... and production still is reliable and moving forward :) (2012-05-11)

[foxblock]

Thanks for the update ED. I cannot image the stress you are going through and I appreciate the work you put into this (for free basically).


Though I wonder, what's the status on the TV-out cables? There has not been an official update in a while and even if there is nothing new I would like to know that and that we are going to get them eventually (or do we...).

 

[Nagelfar]

As for the missing 5000 Euros: That is bad news, I don't share the hope you'll ever see that money again, even if they find the guy he is probably bancrupt too on a personal level so even if you get a warrant you won't see any money from him, I'd consider that money a loss.

Well, there is one huge difference:


He doesn't OWE me money, he STOLE it. So we're not trying to get money back from bankruptcy (which often leads to: You don't get anything at all), but we're sueing him because of defraudation, and that takes things to a totally different level.


This could even put him into jail for up to three years - and if he has ANYTHING (car, house, etc.) and files for bankruptcy, I get these 5000 EUR back before anyone whom he owes money...


Additionally, the company has a second director registered, so we've actually got two people we can grab for the money.

As for the missing 5000 Euros: That is bad news, I don't share the hope you'll ever see that money again, even if they find the guy he is probably bancrupt too on a personal level so even if you get a warrant you won't see any money from him, I'd consider that money a loss.

This could even put him into jail for up to three years - and if he has ANYTHING (car, house, etc.) and files for bankruptcy, I get these 5000 EUR back before anyone whom he owes money...

Yeah, sure, if the amount of fraud is much higher than the 5k he MIGHT go to jail, even if he does, that wouldn't get the money back. As for: You would get it back before anyone whom he owes money, that is if he didn't steal from other people too. Also, if I might quote a german proverb: An Nockatn konnst net ind Toschn greifn.


Of course I hope for the best.

Additionally, the company has a second director registered, so we've actually got two people we can grab for the money.

That is good to know

 

[ShleeDragon]

Thanks for the update. I've recently received my Pandora and I'm mightily pleased with it.


Regarding the idea of a kick-starter. I think it's perfect but *obviously* the team would need to have a working prototype in their hands before they launch the funding... so Id expect they'll do that in 12 months or more?

We're going to try a (small) kickstarter on product3 first to get the hang of it all.

Any ETA on that? You've done a good job on keeping that under rap

 

[craigix]

No ETA yet, when it's ready. It's pretty cool and it sort of leads on to the next bigger(!) project.


I'm hope you will all help with the kickstarter

 

[theshining]

Product3 !!, what have I missed?, and a big thumbs up to the silvered case ED, bound to be harder to lose than a black one.

 

[ahahah]

3. email backlogs...

Well, you probably already saw it on other threads here at the boards: my email backlog is still pretty long... I got about 700 emails left to reply, and though I take some time to reply to them each few days, the queue is only slowly shrinking.


Each day, I receive about 20 more emails I need to reply... so yep, this is a MASSIVE amount of work.


Please don't be mad about that - I'll reply to all of your mails, but with all the other things I have to do at the same time right now, I'm not that fast.


I try to look at the mails when they come in and try to reply to the most important ones, but sometimes one of these hides itself in the massive queue.

hey guys, calm down with the emails!!


this is a useless lost of precious time.


why don't they post their questions on the forum?

 

[Binky]

Product3 !!, what have I missed?

Not a lot, its compact with a fair number of buttons/switches...


On a side track, since it looks like there are going to be a fair few gadgets produced by Craig, ED and team within the next decade:


Pandora, iCP, product3, NBP(*), Pandora2, but there isn't really an overall name for the companies - is there going to be one?


*Next Bigger Project

 

[Trezker]

Orange? You can't compare Apples and Oranges products.


Hi BTW! I've been lurking since mid march.


EDIT: Not a good first post, I forgot to google first. There is of course already more than one company called Orange...


I wonder if there are any fruits free.

 

[ghostpatch]

After they own all the common fruits they will probably go on with vegetables he he..

 

[TeDaDeS]

Here is a list of vegetables and fruits incl. color: http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/fruits-vegetables.shtml


The problem with most of them is probably that all those fruits have better SEO than a starting companies site, while open-pandora is more unique.


EvilDragon should write a book about how to make a handheld, all these unpredictable stories will make a good read.


If he had spare time that is... -_-

 

[Binky]

I suspect that ED takes 'spare time' to mean 'time that urgently needs filling with work'...

