Have The Moulds Been Ordered? If So, When?

[danielliu88888]

technology doesnt die

You're obviously not an Xbox 360 owner then

Or he owns a new Xbox 360 , just like me. Those Xboxes doent die (or mine still has to die, but its already half a year old, so I hope it wont die"]

Yeah but you can't beat the old Xbox: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeAz0LSaGfg...feature=related[/quote]I just came across that video randomly, i'm watching it now and laughing like an idiot.
I dropped mine down three flights of stairs onto a hard floor and apart from some scuffs it still worked!

the thing won't die...

 

[ashdjones]

the thing won't die...

The thing is, I bet when that guy gives it the fatal blow with his baseball bat, all that really happened was a lead came unhooked inside the machine. It didn't appear to dent the case at all, I think it was the shockwave that did it (the case itself seemed to do more damage to the bat than anything!).

 

[verm71]

Oh, I forgot, DaveC is adjusting the Dpad too, it needs a bigger pivot as the current 'sink depth' is a mm or so too far, this change should stop what I used to call 'Crazy Taxi Thumb', ie after a couple of hours your thumb starts to hurt.

Now this is the type of adjustments I expect to hear about from prototype testing. Excellent.

 

[WhiteBat]

thanks craig for the updates, my sanity has been restored.

oh, also, is the hinge a friction type? How does the pandora hold its self shut?

just wondering

 

[geo12]

I just want to get it before I leave for college (August 16). Is that really too much to ask?

 

[bzar]

oh, also, is the hinge a friction type? How does the pandora hold its self shut?

just wondering

IIRC the hinge has some friction so you can keep the display at whatever angle you please and the lid is held shut with magnets.

Edit: Sorry, misinformation

 

[JayFoxRox]

With magnets? I guess for such a heavy lid you would need strong magnets and you could possibly damage speakers. - AFAIK
They only use a magnet to see if the lid is closed or not so the software is informed about the current state.

 

[WhiteBat]

IIRC the hinge has some friction so you can keep the display at whatever angle you please and the lid is held shut with magnets.

really? magnets? :huh:

 

[gruso]

Jay is correct, there is a small magnet that acts only as a sensor.

http://openpandora.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/hinge-sensor/

 

[bzar]

My bad, remembered incorrectly. Sorry all

 

[Mithrildor]

The DS uses a magnet too.

 

[hobbyman II]

you don`t actually need a lid catch, pocket surfer II (rubbish gadget), Aspire one (cool gadget) and eeepc (trendsetting gadget) all just stay shut thanks to hinge friction, never been a problem for me with any of these devices, oh! and my "work" phone ditto, a physical lock is not required, the lid catch on my big laptop is annoying if you are moving about a lot, cos you always end up needing both hands to release the lid/screen.

 

[WhiteBat]

all just stay shut thanks to hinge friction, never been a problem for me with any of these devices, oh! and my "work" phone ditto, a physical lock is not required, the lid catch on my big laptop is annoying if you are moving about a lot, cos you always end up needing both hands to release the lid/screen.

well i dont want the lid to be wobbling up and down anyway.
looks like this will be my first case mod

 

[Monk]

So after all the work these tests must be as near to flawless as possible.

This is the attitude, displayed a couple fo times in this thread (also when mentioning Dave is working on improving the D-Pad) that really keep me interested in the device. Delays are bad, but delays to ensure the best possible quality rather than rushing it out are another matter.


As for longevity, I plan to emulate the BBC Micro on mine a fair bit, so I doubt the Pandora will be "obsolete" to me by release date. Interestingly I was just reading about the Atari Jaguar this weekend - it failed fairly badly when a commercial venture for all sorts of reasons, including it having been rushed to market (with quality issues in chipset design) but since the manufacturer closed their doors and the device has been made "Open" a real community has grown up around it. Smashing machine for its day, appareantly - wouldn't it be nice for the Pandora to actually START OFF with an open-source based community right from the get go? It could get really popular while the manufacturer is still around to make more - but being more modern than the Jaguar The potential SEEMS.... immense

 

[Loonie]

Yeah but you can't beat the old Xbox: I dropped mine down three flights of stairs onto a hard floor and apart from some scuffs it still worked!

Did the stairs survive?

 

[VRAndy]

ah see now this is the kind of attention to detail i like.
There are limits to all things.

Craig, Please tell us that you have an internal drop-dead date for design changes, even if you won't tell us what it is.

In the news recently is another company that allowed their attention to detail, and their desire for perfection push back their ship date. I'm referring, of course, to 3d Realms. I would have enjoyed playing DN4 back in the year 1999 even if they hadn't finished modifying their physics engine to realistically model a pachinko machine.

