Release Official Blog Post (Did Somebody Say "let It Begin?")

[danielliu88888]

Yes, we did.
You've seen some requested videos during the last days, now it's time for some more facts and information, eh?

Well, the review of the complete case and the keymat is finished. There were a few small issues that we already corrected and on Monday the company did tell us "Everything is ready, we can start when you are ready".
And guess what - we were ready! Finally all issues of the case and keymat have been resolved and they are now working on the mould.

DJWillis has also made some progress with WiFi. Basically, he can communicate with the Module, only calibration doesn't work yet. As soon as he gets this to work, WiFi will work completely - including WPA, etc.

Regarding software, we were discussing about using cpasjuste's GUI as minimal launcher, since it is so much nicer than matchbox and it's just a program you run, not a complete WindowManager.
So we're currently thinking about using E17 as fully fledged desktop and cpasjuste's GUI as minimal mode for the gamers who don't want to use a complete desktop.
That way we don't need two window manager and starting the minimal GUI is easy - just use it as autostart program.

I know there are still plenty of things to do - and the worst thing is that there won't be many pictures while waiting for all companies to finish... but we're still getting there, step by step.

i thought the word was "go". good news nonetheless, however it still does look like two months™...

 

[Mutilator]

At least there wasnt any major issues that coulda made it take even longer.

 

[WizardStan]

Dang, I need to go change my pants again.

 

[Sphinxter]

Enlightenment rules, let's roll.

 

[ScottChegg]

Good on yer Team OP. Whats that white thing at the end of the tunnel?, Why its the light of course!. And why when i see cpasjuste,s name do i read "Just cut and paste"

 

[Esn]

I like the idea of using the minimal GUI as a standard, and making the "complete desktop" a simple, optional auto-start. At least, it follows in the tradition of our previous consoles.

How does this blog post affect the Unofficial roadmap?

 

[God Ginrai]

I like the idea of using the minimal GUI as a standard, and making the "complete desktop" a simple, optional auto-start. At least, it follows in the tradition of our previous consoles.

How does this blog post affect the Unofficial roadmap?

I know what you mean, but, and nothing against cpasjuste, his minimal GUI seems to rub me the wrong way. I actually liked how the Matchbox seemed to be turning out, and I'm sad that it's now being pushed away. Also, I thought we nixed e17 a while ago. Has development been moving on a specific Pandora revision for it or what? (If not, why not just Xfce instead?)

-God Ginrai

 

[mindlord]

30 days to complete the mould.
A couple of days to mass produce 4000+ cases.
Toss in a few days for shipping to the plant.
Add a few days for assembly.
Add a few days shipping to Europe.
And a few days for shipping back to me.

meh...

Wake me up in about 7 weeks.

Alas, I do not like Enlightenment. I'll give it a try on the Pandora, but I doubt I will stick with it. Looks like I'll be devoting time and energy to getting a working XFCE4 or Matchbox.

Edit: Redundant redundancy error

 

[EvilDragon]

I know what you mean, but, and nothing against cpasjuste, his minimal GUI seems to rub me the wrong way. I actually liked how the Matchbox seemed to be turning out, and I'm sad that it's now being pushed away. Also, I thought we nixed e17 a while ago. Has development been moving on a specific Pandora revision for it or what? (If not, why not just Xfce instead?)
-God Ginrai

There's no reason to NOT use Matchbox, you can install whatever you want (and since it's in the Angström Repos, it should be easy to install).
This is just what we use as DEFAULT on the console

cpasjuste's GUI has evolved A LOT since you last seen it

E17 works pretty well on that small console. xfce might also be a nice alternative, sure.
I'd love to have lxpanel on mine

 

[renegadechic]

oh boy oh boy! this news thrills me to bits. i have my fingers crossed very hard for the results of the testing of the 105 boards so that they can roll on with the other 3895 of them and of course that the FCC and CC testing throws no spanners in the works. if all goes to plan, then it looks like the first 105 within well... i hope 2 months, no idea how long for the rest though!i am fully expecting not to be in the first 100 so i'm i am not holding my horses on getting my own model in 2 months, it will be amazing to see some people get theirs though.

