One queue cleared, TV Out cables finally coming and some other tidbits (2013-03-20)


Congratulations on getting through your queue and thanks for trying to help with the other queue.  I was one of the original preorders on 10/1/2008 from Craig's shop. I always appreciate seeing these updates and I understand that there have been many many production problems and I have held in there to the point of ridiculousness. What I don't understand is how being an original 2008 preorder from THE 2ND DAY I still haven't gotten one. Surely with over 4000 units having been delivered (from the official About the Pandora page before the update where they removed that) and all of the cancellations the 2nd days worth of preorders should have been shipped by now right?  Despite repeatedly posting questions and emailing openpadorasales I have never gotten an answer to that question, just more please hang in there’s.  It is not the production problems that have upset me near as much as not getting a straight answer to where I am in the queue and why I haven't gotten one yet having ordered on the 2nd day.

And then, there is the upgrade pricing.  I understand what you are trying to do, but here is how I see it.  Back when I ordered I spent $323.59 (ordered case and cables too, but don't remember the break down) and you are now asking for 270 EUR for an upgrade which is about $349.25 that comes to a total of $672.84.  The new price for a 1Ghz unit at the American store is $609.00.  Even if I subtract $40 for the case and cables that would still be $23.84 more than buying a new one.  Hasn't my patience and not trying to cancel for 4 and half years worth been worth something?

My interest in the meantime has switched to Android based devices and knowing that I can buy a new 1.3GHz Quad Core 7" Nexus 7 with 1 GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage for only $250 makes me very reluctant to spend another $350 on an already obsolete device (albeit it with a very unique feature set).

So, therefore I wait, and maybe someday I will get one, but I am not really sure what I will even do with it by then.  So, keep up the good work ED and maybe someday you will dig us all out of Craig's hole.
 
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EvilDragon said:
... 

The TV Out Cables


It has been quiet for quite a while for the TV out Cables.


That's because it was really hard to find a company that can produce the cables in quantities below 10,000 for an affordable price.


But Global Components did it once again - they found acompany and I'll receive the prototype in about 4 weeks.


If that cable is fine, the mass production will be finished after 7 weeks.


If you are interested in getting the cable, please head over to my shop and put yourself on the notification list. This will help me knowing how many cables I actually need to order.

...
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I'm assuming that my AV cable order from Craig's shop will never get fulfilled, so I'll sign up to order at least one - maybe two Pandora AV cables.

My concern is that many people may have missed this sign-up for notification bit - you might want to cross post this into the General section?
 
Raven said:
Congratulations on getting through your queue and thanks for trying to help with the other queue.  I was one of the original preorders on 10/1/2008 from Craig's shop. I always appreciate seeing these updates and I understand that there have been many many production problems and I have held in there to the point of ridiculousness. What I don't understand is how being an original 2008 preorder from THE 2ND DAY I still haven't gotten one. Surely with over 4000 units having been delivered (from the official About the Pandora page before the update where they removed that) and all of the cancellations the 2nd days worth of preorders should have been shipped by now right?  Despite repeatedly posting questions and emailing openpadorasales I have never gotten an answer to that question, just more please hang in there’s.  It is not the production problems that have upset me near as much as not getting a straight answer to where I am in the queue and why I haven't gotten one yet having ordered on the 2nd day.

And then, there is the upgrade pricing.  I understand what you are trying to do, but here is how I see it.  Back when I ordered I spent $323.59 (ordered case and cables too, but don't remember the break down) and you are now asking for 270 EUR for an upgrade which is about $349.25 that comes to a total of $672.84.  The new price for a 1Ghz unit at the American store is $609.00.  Even if I subtract $40 for the case and cables that would still be $23.84 more than buying a new one.  Hasn't my patience and not trying to cancel for 4 and half years worth been worth something?

My interest in the meantime has switched to Android based devices and knowing that I can buy a new 1.3GHz Quad Core 7" Nexus 7 with 1 GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage for only $250 makes me very reluctant to spend another $350 on an already obsolete device (albeit it with a very unique feature set).

So, therefore I wait, and maybe someday I will get one, but I am not really sure what I will even do with it by then.  So, keep up the good work ED and maybe someday you will dig us all out of Craig's hole.
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You echoed my thoughts exactly. At this point if I get it I will be able to show everyone that "hey, look, it finally showed up" but after that I am honestly not sure how much use it would get. It was cool back in 2008...now my Toshiba Thrive plays n64 games perfectly and I can even use an n64 controller for it. Also completely agree with you on the upgrade pricing...<=$100 I would consider it, but over that I just don't see the point. I understand the cost to the consumer is going to suck given all of the stuff that has gone on and the overall operation, but really I think the current 1 GHz pandora is probably worth more like $300-$350, if that.

Anyways, nothing much more I can do at this point so I guess I will just keep hoping it shows up one day. Not like I haven't been doing that for the past 4 or so years.
 
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Excellent post Ed :) !

