Anyone Else Here Losing Interest?

[arrrgh]

As I've said before, the pandora will NEVER arrive - I was excited last year but then they lied so much about delivery dates I was one of the erhmm 'losers' who didn't reorder.

Can anybody remember when it was orginally due to arrive? What are they going to do when the latest batch of cc orders expire before they've shipped the goods? Make you all order again.

This product is a joke.

Anybody seen any pictures of the actual keyboard yet? (LOL).
Anybody else wonder why the board doesn't fit the case? (LOL).
LOL

The delays were caused by the CC fiasco, so there are no CC orders that will expire, because there aren't any CC orders, because they can't take any.
The board doesn't fit because the one Evildragon is using is a pre-production, betatesting board. The final one will fit just fine.
At least do your homework before you start trolling.

 

[VinylPusher]

My interest peaked in November 2008, dropped again thereafter when it became clear that the project was horribly behind schedule (even without the credit card fiasco), started to peak when the videos of working devboards were released...

But... after seeing the latest video of a case being put together, there's no way I'm buying a first version of this product.

The routing of the LCD cable is ridiculous, it's going to break. It's routed through tight-fitting plastic and it's going to rub, wear and fail. You have to 'roll' it to get it through the first part of the route. i.e., you have to stress it before it even gets anywhere.

I also believe the way the stylus is held in place is poorly designed. Even just the fact that you have to insert a separate plastic piece into the case... that adds cost and complexity. There are much better ways of doing it. Rip open a DS, PDA or suitable mobile phone to get some idea of how it should be done.

Sorry guys, I want the product to succeed but you need to bring in some expertise to correct your design flaws before you have some really embarrassing (and financially damaging) quality issues in the months following retail release.

I look forward to your second hardware revision. I really want to use a Pandora, and I only wish I had the expertise in design myself to be able to give some actual pointers on how to improve your processes. Sadly, I have just enough experience to be able to see what's wrong, not how to put it right.

 

[arrrgh]

The LCD cable that broke was a pre-production one that is much weaker tham the mass-production ones. Do you really think the Pandora team hasn't thought this out?

edit: you signed up just to make that post?

 

[dflemstr]

By definition, to see if something is wrong, you have to see "if something is not right", since you must have some idea on how to improve the problem to see the mistake.

So, how would you improve the stylus design, for example? I think it's actually better to have a separate bit of plastic to hold it in place, because you can more easily replace it if it wears out.

But I also see a problem problem with the display cable: not that it's rolled, which seems to be the de-facto way of doing it (look at laptops etc), but instead the fact that there's a small slit at the top of the case that will remain open after the unit is completed. But, to me, this isn't a big deal, since the solution would be to either glue it after the cable was inserted, or to develop a way to squeeze the cable through the hinge hole directly. Both of those solutions would make replacing the cable impossible or very difficult.

BTW: I'm on the "re-preorders" list, so my excitement never diminishes
This unit is the only portable unit I know of that has such enormous possibilities when it comes to application development, open-sourcedness, etc.

 

[RajTakhar]

Alot of PDA's and laptops for that matter use the 'wrap-around' method for the connection to screen from based - yes the cable will probably be custom sized for pandora - but if its wrapped around something like a metal/plastic rod which flexes it should not be a problem - open up a DS and you could find the same method - it is widely used

Depending on how well designed the final unit is and well it flexes (opening and shutting) will be determined in stress tests

The stylus holder is okay - what are looking for a magnetic stylus slotting into a metal hole? thats probably what some would have liked but that may damage other components - the stylus is subjective some people like me may never use the damn thing anyway as the two analog jouypads provide most of the functions if not i'd use other stylus pens i have used in the past

The big thing with pandora is that its open source - a modders dream - so expect a whole heap of mods that will come out for it such as glowing backlids for top half, hopefully some really hardwearing trendy metal cases, the magnetic keyboards

I'm not saying the first batch will be flawless, but i am saying there are enough people to work out the bugs and correct them - we have waited so long for the device to arrive - to slate the design decisions for the case anyways is a little harsh - you need to respect that these guys CraigX, ED, Mfk, MWeston know their shit and how to fix things

 

[WizardStan]

The routing of the LCD cable is ridiculous, it's going to break. It's routed through tight-fitting plastic and it's going to rub, wear and fail. You have to 'roll' it to get it through the first part of the route. i.e., you have to stress it before it even gets anywhere.

