A bit more information around the recent correspondence with
@EvilDragon. The email was regarding confirming shipping address and which of the available cases and board revisions we have all seen, what would we like our prototypes to have.
I confirmed my mailing address - it has not changed so that should be simple.
Of the cases we have seen, I do like the granite grey cases like this:
However, I would like it to have the most recently updated shoulder buttons in black - or orange, or red, but preferably black please. I'm confident that this combination could 'pass' in a business environment. Black screws would be a plus too - but I'm not overly worried about it. I'm fine with the crazed or mottled heat shrink on the plastics - in fact I kind of like them. So long as the plastics are structurally and mechanically sound (shoulder buttons), it's good.
For board revisions, the most current 4GB RAM SoC card with US 4G LTE modem main board. It sounds like the display board may be getting one more revision before main production. I have opted to get the current display board version and ED would send me the updated version when it becomes available - which is customer service above and beyond.
Yes, I still think that 4GB is likely overkill, but after all the hoops and loops they had to go through to make it happen, may as well. Who knows, it may be accessible to Debian as write-cache some day when we might have the ability to use the eMMC and microSDXC in a 'dynamic switching' mode.
The US 4G LTE modem - I plan to test and try to use this on a US 4G Google Fi data SIM. If that works, I will likely try it on a voice/data SIM. Yes, I know that the Google Fi network is not GSM for voice on 2G/3G. We'll see what I come up with in testing it.
So, I suspect that I may very well be in the < 2 Months time frame now. Cheers to ED and everyone working on the Pyra for making it happen!
I also found a really good deal on an Avegant Glyph via Ebay - or what I hope will be a good deal on one. It's Ebay, so no knowing until or if something arrives. It is a thing that looks like a big set of headphones. Pull the headband down over your eyes and it beams a 1280x720 display into each eye, projecting it onto the retina. It feeds off of any device with an HDMI output. In theory, where it resolution matches to the Pyra, this should be a pretty good match. Hopefully I'll find out in the coming month or so.
But - all in all a very positive update in progress. I am really looking forward to having a working Pyra in my hands. I'll take pictures of the 'unboxing' and post them up in this rather blogish thread. I'm not set up to do proper video.
I am planning to -use- my prototype. This isn't going to be a museum piece and I do not plan to sell it. How useful it will be will continue to evolve over the months and years - it should be a fun ride!
)
