I've Canceled

[Caine]

You know these things go on ebay for $1000 right?

 

[mali]

^ Fetish?

Ok, I stop now.

 

[spikeyxx]

i think the greatest thank you couldve done was stick with the pandora and not cancel. but thats your decision but not keen on this way of vocalising "im off" attention posts

I'm off for now. I need a break from obsessing over the forum posts and general crack. I have a hard time detaching, this is how I cope.

When the device is available without having to check here every two mins, I will more than likely be back on again.

 

[torpor]

so what you are saying is you have finally cracked?!

shit brother.. i'll let you use mine. just for a little bit*. but you must give it back!

(*- a few seconds or so ..)

 

[Fishbong]

I've decided to cancel my order. I've been an avid fan of the project for 2+ years, and was very much willing to wait for that period but have now reached my limit, in terms of how long I'm willing to wait, and how much ambiguity of information I am prepared to accept. For the record, I ordered on day one, and had a GBAX store estimate of 550-650.

I appreciate the fact that information has been hard to come by, and I'm sorry that people like Evil Dragon have been unable to work on hotfixes and the like due to answering questions in multiple places. I also would like to state that it would have been far simpler to keep information all in one place to keep things easy for people to keep tabs on. The fact that this hasn't happened is one of the primary reasons I chose to cancel.

Unorganized distribution of information implies unorganized progression in general.

I've had to look in a number of places to get any information at all, and this was simply not on. I strenuously advise you find ONE viable outlet for communication, and stick to it in future.

The second reason why I have chose to cancel, so that the OP team understand the competition, is because I am going to buy an iPad. I use a Mac Desktop, A Macbook Pro, and an iPhone as my primary devices. I was hoping the Pandora could be a convergence device for these 3, plus a great emulator, but I now realise that for the purposes I require a device of this nature an iPad will do me fine.

I'm not keen on the formfactor, or the closed nature of the device, but I'm sure jailbreaking will assist, and considering I only really wanted a pandora for use in the house, I'm sure this will do.

My third reason is because the hardware and specifications no longer seem up to the standard I expected upon purchasing. The hardware inside is comparable to most smart phones out there, and the quality of the hinge, the keys, and the dpad have been been reviewed as lower than expected in a few reviews I've read. These factors combined lead me to believe quality control is not to where it should be. I haven't used a unit myself, so I can't comment on the validity of these assumptions but for me this is was a justification to get of the train.

I would like to thank Evil Dragon for his patience and hard work. He strikes me as a fair and thoroughly nice, honest gentleman. I also congratulate Craigix for his vision, but would suggest he refines his "succinct" updates to be a lot more detailed in future. I haven't seen much of the other team members so I'd like to thank them also, but cannot give any feedback to them.

I might perhaps choose to get back on the train once the units are available without a leadtime measured in years, or perhaps when a spec boost is launched along the way.

You should look into becoming a soap opera writer as it seems you have a talent to turn even the most banal things into huge drama.

 

[SomeGuy99]

You should look into becoming a soap opera writer as it seems you have a talent to turn even the most banal things into huge drama.

You've just described the entire Pandora community.

 

[moxie]

You should look into becoming a soap opera writer as it seems you have a talent to turn even the most banal things into huge drama.

You've just described the entire Pandora community.

Indeed

Spikeyxx, good for you. Relax, be happy, come back later. It is not for eveyone to be able to stomach this ride. Just one comment, to you here and to a lot of people who demand "just simple, basic information from one central source" - I don't think you realise the amount of work needed to make that a reality. Managing information is Really Hard Work.

 

[spikeyxx]

Ah well. I've given my feeback. I hope it's in some way valuable to the team.

 

[SomeGuy99]

It's bloody incredible that roughly 10 people (including the firmware devs) have managed to pull this thing off really. When you think about all the variables, all the thousands of things that could (and have) gone wrong... it actually happened! Amazing!

It just goes to show you how complex computers and business have become really.

 

[TLJRyan]

Somebody should give me a Pandora, for free.

(Not relevant to topic, but what'ev.)

Otherwise, I'm going to have to wait a loooonnng time for one of these beauties.

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, there are no really new things for us here where we could learn from.

