By The End Of The Year?

[Shaun199three]

I originally guessed Pandora would take 8/12 months for the mainboard, 4 months for custom hardware (nubs,keypad etc) 4 more for the case, then 2 for the battery/stylus etc, after that I added 6 months for tweaks, debugging etc, then 3 for assembly and launch, plus the mandatory (in the trade) 4 months + afewdays(tm) "c*ckup time"

seriously, working in industrial manufacture, that was what I expected, that was BEFORE the change to OMAP, before the world economy went down the pan, before the nub manufacturer went bust, before the banks developed anal retention to the nth degree, before the issues tweaking the case design where sorted, all you critics make me laugh, get outa school and get a real job,thats when you find out that flowcharts and process scheduling count for little when the product has to work for real, made by real firms with real people, in my firm, on our last project, we had to totally redesign ordered product when a key manufacturer changed their whole range of hydraulics for "better, improved" stuff, "better" apart from it was dimensioned differently and ran to different specs etc, 8 months panic scramble to redesign and test/approve, customer got promised hardware nearly 11 months later, I doubt they will be back.

building a "from scratch" state of the art device with an informal group of "netizens" in such a short space of time is impressive, think about it, Sony have just released the cheapened "slim" PS3, right now their R&D engineers are working on PS4 prototypes, almost certainly have been playing with concepts since the PS3 came out and they finalised the design for the "slim", you won`t hear squat from Sony about PS4 until their profits start to drop, then they will leak news after the Sony board have seen the Prototype PS4 in action and approved it, say another year or so, then the hype build for a year or more, but development devices exist right now, OP have done well to get a state of the art device out in under two years.

remember I initialy assumed about 3 years(ish) for (respectfully) amateurs doing it (if they did have a clue), Sony (admittedly in a comfy position but well equiped and funded), have so far spent more man hours and money on the PS4 (R&D staff take home wages, labs need lighting, heating, insuring etc), of that you can almost be certain, whinging cos your latest techno bling is late IYO, is silly, if it aint out by the new year, then feel entitled to complain, me?, I am going to order another.......

Correct me if I'm wrong but I always thought that a complete Pandora had already existed even before preorders. Since they orginally estimated that it would take 1 or 2 months I assumed a prototype had already been made and they just needed preorders in order to reproduce it (also the video ED made of the case). So I had the feeling that most of the time that delayed the Pandora was used tweaking. Alot of comments I'm seeing are giving me the feeling like the open pandora team started from scratch after the preorders. I'll defineatly keep my preorder, as long as the Pandora doesn't become outdated or has competition. I bet if the OP team ever mentioned 3 years, barely anyone would preorder.
BTW does anybody know how the case moulds are going because its been 9 days since the "8 day delay".

 

[gruso]

Development had been happening for about a year before preorders. They had early (working) prototypes already.

The 8 day delay - if it happens - has not come yet. Technically we're still within the window of the last case mould estimate, which was stated to be as late as the 25th. The Chinese festival in question begins on October 1 afaik, that's when the 8 day delay will come into effect if the case moulds aren't done by then.

[edit] Pre-preorder posts on the official blog start here: http://www.openpandora.org/blog.php?o=65

 

[Enverex]

To everybody who is "tired of waiting", here are some words from a Final Fantasy fan: SHUT THE [BLEEP] UP!!! You just have no idea....

What do either of those links have to do with the Pandora in any way? In fact what does that post have to do with anything at all?

 

[Asmo]

I initialy assumed about 3 years(ish) for (respectfully) amateurs doing it

my guess is the Pandora is pretty close now

 

[S-r-ex]

To everybody who is "tired of waiting", here are some words from a Final Fantasy fan: SHUT THE [BLEEP] UP!!! You just have no idea....

What do either of those links have to do with the Pandora in any way? In fact what does that post have to do with anything at all?