I also believe the way the stylus is held in place is poorly designed. Even just the fact that you have to insert a separate plastic piece into the case... that adds cost and complexity. There are much better ways of doing it. Rip open a DS, PDA or suitable mobile phone to get some idea of how it should be done.

Not that I like to prove people wrong, but have you actually done what you suggest: look inside a DS?
CODE
http://techrepublic.com.com/2346-13636_11-171256-33.html

That piece of plastic down the middle, secured to the case by screws, is the plastic holder that keeps the stylus in place, almost exactly the same way as the Pandora will.

CODE
http://techrepublic.com.com/2346-13636_11-171256-53.html

Looking at the left side, you see the cable coming out of the hinge? Coiled around and pushed through the hinge exactly the same way the Pandora will do it.

So these two things that you've complained about are being handled the same way that Nintendo did it with the NDS. So why are you complaining?
It took me longer to write this post than it did to find these images. If you're going to troll, you could at least do some research and find something harder to refute.

 

[GuSec]

This is ridiculous. Look at the DS Lite, the cable is curled. It's THE technique used in clamshell-devices.
CODE
http://www.turbocomppro.com/dscase/images/ribcab4.jpg

Also, theres no guarantee that it's better to replicate "big company"-devices, they can be poorly designed. The DS Lite hinge for example.
CODE
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/07/17/nintendo-ds-lite-cracks-on-hinge/

So please, stop complaining about how the Pandora is built, the designers know what they are doing.

 

[CCmachined]

As I've said before, the pandora will NEVER arrive - I was excited last year but then they lied so much about delivery dates I was one of the erhmm 'losers' who didn't reorder.

Can anybody remember when it was orginally due to arrive? What are they going to do when the latest batch of cc orders expire before they've shipped the goods? Make you all order again.

This product is a joke.

Anybody seen any pictures of the actual keyboard yet? (LOL).
Anybody else wonder why the board doesn't fit the case? (LOL).
LOL

As to when they were supposed to arrive, I've got a nice history of all the (failed) dates in my sig.

Not that i blame openpandora for that too much, just sayin'

BTW guys: is "april shipment" still accurate? only one of the todo list has been crossed off already, and you've got 39 days til the end of april...

 

[gibberish]

BTW guys: is "april shipment" still accurate? only one of the todo list has been crossed off already, and you've got 39 days til the end of april...

theres not a chance of april imo. its gona be mid/late summer before we see it.

lol at vinylpusher. if you have a better idea as to how the cable should be linked between the lid and the motherboard im pretty sure there are a good deal of multi million poound companies that would like to hear it. spastic

 

[CCmachined]

BTW guys: is "april shipment" still accurate? only one of the todo list has been crossed off already, and you've got 39 days til the end of april...

theres not a chance of april imo. its gona be mid/late summer before we see it.



who agrees? any official devs have an opinion?
QUOTE
* Wait for the last remaining pieces for mass production (LATEST deadline is second week of March)

QUOTE
* Get the final Prototype case (finished and will ship Friday, 6th of March)

These items should've been finished 1 or 2 weeks ago. No CNC video yet, and the "last remaining peices" hasn't been confirmed either, and most of the other items on the list were at least implied to have happened by now or earlier...

I don't like continually being nosey, but honestly, i just want a realistic projection of how long we'll be waiting.

 

[ion]

This is exactly why you don't show products until they are ready. Everything would've been much more fluid if lets say, the Pandora never existed until this summer at about June. Team Pandora showed a fully working, fully assembled, all issues worked out Pandora. Then asked for pre orders.

