deny it. Like whate they did for original NookColor firmware.

A note aside: I wish to find such an enthusiast for us, Ainollers: anyone to start a life as "I Love The Novo8"???


With their usual delay, Pandigital has put up  a page http://www.pandigital.net/search.asp?productid=459 about their new tablet that sells at Kohl for a month now. In the absence of published specs, one of the first Pandigital Planet (PDP for short, as funny as it sounds) has published some internals:


PDP user sam2k10 tried Quadrant on the mysterious device and discovered this:
This is what Quadrant Standard app shows under system information:

System
SDK version: 2.2.1
ID: MID
OS Name: Linux
OS version: 2.6.34

Device:
Model: PD_Novel
Product: pandigitalplnt1
Board: m1ref
Brand: Generic
Fingerprint: unknown

CPU
Name: ARMv7 Processor rev 1 (v71)
Current freq: 280MHz
Max freq: 800 MHz
Min freq: 200 MHz
Cores: 1
Architecture: 7
BogoMIPS: 558.14
Hardware: AMLOGIC MESON-M1 8726M SZ
Revision: 1

GPU (OpenGL)
Vendor: ARM
Renderer: Mali-400 MP
Version: OpenGL ES-CM 1.1

Max texture units: 8
Max texture size: 4096
Max lights: 8

VBO: supported
Frame buffers: supported
Cube maps: unsupported
Texture combiners: supported
DOT3 combiner: supported
Crossbar combiner: unsupported

Sensors
MXC622X
MMC314X
Mag & Acc Combo Orientation Sensor


When I ran the full benchmark test of the free version of this software, the score reported was 867 once and 893 the second time. Out of the devices it listed, this is the ranking it gave.

Nexus One 2.2+
Moto Droid X 2.2+
HTC Evo 2.2+
Moto Droid X
This Device (i.e, Pandigital Planet)
Samsung Galaxy S
Nexus One
HTC Desire
SE Xperia X10i
Moto Droid
HTC Magic

Amlogic has released its description of 8726M SoC:




AMLOGIC UNVEILS INTEGRATED ARM CORTEX-A9 CHIP FOR NEXT GENERATION OF HD MULTIMEDIA AND 3D EXPERIENCE


AML8726-M Chip Combines Full 1080p HD Video Decoding, ARM Cortex-A9 and Mali-400 Graphics for Premium Performance in Cost-Sensitive Applications


SANTA CLARA, Calif.-Nov.11, 2010-Amlogic, a leading fabless semiconductor company providing advanced solutions for a wide range of consumer applications, today announced the availability of Amlogic's newest high-performance HD computing platform, the AML8726-M system on chip (SoC). This new SoC is powered by Amlogic's proprietary HD video decoding engine, an ARM® Cortex&trade -A9 processor and an ARM Mali&trade -400 GPU and produces world-class performance for full 3D gaming. Amlogic has integrated full 1080p high-definition video capabilities and a range of connectivity options that will enable Amlogic's partners to bring next-generation consumer electronics products to market at a cost-effective price point.


Amlogic has the many years of experience in providing advanced application processors to customer markets with our proprietary multimedia processing engine and system architecture. This new AML8726-M solution ushers in a new era of connected CE devices. The Amlogic and ARM partnership began just a little more than a year ago, with Amlogic licensing key ARM technologies and utilizing ARM services to aid in development. "By using CPU, GPU and system IP technology from ARM, we were able to bring this new chip platform to market in record time," said John Zhong, CEO of Amlogic. "The ARM IP is designed with the entire SoC system in mind, which helped us minimize the development window to meet consumer demand for the next generation of electronics."


"Amlogic has a proven track record of opening up new markets for its partners," said Ian Drew, executive vice president of marketing at ARM. "With the new AML8726-M, Amlogic continues that tradition, providing a computing platform for its partners to move quickly to compete on price and performance in a variety of consumer electronics segments such as tablets, set-top boxes, digital photo frames, DTV and other connected devices."


