Official Blog- A Big Thanks To All Of You!

[Qwertyuiop]

Blog post by ED:

A big thanks to all of you!

Well, it has been a wild rollercoaster ride. It was fun. It was annoying. It was amazing. It was frightening. It was unique.

I think most of you experienced the same during the loooong waiting period we had up until now.

There were times when I asked myself 'What the heck have I gotten myself into?'.
There were tons of rocks blocking our road - and each time I feared "Okay. This is it. Now everyone is gonna cancel and I have to pay debts for the next 20 years!"

I think I'm not the only one in the project who experienced the same.

On the other side, there were many things that kept us going. The progress the project made. How much you anticipated the videos. The reactions on the board when you saw the first prototype. And when you saw the first prototype case.

It was a long and bumpy ride. But now we we're there. Many many boards are finished already and are just waiting for the cases. The cases that took so long. But finally, we were content with them. We gave the green light. All that's left now is the production.
During the last days, activity on the boards has raised. And what I did read there made me happy.

Some devs I know and respect since the good old GP32 days received their Pandora - and they all do call it a beauty.

The whole community seems so happy that we finally finished it. The ranting has stopped.

Now I'm really sure what we did was the right thing. And that's why I want to say THANK YOU! Thank you all!

Thanks to...

... Michael, who really did a fantastic job designing the system and organizing so many things around the production.
... Craig, who was the guy that started all of it and kept us going. He was the one taking most the risk. And he was the one who convinced us to do it!
... Fatih, who did source a lot of the parts and companies we're working with.
... DaveC who designed the complete case all alone! A great achievement!
... notaz, who did work on a lot of lowlevel stuff and is now fixing various bugs that are still left. A very nice and talented chap!
... DJWillis for working on the OS image and getting WiFi to work!
... skeezix for developing the PND system and contributing various other stuff to the OS
... cpasjuste for working on various ports and pmenu.
....vimacs, for supplying quite a few scripts and helping skeezix with the libraries and PND system.
... Pickle for porting many many games.
... Squidge for testing the SoCs.
... all other devs that did help us in some way
... and of course all of you! The community! The ones that kept us going! The ones that laid their money into our hands to produce this great little machine! Thanks!



So, what will happen next?

We don't even know yet how many cases the chinese factory is able to produce until the new year or IF they are even able to produce them, however, the most important thing is that nothing needs to be changed anymore. So in worst case, they start the mass production after their new years break which is February 22nd. Not a big deal after waiting for such a long time.

Of course, once this starts, we'll try to finish your Pandoras as fast as possible. Will be a few weeks, I guess, as we shouldn't forget about shipping. The cases need to be shipped from China to America (takes a few days). After the Mass production, they need to be shipped to us (takes a few days as well) and from there they need to be shipped to you.

We'll keep you informed about what happens as usual.
As most work is going on with the OS right now, I'll set up a status page with what has to be done and what has been done for the OS soon.





Want to shake hands or talk with me?

You all do know me from the boards, I guess. However, if you want to meet me in real life: I'll be at the CeBIT in Hannover, Germany on March 6th. From 12pm - 1pm I'll be doing a presentation about OpenSource gaming handhelds. Of course, I'll have the Pandora with me. So if you happen to be there, why not join us there? I'll be posting more information about this soon.

http://www.open-pand...temid=2&lang=en

 

[Poem58]

Awesome, the wait was long and at times I suspect many of us considered jumping ship, but it will be worth it. Thanks to all involved and I, like everyone else, just can't wait to put this little beast to work! One concern though, does this mean they will all ship back overseas then ship out to US customers, or is the plan to ship from Texas to US customers? I only ask because the possibility of an import tax is really important to know. Sudden bills can be a difficult thing these days. It would be nice to know either way what to expect.

 

[kingoddball]

It's great that the production is finally coming to an end..

But if you step back and look at it, it's only just scratched the surface!

 

[michaeljustman]

So none of the finished Pandoras will be shipped from America? They all have to make the long trip across the pond before they'll get to us Yanks?

 

[Username]

Damn, I wish I could be in Germany. Oh well.

 

[gaterooze]

I'd like to echo those thanks to everyone on that list, and all others involved on the periphery! You guys took on a momentus task and it looks like you have succeeded. Much kudos is due.

 

[EvilDragon]

Don't know 'bout America. Might as well still be they will receive their Pandoras directly from there
I'm mostly serving European customers

 

[Sphinxter]

It aint over yet.

 

[amf66]

Don't know 'bout America. Might as well still be they will receive their Pandoras directly from there
I'm mostly serving European customers

Good! I was worried that my Pandora would have to make a round trip to Europe and then back to Houston! I'm so excited I don't know if I could stand the delay that would've caused! :lol:

 

[Prometheus]

I'd like to echo those thanks to everyone on that list, and all others involved on the periphery! You guys took on a momentus task and it looks like you have succeeded. Much kudos is due.

Same here.

