100 Hand Painted Special Edition Pandoras

[SNESFAN]

@craig I'm under the assumption that the last 3900-4000 are the special edition ones, those would ship in the appropriate order right?

the motives and thought of special edition pandoras are both great ideas. The thought of it being a push your way to the front is what was bothering me as I'm sure it was others.

EDIT: i'm perfectly fine with mine being what is pictured and advertised spec wise at the time of purchase.

 

[Exophase]

There's been way more people bitching about the bitching they think is in this thread than people have actually been bitching about the special editions. That's even with counting hobbyman as just one jerk instead of like 9.

Several people have calmly asked if this would impact their place in line or add delays. Only a couple have assumed it would; if they're wrong they can be corrected. What people wanted was just a little clarification. Hardly worthy of this "selfish assholes" sob response.

And then there were a couple people unhappy with performance binning, but oh well, this is nothing new. Happened when gbax was doing it with GP2X too. That was mainly just paddy who isn't really worth taking seriously.

I don't deny that this whole ordeal has been harder on OP than it has been on anyone preordering and waiting but I'm sick of seeing that used in arguments. The difficulties and expenses OP have had don't negate their obligations to fulfill their orders as quickly as they can.

 

[1magus]

By the time they ship, it may be too late to get in on the first batch. In fact, it may be too late now. I would check by email before I used the Google checkout, if I were you.

Google Checkout links expire after 60 days it's only been 12

He meant that OPT may not have any left in the first batch and that's what you should check. Not length of google checkout.

But the google order was from the first batch.

I don't know anything about google checkout, sorry.
So have you or haven't you paid for a pre-order first batch?

I have not sad thing is I have the money in a bank account ready for purchase.

 

[gaterooze]

Guys, it seems obvious the "special edition" units probably won't happen any time soon. They have to be a) sold, B) designed, c) painted, d) tested for 800mhz, e) signed, etc.

My suggestion, however, would be this: OP, please if you test any units to guarantee 800mhz, if a tested unit FAILS, keep that unit aside for warranty replacements, press freebies, demo units, etc. It would otherwise diminish other pre-orderers from having the luck of the draw with their new Pandora.

 

[dillingerdan]

Let's get this straight, we get dozens of requests to buy that pink pandora, so we think, yeah, that's a good idea, let's design some custom artwork and use some of the left over Pandora consoles to make something which we can look back on in 10 years and smile when we see them on ebay.

Then we get this shit.

You know of all the threads this one has depressed me the most and made me realise there really are some selfish assholes on this board.

I suggest you ask for refunds if you are not happy with us trying to claw back a small amount of money from this project via *unsold* Pandora units, a project which has taken 3 years of the teams lives with just a huge loss to show for it.

Yeah, thanks.

PS - Everyone else, thanks for the support, you know when you get your Pandora it will be as good as it can possibly be, that we will support you for years to come and it will be a great fun.

TBF I don't think your finiancial situation is really the problem most people are having, it's just the fact that there is possibly people that could just turn up, bid on one of the "Special Editions" and get their unit before those that have spent 2 years £XXX down, waiting and waiting for a finished product.

And let's take it from another perspective, these people paid upfront so you, essentially, could bank-roll this project in the first place, right? I mean they are essentially investors, and without them you probably would never have finished the project, or even been able to go ahead with it at all if it weren't for them. Correct me if I am wrong, but that's the way I see it. I know you probably could have done it yourselves since you all own (probably) profitable Open Source handheld e-stores, but I have no doubts they have eased the strain on your own wallets. How about a little more respect for them, and a little less ranting, they have a right to express their opinion on possibly delaying units of theirs to try and eliminate your own financial difficulties.

Don't get me wrong, the Special Editions are a good idea, but most people see it as you delaying their unit to make a little cash on the side, and someone who hasn't perhaps invested in the community or was willing to lay down their money and gamble on this never getting finished can now come in and just jump the list.

I don't honestly think that would be the case, since the first 1000 will likely go straight out, and the "spare" cases will take some extra time to be "customised", so people might be getting a bit bent out of shape for nothing. But Ideally I think what most people are looking for is this:

Sorry for any confusion, the pre-order order is the order, the "Spare" 100 will be completed after fulfilling all pre-orders, thanks for playing!