I'd love to tell you all when you will get your Pandora - but in fact, I can't unless we get the boards in a reliable timeframe (we get different amount of boards in the same timeframe... so no idea how long it takes) and as long as we don't have the 3000 boards, it's even more hard to tell. Fatih is bugging the Chinese while Michael is bugging the company in Texas

Our assembly line is working very well already, as soon as we get anything to build, they will be done pretty quickly. But unless we have everything we need to build them, we can't do any time assumptions.

I strenuously advise you find ONE viable outlet for communication, and stick to it in future.

It's easy (and said multiple times):
a) Twitter: Quick and up-to-date things
B) Boards: Assumptions, fresh news, answers to questions (if possible)
c) Official site: Only the most important news. Like cases have been ordered or cases have arrived. No inbetween news.

That's how we want it to be and that's basically how it is.

The second reason why I have chose to cancel, so that the OP team understand the competition, is because I am going to buy an iPad. I use a Mac Desktop, A Macbook Pro, and an iPhone as my primary devices. I was hoping the Pandora could be a convergence device for these 3, plus a great emulator, but I now realise that for the purposes I require a device of this nature an iPad will do me fine.

Well, then I guess you're really better off with an iPad.
The special thing about the Pandora is the things you CAN'T do with such devices.

It is meant as mainly an open source gaming console with a lot of power behind it. It appears the possibilities as Mini-Computer also are spot on - I'm happy I have a proper desktop with keyboard and not some weird gesture device.
And with that, there is no competition there.

We never planned to have any competition with any Apple device - the Pandora is a different system. And for what we built it, we haven't found any competition yet.

The hardware inside is comparable to most smart phones out there

Well, except for the Apple iPhone and the Nokia N900, I don't know any phones yet which are as powerful as the Pandora... but that's not the thing here. They are missing gaming controls. And if you don't need them... well, of course, then you basically don't need a Pandora, since those controls are what distinguishes the Pandora from those device.

To me it sounds like you're not interested in playing arcade-like games - because that's something you can't do with an iPad, iPhone, etc.

and the quality of the hinge, the keys, and the dpad have been been reviewed as lower than expected in a few reviews I've read. These factors combined lead me to believe quality control is not to where it should be. I haven't used a unit myself, so I can't comment on the validity of these assumptions but for me this is was a justification to get of the train.

Hmm, I wonder where you read about that.
I know of two problem posts with the DPad... one was a bit stiff and working after two days and the other one... forgot what was wrong. All other guys here on the boards say that the DPad is one of the best one they ever had.
Same for the keys - except for a few broken keymats, they are great.
Hinge? I haven't read any low quality or bad issues about that one here on the boards...

Of course, one thing you should never forget is: Users who are confident with a product, don't post. Only users with problems don't post. So even if you have 10 users posting about problems - with 500 delivered units, this is nothing to be afraid of. Especially not after the first batch.

You know what you could find a few days after the iPad has been released? When searching for iPad and problems, you could find dozens of users having WiFi problems with the iPad.
Bad quality control, too?


This is the first batch - of course there will be more broken units than with later batches. That's normal with every device out there.
Especially as the first batch here is the first bigger batch - usually, Apple or Sony do bigger batches as testrun... and those devices will never be sold.
We'd love to do this - but we surely can't afford that.

 

[Chairman_Now]

Well, there are no really new things for us here where we could learn from.

Nice. The original poster underwrites your project for years. He loses patience, politely, and tries to make helpful suggestions.

He's completely dismissed. Lovely.

Sorry, but the information coming from OP is piss poor. The excuse that it takes too long to update is also piss poor.

To make it clear: Make one sticky in this forum. Have it include the following information:

As of <current date>
THIS IS HOW MANY WE'VE BUILT: XXXX
THIS IS HOW MANY WE'VE SHIPPED TO GBAX CUSTOMERS:YYYY
THIS IS HOW MANY WE'VE SHIPPED TO ED CUSTOMERS: ZZZ
THIS IS HOW MANY WE'VE SHIPPED TO FATIH's CUSTOMERS: AAA
THIS IS HOW MANY THAT WON'T BE SHIPPED (defects, warranty replacements, review units, etc): BBB

That's it. No predictions, no projections, just the facts. No more purposeful ambiguity. Optionally, letting us know what parts are currently on order, no ETA needed, would also be nice.