It takes a special bunch of people to make a machine that some folks had been waiting for their whole lives, and you guys did it.

Thankyou.

 

[amf66]

I'd like to echo those thanks to everyone on that list, and all others involved on the periphery! You guys took on a momentus task and it looks like you have succeeded. Much kudos is due.

Same here.

It takes a special bunch of people to make a machine that some folks had been waiting for their whole lives, and you guys did it.

Thankyou.

Ditto! This would have never happened without all the people who volunteered their time to work on the OS and ports, to say nothing about Craig, Michael, Fatih, DaveC, and EvilDragon! B)

 

[EvilDragon]

It aint over yet.

Well, the hard things have been done. PCB assembly and mass production works fine, we have enough working tests that prove that.
The prototype cases are working perfectly and all there is left is create them in a proper way. Same machine, same mould, nothing should go wrong here.
The OS needs a lot of tweaking, yes, but all drivers are working, so it's just a matter of time everything will become nice and tidy.

 

[Mjlink]

ED,

thank you for being the calm through the storm!

Link

 

[Dannyxzero]

Hey EvilDragon, ur one kool dude, I have seen you on Youtube many times. But to my point, I was reading this post, and i was thinking, is there anyway you could ship all the pandoras from the usa to the people that orders from the usa? I mean idont mind if i still have to pay the shipping from UK or wereever, if you guys had someone over here that could do that, that would be kick ass ^^ then again i dont know anything, just wondering, thank you for your time ^____^

 

[gruso]

Hey EvilDragon, ur one kool dude, I have seen you on Youtube many times. But to my point, I was reading this post, and i was thinking, is there anyway you could ship all the pandoras from the usa to the people that orders from the usa? I mean idont mind if i still have to pay the shipping from UK or wereever, if you guys had someone over here that could do that, that would be kick ass ^^ then again i dont know anything, just wondering, thank you for your time ^____^

The idea has been discussed, and we're told the factory does provide a packing & shipping service. No confirmation yet though.

 

[Dannyxzero]

Hey EvilDragon, ur one kool dude, I have seen you on Youtube many times. But to my point, I was reading this post, and i was thinking, is there anyway you could ship all the pandoras from the usa to the people that orders from the usa? I mean idont mind if i still have to pay the shipping from UK or wereever, if you guys had someone over here that could do that, that would be kick ass ^^ then again i dont know anything, just wondering, thank you for your time ^____^

The idea has been discussed, and we're told the factory does provide a packing & shipping service. No confirmation yet though.

thanks bro, I did not know this, still a noob here <bow> thank you ^____^

 

[BackAssward]

Hey EvilDragon, ur one kool dude, I have seen you on Youtube many times. But to my point, I was reading this post, and i was thinking, is there anyway you could ship all the pandoras from the usa to the people that orders from the usa? I mean idont mind if i still have to pay the shipping from UK or wereever, if you guys had someone over here that could do that, that would be kick ass ^^ then again i dont know anything, just wondering, thank you for your time ^____^

The idea has been discussed, and we're told the factory does provide a packing & shipping service. No confirmation yet though.

thanks bro, I did not know this, still a noob here <bow> thank you ^____^

It is mostly a possibility... I don't know if I'd put it above or below 50%. There is the thing about taxes, if they ship from the US to the US, you have US sales Tax. US tax wasn't part of the original business plan... if they ship from the UK, the tax is on you at receiving, but if they ship from the US to the US, it is on them (OP) to take (bill) the tax and then later file it.

Sorry to be a downer, just being realistic.

 

[Dannyxzero]

Hey EvilDragon, ur one kool dude, I have seen you on Youtube many times. But to my point, I was reading this post, and i was thinking, is there anyway you could ship all the pandoras from the usa to the people that orders from the usa? I mean idont mind if i still have to pay the shipping from UK or wereever, if you guys had someone over here that could do that, that would be kick ass ^^ then again i dont know anything, just wondering, thank you for your time ^____^

The idea has been discussed, and we're told the factory does provide a packing & shipping service. No confirmation yet though.

thanks bro, I did not know this, still a noob here <bow> thank you ^____^

It is mostly a possibility... I don't know if I'd put it above or below 50%. There is the thing about taxes, if they ship from the US to the US, you have US sales Tax. US tax wasn't part of the original business plan... if they ship from the UK, the tax is on you at receiving, but if they ship from the US to the US, it is on them to take the tax and then later file it.

Sorry to be a downer, just being realistic.

hey bro its all good, it was just a silly idea, i was thinking they could save money, but your right tax is bad from that point lol ^____^ thanks for clearing it up ^)^

 

[lulzfish]

words ... ^____^

words

words ... ^____^

words

words ... ^____^ ... ^)^

C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER

 

[ThaDSman]

Any word on the whole Dallas,TX assembly thing? Would I be able to go to the factory in Dallas and pick up my Pandora? Cuz I live stupid close to Dallas,TX.