It's more about waiting and patience that the Pandora itself. If you are a fan of Final Fantasy, you know what waiting is. These games were revealed over three years a go at E3 2006. We Europeans and Americans can expect FFXIII to be released in March 2010, nearly four years later. Versus on the other hand is still "done when it's done", meaning that a 2011 release is no impossibility, 2012 an improbability. And yet we have only two named characters, four other faces, a cloaked guy a goddess, a car, a few soldiers and a war over a magic crystal after two public CGI trailers, a few magazine scans and a couple of interviews. If that's not waiting, I down' know what is.

 

[verm71]

College people and friends have their iPod touches, PSPs and whatnot, whilst we sit around deviceless and missing £200. I'm sure a fair number of us aren't too happy. Sorry, but that's the reality.

Yes, but after everyone's excitement about their shiny new iPods, iPhones, PSPs turns to every day monotony, you'll be the envy of everyonethe day your Pandora arrives.

 

[guizm]

Pandora it's a perfect device, even if psp2 came, or ds 2, it will continue beeing the best console. I think this topics are nonsense and useless, they won't finish pandora earlyer if we push them just cause they can't. We must wait, and please people, don't cancell your orders, if massive cancell's comes, then they will probably come in bankrupt and possibly won't give any money back. So just wait a little more, every day it gets a little closer, and by yhe way im glad, cause everyday the pandora seems to be better ( more ram, better keypads & nubs, etc... ), dont deserve and trust them!

 

[Sphinxter]

Pandora it's a perfect device, even if psp2 came, or ds 2, it will continue beeing the best console. I think this topics are nonsense and useless, they won't finish pandora earlyer if we push them just cause they can't. We must wait, and please people, don't cancell your orders, if massive cancell's comes, then they will probably come in bankrupt and possibly won't give any money back. So just wait a little more, every day it gets a little closer, and by yhe way im glad, cause everyday the pandora seems to be better ( more ram, better keypads & nubs, etc... ), dont deserve and trust them!

Well said even if not said well.

 

[craigix]

I think we will see more and more of this as the Pandora prepares to ship, on the flip side there is a steady flow of new orders now that people can see the device is finally in production.

The order number hovers around 3700 currently, we are cutting them off at 3800.

The whole story behind the Pandora is pretty unique and will probably never happen again with any other device. I and the rest of the team are well aware of how incredibly fortunate we are to be in this position.

But still the Pandora isn't for some people, it's not a PSP. We cannot compete with Sony or Nintendos resources to throw money at problems. Those companies have formidable sums of money, manpower and technology.

If we had rushed in to production in, say July, you would have had the following issues:

Nubs losing their 'center' location and requiring constant software resets + sensitivity issues.
A Dpad which was irritating to use after an hour or so of constant use.
A battery door which in certain circumstances could come loose.
A potential hardware flaw in the USB host.
Some keys that were slightly too low in the case.
+ numerous other small issues.

When we started this, it was to make a device with a particular attention to detail which we don't get from, say GPH or Dingoo.

I can assure you it has that attention to detail + here we are in the forum every day as we work on this. We have worked though some exceptionally complex and difficult situations to keep this exactly as we want it to be.

And it's true, we have not been paid yet. Every penny of your money has gone in to this project as well as a lot of our own.

It's a shame some people want to rock the boat now, but we have funding in place to make sure we ship. Or sail. Or Launch. Or another boating related link.

 

[HaCo]

Keep it going Craig and the whole pandora team!!!

 

[matzesu]

Thank you for the information craig, the pandora isnt the psp, when i see the psp: the psp 1000 is fat but good, some of there i own, than came the psp 2000 there was a bit smaler, and then the psp 3000, and yet the psp go, so i think, why whe have not get first the smal psp when it is better,

so the pandora team cant make this: the pandora must be the best at the begining because the pandora team dont have the mony for make diverent models like the psp,

or the wii: now , we must bay the motion plus ad on because the controll is better, why we dont get this at the begining serieal?

The Pandora is perfekt at the begining, and that is it why i thank you, thy are no diverent modell who cost more mony..

