I've Canceled

[spikeyxx]

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.

 

[Bosbeetle]

Ok

I had one and I wouldn't want to miss it. But if you choose to cancel it's ok.

 

[SomeGuy99]

Ok

I had one and I wouldn't want to miss it. But if you choose to cancel it's ok.

+1

I can't imagine life without my Pandora now. B)

 

[Trip]

How about some constructive feedback for the team

 

[Yoyobuae]

Good Afternoon People,

I've been following this project for over two years now and pre-ordered as soon as we were able too. I've followed the progress patiently, but after about the one year mark, became very dissatisfied with the rate of progression, and began to think about canceling...

... and?

That post seems awfully incomplete. I though you were gonna elaborate a bit more (as the title/sub-title seems to imply). Or is that all you wanted to say? :unsure:

Anyway, it's a shame that OPT can't keep going a more consistent progress. But there's always limitations imposed by external factors (or their own limitations as well). I guess it's easier to tolerate without having waited two years (or nearly two years), so I can't fully understand how you feel.

I'm hoping I get my Pandora at least before the one year since pre-order mark (october 2010). I think it will be close. OPT can hope to improve the rate of production on the assembly site. But without boards/cases they'll have nothing to assemble. I expect a lot of gaps during the rest of assembly. So as a 3500+ queue spot holder I keeping my hopes for this Christmas, but no earlier.

 

[Loonie]

ohhhhhkayyyy...

 

[second exodous]

Why did you wait till the last possible moment to cancel? You know that you would have gotten your Pandora soon. So you waited 12 months, or by your post I think you ordered a year ago, and then when the wait was either 1/12 or 1/6 of how long you waited so far you cancel? Also, why post that you cancel, why not just cancel and not tell everyone about it?

 

[spikeyxx]

apologies, I hit enter before I was finished typing.

 

[SomeGuy99]

Why did you wait till the last possible moment to cancel? You know that you would have gotten your Pandora soon. So you waited 12 months, or by your post I think you ordered a year ago, and then when the wait was either 1/12 or 1/6 of how long you waited so far you cancel? Also, why post that you cancel, why not just cancel and not tell everyone about it?

Some people have an expressive personality. I'm like that a lot of the time.

 

[hedwards]

ohhhhhkayyyy...

What he meant to say is that some people are moving up in the que. Congratulations to them. Not sure why we needed that long a post to say that.

 

[Yoyobuae]

ohhhhhkayyyy...

What he meant to say is that some people are moving up in the que. Congratulations to them. Not sure why we needed that long a post to say that.

Now that I think about it: WOOT!!! I'm one place closer to my Pandora!!!

 

[Tensuke]

Sorry bro.

 

[b._.o._.b]

I am going to buy an iPad. I use a Mac Desktop, A Macbook Pro, and an iPhone as my primary devices.

Which of the 5 doesn't belong in this list?

iPad
Mac
Macbook Pro
iPhone
Pandora

Hmm.... I think you made the right choice. Bye!

 

[tds48]

Dude your reasons (wooried about quality / delivery ) are all good thats why I decided to jump the queue and get a one-nubber (turned out to be a two nubber)

my words of advice get back IN the queue, Jacqueline and Debbie wont mind putting you back - THIS IS A SERIOUS PIECE OF KIT. I had serious linux, android and apple fans asking me where to buy one today at work. I have had itouch (8/16/64), Archos AV500/5/7, Ipod Classic / PSP / DS DSi / netbook / hackintosh and currently have an apad (yes apad not ipad) and now my pandora KICKS all of their arses sidewise.

Your wait is max two weeks ... you are seriously going to regret it ...

any which way ... good luck

 

[tsh]

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.

True, my phone beats the CPU by 20%, but the phone doesn't have any keyboard - and for browsing, I am thinking the Pandora wins. Performance wise, raw clock speed isn't the only factor, and I think it is generally 'enough'. The hinge, I generally use fully open, and it's perfect for that. I like the fact than I can use my phone as a wireless modem and get a combined battery of about 6 hours browsing (leaving the phone charged!).

