Dingoonity.org

good news
but, how much about new item's CPU frequency?i only interest about this.
and if appearance is not like "psp"?

Hello there dingootech.

As you probably know a great number of Dingoo users here use Dingux (Linux distribution for Dingoo A320/330).
I would like to know what is your company's view on Dingux.
We here think that official support for Dingux from Dingoo Tech would be very beneficial for both the sides. There are tens of classic pc games for Dingux (like Doom, Duke Nukem 3D or Quake), as well as a lot of genuine ones and also a great variety of different emulators, including such a "heavy" platforms like the Sony Playstation (PSX). Dingux has also support for most of the Dingoo's hardware. It supports such critical elements as LCD and audio, button input and tv-out. Moreover Dingux adds support for new hardware elements, lacking from the native os, for example: Real Time Clock (RTC) and usb networking (internet via connection with a PC).
Lacking elements, such as NAND (built-in memory) and FM radio chip support are being currently worked on, and there is already success in reading the NAND.

As you can see Dingux is the future of the Dingoo, and I even dare to say Dingux is the reason Dingoo A320 is a successfully selling device.

I hope you're in the position to answer my question and/or pass this information to the core team of Dingoo Tech.

Here are links to:
1) Dingoo File Archive, a place where you can download all the dingux games/apps: http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/dingoo.cgi
2) List of dingux games: http://dingoowiki.com/index.php/Dingux:Games
3) List of dingux emulators: http://dingoowiki.com/index.php/Dingux:Emulators

WiFi ;-)

Don't ask me the questions regards the rumors

Why? Surely if there was nothing in them then you could give us some clear proof either way.

Why doesn't the A330 have a firmware that can utilize it's 64MiB of ram?
That seems like very bad practice to me. In fact selling a product under the premise that it has higher specs than it can use is illegal in most countries (trade descriptions act).
If you have access to the firmware than can you please tell me why you haven't updated it then native programs can use the extra memory, clockspeed and realtime clock?

Why did my A330 arrive with such awful build quality when my original A320 arrived in perfect condition (from Dingoo Digital)?

Judging by the quality (or lack thereof) of your previous products can you give us any indication that your future products are worth bothering with, cause at the minute all you've made since the supposed split/change of name is a very crap dingoo update and a really poo Gameboy Advance SP looking things with specs lower than a calculator.

As for improving your products can I suggest that you do the following to increase your profits and hopefully the build quality.
- Remove the rubbish microphone, nobody uses it and it's really bad quality.
- Remove the radio-chip since it's very infrequently used.
- Use a better ingenic chip (ideally jz4755) with tv-out built in.
- Update the card slot to a proper SD card slot that doesn't break.
- Point the speakers towards the user.
- Remove the headphone socket and just use the AV-out socket for headphones.
- Add some sort of wireless communication even if it's only bluetooth.
- Update the firmware.

Before you run ahead and start adding "features" to the Dingoo, fix what is currently broken.

If I was given the opportunity to "improve" the Dingoo, my initial focus would be the user interface, i.e., the controls. What's inside the little black box really doesn't matter if the controls that access it are poorly designed and/or badly built.

With the A320, for example, my biggest peeve was the shoulder buttons; these are essential to good SNES and GBA gaming experiences; as well, they are used for by the native OS  as controls for some of the apps/tools, as are the A and B buttons, so they are essential for using the device out -of-the-box.

The shoulder buttons on my first Dingoo both broke after literally 10 or 15 minutes of use. With every Dingoo I've owned since, I've found myself remapping the shoulder buttons whenever possible to avoid using them out of fear of the same thing happening. There are many games that I simply don't/can't play because of my concerns about the shoulder buttons.

I was so excited about the "improved" shoulder buttons on the A330 that, against my better judgment (I usually wait a year before purchasing a new piece of hardware just to make sure all the bugs are worked out), I pre-ordered one immediately. Are the shoulder buttons really an improvement? I don't know... because I had to return my A330 as soon as I got it because of a totally different manufacturing problem: Large chunks of plastic stuck between the LCD and the screen cover. From what I've heard about the "new" shoulder buttons, though, they're the same kind of switches (just as fragile and likely to snap off) but with a different button on top.

When the A330 was announced, I didn't really care about the extra RAM or the possibility of other software upgrades; while those things are nice and all, for me it was all about the controls -- not just the shoulder buttons, but possible improvements in the d-pad and A/B/X/Y buttons, and also the more "ergonomic" shape. We all know how that turned out.

And, of course, there's the wireless controller. That was another great idea that turned into a bit of a dropped ball. If, perhaps, a bit more time would have been taken on R&D, you could have avoided "hardwiring" the wireless controller buttons in such a limiting way. When I first saw the controller, I thought, "Wow! This could enable N64 emulation, especially with the extra memory." Unfortunately, the unnecessary hardware mapping of the analog sticks and second set of shoulder buttons killed that, as well as the possibility for two-player play via TV-Out (with player-1 using the Dingoo as a controller, player-2 using the wireless controller).

Once the hardware problems were fixed, I'd then turn to the software. The first thing I'd do is give back to the Dingoo what was taken away:
1. flawless graphics in the NEO GEO emulator
2. GBA compatibility, not just with GBA games, but also with the Jungletac games with the (.jgc extension).

