c't writes article about Pandora

[MasterJulian]

Yes - and that's the reason it's important to find out what the heck happened here. I haven't read it yet (will do so tomorrow), but from what I have heard so far it seems they mostly only mentioned negative aspects and totally missed out all the points that make the Pandora interesting and important.


This is totally weird. If the author had problems or questions using it - he had my direct contact address, so he could've asked. I also offered an SD Card with PanDebian or Slackware additionally...

Thats exactly what happened here. The writer tried to compare it with other devices from billion dollar companies. Not with a single word was it mentioned that the Pandora is a community project. Made to fill a hole for the non existing open portable device. Calling the Pandora a "weitgehend sinnfreies Plastikkästchen" (en: mostly useless plastic box) is horrible. The author missed the point completely. To sum this up only one German saying comes to my mind: "Setzen! Sechs!" (en: a teacher yelling at a student "sit down, F").

 

[Binky]

The Pandora is a crap smartpnone


Its also an awesome retrogaming Linux palmtop, but what does that matter?


How did these guys manage to find out Nothing about a product before reviewing it?

 

[EvilDragon]

And they even had the Pandora since end of July... so they had a lot of time.


I met the reviewer at the GamesCom and he told me he didn't have time to review it yet - seems he still didn't have the time but wrote something down anyway.


I'll try to translate the whole article into English tomorrow.


I hope some members who actually read the article will send them mails and letters about that (polite ones, as mentioned above).


I'll also try to do that, but mails from actual users who tell them that the most important points have been missed will probably get more attention.

 

[xyta]

@xyta


Oh well, maybe they had the intern doing the pandora review.


Speaking of good or bad points about something is part of a review.


By what others commented, It seems the review is not only bad, but highly innacurate, which leads to bad criticism and a fail by giving readers false facts.


I really can´t hold any respect to such magazine as their staff clearly did not do the job, or maybe, pandora is not what sells their magazines and they are more prone to deal with things they believe will get costumers.

It seems the reviewer is Hartmut Gieselmann. A very qualified guy with a deep knowledge of computer games and the technology behind (including kinect or 3D engines for graphics).


I don't know if it' s available in other countries, but here is a video clip of the German TV news channel N24 with a lecture of him on trends in the gaming industry, given on the IFA 2010 consumer electronics fair.


http://www.n24.de/ne...em_6310177.html


Feel free to buy his book on "Virtual War - between fiction and reality in computer games" on Amazon...


http://www.amazon.com/virtuelle-Krieg-Hartmut-Gieselmann/dp/393034534X/ref=la_B001I7STVQ_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348422354&sr=1-1


Generally, whenever a german TV channel needs an professional expert on a IT topic, they usually ask leading Chaos Computer Club members or ct editors. So you can sometimes see these guys appearing even on the leading TV news shows in the evening. (just to emphasize the role of ct in Germany for non-Germans again...)

 

[mcobit]

Also why did they let the only person who doesn't know about linux review it... makes me a bit angry that he didn't do his homework before writing that article.


Normally I read the ct and always thought they do a decent job.

 

[EvilDragon]

It seems the reviewer is Hartmut Gieselmann. A very qualified guy with a deep knowledge of computer games and the technology behind (including kinect or 3D engines for graphics).

So... he could only review the aspect of gaming? Well... umm... okay... that would explain things.

 

[WizardStan]

So basically it was "This computer has way too many buttons to compete with the simplicity of the Nintendo and Sony consoles. And this dangly thing on the side, every time I move it the arrow on the screen moves too: no instructions on how this is supposed to work. Not a very good game machine"?

 

[iprice]

Also why did they let the only person who doesn't know about linux review it...

I actually think that's a good thing. I had NEVER used Linux in my life (and even after using my Pandora for a couple of months now, I'm still not sure if I've used it!). The change from one system to another can be (and has been) virtually seemless and shouldn't be an issue and that (nearly) anyone can make that change.


Is a knowledge of Linux really important to be able to use the system? Nope. New users are unlikely to have never used Windows or OSX or even GUIs before, so shouldn't find it that difficult to jump in. And if they can't there's a dedicated community of users all willing to give assistance. So really it is poor that someone so qualified allegedly can't find good things to say about the machine or find answers to any questions that he might have had.

 

[MasterJulian]

So basically it was "This computer has way too many buttons to compete with the simplicity of the Nintendo and Sony consoles. And this dangly thing on the side, every time I move it the arrow on the screen moves too: no instructions on how this is supposed to work. Not a very good game machine"?

Not really. On the one hand he said that it had not enough buttons, an english layout and you have to some combinations to enter german umlauts, ESC or the function keys. On the other hand he said that is not even able to compete (gaming wise) with the nintedo/sony devices, iPod or smartphone. As for a portable Linux machine, every x86 netbook is better at it.

 

[PowerGod]

Maybe it is better to just point the author to the youtube gameplay videos...


I want to read that review too

 

[PokeParadox]

I keep reading this thread title as a bad word... :S


Which may be appropriate with how they've botched the review...

 

[double7]

It's quite a PR desaster.


ct is the second most popular computer magazine in Germany and definately the one with the highest reputation/awareness ratio. It's usually known for objective reviews.

