How will you promote your PANDORA?


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I decided when I first got a Pandora almost a year ago that it was something very powerful. It might not be a barn burner or up to all of todays latest smartphone "benchmarks" either. Just how good the control is compared to a GP2X F-200 or a Dingoo A-320, it's amazing.


It had its flaws too, the case was a little crooked and their was quite a big gap at the bottom of the screen. Oh, did I mention the wonky A button? It just felt like the kid doing its own thing compared to old BXY. And the shoulder buttons, it's been a bittersweet love story here. First you work, then after opening the unit to diagnose the A button's extra plastic on the underside of the button, the L Shoulder decides it doesn't want to work anymore. After reopening the case and reseating the shoulder button, it was fine. Then there was the Premium Pandora that I was so happy to order, because I was lucky enough to have a Pandora of the first one hundred that still has working Nubs. That Premium arrived with a bad shoulder button and case that should have never made it through QA, but hey, mistakes happen, and I was glad to take the hit and glad the unit didn't go on to someone getting their first Pandora. And yes, there are those of you still waiting, and it is well worth it.


Even after all the minor flaws listed, most of them are now extinct because with each batch things are getting better. I had to RMA my first Pandora in September for the Purple Tint issue. The rebuilt unit was amazing, there was a newer case, it had a better feel to it all around. ABXY were all in cahoots. Shoulder buttons were solid and with less of a gap and smoother feel.


So what I've done is upgraded several of my preorders to Premiums allowing the team to make some profit on my purchase as well as the units I've given up to be sold as Premiums. Why? Back in 1999 when I restarted college after a stint in the US Army (which was an experience, please understand that I'm an anti-war activist, especially corporate illegal wars for profit). While abroad in Germany I picked up a Sony Minidisc Recorder to bootleg concerts and also to record the collection of CD singles I was accumulating onto a single disc, music and the internet kept me sane. I often took the train to Frankfurt to surf the internet for some sanity. It was interesting buying the MD on the German economy because the US dollar was strong compared to the DM at the time. Oh how times have changed. Regardless, I quickly fell in love with the MD because I could carry 5 MDs easily of whatever I wanted to listen to. It was rewriteable, with the TOC, tracks could be rearranged. It had a copy protection that could be hacked with professional digital recorders that didn't acknowledge the signal. 74 Minute discs could be hacked to 80 Minute capacity. But I'm getting ahead of myself.


It started in Japan in 1993 when I met a really cool Japanese exchange student. His Pearl Jam CD had extra songs on it, so did his Stone Temple Pilots. We became good friends and I was really concerned about him when Kurt Kobain passed, he took it really hard. The Japanese love for American music fascinates me, and I reciprocate this with their technology and innovation. After he went home for a break, he hooked me up with Super Metroid from Japan which dropped there before in the US. 1996 I was able to catch Jimmy Page & Robert Plant at Budokan Hall, I tried bootlegging with an AIWA cassette recorder and failed miserably. While wondering the subways, I was first exposed to the Minidisc culture of Japan. Fast forward to 1999 and through minidisc.org I was able to find someone who was kind enough to send me blank Minidiscs from the Japanese electronics markets. There were different types and brands of Minidiscs on various continents. Europe had some sweet ones while here in the US, they were bland for the most part, and Japan had some really sweet styles. Minidisc was a community back then.


EventuallyI started finding some bulk European discs at great prices and started listing them on Ebay. Then I started ordering large orders directly from a shoppe in Japan. Next I started working with Minidisco.com which is now history. A normal month was about $10K in sales of recorders on Ebay, also vulturing bidders before Buy It Now was established and rules got tighter. Life was good. Then the iPod happened, I had some health issues as well, and Ebay's fees went up as did PayPal's, college was finally over too.


Now I've stocked an online shop to promote this Open Pandora and the community supporting it. I found you all way back in 2008 when I was in rough times personally, disappointed in a hacked iPhone, this community kept me sane. Stuck in a city, away from the river life I survived on since 2003. I've learned a lot along this journey and there is so much more that I want to learn about Linux and the Pandora. I don't want to see this project end anytime soon, that is why I want to promote the Pandora to its fullest potential. The Pandora is the coolest thing I've ever owned.


Thank you Craig, ED, MichaelW, Fatih, DaveC, and everyone that's contributed and improved a very stable usable OS last year to an even better representation today and tomorrow I'm sure.
 
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