And I myself would certainly take one of the Silver/Grey ones MW had sent to him over the standard Black, but I am probably open to other offers before committing an order.

 

[Trisk3lion]

I would gladly uppgrade my Pandora pre-orde to an Special edition, so sign me up!

 

[davidgro]

can i just pay the difference if it cost more? i do want a special edition pandora, but i dont want to a wholenother pandora until later, maybe in like a year or so

I support the special edition idea, I think it's a great way to support the team, but I'd be pretty annoyed if the answer to this question is no, may we please have some clarification on this point?

(And I don't mind waiting a little longer for a special one if those ship after the first 3900 do, like the rest of the thread is requesting)

Thanks

 

[MonkeyChops]

use some of the left over Pandora consoles ... via *unsold* Pandora units,

There's your verification that they are not going to use anyones "paid for" pandoras for the special editions. Now just take care of the whole line jumping thing by offering the special editions as pre-orders (as mentioned before) that will be shipped after the first batchers get theirs or shipped in que order as replacements/additions to first batchers who choose to fork over the extra moolah. Problems solved. We get no delays and OP gets extra cash w/o delays. Everyone's happy, right? right?

..... yea probably not

[edit] just noticed gunpei2x's idea about the boards that fail the oc test. great idea! now all the problems have a simple and effective solution. back to happy time

 

[urjaman]

then let me clarify exactly what seems to be the problems people have with the special edition idea:

1) We've waited two years, and this opens the possibility that someone can saunter in and get theirs before ours, even though they haven't had any financial stake in this project for the 18 months the rest of us had.

This is simply rectified: Confirm that the special editions will be shipping after you've shipped the rest of the preorders.

2) In guaranteeing that the special editions will be functionally better (800 mhz), and not just cosmetically different, it's threatening to split the development community in that those of us who get the less functional units (500?600 mhz) are afraid that we won't be able to run some of the software that we've spent the last two years waiting for and expecting to use.

This is less easily rectified, especially with the last shitstorm thread about overclocking that already cost us vimacs.
I don't have a suggestion on this one, and that worries me.

But this is all about fear anyways. The special editions are fine, by and large, but the fact is that after waiting for 18 months for something, any extra delay caused by this would leave a serious bitter taste in my mouth over the whole deal. You've had our money for over a year. Fill our orders first.

Commit to that, and a lot of this goes away.

+1 in general. Btw Vimacs came back IIRC.
Problem with 1) If someone wanted to upgrade their current pandora order to a special edition, he would be dropped to the last position (not nice). But OTOH if everybody with places 1-100 upgraded, it would effectively delay everybody elses orders (not nice). I have no real solution to this ...
With point 2), technically guaranteeing 800Mhz is nontrivial (ok it ran 5 mins at 800Mhz full load, but will it do a week? month? ... what about the DSP? With NEON? could it "overheat"(just enough to make the CPU crash) if SGX was also used 100%? Would it crash if left to a hot car dash in the summer?). I think that they will actually need to test that they run at full load (using DSP and NEON) at some greater than 800Mhz speed for some time, but releasing thet "we actually tested them at 8xx Mhz" would be also a bad idea. And still I'm foreseeing that there might be some unit that passes the test just to fail to run stable at 800Mhz later. They'll need to provide for a few 800Mhz replacement boards...

Still... 100 pandoras is a quite small "audience" to make apps for, so I dont think any dev would (nor should) target 800Mhz as a requirement for any app.

EDIT: And yeah I'm interested in the upgrading option, but without knowing whether that will drop me to place 3900+ and the price I'm not 100% sure. Also I'd like to see _what_ the special themes would be.

 

[Grench]

Let's get this straight, we get dozens of requests to buy that pink pandora, so we think, yeah, that's a good idea, let's design some custom artwork and use some of the left over Pandora consoles to make something which we can look back on in 10 years and smile when we see them on ebay.

You're right. It IS a great idea.

Then we get this shit.

