THREE YEARS and still no Pandora

[quartercast]

So it's just a memory upgrade?


I thought it was 1GHz too

You get a better quality case too!

 

[TrashyMG]

So it's just a memory upgrade?


I thought it was 1GHz too

You get a better quality case too!

Slightly improved SGX GPU as well

 

[quartercast]

Really, so Rebirth Edition pandoras come with the newer SGX do they? That's even sweeter


There've been a lot of order questions posted here recently, I think there should be a sticky in the general section with a Pandora Order Q&A.


1. Where to buy a pandora? What models are for sale? What is the current pricing, and what is difference in features?


2. What is the current status with classic pandoras? Why are they shipping slowly at the moment and what steps is OP taking to make sure they are being shipped?


3. What are the benefits of waiting for your classic order? What are the differences between the classic unit and updated Rebirth Edition pandora?


4. How can customers speed up their order?


5. How can customers upgrade their order? What upgrade options are available?


6. How does refunding work?

 

[2bit]

Would you believe me if I told you that this is a TINY company that for every dollar they make in profit they work there rears off for - and then they bend over backward trying to fix stuff like this and that's why Craig can be well - Craig ( kidding I'm trying to keep this person from canceling )

 

[mcobit]

The rebirth doesn't come with the faster gpu. It just has some fixes, that enable some android 3d games to work, that have garbeled graphics on the cc units.

 

[TrashyMG]

^Right, I should of been more specific in my comments.

 

[Tokiopop]

Well, looks like there's no going back


I emailed in to ask about how I would cancel, so they just cancelled my order anyway I hope someone else will enjoy it.


It's been a fun ride, I might come back when the 1GHz model goes on sale and I get a job or if my grant money comes in.

 

[erico]

People continued to use the Amiga for years after it was 'out of date' spec wise, for good reason (and similar reasons), understood hardware, high support and continued development, unique features.

I bought an a4000 a few weeks before commodore went bankrupt, and I new that was going to happen.


Best thing I did, such machine made what I am professionally today.

 

[EvilDragon]

My Amiga 4000 is right behind me currently playing music with EaglePlayer

 

[Gerix]

My Amiga 4000 is right behind me currently playing music with EaglePlayer

That's neat. I think it's cool to take older tech and make something useful out of it. Beats the landfill or questionable recycling practices (although maybe they don't do that anymore). I imagine you knew this, but a quick look on wikipedia revealed the graphics chipset in the Amiga 4000 was codenamed the "Pandora chipset." It was destiny!

 

[craigix]

Also, weirdly, the Sinclair portable computer was originally called the Pandora.


It even looks like a Pandora in the early prototypes.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

The early prototypes do indeed look like a pandora.The prototypes looked better than the later screens for that speccy.

 

[phishwak]

Those prototypes look fantastic - I still love the early Sinclair style. Wish I hadn't given my rubber-keyed Speccy 48k away all those years ago !

 

[Gamester81]

I too have been waiting awhile. I ordered my Pandora back in January of 2010. I run a review show where my main focus is console reviews. I currently have 40,000 followers and I want makes this so frustrating is that I was going to and still hope to review and provide free advertising for Pandora. I have been given dozens of false hopes "oh well it'll only be a couple more months", or "we'll ship it out soon". If I only had a dollar for every time I read that than I could afford two Pandoras. My patience has grown thin and I don't understand the business model of "pay us more and we'll ship it out now" if I already paid for it back in the day. I am a very understand and patient individual but this has gotten to be a huge mess. I know there are many who are on the same boat that I am on but to wait this long with false hopes is very frustrating.

 

[milkshake]

wow hello gamester81 I have seen lots of your reviews and they are very good although sometimes you appear to be a bit rough with your systems and whatnot.


Anyway when you do receive your Pandora which I'm very sure you will, you will really enjoy it.