1 to 3 months later the Pandora is officially out and in the hands of the people who preordered it.

Rather,

We had Team Pandora show the Pandora almost a year before it even had parts. Let alone a fully assembled version of it. People preordered, waiting months and months, nothing. Issues, credit card issues, then they have to preorder again for something that hasn't even been shown (what?) and then nearly 5 4 months after THAT. Then it finally has a assembled version.

And now we are having issues with that as well... There is no way this thing is coming out before June

 

[gorman]

Sad to say this, but I did the right thing in opting out of the reorder thing. Too many things went wrong with this. One year delay is too much in consumer electronics, and we're rapidly approaching that.

 

[lulzfish]

But usually things are delayed because they're going horribly wrong.
The Pandora has been delayed because it's too awesome, and there's a secret conspiracy between Microsoft, Intel, Nintendo, and for some reason, Pepsi, to keep it from market.

 

[Asmo]

BTW guys: is "april shipment" still accurate? only one of the todo list has been crossed off already, and you've got 39 days til the end of april...

Not a chance. Unless everything else happens simultaneously starting tomorrow. Even then it'd be tighter than.... a really tight thing.

 

[urjaman]

The Pandora has been delayed because it's too awesome, and there's a secret conspiracy between Microsoft, Intel, Nintendo, and for some reason, Pepsi, to keep it from market.

Maybe i should stop drinking Pepsi then...

One year delay is too much in consumer electronics, and we're rapidly approaching that.

I don't really think that Pandora is something that i would normally think of as "consumer electronics", the target audience isn't as big as for eg. DS,PSP,etc. (even if i would like that to become reality). And who knows how long other (big) companies designed/prototyped their handhelds before bringing it public.

 

[OrR]

This is exactly why you don't show products until they are ready. Everything would've been much more fluid if lets say, the Pandora never existed until this summer at about June. Team Pandora showed a fully working, fully assembled, all issues worked out Pandora. Then asked for pre orders.

1 to 3 months later the Pandora is officially out and in the hands of the people who preordered it.

Rather,

We had Team Pandora show the Pandora almost a year before it even had parts. Let alone a fully assembled version of it. People preordered, waiting months and months, nothing. Issues, credit card issues, then they have to preorder again for something that hasn't even been shown (what?) and then nearly 5 4 months after THAT. Then it finally has a assembled version.

And now we are having issues with that as well... There is no way this thing is coming out before June

The Pandora has been designed and changed with loads of feedback from this community. That is one of the reasons why it is so fucking awesome.

 

[lingenfr]

...
And now we are having issues with that as well... There is no way this thing is coming out before June

The Pandora has been designed and changed with loads of feedback from this community. That is one of the reasons why it is so f**king awesome.

@ion, so what if it is June. I'll be here.

@OrR, learn to express yourself without being a pottymouth. Maybe you will learn that next year in sixth grade.

 

[Ravnos]

...
And now we are having issues with that as well... There is no way this thing is coming out before June

The Pandora has been designed and changed with loads of feedback from this community. That is one of the reasons why it is so fucking awesome.

@ion, so what if it is June. I'll be here.

@OrR, learn to express yourself without being a pottymouth. Maybe you will learn that next year in sixth grade.

Fuck off.

 

[DavidBowman]

@OrR, learn to express yourself without being a pottymouth. Maybe you will learn that next year in sixth grade.

Hello, welcome to the internet. People swear. It happens. If you find yourself surprised by that, then perhaps the internet is not for you. Especially not forums.

 

[lulzfish]

...
And now we are having issues with that as well... There is no way this thing is coming out before June

The Pandora has been designed and changed with loads of feedback from this community. That is one of the reasons why it is so f**king awesome.


Exactly. Consumer electronics are made so that average people can use them, and they're almost always limited to a tiny fraction of their hardware's capabilities.

The Pandora is good because it's an open system designed by people who know what they're doing, and who don't have to worry about things like backwards compatibility or corporate reputation or brand image.