Amlogic's new AML8726-M chip is available now for sampling, and an AndroidTM OS-based reference development platform will be available in the first quarter of 2011. Highlights of the AML 8726-M include:
1080p video for H.264, VC-1, WMV, MPEG1/2/4 and 1080P HDMI output
The ability to run Android 2.2, Linux, OpenGL ES 2.0
Browser support for HTML5, Adobe® Flash 10.1 and Adobe® Air®



Connectivity options provided by the AML8726-M include 10/100 Ethernet, two USB OTG interfaces, 3-in-1 Card Reader and SATA interface along with software driver support for popular external WiFi chipsets. The comprehensive level of integration is enhanced by Amlogic's track record for delivering cost-optimized solutions to established and emerging consumer markets.

"Sometimes it's not just about delivering the fastest frequency or even the lowest power consumption " said Michael Mo, senior director of business development at Amlogic. "Compelling consumer products are created by delivering the right mix of performance and features at the right price."
Synopsys and SMIC Team to Deliver Proven SoC Design Solution for 65-nm to 40-nm Process Nodes

Quite extensive developers' resources can be found here Amlogic Opensource .

User drenner99 has added some sysinfo:

Android Version: 2.2.1
Release Codename: REL
API Level: 8
CPU ABI: armeabi-v7a
Manufacturer: Amlogic
CPU ABI2: armeabi
Hardware: amlogic
Board: m1ref
Brand: generic
Device: pandigitalplnt1
Host: droid03-sh.amlogic.com
ID: MID
Model: PD-Novel
Product: pandigitalplnt1
Tags: test-keys
Type: user
User: peng.su


System/Memory:

Download Cache Max: 63.86MB
Data Max: 255MB free - 177MB
Threshold Ram: 16MB



System/CPU:

Processor ARMv7 Processor rev 1 (v71)
BogoMIPS 637.88
Features swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3
CPU implementer 0x41
CPU architecture 7
CPU variant 0x1
CPU part 0xc09
CPU revision 1
Hardware AMLOGIC MESON-M1 8726M SZ
Revision 0020
Freq range 200-> 800 MHz
Current Freq 360MHz


System/Camera:

Antibanding 50hz
Color effect none
Focus mode: auto
Focal length: 4.31
Horz View angle: 54.8


System/Screen

Resolution: 600 X 800
Refresh reate: 60.0
X factor for DIP: 1.125
Density 180 dpi
Pixel per inch X: 141 dpi Y: 143

System/Sensors:

MXC622X: 0.005 mA by MEMSIC
MMC314X: 0.003 mA by MEMSIC
Mag & Acc Combo Orientation Sensor: 0.0 mA by MEMSIC 

0

• 
• 

All the red outline above is  mine, just wanted to focus your attention on some outstanding features of the device. Or funny features, like different X and Y dpi.

User balrogbob has started custom ROM development for this device while aggressively testing its capabilities with stock firmware:

First off, found a working bar-code scanner!!! Pic2shop. scans even in low light, but only does bar codes for products, not qr codes. it also has a quirk, you have to hold the unit upside down in portrait mode to scan. this was barcode app number 9 or so. for qr codes, barcode scanner will read them off of a monitor just fine, cause the high light lets our crappy camera focus well.

Updates:

Googe Voice (ripped from froyo market packege in rapmv's topic): Flawless. Just install the apk as a regular user app.

Sound recorder (Ripped from cyanogen mod on WPDN): Records perfectly.

Google Maps: Works, pinch zoom is wonky.

Tubemate: Just found out that it can download 1080p youtube videos as well. seems to have issues downloading large files, but resumes broken downloads if you restart from the video in the main window.

Working as tested by fukxou:

Ip Cam Viewer Lite
IM+
Bubble Popper
Facebook V1.5
Karls Mortgage Calculator
Wordfeud 

Working as tested by DavidPuddy:

ADW Launcher
Set CPU (Really helps)
SKYFIRE (Dolphin Crashes)
TuineIn Radio
Titanium Backup
The Weather Channel (Removing now...)
Video Poker
Z4 Root
WinAmp
WatchDog (Free from Amazon yesterday. Not sure if I'll keep)
IHeartRadio
Google Maps (NO GPS)
PhotoShop Express
Angry Birds, Seasons, Rio, Regular
Amazon App store
Barcode Scanner
Ebay 

/Updates

Autokiller Memory Optimizer: GET IT!!! Makes the device scream, set to aggressive, and it will autokill the damn pandigital updater and other resource hungry tasks. Flawless.