 

[God Ginrai]

I know what you mean, but, and nothing against cpasjuste, his minimal GUI seems to rub me the wrong way. I actually liked how the Matchbox seemed to be turning out, and I'm sad that it's now being pushed away. Also, I thought we nixed e17 a while ago. Has development been moving on a specific Pandora revision for it or what? (If not, why not just Xfce instead?)
-God Ginrai

There's no reason to NOT use Matchbox, you can install whatever you want (and since it's in the Angström Repos, it should be easy to install).
This is just what we use as DEFAULT on the console

cpasjuste's GUI has evolved A LOT since you last seen it

E17 works pretty well on that small console. xfce might also be a nice alternative, sure.
I'd love to have lxpanel on mine

Is there a way we can possibly see what cpasjuste's GUI has become? Also, e17 and small screens don't really seem to match to me, because e17 at the moment is really impressive for it's use of big shiny animated icons.

-God Ginrai

 

[EvilDragon]

Is there a way we can possibly see what cpasjuste's GUI has become? Also, e17 and small screens don't really seem to match to me, because e17 at the moment is really impressive for it's use of big shiny animated icons.

-God Ginrai

I don't have the latest version from cpasjuste, so I can't make a video here. E17 seems to work fine on Pandora, however, keep in mind that we're currently discussing about this. This is nowhere fixed yet. It was just a suggestion, since most of the devs use it

 

[Enverex]

E17 does look nice and is very, very light (also that disk usage widget everyone seems to be using is nifty too. A proc, mem and battery widget below it would be useful though).

 

[3vi1]

I tried E17 on the PS3 and didn't like it at all. I replaced it with LXDE and never looked back.

 

[dflemstr]

I'm totally going to package KDE 4 (the embedded version thingie) for the Pandora when it comes out. Foolish? Don't know, but the Pandora should be able to run it with a breeze (since KWin uses OGL3.0 and is ES compatible, the drawing acceleration *could* make the system as fast as MatchBox or similar while consuming the same amoutn of power)

Just remember that you, the user, always have the choice. Nothing is going to be forced upon you. There'll even be alternatives to cpasjuste's GUI, just you wait.

 

[Quiest]

I haven't really been following the Pandora development,
but my interest has been awakened now.
Can someone tell me, what that machine will cost, once it's
done?
I don't see any chance for me of not buying it...

 

[mindlord]

I haven't really been following the Pandora development,
but my interest has been awakened now.
Can someone tell me, what that machine will cost, once it's
done?
I don't see any chance for me of not buying it...

The official website still says $330 US, and for prices in your region use: xe.com or some other currency conversion site.

However, the rumor mill says the price may go up for the second batch. I do believe that a limited number pre-orders still being taken if you email the sales people.

 

[dflemstr]

I haven't really been following the Pandora development,
but my interest has been awakened now.
Can someone tell me, what that machine will cost, once it's
done?
I don't see any chance for me of not buying it...

The official website still says $330 US, and for prices in your region use: xe.com or some other currency conversion site.

However, the rumor mill says the price may go up for the second batch. I do believe that a limited number pre-orders still being taken if you email the sales people.

"www.google.com/search?q=330+USD+in+[insert your currency here]"
...to see how much you have to pay at the moment.

 

[WizardStan]

Those will tell you the current exchange rates, not the rate that you'll get. Conversion fees can be upwards of 10 percent if you don't shop around.

 

[dflemstr]

Those will tell you the current exchange rates, not the rate that you'll get. Conversion fees can be upwards of 10 percent if you don't shop around.

Huh, I've never heard of that... It's at least true for all Scandinavian banks that there might be a fixed value (say, €0.50) you have to pay to do cross-currency transactions, but banks may not take a percentage off of the sum being sent.