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Chip

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Joined
Jun 25, 2003
Messages
3,503
Age
45
Location
NJ, USA
Website
chipandre.com
More news from the development team for the new year:

We have made a couple tweaks to the MK2 board design that was sent to all the devs, and we should have a MK3 prototype in a week or so. If everything is fine with that board, it will go into mass production very shortly thereafter. We could have just used the MK2 board and left the minor bugs in as "quirks", but with all the other delays, it was worth it to do one more revision and get it perfect.

The cases will be going into mass production on the 15th. That's our deadline for making any last minute tweaks, and it looks like we'll be in great shape for that. We already have the new LCD ribbon cable for these cases and it's working nicely.

The keypads will go into mass production in the next week or two at the latest. The keypad layout will be very similar to the one on the original renders. I am told there will only be "minor changes" between the render and the final layout. There may be separate layouts available for the middle east and Asian regions, but all other regions will have the same standard layout for now. It is very likely that alternate keymats (including blank mats) will be made available for a small price at some point in the near future.

We now have the SGX video drivers in their entirety. We're just waiting for a few documents to come back signed and then we can release both the binary part and the open source driver shim to the public. Expect OpenGL ES demos soon.

Reorders are happening now, slowly. We're sending out details and a reorder URL to customers one at a time, starting with US customers. Some have already been sent, and the rest are on the way. We're doing it slowly to avoid any potential problems with the CC processor and to avoid overwhelming the sales ladies. Do not worry, everybody will have the opportunity to reorder in time to get their Pandora.

We are meeting with the bank this week to fix the Amex situation. They cannot simply sit on the money forever, and we're not accepting any more of their stall tactics. If the bank simply refuses to rectify the situation, there is a backup plan. Anybody who paid for a Pandora will get one, no matter what the bank does. One way or another, this situation will be remedied this week.


We're coming down the final stretch.
 
sounds like great news, some final dates for the start of production.
with those dates, shouldn't you also be able to tell when we'll see the first fully assembled pandora, and when the first ones are expected to ship?
 
thanks
however, any clues on what the quirks were
just out of curiosity

also i never got sent a refund email but i got the refund, and never contacted anyone yet

ill probably just wait and see if i get a reorder email, and then contact them
or should i contact them now

thanks
 
Thanks Chip. It sounds like things are finally coming together!

Edit:
I hope that all goes smooth from here on out, and that you're able to make money on future runs so that you can release as many rounds of them as people are willing to purchase.

On round 3 or 4 I might consider buying a second one to try some network programming between two of these guys. Wish I could do that now, but trying to be responsible with ye' ol' bank account with this economy.
 
Good news. Thanks for the update Chip.
Chip said:
The keypads will go into mass production in the next week or two at the latest. The keypad layout will be very similar to the one on the original renders. I am told there will only be "minor changes" between the render and the final layout.

Ouch :blink: No offence intended, but the original render is the one I really disliked (the Fn+key combos are horrible). That'll be software remapping for me.
Chip said:
It is very likely that alternate keymats (including blank mats) will be made available for a small price at some point in the near future.

A blank mat doesn't sound bad to me, Das keyboard style :p
 
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Hey Chip, I don't suppose you would know (or anyone else) if in the event something does work out with Amex, would it be possible to cancel the dispute inquiry for a chargeback?
 
Thanks for the update!
cant wait

QUOTE
QUOTE

It is very likely that alternate keymats (including blank mats) will be made available for a small price at some point in the near future.

A blank mat doesn't sound bad to me, Das keyboard style :p

agreed
 
gmhuntr7 said:
Hey Chip, I don't suppose you would know (or anyone else) if in the event something does work out with Amex, would it be possible to cancel the dispute inquiry for a chargeback?
That's up to Amex.
 
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Chip said:
gmhuntr7 said:
Hey Chip, I don't suppose you would know (or anyone else) if in the event something does work out with Amex, would it be possible to cancel the dispute inquiry for a chargeback?
That's up to Amex.


Alright thanks. I'm still hopeful things will work out.
 
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yay! Can't wait :D
thanks chip, you are da best!
and thanks for relaying my email to the secretary immediately :)
turns out I do need to reorder but the emails never got through so I never knew.
 
Yay!

SGX drivers - that's a very good news indeed. B)

I can honestly tell (from my SGX reverse-engineering work) that Pandora will have very capable graphics processor...
Imagination Technology drivers are rather poor - shader compiler optimization-wise - but they seem to get the job done.
Hardware, however, greatly exceeds OpenGL ES 2.0 specs. B)
 
Excuse my ignorance but what is the difference in the MK1 , Mk2 , and the Mk3 boards ? ... Bud
 
Mach 1
Mach 2
in other words Revision model
like PSP model 1000 was Japan only, PSP 1001 is global, then they have 1002 and 2000, then 2001 and 3000
Well obviously we don't want to do decimal numbers so whole numbers make sense
 
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