Adobe flash 10.3 works almost perfect... desktop mode youtube videos have no sound. cant figure out why. flash games work, and most video sites get hijacked by the f**king awesome uplayer anyway. hell, youporn even works with uplayer......... (did i just admit to that? oh well!)

Adobe acrobat 10: flawless. pinch zoom even works.

Angry Birds: Flawless.

IReader: flawless. (best txt and html reader evar. IMHO)

Documents To Go 2.0 (only version I have): Doesn't detect screen resolution, so runs in 320x240 mode. otherwise works.

Netflix 1.2.1: works to adjust que and such, no streaming. 1.2.2: FC after login

QQplayer: Works perfectly, although the nerfed 800mhz can mean slow software mode playback for high bitrate files.

SetCPU: Flawless. even detects all cpu profiles, such as performance, conservative, usermode, and ondemand. use generic arm profile.

Stream media player: I found this necessary on CM6, works flawlessly, but default player supports allot more formats. (formats that no other android tablet or phone does as far as I know, like OGM(single audio stream only, fc with 2 or more) straight FLV, m2ts, vob, mkv.)

Youtube app from market: hit and miss. Uplayer is actually better anyway! (uplayer is now installed on my herotab mid816, my wpdn, and my moto droid phone. woo!)

Tubemate: O god I just creamed my pants. works perfectly, use alternate rendering mode for the website. downloads 720p files, which work flawlessly in default player. also download flv, which also works flawlessly.

z4root: 1.3 root just fine!

Quake2Droid: Yes, a very resource hungry game. accelerometer works for first few seconds, then is auto shut off by the damn nerfed kernel. also, the accelo is mounted on the wrong side, or pan dropped the screen in upside down AGAIN!!! (most likely) so you have to play with it upside down. Since we don't have true multi touch, not very playable, but with a little patience and skill, can be done! (died on lvl 2. grrrr.) full 60 fps. goddamn is this thing a graphics power house. the mali 400 gpu screams. EDIT: accelo errors are all q2d. acceloromiter works fine for Homerunbattle3d

Dolphin browser HD: force quits. the hell?

Firefox: dog slow bloatware piece of crap. runs out of ram and locks up the device. have to hard reset. DON'T TRY IT DUDES! (or do. maybe I'm just stupid.) also, touching the address bar doesn't work.

Skype: Flawless. mic quality can interfere a bit, as it sucks *** ****** **** ********. (you don't want to know) otherwise very usable. Apparently there is still no video chat for skype. bastards.

HDMIswitcher: a default program yes, but it works with all apps. you can access it from the taskbar, by pulling down. a double tap and hold the second tap to drag, a double tap is equivalen to a screen tap. 

HomerunBattle3D: an older game i had on my droid, works flawlessly. uses the g sensor to play. hold it flat, and it works perfect! the g-sensor is very acceptable in this game. i was knocking them out of the park!

Nethack Slash'EM: FC.

Solitare: dont even know the version lol. Does not detect resolution. There is definatly something up with the graphics here, might be a limitation of the mali, or poorly written drivers, as several apps run in a 480X240 window.

Antsmasher: Works, small window issue again.

Better terminal emulator PRO: flawless.

d20 tools(dice roller):flawless

Dope wars: works, small screen issue.

Frozen Bubble: Flawless.

Jewels: Works, only uses 800x480 of the screen. (has the same problem on WPDN)

jjComics viewer: Flawless.

K-9 Mail: Flawless, best mail client IMHO

NinJump: Flawless.

PaperToss: Flawless.

What does it mean, eventually? It means that if you (or your lady) are a habitual buyer of Kohl merchandise, you can get this toy for just ~$130 plus tax. Some reported an expense of just around $100 (plus purchase of 3 dress shirts, though).

What are you waiting for? Custom CM6 and CM7 for PDP will arrive shortly. However, RAM of 256 MB leaves no chances for Android 3, maybe IceCreamSandwich when it really hits "dumb" phones and "poor" tablets. Other lousy specs of PDP include -- but not limited to -- cheapo resistive screen with very poor view angles, throwaway cam, non-working, or outright missing GPS receiver/antenna (GPS is apparently there, just hidden by the same "developers" who lost extra 256 MB of RAM) and digital compass, no BT (?). But $100...$130 spent on other tablet hardly can offer you more that this little toy is able to do. Or will able to do -- very soon.

