Lol - Banned From Openpandora Forums

[Unfathomable Depths]

I went up to the Trading Standards office in Motherwell and they have advised me to either wait until production restarts and see if there is any communication about a refund/replacement or go to the Citizens Advice Scotland office in Bellshill and get help with a small claims court hearing.

Will wait until production starts. Never done anything via the small claims court before but as it costs me nothing it seems to be a viable last option.

Not holding my breath.

 

[Mjlink]

You're right - there's no choice at all. Back to Yakyak I go

D.

I've brought this up on the other forum and have been critiqued for it, but it seems like if the RMA needs a new board, there are just none out there with a working wi-fi chip. So your six month wait for the RMA may mean an upgrade to 512MB RAM. I don't see Global Components reworking Circshit Co's boards. All the boards coming from Global Components will be 512MB RAM with the latest board revision.

Watching pissing matches like this brings me down. Hope things cool down over the next month and this gets resolved properly.

 

[WizardStan]

I suspect that the Pandora is basically a flailing dream right at the moment. Very few of them are going out and will go out in the future. I think they will be able to break even, or come close, but really their best hope is to finish off what they started and count that as a seed for a Pandora 2. That's my hope, anyway, that they haven't lost so much money that a properly updated Pandora is completely off the table: the first one does so many things right that just hasn't happened with any other handheld out there I would be very sad to not be able to continue filling this niche in the future.
A lot more consideration in the hardware would need to be taken, most notably and entirely seriously the Android compatibility of said hardware: three years ago Android wasn't nearly mature enough that I'd consider it, but now, as much as I love the full desktop experience, there is a great deal to be said about running Android for market appeal.

 

[coldfish]

Holding your breath for Pandora2 is bound to result in asphyxiation.

It's only a matter of time before an OEM mashes some real controls into an Android handset/tablet.

 

[Chris S]

Hello

Sorry to hear this, I am not surprised, the attitude over there
is, if you dare to criticize or say it how you see it then they either
slap you like a child, or at worst ban you which is what has happened you.

I do not use that Pandora forum anymore, I learnt sometime back
that if the regulars there do not accept you then you have no chance.

It is like a pandora clicky club, sad really. I have heard of several people
selling pandoras because of the attitude that they have. I feel sorry for ED
sitting in amongst it all trying to hold it all together.

I really wish I had not gotten involved with these peoples project way back.

Well they can keep there club and as for Craig he really has forgotten that
the paying public are his bread and butter.

 

[DisgruntleElf]

Well they can keep there club and as for Craig he really has forgotten that
the paying public are his bread and butter.

It's a stranger mentality than that. It's as if Craig is the abusive daddy and the members and developers are his children trying to earn big bad daddy Craig's approval. It's just plain weird. How it ever got to that point is a mystery.

 

[WizardStan]

I would disagree with that. A little more like the crazy rich uncle that everyone tolerates because he gives cool gifts at Christmas, tells some great jokes, and is generally a good guy, but every once in a while you think he needs some medication. You just kind of shake your head, say "oh, uncle Craig" and hope the mood swing passes quickly. It often does.

 

[quartercast]

^ I second this notion.

 

[Chris S]

I would disagree with that. A little more like the crazy rich uncle that everyone tolerates because he gives cool gifts at Christmas, tells some great jokes, and is generally a good guy, but every once in a while you think he needs some medication. You just kind of shake your head, say "oh, uncle Craig" and hope the mood swing passes quickly. It often does.

Sorry but I cannot agree with this, why should people put up with his bahavior ?

He is part of the OPT and should be setting an example in everyway. He has this I own Pandora
and I will do what I dam well like, he pisses people of with his decisions and comments all the time.

I have followed the official forums for sometime but becuase of what goes on over there, I have never wanted
to become a member.

 

[WizardStan]

Sorry but I cannot agree with this, why should people put up with his bahavior ?

The same reason we put up with people who call other users "attention whores" who are quite obviously not acting in an attention seeking manner: because that's how they are and on the internet you either tolerate it or walk away entirely. I couldn't change Craig anymore than I could change you.

He is part of the OPT and should be setting an example in everyway.

I agree, he shouldn't, but it is tolerated because there is no other choice. Craig is Craig and nothing you or I can do or say is going to change it. Trust me, I've tried.

 

[DisgruntleElf]

[quote name='WizardStan' date='04 January 2012 - 08:09 AM' timestamp='1325686196'
I agree, he shouldn't, but it is tolerated because there is no other choice. Craig is Craig and nothing you or I can do or say is going to change it. Trust me, I've tried.
[/quote]

Several members made a choice. The choice to cancel their orders. Craig even goaded many frustrated pre-orders customers to cancel and they did. There is the possibility that Craig's hostility will change when Pandoras start rolling out again and he can settle his outstanding orders and refunds. He will then no longer be forced into a defensive position. Perhaps that will calm him down. We'll see.