QC on my unit is fine, some very minor imperfections on the case from seams in the mould (which are too small to pick up on my phone camera), and the screw covers on the lid were not fully seated when I got the unit. It seems that nubs are a bit of a problem, but my one-nub is currently functioning as a 2-nub. You could complain about the battery cover snagging on the battery wrapper if you felt like it.

Complaining about the quality of status updates seems more like an excuse to get off the train. Yes, progress has been disappointing (not seen any shipping email updates today), but it is pointless trying to predict how a project like this will go from day to day.

 

[irefan]

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.

Dude,

you should have waited a few more weeks at least, then cashed in @ Ebay, it would have paid for at least 2 Iphone4's for your collection.

Pity...

 

[paddy]

spikeyxx has some very valid points and one of his main reasons is that he wants an ipad ,well you can't really blame the guy at all ,as far as i can see i was 400/500 in the list so would i have received my pandora by now or would i still be waiting ? if i were still waiting i would have canceled last week when all info seems to have dropped off the radar ,i mean i have not been following the (when will the rest be shipped) thread as i have my unit but i can't help but thinking has OPT let you guys know when you will get your pandora yet ? has production started yet ,have all the other cases went into production and more boards and needed parts like batteries been shipping to Craig's place ??? i have not read any updates on this and it was quite a while before a saw anything relating to this apart from the last blog post but that didn't say too much at all apart from vague (more cases have been shipped) and a post from craig saying three people have been employed full time to work in production.

Like i say i have not been reading every forum post so i don't know the news "if any" but well even tho 600/mabe 700 pandora units have been shipped to customers that doesn't mean my 400/500 order could have been sent out ,it really depends on how OPT do it ,so we all have cut off points and we can all be disheartened at the lack of info and hard numbers on production that would most prolly keep us all going on waiting even longer and then there is always temptation of other devices out there ,anyway look i now own a pandora but that doesn't mean i do not care about the rest of you still waiting ,my situation is that i can't wait till more of YOU get your pandora's and we can all keep working along together with OPT to make this little box the best thing ever.

 

[carlgeorge]

Good luck. Bye.

 

[djaychela]

Well, I can fully empathise with why you've cancelled - some of the info that I've seen about the Pandoras that people have received has been quite offputting, and I say that as someone who put their order in as soon as I could, having followed the project for a long time before that.

I know that OPT have been doing this in many cases in their spare time, etc., but the fact still remains that quite a few mistakes seem to have been made; I have found the lack of centralised, definitive information extremely frustrating. I am somewhere in the sub-1000 (I believe in the 700s), and have no real idea when I'll get my unit. The updates on the main site blog have been patchy (although worth reading when they have been there for the most part), and the situation with the "three different queues to fulfil" means there are a lot of chinese whispers going on, and as a result more frustrated people. If OPT wish to be taken seriously then I would suggest that they fix this in the future; with people who are clever enough to make the Pandora, that kind of thing should be about an afternoon's work, and given that the device still looks to be good (as long as the QC issues which have me slightly worried are merely teething troubles, not design problems) then a larger production run would surely mandate that this needs to happen. I would also suggest that the ordering setup be improved; it seems to be less than ideal - there were problems with my order after the "refund" situation which left me somewhat worried that I would never get a Pandora, and having a non-centralised "final" order queue seems to have led to lots of confusion as to what production is allocated where.

No doubt I'll get lots of flames for this, but I surely can't be alone in thinking that this has taken a VERY long time, and that the whole waiting game would have been a lot easier to deal with had it not been done in a more professional, informative way. Yes, the tech stuff is interesting, but knowing when you'll get your unit that you paid for 21 months ago is paramount.

 

[Kayday]

Those that wanted a Pandora understands why we waited all this time for it. Those that are currently canceling never did in the first place and was just on the bandwagon. You either want it or you don't, PERIOD!