Made In China!

[mali]

^ It was taken down, iirc.

edit:
As per request from MWeston.

 

[Budgie]

Thanks kingoddball ッ

 

[Budgie]

ohh nutts

 

[ste_167]

I love how it looks like a companion to the Megadrive, a little blue Sega logo wouldn't look out of place.

haha, love it! Pandora - it's made out of Megadrives!

 

[Budgie]

I guess the models not open source any more then?

ED said that the boards might become open source later (not that i want to know about them) will the case become open again, any ideas anyone

 

[trooper]

I guess the models not open source any more then?

ED said that the boards might become open source later (not that i want to know about them) will the case become open again, any ideas anyone

I`m Pretty sure Michael (MWeston, The guy who designed and built the Pandora`s PCB)
has said on a couple of occasions that he has no wish to ever open source the board
as he has spent an extremely long time designing and building it from scratch, And
doesn`t want just anyone getting their grubby mitt`s on it`s design and making clones
off of his hard work.

I can not find the quote, But i`m pretty sure that`s how i remember him saying it.

Trooper

 

[Budgie]

I don't blame him Trooper, but I was after the case model. I could and probably will have to take my Pandora apart and make my own model. But it would be a lot easier for me if I could make a new case from the model and then just swap the parts over, instead of having my Pandora laying around in bits until I'm finished

 

[Dead1nside]

I'm seeing all these newer case photos in comparison to those horribly grubby, greasy pictures we saw a while back when the factory insisted they were spending time to get everything perfect and we'd love it -- wrong! These were the issues that I would say made the case in that state not tenable.

So if there's no giving a green light does this mean that they're on their way already? How many are we looking at again, 1000?

 

[scottm]

So have they shipped yet? Where are they - are you getting a tracking update (like they do with Dell PCs from China)?

 

[EvilDragon]

Have a look - the square is there. Photography seems to make no difference.

Well, that's a picture of a prototype where the square was MUCH worse than it is now.
They worked on that part which reduced the visibility of that square

 

[ste_167]

A quick Photoshop-ed version:

 

[Dead1nside]

Have a look - the square is there. Photography seems to make no difference.

Well, that's a picture of a prototype where the square was MUCH worse than it is now.
They worked on that part which reduced the visibility of that square

It's a lot better. Now it's just a mild outline of a square, before you could see some other lines too. I bet it's only so noticeable because of the shadows that are emphasising the outline due to the flash photography, in normal light it'll be fine.

I'm pretty pleased with these new photos. Would like to see the back, with the ports though to see their alignment and finish.

 

[Monk]

I'm going to go all Emperor's New Clothes and say that I have to wonder if I'm seeing the same photos as every one else, because in the three pictures that I can see it looks like utter shit. I say this in all seriousness, I've seen people on benheck.com turn out cases which look way better than that in their garages just as a hobby, and for something which is being sold commercially, this really isn't acceptable. At least, I wouldn't accept that. I mean, I think the Pandora was an awesome idea and all, but if this is how it's going to end up after so long, I'm glad I didn't hand over any of my money. Hopefully the next batches will look a lot better.

You're not the only one that feels this way. It seems people's expectations have dropped over the course of this project (people have said that they no longer care how it looks, as long as it works they're happy).

Kinda, sorta, a bit. Expectations have definately lowered recently, but I think they also rose over the months and months and months and months and months that the cases were being perfected over.

If we "gloss over" (haha) the official promo renders for a bit, this was always originally a hobbiest project. In that light, while the cases look a little bit shabby and I must admit I would like to see the rear too (if a salesman shows you everything but one area, that one area is usually key!) I think the cases look OK for what it's meant to be. Not an overly-polished, highly tuned, professional device, but a Heath Robertson PC-in-a-pocket (so much more than a Pocket PC!) produced with a fair rather than seven-seas margin between unit cost price and resale value (not taking development costs into account as only against the first batch, here).

So while better would be nice - and a few mildly dodgy areas would be nice to see clearer, apart from the unseen rear view I'd say this looks OK for what it is. I also personally hope I'm in the second thousand rather than the first or last.

 

[Yoyobuae]

As thin as it is, the daughter card PCB still needed to be accommodated in the case design. To fit it behind that LCD, that part of the case needed to have a slight indentation in it. Think about that: to form that indentation and the Pandora box logo, those things had to be represented in negative in the mold. This means a raised area on the bottom of the mold pressing into a depression on the top of the mold, which - no matter what - will result in a hump on the outside of that piece. It's elementary physics, and there's no way to prevent it without completely redesigning the Pandora.

Devices like the NDS, PSP, iPhone, etc. ad nauseum don't have this problem because they're made by experienced manufacturers who know about this particular pitfall and can instruct their engineers to avoid it.

This. Maybe things could've been different. Maybe delays could've been avoided/reduced. Maybe the plastics could've had a more polished look to them.

But the decisions have been made. The road has been travelled. And now, nearly at the goal, it's not the time to be knitpicking little details. I'm happy the OP team has made it so far, and wish for them a smooth road all the way to shipping, they surely deserve the success of this device.

Nothing else out there has the sheer number and specific mix of features that are crammed into this device. That right there makes it worth owning: damn few people you know are likely to have one. Everybody and their bloody dog has a $E#%^@$#ing iPhone/iPod Touch. Let the sheep keep their DRM, I'll take a Pandora.

My thoughs exactly. Even with a few rough edges, the Pandora has a uniqueness to it that no other device, no matter how aesthetically perfect looking, will have.

I consider myself lucky to have entered into the pre-orders even if somewhat late. This will be pretty much the first gaming handheld (and UMPC) I've ever owned, and I'm gonna be very glad it once I have it on my hands.

 

[Mjlink]

A quick Photoshop-ed version:

Nicely done

 

[kingoddball]

OP: Has pickup of the cases been made, yet?
Are a full 1000 being picked up on first trip?

Thanks.

 

[dyslexic]

Topic is wrong.
Should it not be Delayed in China?

 

[Dead1nside]

I'm a bit worried that ED's news is that the cases are again a no go.

Hope for an update tomorrow.

 

[zhasha]

What if I want my pandora with out ports, screws, or keyboard/menu buttons?

 

[(naw)mcx]

Sorry