 

[Christoph.Krn]

There is no conspiracy.

 

[quartercast]

^ #51

BoardFart™

 

[Unfathomable Depths]

I feel for the OP team.

They had a brilliant bit of kit back when they were first taking pre-orders but it got absolutely no mainstream media exposure. I contacted the BBC several times via people who I knew, trying to drum up some interest. No one there at the time was interested in anything other than iOS. Even people who would normally back UK indie tech thought it was just vapourware. The overwhelming response was 'meh'

Then they got it out. And, it seems, it was only this board that was interested. Apart from some mentions in digg, slashdot, etc it was totally overlooked.

The reason IMHO? Android.

The timing could not have been worse.

 

[b._.o._.b]

I feel for the OP team.

They had a brilliant bit of kit back when they were first taking pre-orders but it got absolutely no mainstream media exposure. I contacted the BBC several times via people who I knew, trying to drum up some interest. No one there at the time was interested in anything other than iOS. Even people who would normally back UK indie tech thought it was just vapourware. The overwhelming response was 'meh'

Then they got it out. And, it seems, it was only this board that was interested. Apart from some mentions in digg, slashdot, etc it was totally overlooked.

The reason IMHO? Android.

The timing could not have been worse.

Why feel for the OP team? The demand for the Pandora is still higher than what they can produce. Ed found investors and they are planning to make money.
People are paying a lot more for this device then they would ever do for something with similar specs. Target market is a niche market of geeks that have money and like to spend it on open source gadgets. You will find people who are interested on emulation sites, Linux boards, hackers, retrogaming sites, custom rom sites (XDA).

Android on the Pandora could attract a new kind of user, the non-geek who likes to play his old favorites on a DS with keyboard on the OS he knows from his phone.

 

[Unfathomable Depths]

Why feel for the OP team?

You're right. Feck the OP team and their wasted time and money. Idiots

The demand for the Pandora is still higher than what they can produce. Ed found investors and they are planning to make money.

Yea. 1000+ unfulfilled pre-orders say you are correct.

People are paying a lot more for this device then they would ever do for something with similar specs.

Totally. Apple have billions banked on a similar business model.

Target market is a niche market of geeks that have money and like to spend it on open source gadgets. You will find people who are interested on emulation sites, Linux boards, hackers, retrogaming sites, custom rom sites (XDA).

Two words. raspberry pi. A model of how it should be done.

Android on the Pandora could attract a new kind of user, the non-geek who likes to play his old favorites on a DS with keyboard on the OS he knows from his phone.

Android on the Pandora would be interesting. Native Android devices are far cheaper though.

I know I sound like a troll now but I just had to comment

 

[WizardStan]

Target market is a niche market of geeks that have money and like to spend it on open source gadgets. You will find people who are interested on emulation sites, Linux boards, hackers, retrogaming sites, custom rom sites (XDA).

Two words. raspberry pi. A model of how it should be done.

Except that it is not yet done; production hasn't actually started, it's just been announced that it is going to start. They've still got time for cars to blow up and volcanoes to erupt and manufacturers to make false promises.
Besides which, it isn't a model that can be readily applied to the Pandora anyway. The Pi was envisioned as a cheap device that could be sold to schools to teach about computers: it's extremely basic, small, and has had reasonable sponsorship from the start. The Pandora has a much more complex design, more parts that can fail, a necessarily higher cost, and while they could probably have gotten investors from the start, the amount of money they'd have needed would have meant giving up at least partial control to a group who's ideals may not have aligned with the Pandora Team's. It's like using a bicycle company as an example of how a car manufacturer should operate: there are a lot of overlaps, but there are far more unique problems between the two.

 

[Ghanji]

Except that it is not yet done; production hasn't actually started, it's just been announced that it is going to start.

Then take a look at this

 

[WizardStan]

Ah, ok, I misunderstood the announcement. Sorry. For some reason I remembered reading it as saying it was going to start, not that it had started a few days ago, even though that's exactly what it said in the very first sentence.
Regardless, the rest of my post remains valid: there's still lots of time for things to go disastrously south the way Pandora production did.

 

[Unfathomable Depths]

Regardless, the rest of my post remains valid: there's still lots of time for things to go disastrously south the way Pandora production did.

Fingers crossed?

I seriously doubt that the Raspberry Pi will be anything other than a resounding success. School IT depts throughout the UK are re-evaluating their curriculum right now. The penny has finally dropped that teaching kids to use Word and Excel is ultimately futile - anyone can work those out for themselves if needs be. Equipping an ICT classroom now only costs the, very cheap, hardware, a teacher and a technician. No more per pupil software licences. All it takes is one tech-savvy headmaster or head of dept.

My original point was that the Pandora got zero coverage in the UK mainstream media whereas the Raspberry Pi has the BBC falling over themselves to give it valuable column inches (the 'Model A' and 'Model B' naming scheme was an excellent marketing ploy).