You're getting this because you were vague and people are panicking over two points. One, that you will be decreasing the pool of super-overclock-able OpenPandora consoles that would otherwise be randomly scattered through the population. Two, that these 'special editions' will get built and shipped before the pre-orders. Assure us that neither of these are going to happen and we'll all be calm and go back to waiting patiently. Why? Because at that point you are no longer taking anything away from the long-standing preorderers. Having an idea to make more money off of these is great! Doing it at even the slightest expense, real or implied, to the existing pre-orderers is evil. Plain and simple. Some simple assurance instead of cursing your customer base for wanting delivery of units that have been bought and paid for would also be nice, but I'm not as picky on that.

You know of all the threads this one has depressed me the most and made me realise there really are some selfish assholes on this board.

I suppose that is directed at me? Selfish in having paid within the first week and hung with a project for all this time and then wanting all of us who have pre-ordered and pre-paid be serviced before new sales? I don't call that selfishness so much as primary school manners.

I suggest you ask for refunds if you are not happy with us trying to claw back a small amount of money from this project via *unsold* Pandora units, a project which has taken 3 years of the teams lives with just a huge loss to show for it.

I don't think any of us begrudge you making back your money OR making a profit on this. Any *unsold* Pandora units would by default be *new* sales and should be at the back of the line and not take the best boards out of the initial pool. Again, if you want to speed bin the 2nd batch units for differential pricing, more power to you. First Batch orders have always known that they will get something that will go to at least 600, and that it was a crap shoot if they would get anything faster. If you're actively removing faster boards from this pool, you're hurting their/our odds. It's like changing out to a set of loaded dice - it just isn't cool. Again, a simple assurance that this is -not- your plan will kill this quick and make us all happy and patient again.

Yeah, thanks.

You're welcome.

PS - Everyone else, thanks for the support, you know when you get your Pandora it will be as good as it can possibly be, that we will support you for years to come and it will be a great fun.

Please try to remember that your most vocal customers are also your most passionate promoters. I -want- OpenPandora to be a success. If it turns out as cool as I'm expecting it to be, I'll be ordering two more from the 2nd batch. If I see a design I like, I may even bid or buy one of the art case ones. I'm glad to hear that you're looking at the long term. I still have and use my pre-ordered Tapwave Zodiac - I like it when a device lasts and is usable for years. Am I now excluded from your community because I called out on what is/was looking like a plan that would unjustly effect the supremely patient preorder people? If so, that is a rather sad way to treat your customers.

then let me clarify exactly what seems to be the problems people have with the special edition idea:

1) We've waited two years, and this opens the possibility that someone can saunter in and get theirs before ours, even though they haven't had any financial stake in this project for the 18 months the rest of us had.

This is simply rectified: Confirm that the special editions will be shipping after you've shipped the rest of the preorders.

2) In guaranteeing that the special editions will be functionally better (800 mhz), and not just cosmetically different, it's threatening to split the development community in that those of us who get the less functional units (500?600 mhz) are afraid that we won't be able to run some of the software that we've spent the last two years waiting for and expecting to use.

This is less easily rectified, especially with the last shitstorm thread about overclocking that already cost us vimacs.
I don't have a suggestion on this one, and that worries me.

But this is all about fear anyways. The special editions are fine, by and large, but the fact is that after waiting for 18 months for something, any extra delay caused by this would leave a serious bitter taste in my mouth over the whole deal. You've had our money for over a year. Fill our orders first.

Commit to that, and a lot of this goes away.

Exactly.

@Craig I'm under the assumption that the last 3900-4000 are the special edition ones, those would ship in the appropriate order right?

the motives and thought of special edition pandoras are both great ideas. The thought of it being a push your way to the front is what was bothering me as I'm sure it was others.

Again, having Craig or someone else official stating this would allay so many of these fears and make the subject dead.

Sorry if I offended anyone, it isn't my intent.

Thank you,

Grench

 

[roberthoward45]

this sounds like a good idea to me make some special editions the more pandoras the better!!!!!!!!!!

 

[may88]

Well said Craigix.

I think you need to offer this as an "upgrade" option. No queue jumping and only delays for those opting for the special ones.

No problem as far as I can make out, although the 800MHz option rather flies in the face of your last major rant.
I guess you get Notaz to hack the kernel to add 200 to any display of the true speed. Unlikely the poor sod will ever know they're only running at 600MHz, but then they do have a pretty case.

