Looking For A Little Clarification On The Aesthetics


Azure

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I'm still wondering if the back of the lid will contain the lines/shading apparent in all of the prototypes up to this date and in this picture:

http://www.open-pandora.org/images/phocagallery/Recent/Photos/CaseProduction/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_DSC07011.JPG

I know I can't be the only one that finds this hideous and something only to be expected in a prototype. Will the final product look different? I'm just a little concerned because it was my understanding that these parts in these pictures are "final" save for the finish.
 
Only one of those pictures has the final finish - the battery cover. See leading pic here: http://pandorapress....ecomes-reality/

ED explained it in his blog post:

Not all have the finishing applied – one nice picture that does show how it will look like with finishing applied is the one with the battery lids.

...and numerous other posts on the forums too: http://www.gp32x.de...post__p__828006

No, no Pandora has a finish applied so far.
This should all disappear with the finish, since they remove unevenness with a sandblaster, and this too is a unevenness (caused by varying material thickness
 
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I think Azure's more referring to being able to see the outline of the internals on the back of the lid. I hope it looks even in the final product too but given how impressed I am with the finish on the battery cover lid and the general quality of all the parts recently pictured, I'm quite confident that it'll be sorted.
 
Dead1nside said:
I think Azure's more referring to being able to see the outline of the internals on the back of the lid. I hope it looks even in the final product too but given how impressed I am with the finish on the battery cover lid and the general quality of all the parts recently pictured, I'm quite confident that it'll be sorted.


I have a confidence question: Are you quite confident that they will all arrive next week?!?!

I hope that do!! I'm not confident though...
 
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If you look through the unofficial photo album you'll see that all parts have had that same characteristic - ie the ghosty appearance of the internal structure on the outer surface. AFAIK this is the very thing that the matte finishing process addresses.

It would be nice to see a before/after shot of the battery lid to confirm this, but I couldn't find a pic of the battery lid's outer surface to compare with.
 
Call me a pedant, but I don't think the "finishing" process will fix this. And why did they only supposedly apply it to the battery cover?
 
I don't see why it wouldn't fix it. It just seems like an unevenness on the surface, which will be fixed by doing a finish on the surface. As for the choice of item to finish, probably just because it was relatively small and a simple shape (flat, no specific details or features on the surface).
 
After all the panic about the finish-less rev3 cases, they probably wanted to show something with the final finish this time around. The battery lid would be a good choice for the reasons paulguy posted. This costs them time and money, so they wouldn't bother doing it with all parts until they've made a full batch.

Exactly what the process fixes is anyone's guess until we see it all for ourselves, but you have to consider: If it doesn't fix the ghosting effect, and we're not seeing that effect on the finished battery lids, that would mean that the battery lids don't have that effect in the first place. And what would the odds of that be, when all other parts display it?

For example, a part with a very similar structure:

DSC07000.jpg


It just seems like a reasonable deduction that the finishing process will tidy this up.
 
The battery covers are a flat piece of plastic. If I remember correctly, the battery cases aren't flat on the inside, to allow the battery's natural expansion. What I mean is that those square bits you see, are because the plastic is thinner there. I could be really wrong, and I hope I am.
 
The finishing process will lessen the effect but at this degree (the point where these shapes actually cast shadows) it's not going to totally disappear. I've seem plenty of consumer devices that have it but they usually design these devices so that the shapes are part of the design. I dont think it'll be a big deal in the end, it shouldn't even be a big deal now. Remember we're not talking about an Ipod or PSP that has a nice shiny hard coating to cover up imperfections.

If you look at the lid of a GBA SP or the battery cover of most things like remotes you're going to see imperfections there too. Considering how low a priority we are to this case company I'd susprised were getting the level of quality we have NOW.
 