Oh how I wish I had ordered from you - back in 01/2009 - but living in the UK I was always going to order from Craig's shop.  I've made a small donation in the past and will do so again.  I'm afraid I can't justify the upgrade price and will just hang on and hope my Pandora arrives some day - I'm certainly not banking on it though :-(.  As has been said I'm not sure I will use it as much as I would have done back in the day.  But Ed you deserve this to be a success for all the work you have done to try and clear both queues. 
 
The pricing is pretty much necessary to clear up the preorder mess.

A lot of money paid originally has vanished, but ED still has/wants to deliver pandoras.

That means that somebody has to cough up the cost of a Pandora. Again.

And while I'm busily defending the project, I'm going to point out that, while many other devices are superior to the pandora in terms of raw computing power, most of them fail utterly when it comes to hardware flexibility.

The pandora has a huge battery,

a keyboard,

gaming controls,

stellar audio quality,

USB host

fully hackable software,

and fits in your pocket.

Finding even half of those in another product is still pretty hard. All? Impossible.
 
Speaking about keyboard I think that the combination of CTRL and SHIFT in the shoulder buttons is something you can't find anywhere else, and them are INCREDIBLY comfortable to select multiple things/text (thanks even to the disposition of PgUp/PgDn/Home/End) and to copy/paste, one of the most used function in every computer.

You just don't even need to move your hands to press all those combinations.
 
Raven said:
What I don't understand is how being an original 2008 preorder from THE 2ND DAY I still haven't gotten one. Surely with over 4000 units having been delivered (from the official About the Pandora page before the update where they removed that) and all of the cancellations the 2nd days worth of preorders should have been shipped by now right?
Click to expand...
It'd be very good to get an answer to this question, but unfortunately it's one only Craig and his team can answer.

If you'll allow me to imagine an answer it might have something to do with the fact (as I recall) that the vast majority of the first batch orders were made on the first day (seems amazing these days to imagine everyone was so keen, but there you go). Also, the fact I was a batch 2 orderer myself made it easier to find the money to go for an upgrade, rather than wait. I'd therefore imagine many of the cancellations were from later orderers who realised they were likely to be in for an extremely long rate, before ED came to the rescue at least. So you may even be further from the front of the queue, as a proportion than when you originally ordered.


I do hope you get your order soon, and that you'll fall in love with the uniqueness of the device again. At the rate ED's producing them, and the generousness of this community in funding old orders, I can't believe it will take too long now. Just another two months , eh?
 
Here's an unusual idea:

Should preorderers who can't afford to upgrade to get theirs sooner appeal to the community, pledging their loyalty to the device for X amount of time if community members can help them get theirs sooner? Kinda like a "Help me get my Pandora sooner" fundraiser or mini-Kickstarter.

For instance, I've been inspired by the Pandora since I first saw it and have plans to develop games for it. I was (and still am) aiming for my Pandora to be my primary mobile computing device, and as a result I have plans for it. I already want to develop a platformer/RPG exclusively for the device, with more game ideas on the horizon. I just need the hardware... the Pandora is honestly the only mobile device I see myself developing on anytime in the near future. Its feature set is unique and incredibly flexible, and the OS/software is open, so there's pretty much no limit to what I can do with it on the software side. Compare that to Android devices and the difference is night and day.

So... anyone think it's an idea worth pursuing? I could setup a donation page on my first Pandora game's site to help others get their Pandoras faster, too...
 
I would have thought practically everyone who reads such a notice is likely to pledge their allegiance to the device from now forevermore, regardless of whether they're likely to do anything or not. Given pre-release pandoras went to developers who failed to develop anything in the past, I wouldn't recommend throwing good money after bad.


Although... there are people developing pandora software that don't have one of their own to test their releases on yet. I wouldn't be against those people getting a bump in the queue.
 
One can of course develop software for pandora without a pandora. Just use SDL and an 800x480 window. Anyone who has a project like this in active development ought to get bumped to the front IMO. They are contributing something to the community that cannot be bought (affordably) - developer time.
 
I'll echo the sentiments here.  I ordered Oct. 1, 2008.  I still don't understand why, even in Craig's queue, I have yet to hear anything.  I actually ordered this when starting grad school for CS with lots of development plans/etc.  I took the time to set up the toolchains and play around with libraries and such.  But after the first 6 months of delays I decided to wait until I actually had the device before wasting any more of my time making a game I couldn't even play on the intended platform.  I'm hoping 5 years is the magic number.  I'm graduating with my PhD this summer and I still don't have a pandora.  :\
 
Yes there are a lot of much more powerful devices that can emulate consoles from yesteryear but I still keep coming back to my Pandora. I must admit I only use it for gaming, not for web browsing or anything else, but there's something satisfying about playing games on a sort of retro styled device. It doesn't have the same appeal when you play the games on a tablet.

I'm still waiting for a response though from those of us who have paid for and expected a TV out cable. Will we be getting one of the cables designed by Ed? The way I see it, the Pandora team still has my money for a TV out cable. I appreciate all the kerap which has happened trying to get the Pandora out the door but it's still my money. There's a difference between donating to keep the project going and just taking my money and not giving me something I ordered. I should get the choice. If I need to reorder a cable, then I should get a refund on the original cable order???

