Dec Update


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craigix

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Hello everyone,

Craig here, I know some of you must be choking for news at the moment, so I thought I'd write another status update for you.

As you may be aware, in terms of the economy there could not be a worse time to be building the worlds first community driven
hand held device;

No credit on parts, banks who say 'no thanks' to your 4000 orders, long lead times on parts which only a few months ago were
plentiful, currency collapses and lots more.

But we prevail, the project must go on!

One of the saving graces of this project is of course you guys - the community, thanks to you we have no debts, continuing
support and a ready and willing user base. We are very aware of how lucky this situation is - especially in the current climate,
if we had done this with a loan from a bank we are well aware the loan would have been called in by now and the project canceled.

And it is your support which is making us try to make the Pandora as perfect as it can possibly be. I know some of you want us to
just release it already, some of you hackers would not care if it had flaws, but as some of you will remember the whole point of
the Pandora was to not make the mistakes of previous open consoles.

On that note I'm pleased to say next weekend we will be building the first fully working Pandora with controls and keyboard and
making some videos of it for you to see - this does not mean the work is finished - there is bound to be something which needs
adjusting, but it is a major near final milestone.

Also we know some of you are frustrated by the slow refund and reorder process - believe me so are we - this situation could not
be more of a nightmare for us especially as we had no idea it would happen, it's a good thing we now have a bank who understands
this project and supports us with it.

Those of you who are angry about the situation please understand that what happened was not our choice, someone who was clueless
to the project saw our bank balance, paniced without speaking to us, and set the wheels in motion for a pointless refund process.
Those of you who might think we could discuss this like adults with the bank in question are very mistaken - you may as well try
to talk to a brick wall, the whole banking world is in panic mode and we are small fry to them.

But even after all this we are still working away, finding routes around the problems all with one goal still in mind - making the
best and most powerful handheld ever.

As for new things to see some of you might like this render of the case top we went with:

pandoralid2.png


It addresses the boxyness of the case which some of you didn't like, making the Pandora slimmer and more rounded, this is the
design we will be going with unless a major flaw is found.

On another note, those of you emailing asking if there will be any space for new orders after the refund process is complete I
can say there will be some available - I will post information when you can place a new order.

As for a shipping date - until we get the final delivery dates for some parts we still can't give an accurate time line but we
are working as hard as we can for it to happen as SOON AS POSSIBLE, it may be comforting for you to know another ~15 dev kits
went out to some of the best developers on the scene in the last few weeks who are furiously working on software as we speak.

One of the main problems with production is that parts are not available as easily as they were a few months ago - companies are
not keeping stock and only manufacturing to order, another pitfall of the global economy right now.

In slightly better news it's possible we might be able to ship some units reasonably soon to those of you who are more the hacker
type, these units may come without a battery and with a beta OS installed, the battery could be sent on at a later date at the
postage cost.

I hope to have more news for you soon.
 
Thanks Craigix.

I am but a humble servant and end user of the soon to be fantastical Pandora.

OpenPandora Team stick to your guns. All this hard work and pain will pay off in the end.
 
Thanks, much appreciated.

I am in no rush, as I am hoping the Pandora is my "end all, hand held 8/16-bit emulator machine".

I'd rather wait a few more months to ensure that than to be looking for a new machine in sixteen months time...
 
craigix said:
In slightly better news it's possible we might be able to ship some units reasonably soon to those of you who are more the hacker
type, these units may come without a battery and with a beta OS installed, the battery could be sent on at a later date at the
postage cost.
That last comment is music to my ears! I Don't need an all singing all dancing Pandora straight away. I also know that many people were a better candidate for Dev units.

I would appreciate an "early" Pandora :)
 
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Thanks for the update craig. Great to finally see this project become a reality. Looking forward to seeing the first completed Pandora.
 
I like the rounded case top.
However, I hope the top doesn't merge into the bottom as shown.
There needs to be a recess, ridge, overlap or release button of some kind to make opening the clamshell a quick operation.
Like most clamshell phones out there.
 
Thanks- new design will take some getting used to, though, the boxy-ness was its 2D trademark to me.
 
Thanks Craig! This all sounds great. I can only imagine how your stomach has felt sometimes through this. I too hope the case is black lol..... I particularly like the hinge design. I've been victim to the DS hinge cracking, that looks pretty sturdy.
 
Thanks Craig,

About the bank re-order process you mentioned, I got a "you need to re-order" email on Nov 26, and the refund never came (today is Dec 1st,) so I replied to the person who sent notification, and they want me to email my credit card number to them so that they can "send it to the bank to trace my refund." I would not recommend that anyone do this, and I need you to confirm that this person is one of your team before I correspond further with them. If you could contact me privately I would appreciate it.
 
The bank are the ones doing the refunds and they are doing them in an erratic manner - so sometimes the email is out of sync with the refund.

It's a nightmare I tell you, it's taking up most of our time and it's all having to be done by hand - those emails are sent one by one...
 
thanks for the update! Glad to hear a finished pandora is on it's way.

I am not sure how I feel about the curved case but it looks like it will grow on me. And is it still black or has the color changed too?
 
And just so I'm not just complaining about the clamshell, I worked up a modified render for what might help out in the design.
In this render, I cut out the ridge above the SDHC slots, and keep the recess all the way to the top of the bottom case half. The top clamshell would then overlap the bottom by the depth of the front panel recess, and allow your thumb to easily pull up on the lid to open the Pandora.
Here's the render:
pandoralid2jpickens.png

Please let me know what you think.
 
This is a great update :) Not sure why, but it makes me feel better about the situation. Thanks for keeping us in the loop!

Definitely interested in the pre-release 'hacker' Pandoras, as long as we can get word the hardware IS the final spec other than OS/battery.
 
2 updates in one day? We certainly are spoiled around here. Thanks Craig and ED!

Love the new top. It looks like it will sit quite nicely in my pocket with the more rounded edges. I too like the sturdy look of that hinge. And hope that it's black. The logo placement makes it look even more like a DS lite, but I guess that will only add to peoples' surprise when I open the thing up :)

Can't wait to see the completed units in action, and to see what layout you settled on for the keyboard.
 
I am definitely in love with this design! The rounded edges give it a really sleek look and I think it will slide in and out of my pockets quite nicely. I also think J Pickens made a good proposal to the case with that extra area recessed to facilitate easier movement of the cards in and out of the slots as well as opening the lid. I'm looking forward to further developments as they come.
 
craigix said:
The bank are the ones doing the refunds and they are doing them in an erratic manner - so sometimes the email is out of sync with the refund.

It's a nightmare I tell you, it's taking up most of our time and it's all having to be done by hand - those emails are sent one by one...
:(
That is just so unhelpful.
I have not gotten an email. But I would still like to have a message sent to every pre-orderee about their current status. I am a bit worried since I have not had any confirmation after the banking horror
 
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