My first Dingoo had no graphics problems at all when running the NEO GEO emulator. Three out of the five I've owned since exhibit severe pixellation problems with graphics scaling. I've yet to hear a reasonable explanation from the manufacturer.

Also, my first Dingoo came with a set of .jgc games preloaded, and they played fine through the GBA emulator. Three out of the five I've owned since have been unable to run those games. I've yet to hear a reasonable explanation from the manufacturer.

The thing is, neither of those problems should have happened. If the hardware or firmware of the Dingoo was changed in a manner that caused the existing, proprietary emulators to become faulty, those emulators should have been fixed before the product was released. They definitely should have been fixed in the A330, since by the time it went into development, the problems were widely known issues.

The lesson learned here re the A320 and A330 is that a step forward doesn't help if it's accompanied by taking a step backward at the same time.

Having said that, I have to say that, despite the issues I've had, I love my Dingoo and truly believe it's the best handheld game system I've ever owned and likely will ever own. What it CAN do far outweighs what it CAN'T do. If my first Dingoo hadn't worked so well (from a software point of view), I probably wouldn't have been so vocal about the NEO GEO emulation and would never have missed the .jgc emulation since I wouldn't have experienced it in the first place. Dingux has given me a way around the NEO GEO problem, and I pray for the day some kind programmer ports Bloxorz. I still use my Dingoo almost every day.

The Dingoo is awesome... but it used to be... um... awesome-er... and it has yet to become awesome-est.

Thank you for gathering feedback from the Dingoo community.

My interest is mostly in Dingux. I'm working on a new and up-to-date kernel for OpenDingux. This work could be sped up if I had a bit more information about the hardware. This includes the model numbers of the chips used, so I can check whether there is a Linux driver for the chip or look up the data sheets and write one if there is not. Also it includes information about how the peripheral chips are connected to the JZ4740. For example, currently I can read the first NAND chip, but not the second, because I don't know how to address the second chip.

Something that would make Dingux easier to install is if the factory installed firmware would already include an option to boot from SD card. Or if it uses the JZ4750, make sure that the boot from SD feature is easily accessible, like pressing a button during boot.

I agree with TheCaffeinator that the first focus should be on improving the weak points of the A330 over adding new features. In my opinion, these are aspects of the A330 that could be improved:

• It would be useful to be able to read the wireless controller via a serial protocol instead of sharing the button GPIO pins. That way, multiplayer games would be possible with TV-out. Maybe you could even make it such that more than one wireless controller could connect with the same Dingoo.
• There is currently no way to get a vsync signal from the ILI9331 chip. Such a signal is needed to play video or games without tearing. This only applies if a successor to the A330 would still have an ILI9331 or similar chip of course.
• When the unit is new, the buttons often get stuck. This problem seems to fix itself when the A330 is used for a longer time, but it creates a bad first impression, which is critical in getting good reviews.
• The plastic in front of the screen is very sensitive to scratches. A different material would help.
• Mini SD cards are hard to find in Europe. Any local computer shop sells full SD and micro SD cards, but mini SD cards are only available in a few web shops. I would prefer micro SD, since that would make it easy to exchange cards between the Dingoo and mobile phones.
• The grips on the back of the A330 are useful, but putting the speakers there as well is a bit troublesome: if you cover the speaker exit with your fingers, you lose most of the sound.
• The headphone plug is in a position where it gets in the way of the hand reaching the A/B/X/Y buttons.

My wish list for new features:

• WiFi, this would allow online gaming and installation of new games from a central repository.
• 640x480 or 800x480 screen, this would allow more recent games to be ported. 480x320 would not be useful, since it is hard to scale the current 320x240 games to that resolution.

@Ayla:

Maybe it's possible to put the headphone plug on the same side, but closer to the back of the unit? So where currently the power slider is. Or maybe on the left side at the same height as the power slider.

The new iPhone has 640x960 on a screen that's only slightly larger than the Dingoo's, so it is technically possible. Today it's too expensive, but maybe in one or two years this will be a standard screen.

I agree that the low price is important. I bought an A320 a year ago even though I already had a Pandora preorder because I wanted something that I could use immediately and the price was low enough to take the gamble of ordering a device I had never before seen in real life from a company I hadn't heard of. And because of booboo showing it could run Linux of course.

I don't like the idea of a higher res screen.
That means almost every game will have to be rescaled to the bigger screen, and a much more powerful processor will be needed.
IMO, 320x240 is the best screen resolution for most emulators and 80-90's games.

assuming the person who stated this thread is a real rep...

the problem with the a320 was the really poor quality d-pad. i've used 17 of them to date, all but 2 had to be returned. the d-pad has many issues, sensitivity and diagonal response being among them.

the problem with the a330 was the buttons (all of them).

the build quality is hit or miss, some dingoos arrive with junk under the screen, i've had others with bad msd slots, etc.

stop building this device as tho it is cheap throw away junk. there is a serious community here who support the product. we want something that will last for our $80 and arrive with no issues.

after that consider updates like a faster cpu, more ram, wifi, better speakers (and speaker placement), better native support, etc.

cheers!

what price it will be, can it play more kind of game?


keep all discussion about dd/dt/gemei to the rumor board.