 

[Tensuke]

Thanks Craig, it's posts like these that make me glad that you guys are making the Pandora, rather than some big company!

 

[ScottChegg]

Chin up Craig you and the team are doing a sterling job.

 

[Monk]

I think we will see more and more of this as the Pandora prepares to ship, on the flip side there is a steady flow of new orders now that people can see the device is finally in production.

It might take critics a LITTLE longer - until, say, finished units are in production rather than bits of it? But I digress...

But still the Pandora isn't for some people, it's not a PSP.

It's not a PSP (and incidentally you're not SONY) is, to some, one of the BENEFITS of the Pandora! I know for me that is certainly the case. That it's related to THIS community is one plus, that it's being built by gamers rather than corporate suits is a huge incentive. The design is quite nice too, overall.

 

[Esn]

I know I keep repeating but it's little things like that which make all the difference on a device you will likely be using for at least 2 years.

2 Years! I sure hope I'll be playing with this for longer than 2 years! I hope to show mine to my grandchildren. "Look, children before your new-fangled interactive 3D Holo-spheres we had bombjack, manic miner and jet set willy. Oh, have I showed you me magic pockets?"

So, yeah, I want mine to last longer than 2 years. Hope there's no built in obsolescence....

Heck, I've been using my GP32 FLU for 6 years now... and the Pandora probably will have better build quality than the GP32 (mine has worn-out diagonals and no battery cover... it's even survived a dunking in a lake).

Craig, will the Pandora survive a dunking in a lake? (sorry )

 

[Pleng]

there is a steady flow of new orders now that people can see the device is finally in production.

they can?

The whole story behind the Pandora is pretty unique and will probably never happen again with any other device. I and the rest of the team are well aware of how incredibly fortunate we are to be in this position.

I'm not 100% sure where you're going with this, but if you mean "you'll probably never have another small group of people design a device around a community" then I'm pretty certain you're wrong. There is little different about this story than the birth of the Sinclair or Amiga - a person or group of people making what they feel is a fantastic device. Of course, the big difference with this story is the fact that you guys have had the power of the internet to utilize and therefore take an entire community's views into account. History tends to repeat itself, however, and the internet isn't going to go away. So if the Pandora story is one of success (and I certainly hope it is. despite my occasional criticisms of the way you guys go about things, what you are trying to achieve certainly warrents success) then people will be inspired to do something similar.

When we started this, it was to make a device with a particular attention to detail which we don't get from, say GPH or Dingoo.

What issues does Dingoo have? Mine has been running perfectly since I got it. The only issues I can see are with some of the built in emulators, which isn't really a fair comparison in this case, as OP will be shipping with NO built in emulators and will be relying 100% on community support for such software.

 

[borgqueenx]

there is a steady flow of new orders now that people can see the device is finally in production.

errrm, i thought only a few units where left...?

 

[Monk]

there is a steady flow of new orders now that people can see the device is finally in production.

errrm, i thought only a few units where left...?

Marketing

Surely you've noticed when anyone says in the last 6 month or more "are there any left to buy from the first batch?" that the answer has always been "yes"?

 

[Pleng]

Surely you've noticed when anyone says in the last 6 month or more "are there any left to buy from the first batch?" that the answer has always been "yes"?

Or more like "yes but only a few, so you best hurry!"

 

[hch]

I'm resigning from the forums for a week or two, I can't be bothered to read any more idiotic posts at the moment. The thing's coming, it's taking it's time and the updates are few and far between, but I for one have more important things to worry about. I'll just carry on with my business and be happy when my parcel arrives. Basically the delays don't mean anything, because I know that I couldn't have done any better, in fact I couldn't have even got the idea off the ground. What's really killing the joy for me is some of the posters here.

I wish I could do the same - trouble is, I'm addicted to checking for a suprise.

I don't care how long it takes, all this waiting fills a gap in my worthless life!

go get another addiction. an addictive computer game suggests itself here. it works, i guarantee (worked for me )