Alpha2 said:
I dont think it'll be a big deal in the end, it shouldn't even be a big deal now. Remember we're not talking about an Ipod or PSP that has a nice shiny hard coating to cover up imperfections.
That is how I would have felt a little over a year ago. However, throughout all of these delays and all the painstaking tweaking and what not of the case, Craig has been spouting off about the short-comings of big commercial devices to justify all the extra time spent (saying that they want to give us a perfect product for once because OpenPandora cares about the customer, references to the DS hinge problem, XBOX 360 failures, etc. etc.). Maybe it was just me, but it got to the point where it seemed like Craig was bashing the products of big commercial companies. I was getting impatient with all the "tweaking", but the thing that kept me going was all of this talk about how they're "perfecting" it, and how they don't want to give us a shoddy product. Well, after seeing this aesthetic "defect" in every prototype so far, my attitude became "put up or shut up."

I don't know, maybe Craig was just being Craig (i.e., business-man Craig trying to make sure everybody didn't cancel their orders...). I know it seems trivial, and that I should just be glad that "we're so close now" (whatever that means anymore...), but it just seems like a slap to the face to get something that looks so ghetto after waiting a ridiculously long time due to the case. I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one embarrassed to show this thing to my friends after I've been telling them that they're "currently tweaking the case" for over a year now.

Of course, if the finish will somehow "fix" this, then the above is irrelevant. I just fear that it won't, and people don't care any more as much as they normally would because they are tired of delays and just want something physical and functioning in their hands.
 
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Hey Gruso - What are those parts, anyway!?!?
They look like battery covers... But they aren't...

Edit: @ Azure: You are 100% correct with what you are saying! I agree completely. But the treated section of the case looks great...
 
Azure said:
Of course, if the finish will somehow "fix" this, then the above is irrelevant. I just fear that it won't, and people don't care any more as much as they normally would because they are tired of delays and just want something physical and functioning in their hands.
My honest opinion?


I don't think the finish will fix it.

I hope it will, and I'm confident it will be less noticeable, but I really don't think it will fix it.

I care about the finish, but I REALLY WANT A F**KING PANDORA so I'm not too picky at this point.

In fact, my camera (SD780IS) came with matte finish and it's rubbed so much in my pocket (6 months) it's completely glossy now. Also it is missing paint in at least 4 places (not to mention the fact that the zoom dial is completely missing paint - it's white now, on a black camera). So even on really really nice commercial products they make stupid mistakes. It's an unfortunate reality, and I find myself no longer caring so much.

If the April production doesn't happen, I'm seriously considering buying an N900. And that makes me sad, because I would much rather have a Pandora. And I'm going to be contributing a lot of software to whichever community I end up in. I really hope it's this one.

Sorry for slight OT rant but such is life!

To put my feelings in perspective: When I preordered the Pandora, I was expecting to (and told I would) have it before I graduated. That was with my undergrad. In 7 weeks I will have a master's degree. In 7 weeks I will no longer be able to whip out a Pandora in class and start thumb-typing notes (this is the last time I will take classes for the rest of my life, most likely). In 7 weeks I won't be able to show the guys that I told about ordering this thing 2 years ago.

Also, 700th post.
 
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Gruso said:
kingoddball said:
Hey Gruso - What are those parts, anyway!?!?
They look like battery covers... But they aren't...
Cases for spare batteries. :)

Will the spare battery (if you opt to buy one) come in this case?? I think I will buy one if that's the way it is.... Yep! I'm that shallow!
 
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kingoddball said:
Gruso said:
kingoddball said:
Hey Gruso - What are those parts, anyway!?!?
They look like battery covers... But they aren't...
Cases for spare batteries. :)

Will the spare battery (if you opt to buy one) come in this case?? I think I will buy one if that's the way it is.... Yep! I'm that shallow!
Yep, it'll come in that case. Wouldn't the Pandoras themselves ship with the battery in a separate case as well? I would think it'd be a bad idea to ship the Pandora with the battery connected...

Also you might want to wait until you actually need a spare battery to order... if you have faith that there will still be batteries then.
 
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I have no faith anymore....... :(

NEXT MONDAY!! 22nd!!


Edit: Craig/ED: Do we all get a battery cover (thingy pictured by Gruso) with our Pandora's (without buying a spare). I'd love to use the battery case for something else (not sure what else - just looks AWESOME!).
 
I'm glad I got a spare battery, if it's coming in that case.

Also, that's going to be a lot cooler looking to carry around with me (on those days when I don't have a charger available) than what I was planning.
 
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