When Will It Be Avaible

[CronoTriggerfan]

It strikes me that this whole project is a bit like taking a bus-load of third graders on a class trip. Some of the kids sit patiently and wait to get to the destination, but others bounce from seat to seat and yell "Are we there yet!? Are we there yet!? When are we gonna get there!?" during the entire ride. The bus driver can't really give them a time, because god forbid they hit traffic - the little brats will just yell louder. All the driver can do is roll his eyes and hope the little buggers don't spill too much juice on the seats.

You're missing one key factor in your little equation, which is that the bus driver isn't making a product that needs to be marketed to constituents and possible customers. The bus driver gets paid commission; hauling around kids of all temperaments is his/her job. The story would me much different if the kids on the bus were all trying to buy a consumer electronics device from the driver, in which case, "Sit down and shut up" would not exactly suffice. I understand that the situation between this and a corporate product release is much different, but if a company doesn't update news on their product much and delays release without ever giving a clear date, it's usually a recipe for unrest among consumers.

 

[JerryG20]

It strikes me that this whole project is a bit like taking a bus-load of third graders on a class trip. Some of the kids sit patiently and wait to get to the destination, but others bounce from seat to seat and yell "Are we there yet!? Are we there yet!? When are we gonna get there!?" during the entire ride. The bus driver can't really give them a time, because god forbid they hit traffic - the little brats will just yell louder. All the driver can do is roll his eyes and hope the little buggers don't spill too much juice on the seats.

I think a better analogy would be the same situation but with all the windows of the bus covered and with none of the kids able to see the driver driving, with the driver giving occassional, brief glimpses outside the window to give the kids a very brief/rough idea of where they are.

As others have mentioned before, what is making some people impatient and is making the wait so horrible are the (understandably, better they spend their time working than stopping to tell us what they're working on all the time) lack of blog/news updates and media (frequency of posts on the blog, lack of detail in news posts, lack of pictures/videos of developer models -- I guess people expected that there'd be TONS of pictures and videos by the time people outside of Craig & Co got their hands on the MK0). I'm sure that information like that USB phy "delay" (supposedly won't halt Pandora's release?) and the fact that it's June already are also making people anxious.

I personally am trying to be patient and would like to believe that I am one of the quieter, more patient kids on the bus. However, I am bothered by the lack of media on the developer Pandoras that have gone out. How much time would it take to just snap a few pictures and post them on here? Or maybe zoom out a little in those videos zodttd posted on YouTube, etc. It wouldn't feel like we're in the dark nearly so much if we got more glimpses outside the windows

 

[bigtruck]

^ Agreed.
I am of course very anxious for the Pandora to come out, but I try to suppress my impatience. Apparently they didn't want to post too many news updates so as not to start rumors, but that plan seems to have backfired somewhat (i.e. there has been a ton of speculation and unfounded rumors). I understand they have more important things to do, but it would be nice if maybe every couple weeks or so there was a tiny little update, even if there's no real news and it's just something like "Everything is going smoothly, we're still on track for a [July/August/whenever] release."

 

[parag0n]

If theres no release date, then the product is never being delayed!

 

[javaJake]

QUOTE

We will do a blog post with more detail on this and details of the pre-ordering process soon.


*writes up a quick script that alerts me the moment the blog page changes.*

 

[darkbiship]

Im just sitting patiently, and letting my IRL self spaz out every once a while.
I do agree with the others that more updates would be nice, but at the same time I understand you guys are also busy making the damned awsome thing. I do think every one should stop treating the Pandora like it has a huge PR department.
Give them a break and just let them work on it.

 

[javaJake]

Here it is. I couldn't resist. :lol:

CODE
#!/bin/bash

### Edit inside the single quotes to change your preferences
STORE_DIR="$HOME/.watch";
WEBSITE='http://openpandora.org/blog.php'
BROWSER='firefox'
EDITOR='geany'
### End of editable area

if [[ -d "$STORE_DIR" ]]; then
echo -n # do nothing
else
mkdir -p $STORE_DIR; EXIT_CODE="$?"
if [[ "$EXIT_CODE" != "0" ]]; then exit "$EXIT_CODE"; fi

fi

cd $STORE_DIR
wget $WEBSITE -O page_new -o log

if [[ -e page_old ]]; then
diff page_old page_new > difference.diff; EXIT_CODE="$?"
if [[ "$EXIT_CODE" == "0" ]]; then echo -n # no difference, do nothing
elif [[ "$EXIT_CODE" == "1" ]]; then $BROWSER $WEBSITE # Or you can have it open an editor: $EDITOR difference.diff &
else echo "Error code $EXIT_CODE" >> log; $EDITOR log &
fi
fi

mv page_new page_old


It's probably very crude, but I just wrote it up real quick. I set it to run every time I log in, and will let me know if either an error or difference on the site occurs. If an error occurs, it opens an editor with the log. If there's a difference, I have the browser open the website. You can change the settings to whatever you like.

Oh, and I should mention that the first time you run it it downloads its first copy of the website, so it won't let you know of any differences until after that first run. Therefore I recommend you run it once manually just to get it started.

 

[CronoTriggerfan]

Or, you could always just use this.

 

[Tom`]

Or, you could always just use this.


yes, but it only works on Windows, and it takes up more space than a shell script, and junks up your registry, etc...plus, I don't know if they do it any more, but I haven't trusted download.com ever since they installed a bunch of spyware on my computer - I think this was about five or six years ago...