 

[diligentcircle]

I too have been waiting awhile. I ordered my Pandora back in January of 2010. I run a review show where my main focus is console reviews. I currently have 40,000 followers and I want makes this so frustrating is that I was going to and still hope to review and provide free advertising for Pandora. I have been given dozens of false hopes "oh well it'll only be a couple more months", or "we'll ship it out soon". If I only had a dollar for every time I read that than I could afford two Pandoras. My patience has grown thin and I don't understand the business model of "pay us more and we'll ship it out now" if I already paid for it back in the day. I am a very understand and patient individual but this has gotten to be a huge mess. I know there are many who are on the same boat that I am on but to wait this long with false hopes is very frustrating.

Sounds like you don't know the history of this project very well. I'll explain it (though only because I really like your reviews and would really like to see you cover the Pandora).


So, in the beginning, the Pandora was a dream from a few community members, including Craig, sort of the ringleader. I can't give much detail about this time period since I wasn't around at that time, but the gist of it is that the console was developed, it was all great, yadda yadda yadda.


Now, since I came in late, I don't know about the delays from 2008 to 2010, but basically, the delays were a combination of how complicated the Pandora is and all the various companies involved (the worst part being that many parts were being made away from Europe). But those were sorted out, and either in 2010 or 2011 (I want to say 2010), it seemed like the Pandora was finally going to be delivered. This was about the time I found out about the Pandora; I recall a status page being updated to say that the Pandora's development was finally finished, and it was time to ship them.


Unfortunately, what the Pandora team didn't realize was that one of the companies involved, CircuitCo (the company in Texas that was manufacturing the PCB), had been dishonest with the Pandora team and was doing bizarre and bad things without telling OpenPandora. In short, this led to an extremely high failure rate for Pandoras and high costs.


At some point after all this, OpenPandora was in the toilet. Allegedly, Craig actually was ready to give up and prepared the papers to file for bankruptcy. But this would mean, of course, that the project would have died; nobody would get their Pandoras, and nobody would get their money back. But EvilDragon insisted on carrying on, and long story short, by getting investments from the community, they were able to move production of the PCB from CC to a company in Germany called Global Components.


Now, with all that, here is an explanation of the current situation:


Although GC is proving to be much, much better than CC, it is also more expensive than CC would have been had it been good (of course, keep in mind that CC being a shitty company means that it wouldn't have been cheaper to keep producing there). Therefore, the price you paid is now below the cost to manufacture the Pandora, i.e. OpenPandora loses money for each original preorder that is delivered. To make up for this, they need to sell new units, so that is exactly what they are doing: for any given number of new units sold (3, I think), an original preorder is shipped.


So, these are your current options as an original preorderer, assuming you want to get the Pandora:


1. You can wait, and you will get your order, though it may be some months.


2. You can cancel your order and buy a Pandora at EvilDragon's shop ithic.com; they are in stock, so you will get it very soon if you do this, though it costs a bit more.


3. You can upgrade to the 1GHz model (AFAIK); this costs quite a bit more, but you will get it sooner this way in addition to getting the better hardware.


You can also of course just cancel your order if you wish, though that would make me sad, since that would mean no Pandora review from Gamester81.

 

[frostfall]

So, these are your current options as an original preorderer, assuming you want to get the Pandora:


1. You can wait, and you will get your order, though it may be some months.


2. You can cancel your order and buy a Pandora at EvilDragon's shop; they are in stock, so you will get it very soon if you do this, though it costs a bit more.


You can also of course just cancel your order if you wish, though that would make me sad, since that would mean no Pandora review from Gamester81.

3. You also can upgrade your pandora. There's no need to cancel and reorder. It's the fastest way to have your pandora actually, but it's up to you if you want to pay more for the pandora...

 

[diligentcircle]

So, these are your current options as an original preorderer, assuming you want to get the Pandora:


1. You can wait, and you will get your order, though it may be some months.


2. You can cancel your order and buy a Pandora at EvilDragon's shop; they are in stock, so you will get it very soon if you do this, though it costs a bit more.


You can also of course just cancel your order if you wish, though that would make me sad, since that would mean no Pandora review from Gamester81.

3. You also can upgrade your pandora. There's no need to cancel and reorder. It's the fastest way to have your pandora actually, but it's up to you if you want to pay more for the pandora...

Assuming you're talking about the 1GHz Pandora, yes, that's an option as well. Premium is not so sure with Craig, it seems for that canceling and re-ordering is faster.