Hope I'm not coming across as a d#@k. I'm not kicking up a fuss and will buy a tv out cable if I have to, I'm just a bit peeved that I ordered a Pandora and a cable, and somewhere along the line it was decided that a cable wouldn't be made but to keep my money. I guess I'm not as peeved as those people who haven't even got a Pandora though so i should be grateful??
 
I pre ordered a cable years ago from Craig but I've just put myself on EDs notification list and I will buy it again to support OP and ED in particular. They guy is about as decent as they come and I'm happy to add a little bit of support.

Talking of support, my other half has just got a full time job after temping from job to job over the last 3 years since being made redundant. Making do on one wage was not easy at times. Especially when our boiler packed in last year 3 days after we'd signed on the dotted line for some well overdue new windows... But now she has a steady income I will soon have cash to put towards a new shiny 1GHz pandora :)
 
timwylie said:
I'll echo the sentiments here.  I ordered Oct. 1, 2008.  I still don't understand why, even in Craig's queue, I have yet to hear anything.  I actually ordered this when starting grad school for CS with lots of development plans/etc.  I took the time to set up the toolchains and play around with libraries and such.  But after the first 6 months of delays I decided to wait until I actually had the device before wasting any more of my time making a game I couldn't even play on the intended platform.  I'm hoping 5 years is the magic number.  I'm graduating with my PhD this summer and I still don't have a pandora.  :\
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WOW! Lol I have a somewhat similar story. when I first heard about the pandora, I was working as an IT technician and, while I had heard of Linux, I had never really messed with it much. I decided that if I was planning on picking one of these things up when they finally went up for preorder i should probably learn something about Linux. So I decided to dual boot my work laptop and basically forced myself to learn it. I struggled, A LOT, but am a very stubborn person when I put my mind to something. Well time passed quickly and I learned more and more and found myself talking to people in my office about Linux. We had a number of projects built on top of Linux but startlingly few real gurus. I ended up in the right place at the right time and got to help the software department with a lot of really cool projects. I eventually became a semi-permanent fixture, getting invited to meetings and whatnot, and, when time permitted and my actual boss didn't mind, I started getting tasked with actual projects. I straddled the two departments for about a year and a half until the software department finally decided they didn't want to share me anymore and transferred me over full-time. I have since left that company and am working as a Linux system/software engineer building custom kernels and writing drivers for bleeding edge hardware and writing programs for them as well.


I went from an IT tech to a full fledged self-taught software engineer making a little better than twice what I was when I started tinkering with Linux. You do definitely still have me beat though being that you ordered more than an entire year before me. It is very strange to consider that I am where I am today almost ENTIRELY because of a "toy" that I still haven't received...


P.S. I emailed Craig's shop and asked to basically switch to "whichever happens first refund or unit" and Jacquelyn responded that she would make sure that happens.
 
I would like to insist:

For all of us that preordered TV out cables...

  • Are we getting cables without having to pay any extra?
  • Are we going to have to pay for shipping?
  • Are we getting a discount on the price? (as in "pay only the cost")
  • Are we paying full price?
  • You have not decided yet?

An official statement would be nice, and I think it's also necessary for ED to plan, based on how many people would buy a cable, depending on wether or not they are getting the one they preordered or not.

Given the way this community works, I'm pretty sure a lot of preorderers would not mind "donating" some money (or paying for their cables) to get cables delivered to the preorderers that don't want to pay an extra buck... add to that the new customers that want a cable.

Now that ED gets the prototype cable it would be nice to make a new video of the cable working with today's HD-TV screens. This would be good promotion for the cables I think.
 
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To be honest an answer of:

"At this moment in time, I simply do not know what we are going to do with customers that have already paid for cables. I have emailed Craig and am awaiting a response to find out if funds are available. It is impossible to give an ETA of when I'll have a definitive answer, it really is down to the amount of time it takes Craig to respond. Sorry."

Would be fine... just some sort of "I see your question, I don't currently have an answer, but I will answer when XYZ conditions are met".
 
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Well, Jacquelyne mentioned they had over 1000 TV Out cable preorders at the beginning but doesn't know yet how many are left because quite a few asked for a refund when the cable never came,


1000 would cost me over 8000 EUR, which is something I can't fully cover, so I'm waiting for the true remaining number until I can say 'you'll get it for free' or how much of a discount I can give you.


Production cost price is always possible for you, and you could order a carry case or whatever else you want from my shop as well to save shipping costs.
 
EvilDragon said:
Well, Jacquelyne mentioned they had over 1000 TV Out cable preorders at the beginning but doesn't know yet how many are left because quite a few asked for a refund when the cable never came,


1000 would cost me over 8000 EUR, which is something I can't fully cover, so I'm waiting for the true remaining number until I can say 'you'll get it for free' or how much of a discount I can give you.


Production cost price is always possible for you, and you could order a carry case or whatever else you want from my shop as well to save shipping costs.
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I personally dont really need a cable, ordered an Ouya for home purposes, Panda is for on the road.

And since i supported the project with donations, i wont request a refund either.

Maybe an inquiry on how much people actually still need one would help.
 
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