 

[javaJake]

Heh, download.com must be doing better, because I haven't found one questionable download yet.

 

[JerryG20]

I've just been using the "Update Scanner" add-on/plug-in for Firefox

 

[rmm2131]

It strikes me that this whole project is a bit like taking a bus-load of third graders on a class trip. Some of the kids sit patiently and wait to get to the destination, but others bounce from seat to seat and yell "Are we there yet!? Are we there yet!? When are we gonna get there!?" during the entire ride. The bus driver can't really give them a time, because god forbid they hit traffic - the little brats will just yell louder. All the driver can do is roll his eyes and hope the little buggers don't spill too much juice on the seats.

I think we need to remember the phrase "Those who can talk talk, while those who can work work." While Chip's post speaks git to some it tells me that they have a huge amount of invested time into the Pandora that none of us outside the project can even fathom.

So we need to let all of them be so the product is as errorless as possible. They will release the thing when they release it. Updates are alright but they won't make me grab my credit card any faster than I am likely to already when preordering is announced. I might even rearrange my furniture so I can grab my wallet and sprint to the computer without any obstacles in my way.

Now I am going to go back to my seat, open my lunch box, and chew my bologna on rye that my mum packed for me with her loving hands as I gaze out the window of my bus.

 

[Kyo]

Sorry, have I missed something? Where did these huge delay rumours come from?
The combined inside knowledge of every member with a number above 14000, of course.

It's funny because I would not match that criteria if I had signed up like a day earlier
edit: 18 days, apparently. I thought this forum would be getting more new members

If theres no release date, then the product is never being delayed!

I love the way you think.


Anyways, I'm not really too worried whether there will be any delays (I know craig said there wouldn't be, I read the thread.) or not. I want my pandora to be perfect when I get it, so I'm being patient. It's kind of like putting your money on the bank, the longer you wait, the more you get. Plus I'll be getting this for my birthday (if my parents love me D)), which is at the last day of august, so little delays wouldn't actually affect me

 

[Flaming_Trashcan]

Idk about all these other people, but I'd rather have an incomplete Pandora sooner than a "perfect" one later =p
It's unrealistic to expect anything to be perfect, so as long as it's functioning I want one ASAP.

 

[bigtruck]

Idk about all these other people, but I'd rather have an incomplete Pandora sooner than a "perfect" one later =p
It's unrealistic to expect anything to be perfect, so as long as it's functioning I want one ASAP.

Though most people on the forum seem to prefer to wait, I agree to some extent. I want to wait until the hardware has been tested thoroughly and there are no bugs or problems with that. As for software, that can always be updated later, and chances are once the Pandora is widely available the software quality will grow faster anyway. I don't think we should wait until the software is completely "done" to release the Pandora. Perhaps a simple "The OS is not finished, do not expect full functionality yet," on the order page would be sufficient.

Note: I don't claim to know if it is software or hardware that the main focus is on right now, I'm just speculating.

 

[Prophet]

Agreed.

Stable, reliable hardware is the main thing. The OS and software will mature over time anyway.

As a community, we can deal with unfinished OS features and such. Heck, look at the PSP - they've been updating its OS for years and it's a mainstream consumer device.

 

[greendots]

IMO for the pandora to be released, it must be "perfect" hardware wise and software must have a either a complete desktop environment with deb package management or simple gui with some multimedia programs and emulators. Optimizations shouldn't push back release as long a programs runs full speed at normal clock speed.

 

[darkbiship]

I just hope it has a nice GUI that is very noob friendly on release. Im not very good with linux.

 

[bigtruck]

and software must have a either a complete desktop environment with deb package management or simple gui with some multimedia programs and emulators. Optimizations shouldn't push back release as long a programs runs full speed at normal clock speed.

I just hope it has a nice GUI that is very noob friendly on release. Im not very good with linux.

See, now that's what I don't understand. If some people want a fancy GUI, and it is released without one, why not just wait until there is one to buy a Pandora?

Say, (this is entirely hypothetical and speculatory, don't fixate on the dates), the hardware will be finished in mid-July, and the official GUI won't be done until mid-August. It's released in mid-July, and it only comes with a terminal. Why not just put on the order page "GUI not finished, only ships with a terminal," as well as a rough overview of what software is done and what isn't, and the people who are fine with that order earlier and the people who need the GUI wait? Those people that ordered one could contribute to the official GUI or even start their own, which might even be done before the official one, as well as contribute to other projects that would be a month further along than they would if the Pandora was released later. Some people seem to be treating this as though there can't be any updates to the software after the initial release.

This is the way the Openmoko project is doing it. Once their first model was complete hardware-wise, the Neo 1973, they released it with a disclaimer somewhere along the lines of "The GUI is not yet functional, you have to use a terminal to make and receive calls." It was targeted at developers and tech-savvy people, not your average end-user. They certainly have a lot more of the software finished than they would if only a select few developers had the phones.

 

[chad78]

Here's what I, as a mildly tech-saavy consumer want the software to do out of the box - point and click style - when I buy it. These are the bare minimums, of course, not the dream features.

1. Surf the web (I should at least be able to interact with this forum)
2. Play basic media files (mp3, mp4, avi, wav, jpg, png)
3. Emulate some basic popular retro systems (NES/Gen/SNES/Atari2600/GB)
4. Update the OS/firmware to the latest version without a computer or entering the commandline
5. Detect WiFi (and all the other hardware it comes with!)
6. Not crash (at least not more than would be reasonable.)

If it can do that, we're good. All else will come with time