I should also actually correct myself: if you're American or Canadian, you should order from http://ithic.com if you choose option 2.

 

[Gamester81]

wow hello gamester81 I have seen lots of your reviews and they are very good although sometimes you appear to be a bit rough with your systems and whatnot.


Anyway when you do receive your Pandora which I'm very sure you will, you will really enjoy it.

Hey thanks for watching. Yeah my earlier reviews were pretty strange and it appeared at times that I was rough (though I actually take really good care of my stuff). I have improved with my reviews though over the years.

I too have been waiting awhile. I ordered my Pandora back in January of 2010. I run a review show where my main focus is console reviews. I currently have 40,000 followers and I want makes this so frustrating is that I was going to and still hope to review and provide free advertising for Pandora. I have been given dozens of false hopes "oh well it'll only be a couple more months", or "we'll ship it out soon". If I only had a dollar for every time I read that than I could afford two Pandoras. My patience has grown thin and I don't understand the business model of "pay us more and we'll ship it out now" if I already paid for it back in the day. I am a very understand and patient individual but this has gotten to be a huge mess. I know there are many who are on the same boat that I am on but to wait this long with false hopes is very frustrating.

Sounds like you don't know the history of this project very well. I'll explain it (though only because I really like your reviews and would really like to see you cover the Pandora).


So, in the beginning, the Pandora was a dream from a few community members, including Craig, sort of the ringleader. I can't give much detail about this time period since I wasn't around at that time, but the gist of it is that the console was developed, it was all great, yadda yadda yadda.


Now, since I came in late, I don't know about the delays from 2008 to 2010, but basically, the delays were a combination of how complicated the Pandora is and all the various companies involved (the worst part being that many parts were being made away from Europe). But those were sorted out, and either in 2010 or 2011 (I want to say 2010), it seemed like the Pandora was finally going to be delivered. This was about the time I found out about the Pandora; I recall a status page being updated to say that the Pandora's development was finally finished, and it was time to ship them.


Unfortunately, what the Pandora team didn't realize was that one of the companies involved, CircuitCo (the company in Texas that was manufacturing the PCB), had been dishonest with the Pandora team and was doing bizarre and bad things without telling OpenPandora. In short, this led to an extremely high failure rate for Pandoras and high costs.


At some point after all this, OpenPandora was in the toilet. Allegedly, Craig actually was ready to give up and prepared the papers to file for bankruptcy. But this would mean, of course, that the project would have died; nobody would get their Pandoras, and nobody would get their money back. But EvilDragon insisted on carrying on, and long story short, by getting investments from the community, they were able to move production of the PCB from CC to a company in Germany called Global Components.


Now, with all that, here is an explanation of the current situation:


Although GC is proving to be much, much better than CC, it is also more expensive than CC would have been had it been good (of course, keep in mind that CC being a shitty company means that it wouldn't have been cheaper to keep producing there). Therefore, the price you paid is now below the cost to manufacture the Pandora, i.e. OpenPandora loses money for each original preorder that is delivered. To make up for this, they need to sell new units, so that is exactly what they are doing: for any given number of new units sold (3, I think), an original preorder is shipped.


So, these are your current options as an original preorderer, assuming you want to get the Pandora:


1. You can wait, and you will get your order, though it may be some months.


2. You can cancel your order and buy a Pandora at EvilDragon's shop ithic.com; they are in stock, so you will get it very soon if you do this, though it costs a bit more.


3. You can upgrade to the 1GHz model (AFAIK); this costs quite a bit more, but you will get it sooner this way in addition to getting the better hardware.


You can also of course just cancel your order if you wish, though that would make me sad, since that would mean no Pandora review from Gamester81.

Thanks for the explanation. I am aware of the history and I agree it's frustrating on both ends for everyone. I guess I'm just anxious to get it and am just tied of people telling me "It'll be only a couple of months" when in truth no one really knows.

 

[hosant]

Well, when I asked for a refund I was told the following:


"We can only refund to the account and card used to make the payment."


That account and card have gone kaput some time ago. :/