 

[BrainSlugs83]

Methinks, this would make an interesting movie -- I'd be surprised if there were no pirates though, I mean considering all the theft that's been going on, I guess that makes them land pirates or something.


As for the status, it's always good to see it, but is there ever going to be any kind of tracking mechanism? I remember way back in pre-production, before any units were even assembled, let alone shipped, there were little bars that showed "We're blocked on this" in red or "this one was done on June 9" in green, etc... -- it would be good to just have a weekly spreadsheet on google docs or anything that just said "We finished X new units this week", "we finished Y repairs this week" and "we are at place Z / W in the original queue of batch N preorders". Seriously, it should only take 5 minutes each week to fill it in, and before you say, it's 5 minutes you don't have, or that would be better put to use hunting land pirates who stole [y]our money or making .01% of another pandora/repair etc... I've been waiting a few years myself, and I'll gladly wait another -- but it will make passing the time much easier if we have something to measure progress by.


Also if you're going to switch some part of the spec, i.e. it comes with a different case now, or a different LCD, or something else... we don't have these up to date details in a single location, I have to go read like 6 or 7 forum posts if I want to know something, it would be good if all this could be back in one centralized spot.


(Apologies if any of the above already exists, please point me at the right URLs!)


Thanks EvilDragon and everyone for working so hard on this, and for the information we've already gotten, I'm very happy to hear that production is still on-going!

 

[diligentcircle]

Forget pirates. They'll be the least of this project's worries when Godzilla comes into the picture. I hear he's taking a vacation in Germany.

 

[WizardStan]

Forget pirates. They'll be the least of this project's worries when Godzilla comes into the picture. I hear he's taking a vacation in Germany.

Pfft, Godzilla isn't real, it's just a guy in a suit.


In an ironic twist of fate, however, that guy is exposed to radiation (from improperly shielded LCD cables, I suspect) while vacationing in Germany and grows to 30 times his original size.

 

[ImmaculateChimp]

question, I'm a classic preorder, if I don't change anything with my order, will I still get a black case? I would prefer a black one.

I'm also concerned about this as well, wasn't there a "better" black paint instead? I'll reserve final judgment till I see what the "dark silver" actually looks like, but I must say,(and I guess you have to do what you have to do..but..) I'm a bit unhappy you just decided to change the color like that..

 

[diligentcircle]

We still got some black cases left, so you will be able to decide what color you want.

 

[Prometheus]

(and I guess you have to do what you have to do..but..) I'm a bit unhappy you just decided to change the color like that..

Most companies use a disclaimer along the lines of "Colours and contents are subject to change without notice." for this very reason.

 

[Another]

In Pandora-Land, there's always something weird happening.

Yeah... seems so.


Hope they find this guy. In case of fraud he is probably (I'm not a lawyer) personally liable, which means every car, house, bank account and every peace of paper will be distrained to get 5000 EUR.


I got a feeling that he will be arrested in 2 months™

 

[ImmaculateChimp]

We still got some black cases left, so you will be able to decide what color you want.

I'm not sure exactly, but I believe I pre-ordered mine in the first week of April 2009. That probably means I'm pretty much near the very end of Craig's first batch, so having "some" black cases left probably won't do me much good, as there are likely still hundreds of Pandoras to be shipped before mine. Even if everybody from this point on has a choice, they could quite possibly be out of black ones by the time my turn in the ordering queue has arrived.

(and I guess you have to do what you have to do..but..) I'm a bit unhappy you just decided to change the color like that..

Most companies use a disclaimer along the lines of "Colours and contents are subject to change without notice." for this very reason.

Really?!! Most companies do that just to keep me personally from being "a bit unhappy"? how flattering! I just must have missed the part where they mentioned that in conjunction with the Pandora..


I usually prefer black electronics because, at least for me, I find it a bit distracting when I'm trying to focus on the screen(you know, where you're supposed to be focusing your attention) and its paint job is glaring at me (and if the paint is silver, it might literally be doing so). Hey, I might end up liking the "dark silver" even more than the current "black", but till we get to see the new color I'll remain a bit crestfallen about it all, and hope that Pandora 2 when/if it happens goes back to black.

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, I got tons of black cases left which I won't use because they came prescratched, so you could always have one of those.


Based on the RMAs I get to repair, the black cases look 2 years old after a usage of a month... that's why we had to change.