Rockchip RK2918 based tablets, like Arnova, you say? Promised to hit Walmart in May, where are they? Especially for $140...

UPDATE: Amlogic's and Synopsys's data show that Amlogic's 8726-M chip has 512 MB RAM, the Chinese online retailer shows it in the specs for their very Chinese tablet with even lousier cam of 300 Kpixels, but for $119 when delivered to US. Somebody needs to call SantaClaran Amlogic HQ:  +1 408-850-9688, to get to the bottom of it: are there really TWO versions of the same SoC?

UPDATE: balrogbob leads Planet development, and WPDN-style Market is available for PDP now. Even with Market trimmed to work on weak tablets like Novel, Planet needs an aggressive app killer, to clear the field, as these Market services/syncing/periodical full-body searches slow down Planet significantly.

TRAGIC UPDATE FOR THE PLANET: It's 256 MB only, folks. $180+ for it is a robbery, when the similar but nameless tablet with GPS and 512 MB can be had for $109...$120 from China. Mr balrogbob vows to continue his advanced hacking into the device though, and try a trick of getting RAM memory swap on SD. Me, I'd rather have a friend at Kohl's to get me the unit for $60 (with an employee discount). Or much better still, go looking for a Velfone Sci-Tech T-060 here and elsewhere where they care to add the price and subtract 4G. After Huawei MediaPad's 217 DPI with apparently very high price tag, I love my cheapo tablet be well below $200 for respectable 182 DPI capacitive non-IPS. Just, like I said, pull out 3G/SIM slots out of that baby.
TRAGEDY IS ALMOST OVER, SO Ainol NOVO8 may come in: Ainol NOVO8 at Merimobiles:

For your $235, you'll get a a whooping 0.3MP front camera, a silly row of 7 hard buttons plus trackball (I might like that, because it might eliminate lot of smears from the screen), Android 2.2 Gingerbread (very Chinese "Gingerbread"). But among all other unbelievable cheapo plasticky things, there is this 182 DPI capacitive 5-touch 8" screen (1280x768). Sure, one can watch smooth HD 1080p 55+ FPS on Pandigital Planet (one day, that is), but its murky resistive grid screen of 132 dpi kills the joy very easily when compared to this high-def display. Specs are here, even when some have been lost in translation:
Product
Ainol NOVO 8 1080P Android 2.2 8GB Cortex A9 HDMI 8.0 inch 1280x768+trackball
Warranty
1 Year, click here for detailsCPU
Cortex A9 CPU Amlogic 800Mhz CPU + Mali 400GPUOS
Android 2.2 Gingerbread, Flash 10.1
Memory
512MB DDR2 Ram, 8GB Nandflash built in
Extend Memory up to 32GB via micro sd card

Screen
8.0 inch Capacitive Multitouch
1280x768 pixels
Audio
3.5mm headphone jack
Built in Microphone
Supports: MP3/WMA/WAV/AAC/AAC+
Video
MKV、AVI、RM、RMVB、MP4、MOV、VOB、DAT、FLV、3GP video formats, 1080p ideo playback; with 4：3, 16：9 and full screen playback modeFeatures and highlights

• High Resolution 1280*768
• 8inch Capacitive Multitouch
• 802.11b/g/n WiFi built in
• Cortex A9 CPU
• Trackball perfect for some games, extra way of navigating
• Gsensor
• Powerful multimedia playback, support 1080p video playback, and supports HDMI output
• 0.3MP front camera
• USB port
• Hdmi out
• OTG port
• Supports mouse, external keyboard
• Multilanguage support
• Photo broswer: Jpeg
• PDF Reader
• Thousands of apps
• Ebook: TXT, UMD, CHM, HTML, PDB
• 3D Games Support

Camera
Front 0.3MP
Battery
Built in Battery 4-6hours
Package 
Content

• Ainol NOVO 8
• USB cable
• Power charger
• Earphone

7-button monster on a poor man's Retina, woohoo! There's like gazillions of Chinese vendors, not a single being reliable, but I will be looking for one that also can retail it at $200.

Here, I failed to see how it is worse than any Tegra2 tablet at least twice more expensive and running Honeycomb:



HDMI output and mouse work out of the box.