PR desaster to whom? The c't? I relied on the c't at topics i'm no expert at. I'm feeling that may not be a good idea for the future.

ct has an image of being accurate, critical and infallible.

I didn't read the article yet and noticed some quotes on the german pandora board posted by a member known for it's biased negative argument writings, so it's to early to corrct you to "c't had an image..."

The writer tried to compare it with other devices from billion dollar companies. Not with a single word was it mentioned that the Pandora is a community project. Made to fill a hole for the non existing open portable device. Calling the Pandora a "weitgehend sinnfreies Plastikkästchen" (en: mostly useless plastic box) is horrible.

If the quote on the german board is correct, then he didn't wrote that! The quote referred to plural, not singular, he matches a group of devices. I think the complete article is required to get the correct context. And like others on the german board i think the article isn't that bad at all if it really matches the readers requirements. Let's be real, it is a good thing to warn casual users, then there will be less complaining about the issues the pandora have. For all people interested in open devices and emulation all required keywords are mentioned and it's normal that a leading computer magzine doesn't write a hype article about the great emulators available on the pandora.


There may be new users on the boards due to the c't article, be prepared to give them a warm welcome and write fair feedbacks with both pro's and con's.

Also why did they let the only person who doesn't know about linux review it...

It's an evidence that everybody could use the pandora, but not everybody will be lucky with it.

 

[A2000]

As a subscriber of ct for looong years I got excited about this thread's subject:


Eventually there is a review of the Pandora!


I grabbed my copy which I usually read not before the week after it arrives as all articles need thorough reading because of they don't just write elaborated headlines but real rich content.


And what a disappointment!


I had the same feelings about the review as others in this thread: One of the worst articles to be printed in ct ever. Not that the Pandora has been tested thoroughly and the pros and cons are mentioned with equal weight. It looks from the outside that this article is rushed, somewhat unfinished and snotty.


But some of the criticized statements do show insight in the Pandora cosmos: For example, it is known to the author(s) that the android porter is notaz and that he doesn't wants to be it's maintainer. They only mentioned that Youtube videos are not played in Firefox not that it is impossible at all. They compare it with NDS and PSP and the like on one side and x86 netbooks on the other side but they completely missed the point that the Pandora is at home in both worlds, gaming console AND linux computer.


So, if one is going to write a letter to them, like I am going to do, I would recommend to read the article thoroughly twice or three times again. There is much truth in that article but mostly expressed in half sentences and much is left out.


A2000


Edit: grammar

 

[A2000]

The writer tried to compare it with other devices from billion dollar companies. Not with a single word was it mentioned that the Pandora is a community project. Made to fill a hole for the non existing open portable device. Calling the Pandora a "weitgehend sinnfreies Plastikkästchen" (en: mostly useless plastic box) is horrible.

If the quote on the german board is correct, then he didn't wrote that! The quote referred to plural, not singular, he matches a group of devices. I think the complete article is required to get the correct context. And like others on the german board i think the article isn't that bad at all if it really matches the readers requirements. Let's be real, it is a good thing to warn casual users, then there will be less complaining about the issues the pandora have. For all people interested in open devices and emulation all required keywords are mentioned and it's normal that a leading computer magzine doesn't write a hype article about the great emulators available on the pandora.


There may be new users on the boards due to the c't article, be prepared to give them a warm welcome and write fair feedbacks with both pro's and con's.

Yes, the exact quote is "diese weitgehend sinnfreien Plastikkästchen" which is plural. But, it doesn't refer to "Pandora and similar devices" but to "Pandora in all incarnations, i.e. classic, rebirth and 1GHz". So the quote wasn't literal but correct.


A2000

 

[EvilDragon]

I finally got a copy of the article - it's not as catastrophic as I thought it would be when I read the threads here. It just seems very incomplete and rushed, like some here also confirmed.


The author didn't see the key strenghts of the Pandora, which is not unusual if you didn't have much time to test it.


It's sad to see that written in c't (which was once a magazine for professional IT), but I guess they're more consumer oriented these days.

 

[notaz]

For example, it is known to the author(s) that the android porter is notaz and that he doesn't wants to be it's maintainer.

Of all things I've done, this is one of the most mentioned (not wanting to maintain it), and now it's even in one of more popular magazines. As the time goes, I regret ever releasing it more and more.

 

[rohezal]

Writing tons of emulators, porting aris recompiler to psx rearmed... well... the world is android today...

 

[Binky]

^explain...!

 

[fusion_power]

Of all things I've done, this is one of the most mentioned (not wanting to maintain it), and now it's even in one of more popular magazines. As the time goes, I regret ever releasing it more and more.

Could be worse, could be iOS. Compared to this, I would even prefer Android. ^^

 

[frostfall]

For example, it is known to the author(s) that the android porter is notaz and that he doesn't wants to be it's maintainer.

Of all things I've done, this is one of the most mentioned (not wanting to maintain it), and now it's even in one of more popular magazines. As the time goes, I regret ever releasing it more and more.

Do not first, I'm sure there's a lot of people here that are grateful you created this pnd. Second and for myself, I'm very impressed by your work here. Making android work within angstrom, with wifi/graphical cards is a masterpiece Oo. The pandora hardware is one thing but without software it's nothing...With all of your project you're one of the persons here that definitively make the pandora a great project.