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

[Binky]

the new SoC will have to be switched to anyway,

Only once the old ones are used up...

 

[ShleeDragon]

Don't worry about this, it's worth the wait - the Pandora as it stands works really quiet awesomely and is well worth the money (I've used it more than my 3DS and/or PSP) - they've upgraded the NAND previously and upgraded the RAM recently as supply costs allowed. The next logical step is upgrading the SOC. this isn't a conspiracy.


The team decided/required the original order of SOCs to be larger then the orders of the product because the bulk decreased the cost. This isn't a good/bad idea, it's a business idea ...... they just need to use the existing stock up. Makes sense to me


also, remember the Pandora is greater than the sum of it's parts... while each revision has better quality parts, the project itself and it's goals is dependent on the existence of old pandoras to feed the new pandoras which will feed the future products.


P.S. Remember: The Original Pandora offered us a very good baseline which has allowed for some amazing projects (Full speed PSX emulation FTW) - every pandora revision will simply bring that baseline higher and higher. There isn't any project in the same league and I doubt there is even anything close to a competitor.

 

[quartercast]

What propaganda book did you recite that from?

 

[ShleeDragon]

What propaganda book did you recite that from?

Id rate that less bullshit than your average operating fan-boy from the church of mactology.


I didn't know personal opinion and support was propaganda

 

[quartercast]

Why flower over the truth, this is BS.


Op should do like every other retailer and slash the old gen product's price and charge a premium on the new gen product. Create a price difference. Keep Manufacturing both if there's a market. Charge more for the DM3730. Do it now.

 

[notaz]

DM3730 is the same OMAP3+tweaks, not such a big deal like some want to think..


I mean, if you take OMAP4 as an example, it has different CPU, different integrated peripherals, revamped power saving; meanwhile DM3730 has exactly the same components as OMAP3, only some of them have updated revisions and clock generators have been tweaked.

 

[Binky]

Why flower over the truth, this is BS.


Op should do like every other retailer and slash the old gen product's price and charge a premium on the new gen product. Create a price difference. Keep Manufacturing both if there's a market. Charge more for the DM3730. Do it now.

needs capital - running two production setups at once...

 

[quartercast]

Well, it costs you guys extra for prototyping etc, charge more for that. If people want a small performance boost, they'll pay for it.

 

[quartercast]

needs capital - running two production setups at once...

Needs capital? Make 10 limited edition signed gold DM3730 prototype pandoras with certificate for extreme supporters/collectors. $2999 each.


SONY will buy one for sure

 

[Binky]

Well, it costs you guys extra for prototyping etc, charge more for that. If people want a small performance boost, they'll pay for it.

Charging customers before you have a product to deliver leads to trouble...

 

[ShleeDragon]

Well, it costs you guys extra for prototyping etc, charge more for that. If people want a small performance boost, they'll pay for it.

Charging customers before you have a product to deliver leads to trouble...

If ED could find a VC for the capital investments, he would have. Right now - We're operating on Tickle-Up economics

 

[Timstertoo]

Great news! I don't see my batch one order through Craig being sent before the 800 are sent so I'll go premium once the old chips are history.

 

[renegadechic]

Why flower over the truth, this is BS.


Op should do like every other retailer and slash the old gen product's price and charge a premium on the new gen product. Create a price difference. Keep Manufacturing both if there's a market. Charge more for the DM3730. Do it now.

This only works if you are a big company who doesn't want to have a load of unsold units returned to them. In the case of OP if they cut prices, then they cant afford to continue. If they just have to minimise damages and needed money asap then fine, I would agree, but for them to continue doing business they need the money in order to plan any future at all.


I loathe the way some people decide to treat the pandora as if its just another iphone or PSP or something. There aren't the same safety nets in case of failure here. Hell, I expect that nearly every failed console ever been out there sold in much higher numbers than the pandora has and despite support in the shape of big investors, still fell to pieces. People just seem to think its some unfair business practices but really its a tiny business operating on a knife-edge.

 

[diligentcircle]

Slash the price of the current Pandora which will continue to be the main one for several months? Continue to restock the old hardware and then sell them at a loss while the new hardware is the main one? Give me a break. OP wouldn't last to the 2012 apocalypse with that kind of (lack of) plan.


As mentioned, the new processor isn't much of an upgrade, just slightly higher overclocking. 1.2 GHz instead of the current one's just about guaranteed 800 MHz. Might be useful, but the fact is all the software that currently works on the Pandora will continue to work on the Pandora. You don't need 1.2 GHz to play PSX full speed, nor do you need it for full speed GBA, SNES, Super Geometry Dust, or just about anything that is currently on the Pandora. And indeed, very few programs will currently benefit at all from more overclocking. N64 is the only example I can think of.