Note that people are trying to do the very same thing by divining tea leaves, and spreading misinformation that will likely result in more cancellations as opposed to just putting up the facts.

 

[hedwards]

Well, except for the Apple iPhone and the Nokia N900, I don't know any phones yet which are as powerful as the Pandora... but that's not the thing here. They are missing gaming controls. And if you don't need them... well, of course, then you basically don't need a Pandora, since those controls are what distinguishes the Pandora from those device.

To me it sounds like you're not interested in playing arcade-like games - because that's something you can't do with an iPad, iPhone, etc.

If I'm not greatly mistaken, my Nexus One is significantly more powerful. And it definitely doesn't have game controls, quality or otherwise. But I didn't cancel my order when I got it, if that's any indication. The devices are just not in any kind of meaningful competition. Well, beyond both costing money.

EDIT: Chairman_Now, The rest of us also would like more information and have been underwriting this as well. However, there's no excuse for being rude. The project is doing as well as it can, and quite frankly it's amazing they've been able to ship any units at all. This is hardly a simple project to work on. They get yelled at when the information they hand out is wrong and they get yelled at when they don't give enough information and there's not really a whole of information that they have that we haven't been given.

 

[Wilhood]

Ah well. I've given my feeback. I hope it's in some way valuable to the team.

Good luck spikeyxx with whatever you buy.

 

[Drak]

Should have let the order through then sold it for a grand or so on eBay

 

[Evil Star]

Well, except for the Apple iPhone and the Nokia N900, I don't know any phones yet which are as powerful as the Pandora...

The HTC Incredible has a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU doesn't it

 

[SomeGuy99]

But none of those phones are a Pandora. There's only one Pandora! It's more than the sum of it's parts, trust me.

 

[Chairman_Now]

EDIT: Chairman_Now, The rest of us also would like more information and have been underwriting this as well. However, there's no excuse for being rude. The project is doing as well as it can, and quite frankly it's amazing they've been able to ship any units at all. This is hardly a simple project to work on. They get yelled at when the information they hand out is wrong and they get yelled at when they don't give enough information and...

As ED himself has said in another thread, he meets rudeness with rudeness. Well, he was pretty damned rude in his last posting. More so than calling their efforts at information distribution "piss poor". I doubt that even the OP members would dispute that.

there's not really a whole of information that they have that we haven't been given.

See my post again. All of the information that I'm suggesting that they make available is easily known to them, and has not been given. It'd be extremely helpful. It doesn't promise anything. It does not take much effort to do so. So why not post it? Are they afraid of mass cancellations if they do?

Seems like the only reason that I can come up with. Same for ED's post - why argue with the guy? How about just say - thanks, sorry it didn't work out, hope to see you back?

 

[JayFoxRox]

Perfectly valid arguments imo and I'd pick the same and those are the reasons why I also thought about cancelling.
However, I'll just keep my order and sell it, if it's completly useless to me.

 

[Esn]

Well, there are no really new things for us here where we could learn from.

Nice. The original poster underwrites your project for years. He loses patience, politely, and tries to make helpful suggestions.

He's completely dismissed. Lovely.

Sorry, but the information coming from OP is piss poor. The excuse that it takes too long to update is also piss poor.

To make it clear: Make one sticky in this forum. Have it include the following information:

As of <current date>
THIS IS HOW MANY WE'VE BUILT: XXXX
THIS IS HOW MANY WE'VE SHIPPED TO GBAX CUSTOMERS:YYYY
THIS IS HOW MANY WE'VE SHIPPED TO ED CUSTOMERS: ZZZ
THIS IS HOW MANY WE'VE SHIPPED TO FATIH's CUSTOMERS: AAA
THIS IS HOW MANY THAT WON'T BE SHIPPED (defects, warranty replacements, review units, etc): BBB

That's it. No predictions, no projections, just the facts. No more purposeful ambiguity. Optionally, letting us know what parts are currently on order, no ETA needed, would also be nice.

Note that people are trying to do the very same thing by divining tea leaves, and spreading misinformation that will likely result in more cancellations as opposed to just putting up the facts.

A bit rude, but...

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/54348-pandora-production-progress/

Yeah, it would be nice if this graphic was official...