Edit: the odd word wrong. Beer + typing = edit.

Also: Set-up a fund so we might still contribute to the army of volunteers helping to speed things up.

 

[WizardStan]

2) In guaranteeing that the special editions will be functionally better (800 mhz), and not just cosmetically different, it's threatening to split the development community in that those of us who get the less functional units (500?600 mhz) are afraid that we won't be able to run some of the software that we've spent the last two years waiting for and expecting to use.

"splitting the community" should be a non-issue. If these 100 exist that can overclock to 800Mhz, they would have existed anyway. The only difference is random distribution vs paying to get one. The fear is that those near the front of the queue are guaranteed to get "shafted" with Pandoras that run at the advertised clock rate, rather than having as equal a chance as everyone else to be blessed with overclockability. That, I would agree, is unfair. No guarantee that all will overclock, but if there are some that cannot be overclocked as high as others, they should (in my opinion) be distributed as fairly and unbiased as possible.
There is one possible solution. Proceed as normal, make a Pandora and ship it. Wait for when you are ready to guarantee one of these 800Mhz ones. Pull a board out of the queue and begin to test it. If it meets all the testing requirements, then it can be shipped as special edition. If it does not meet the testing requirements DO NOT put it back into the queue; set it aside, to be used at the end, or as a demo board, or something.
Randomness is effectively maintained and you aren't guaranteeing that someone is getting one that can't be overclocked (unless you run out of boards, but for that to happen there would have be a lot of boards that can't overclock to 800Mhz)

*gets off the armchair* (because people with no business telling others how to run their business are often called "armchair engineers", get it? It's a joke. At myself. For doing that thing that I hate when others do.)

 

[SirisC]

I would happily pay to upgrade my order to a special edition (I'm already close to the end of the line.), just 1 question. How much?

 

[headcrash]

hi,

the special edition 'spare parts' can't come from the 4000 already preordered:

Your approximate queue position is 3900 - 4000.

Thanks
Jacquelyn

so maybe they are some rebate in kind from texas ?

or they are taken from the second batch ?

more clearness of information would produce less shitty posts, I guess ;-)

however, who cares. first batch will be produced first. that is all that matters ...

greeetings

 

[EvilDragon]

Just wanted to confirm that the special edition Pandoras will be shipped last.

Painting will happen once we have the rest of the cases while we are assembling (since it's not us who ara painting the cases).


NO one gets further in the Queue. I remember that someone offered me 300 EUR extra money a while ago to go up in the queue - and I disagreed.

 

[Asmo]

By the time they ship, it may be too late to get in on the first batch. In fact, it may be too late now. I would check by email before I used the Google checkout, if I were you.

Google Checkout links expire after 60 days it's only been 12

He meant that OPT may not have any left in the first batch and that's what you should check. Not length of google checkout.

But the google order was from the first batch.

The Google order is only the online payment facility - until money has actually been paid to the seller (Open Pandora) they have no obligation to 'reserve' a unit for you for up to 60 days on the offchance you might complete the transaction.
It's still possible there will be a unit available before the 60 days expires, you just can't expect it because you have a google checkout link that hasn't expired yet.

 

[gaterooze]

I remember that someone offered me 300 EUR extra money a while ago to go up in the queue - and I disagreed.

Wow. I'd sell him my spot. Thanks for resisting corruption though!

 

[SNESFAN]

Just wanted to confirm that the special edition Pandoras will be shipped last.

Painting will happen once we have the rest of the cases while we are assembling (since it's not us who ara painting the cases).


NO one gets further in the Queue. I remember that someone offered me 300 EUR extra money a while ago to go up in the queue - and I disagreed.

thanks a million ED, that put my mind at rest

 

[Mjlink]

Knowing they'll ship last, I'm totally for the Special Editions, but truthfully think that the general public first and foremost shouldn't be opened to it initially. It would be honorable to offer these to the first 100 Preorders first, and work up the que accordingly until they are gone, if they aren't gone by number 3900, then they could be open to the general public.

My 2Cents.

It would be a nice surprise if all of the Pandoras were 800mhz not just a few skimmed from the cream.

Peace & Reno,

Link