Whether or not it'll end up really mattering in the future (i.e. some really cool program needing serious overclocking) when the DM3730 becomes standard, I don't know, but if it does, it has been mentioned that an upgrade will be possible.


Personally, I've had lots of fun with my Pandora which has only 256 MB of RAM. I would like the double RAM, but I'm not angry at all that others have more RAM. Why? Because it's only a small upgrade, and as long as OP remains, I can easily upgrade not only the RAM, but how high I can overclock, if I want to pay the upgrade price.

 

[Trezker]

Not all of us are early adopters. If you're not the kind to get the latest and greatest and queuing for days outside the stores for launch, then new products need to be proven worth your money before you commit.


A new arrival to this product gets the impression that it has had production problems and has just recently gotten started producing a few hundred units so far. If you're a bit of an explorer on the forums you'll get the impression that the quality may be a bit lacking.


The hinge is likely to not hold the screen steady.


The case gets cracks.


Certain buttons may need physical intervention involving sharp tools to work properly.


The cable to the screen might break.


The system overall seems to be in somewhat of a beta stage where it's primarily targeted to hardware/software geeks who aren't afraid to get in there and fix problem themselves.


So if you want to order something, have it arrive the next week and expect everything in it to work out of the box. It may look a little risky at this stage.


I'm on the fence myself, but I'd say I'm likely to order one later this year, with a little luck I'll aim just right to get one for christmas.

 

[diligentcircle]

The hinge is likely to not hold the screen steady.

Not that pronounced of a problem. It locks at a 180 degree position, which is good for normal use. The only time it isn't good is when using the Pandora on a table.

The case gets cracks.

There's a new case that's supposed to solve (or at least greatly diminish) this issue.

Certain buttons may need physical intervention involving sharp tools to work properly.

Old problem. It was no longer the case when I got mine around last September.

The cable to the screen might break.

Extremely old problem. The cables aren't so fragile any more.

The system overall seems to be in somewhat of a beta stage where it's primarily targeted to hardware/software geeks who aren't afraid to get in there and fix problem themselves.

I'd hardly call it that in its present state. I've never had to "fix" anything myself. OS, emulators, browsers, etc are all great.

 

[zonova]

The 1ghz is a long way off, and it seems largely hypothetical. Honestly, it's not such a big deal that i would wait forever for it since the performance boost isn't "Massive". And even if it was, i can just upgrade whenever i want. I do think the silver case sounds cool though. Hopefully i'll be ordering mine soon.


Just a note to OP and the pandora team, i don't think telling the entire community about these "might-happen" upgrades really helps, especially when they depend on people buying the old model first so the new one can be produced. People tend to exaggerate the performance difference which leads to people holding off until the new one releases.


Still awesome stuff, and good luck with all of your production problems

 

[quartercast]

Well look at the iPad 2 and 3, they're both still for sale, there's enough price difference and spec difference for each to have their own market.


I guess this new pandora is simply a minor revision, like going from an iPad 2,3 to 2,4. Still, Craig said its up to double the performance? How does that work out? Is the NEON clocked higher as well maybe?

 

[fredg999]

The system overall seems to be in somewhat of a beta stage where it's primarily targeted to hardware/software geeks who aren't afraid to get in there and fix problem themselves.

The system overall isn't targeted toward a wide public, it is targeted to a niche of hardware/software geeks like you said and of retro-gamers. Several people tend to criticize the Pandora for things they can't help because of the nature of the product. It is sold in thousands, not millions. Their financial situation is not all so smooth, they try to make some money while reimbursing the unexpected costs at the Texan company for example.


Beta stage? That's what they call the latest firmware version, but several users reported it to work great. There are things to fix, but that's the same for every version of the firmware. And that's why other systems have updates too. You have to think of the Pandora as a community-driven console, having both advantages and disadvantages. People who have a Pandora can live with the downsides and appreciate greatly the benefits.


For geeks? I'm not sure of that. New software for the Pandora gets more and more user friendly, and it's not because it's Linux that only geeks can use it. Actually, if I take the example of the PND manager proposed at the Rebirth Competition, I think it looks better than an App Store on an iPhone or whatever. It really is great. And then people say several tasks require commands and all, and they don't need terminals on other console. Sure, if you consider you can't do most of these tasks at all on those other consoles. This console is the most free portable system around and yes, you may have to work a bit with it to make everything work. But "everything" has a wider amplitude on a Pandora than on any other console.

only 256 GB of RAM

I hope you meant 256 MB.

 

[EvilDragon]

Craig said its up to double the performance? How does that work out?

Well, it has more L2 cache, and the normal Pandora runs at 500 - 600 Mhz (though a lot probably run it with 800 MHz) whereas the DM3730 has a stock speed of 1GHz.


It also features a more recent 3D GPU as well as probably other small tweaks and fixes, so depending on the case, it's up to 2x the speed (compared to a non-overclocked Pandora).