I know this is a harsh and unfair comparison, but with a "When it's done" ship date it makes me wonder when I hear about millimeter changes to d-pad travel. Perfection is great, but there's a limit to how much development you should be doing with customer money already in hand. (And a delivery time >500% the estimate when you collected the money.)

 

[renegadechic]

ah see now this is the kind of attention to detail i like.
There are limits to all things.

Craig, Please tell us that you have an internal drop-dead date for design changes, even if you won't tell us what it is.

In the news recently is another company that allowed their attention to detail, and their desire for perfection push back their ship date. I'm referring, of course, to 3d Realms. I would have enjoyed playing DN4 back in the year 1999 even if they hadn't finished modifying their physics engine to realistically model a pachinko machine.

I know this is a harsh and unfair comparison, but with a "When it's done" ship date it makes me wonder when I hear about millimeter changes to d-pad travel. Perfection is great, but there's a limit to how much development you should be doing with customer money already in hand. (And a delivery time >500% the estimate when you collected the money.)

actually, i think this is a rather poor comparison. i would rather compare to something like the situation over at OQO. problems with the hardware failing and all sorts of other things meant that the company went bust having to replace faulty units as well as the struggling market.

the 3D Realms situation is also a poor comparison because it had a standard business model. there were people who needed paying, office space rental, and all sorts else. actually.. rereading i cant exactly tell what you are trying to say the comparison achieves beyond the fact you have lost interest. well fair enough. even if you lose interest in the pandora, someone somewhere will take up your order. if DN4 was released in 3 years time, i am sure plenty of people would still be interested. its a very individual comparison.

anyway, my 2 cents is that i would rather they produce something as unlikely to fail and as good as they can rather than shipping out early a device that is not enjoyable to play, likely to have hardware failures and wastes years of planning. and worst of all, i wouldnt want to see the product fail so badly that they ended up in a situation like the people at OQO.

 

[VRAndy]

the 3D Realms situation is also a poor comparison because it had a standard business model.
Yea, I admit that. The comparison would actually be better if they hadn't failed.

QUOTE
rereading i cant exactly tell what you are trying to say the comparison achieves beyond the fact you have lost interest.
Not at all! My point is that 3dRealms was a company run by developers so that they had no "Boss" breathing down their neck and demanding a steady schedule. This is dangerous, because I know it's super tempting to keep changing things and perfecting things.

At some point a product reaches a quality level that a finished product is better than a more-perfect delayed product. Even if it's hard to recognize that point. Unless something went horribly wrong at 3dRealms and the screenshots were fake, DNF absolutely passed that point. There's no way a single 9 year late, "perfect" FPS game will do better than two or three "very good" FPS games.

QUOTE
if DN4 was released in 3 years time, i am sure plenty of people would still be interested.
Sure. I'll buy it. But I could be looking forward to DN6 by now. (Even if DNF didn't have quite enough casino based physics mini-games.)

QUOTE
someone somewhere will take up your order.
Maybe if they kill me for it. (Or I die of old age. (I kid!))

My point was that they need to be working towards a deadline, even if they're afraid to tell us what it is, because there is always something that can be done to make a product better. Always. Always. At some point you have to ignore those things.

I assume they understand this, but I'd like some assurance that they do. That's all I was asking.

In retrospect it was probably bad form to make a DNF comparison right after 3drealms crashed and burned, so I apologize for that.

 

[renegadechic]

you do have a fair point, and though i sounded like i was suggesting your interest in the pandora had gone, i meant in DNF, but that by that comparison you might mean you could soon lose interest in the pandora.

i see what you are getting at. thankfully i think the team is pretty eager to get it out as soon as possible. if they had the insane capacity to build and do every single part on site they would probably work non stop until it was finally done. all the other companies seem to be slowing them down now. that and the fact it is such an international effort. i dont know the details but if it was as you said a group of developers and they had the capacity right there to do everything they needed, then its pretty safe to say that they were more like a beheaded chicken somehow still with its head up its arse!

things seem to be just getting done as they get done and the long list of things is slowly going down. this testing phase is more making sure things work properly rather than.. i dunno.. adding lasers?! quality assurance rather than redesign.

i need to rant less on the internet. i always sound more aggressive than i mean to.

 

[VRAndy]

things seem to be just getting done as they get done and the long list of things is slowly going down. this testing phase is more making sure things work properly rather than.. i dunno.. adding lasers?! quality assurance rather than redesign.
I hope you're right. You probably are, I'd just be happier if Craigix said it.

QUOTE
i need to rant less on the internet. i always sound more aggressive than i mean to.
I realized as soon as I hit [POST] that a DNF comparison was probably not the most tactful way of asking my question.