How to calculate a price for the Pyra


You can feed Google with "600 EUR to USD" to get the answer, Google knows the current exchange rate and will do the calculation for you.
 
Note that those rates from xe and google are what they're going for on the foreign exchange market, your bank or credit card is probably going to charge a few percent more, typically around 2-5% though I've seen some places charge as much as 15%. Don't be fooled, check to make sure they're charging a fair fee.


So the current exchange rate is about $640 but you would expect to pay more like $660.  In a few months that's going to change but it's impossible to say which way.
 
Euro to Dollar drops more and more, which sucks. They assume that before years end, the equal is arrived and the Euro will drop then even more. :(    Not good if you want cheap electronics, these are so or so even more expensive then in USA.  I wish, the Euro would be again around 1.20-1.30 Dollars, so we get something for our money.
 
The problem is: Since a lot of the prices for parts are being paid in USD, they affect the production costs in a bad way :(
 
Note that those rates from xe and google are what they're going for on the foreign exchange market, your bank or credit card is probably going to charge a few percent more, typically around 2-5% though I've seen some places charge as much as 15%. Don't be fooled, check to make sure they're charging a fair fee.


So the current exchange rate is about $640 but you would expect to pay more like $660.  In a few months that's going to change but it's impossible to say which way.

Good point that I overlooked.  I don't think my bank charges much (if anything) to change it since it is for people that travel to other countries often.  That, along with instantly crediting funds to accounts, returning  ATM fees, etc. is why I stuck with them.


I don't remember if Google gives you historical data.  That is part of why I use xe, since I try to make large purchases when the exchange rate is favorable for me.
 
Even if your bank doesn't have an explicit charge for foreign transactions, you'll be subject to the different rates that exist for those selling and those buying foreign currency. Google and xe.com use the mean average of the two, I think.


FWIW, In the UK we recently got a change to the rules that meant banks had to put their charges separately to the value converted using the buy rate, and it was something of a surprise to me to see how much their cut was on my recent Dragonbox purchases.
 
At least in my country banks deal with different taxation for values if below or above 100.000 euros, but in the end you always get robbed the shortest the value of the transfer is, since the tax is fixed and not a percentage of the total amount. Virtually you could be paying more bank taxes than a product is worth, how crazy is that? Banks are a necessary evil unfortunately.
 
In the UK, banks now must itemise (on your bill) the exchange rate they used for your transaction, then the amount they took separately.  On my recent transaction with ED, they took about 2.75% of the value as a fee, and I think it's always that percentage of the total (possibly subject to some minimum charge, I'm not sure on that).  The exchange rate they used looks about right to me.
 
Good point that I overlooked.  I don't think my bank charges much (if anything) to change it since it is for people that travel to other countries often.  That, along with instantly crediting funds to accounts, returning  ATM fees, etc. is why I stuck with them.


I don't remember if Google gives you historical data.  That is part of why I use xe, since I try to make large purchases when the exchange rate is favorable for me.

Actually, my bank charges nothing, and will just pay in the correct exchange rate...in the currency I choose.


But I still wanted to know about how many Yankee Dollars would be missing from my account.


I did this before when I was in Thailand.  Just used my bank credit card, and they did the conversion to Thai Bhat from USD for me and included the info in the detail line.


I had a lot of clothes custom made for me while I was in Thailand because you can get that done dirt cheap and in really good materials.  I got a custom-fitted suit, for example, with trousers, skirt, blazer...and two shirts...all done with Italian silk...for under $300 bucks.  Try doing THAT n America!
 
Distributors like ThinkGeek have thousands of users, a lot of them potential Pyra customers. One newsletter from them could increase the sales a lot - more free advertisement and more units sold.

GCW-ZERO



Status Update December 22nd, 2015






 







ThinkGeek has de-listed the GCW Zero and will no longer be carrying it as an item on their web-store. Here is statement I was give from my buyer at ThinkGeek as to why they will no longer be carrying the GCW Zero.


"Due to licensing constraints, as of January 1, 2016, ThinkGeek will no longer be able to carry emulation tools and consoles."


We have valued them as a retailer and will now start our search for another web-store to carry the GCW Zero in North America.


Was sent to backers just now, It sounds very much like the pyra falls under that jurisdiction. Maybe the "licensing" pass it off as a laptop with a plain OS on it?
 
GCW-ZERO



Status Update December 22nd, 2015






 







ThinkGeek has de-listed the GCW Zero and will no longer be carrying it as an item on their web-store. Here is statement I was give from my buyer at ThinkGeek as to why they will no longer be carrying the GCW Zero.


"Due to licensing constraints, as of January 1, 2016, ThinkGeek will no longer be able to carry emulation tools and consoles."


We have valued them as a retailer and will now start our search for another web-store to carry the GCW Zero in North America.


Was sent to backers just now, It sounds very much like the pyra falls under that jurisdiction. Maybe the "licensing" pass it off as a laptop with a plain OS on it?

All computers and Phones and Tablets can be used as emulation tools!
 
For some reason this seems to be an issue for some retailers as they don't want to be at the wrong end of litigation.  I would advertise the Pyra as a Gaming friendly Linux handheld computer and keep Emulation on the low down.  Especially if Paypal is involved.
 
All computers and Phones and Tablets can be used as emulation tools!

But they're not dedicated to that. There lays the conflict, having a machine that can emulate ,among other things, makes it a choice of yours to potentially infringe software licenses and not something designed to do it.
 
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Well, my guess is that the GCW is mostly used for emulation and cannot really be used as a computer.


The advertising for it has always been that the 320x200 resolution is perfect for emulating classic games and most released apps are emulators as well.


Therefore, they see it as "emulation" console.


I don't plan to market the Pyra as much as an emulation device as we did with the Pandora.


The Pyra will be a fully fledged pocket PC, and seeing how much stuff ptitSeb has released for the Pandora, I doubt the Pyra will be a mere emulation device, especially as cheap chinese Android tablets can emulate as well.

We have evolved a lot, with the backlit keyboard, the CPU power, the mobile connectivity, etc.


It's not anymore simply an emulation device...
 
For some reason this seems to be an issue for some retailers as they don't want to be at the wrong end of litigation.  I would advertise the Pyra as a Gaming friendly Linux handheld computer and keep Emulation on the low down.  Especially if Paypal is involved.



Yes. While the Pandora was basically an emulation device in the early days, it already has evolved a lot to become a tool for everything (although a bit slow these days).


The Pyra can run a full desktop with full speed FireFox, etc.


It's more a pocketable PC than an emulation device.
 
That's indeed an interesting and important point, how you will advertise the Pyra. I'm sure it will find a wider audience than the Pandora did, as long as it is presented to be more than a geek niche device. :)  The keyboard alone will not sell  the Pyra I guess, today, most people are so touchscreen focused, it will be hard to convince them. Except the nice Blackberry Folks of course. :D  


But  this also depends onto the Software and how "casual" (yes, bad word) it will be able to use. Pandora was already "usable" but had it's quirks and problems here and there. The Pyra has at least the power to be more "fluid" in whatever it does.
 
I don't remember the Pandora being advertised as anything other than a pocket PC, hasn't stopped many from showing up to tell us it can't compete with the existing game consoles.


I fear that it won't matter how you advertise it, there's a stigma of "small console" = "games", and "open source console" = "emulation".
 
AFAIK, Pandora was partly announced more as a Pocket-Retro-Gaming-Linux-device, the main intention was AFAIK an Amiga (Emulator) with Keyboard in your pocket, at least from Craigs site...way back then of course. ^^"
 
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