Where Is My £200 Handheld?

[MDave]

Hello,

It's coming and it's a lot more now than it would have been in 2008. But there is more to just throwing it all in the case and throwing it in the post.

You don't get to see the sleepless nights, the arguments and the bloody determination which keeps this all going.

I promise you the Pandora is worth more than the sum of its parts and we cannot wait to ship out the first units, but they have got to be good, it's got to be right. I hope we have just finished the final round of tweaks. DaveCs dpad mod should be the last piece of the puzzle.

If you are insanely desperate to get your unit it's possible you could have a DIY build unit sooner than you think - if you are prepared to assemble the case yourself.

I'm up for that! At least I'll be able to get some extra time to port the ZEQ2Lite project to the Pandora then for its launch.

 

[fischju2000]

If assembling the case could be done with simple tools and there wouldn't be any soldering, I'm sure many people would opt-in. I certainly would.

 

[wermy]

I'd certainly consider a DIY one as well. What might that entail?
Honestly, I'd probably wind up taking mine apart soon after getting it anyway, just for fun.

 

[atomicthumbs]

me too

 

[Trevsweb]

i havent been waiting long. although been watching for what seams like a year or more. but some time scale gantt chart of the project would be really reassuring for me even if it showed slip ups and delays knowing is half the battle. id rather be told a assumed date than read through another "where is the damn thing grrr - hulk smash" thread.
that said they have been waiting a while but these things dont happen overnight and without your early adoption the project wouldnt be where it is today.

 

[belthos]

*** DING ***

You have become better at waiting.... (2)


















**** DING ****

You have become better at waiting.... (3)


:rolleyes:

 

[God Ginrai]

**** DING ****

You have become better at waiting.... (3)


:rolleyes:


LOL.

-God Ginrai

 

[MarkoeZ]

LOL.

-God Ginrai

What he said :lol:

 

[mechanizeddeath]

We've all been waiting quite a while. I even had to make the tough choice to give up my preorder when my car
needed a new engine, and there was a nice $300 gap between the money I needed and the money I actually had.

To cope with this, I quit reading the forums for a few months, got some new hobbies, and would only check the official website and unofficial blogs every few weeks. That alone made the wait more bearable than when I was combing the forums every day for any new info, no matter how insignificant.

I'm not suggesting that everyone dump their preorder and stop reading the forums until it is released, but there are plenty of things to do out there while waiting for this great piece of tech.

Oh, and I'll still be getting one, just as soon as I have the cash and they're available again. :lol:

 

[elwing]

**** DING ****

You have become better at waiting.... (3)


:rolleyes:


hum, look like you played EQ a lot, don't you?

 

[elwing]

If you are insanely desperate to get your unit it's possible you could have a DIY build unit sooner than you think - if you are prepared to assemble the case yourself.

hum, assembling my own pandora would be incredibly leet, are you serious?

 

[hobbyman II]

wow! self assembly would be just like the old days when I built my first Sinclair ZX80 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_ZX80 ), hey Craig!, why not go for that as a purchase option?, with the assembly costs you save you could throw in a case, sd card or TV out lead or something to compensate for building it yourself for the same price as a pre-built unit, although I would consider early delivery reward enough tbh.

the more I think about it the more I like it, modders would love a self build version too, no need to dismantle a built unit, the only caveat I think is essential is CLEAR instructions, the last kit I bought came with a single sheet of A4, badly photocopied , with half illegible text and black rectangles for photos.

if you decide to do that, then may I respectfully suggest you point your new high def camera at a worktop and then slowly and clearly assemble a unit, save the clip, then upload it as "Pandora self assembly.flv" and get feedback on how legible it all is, once you have the feedback you can post extra videos (or text) explaining unclear points.

people get to see what construction entails, if they feel up to it they can request a self build version.

good idea?

 

[Shmargin]

Yeah OP, I hear you. And everyone else thats complaining.

I pre ordered the first day pre order was available, with the expectation that they would be shipping by Christmas, as that was still the murmer on the forums.

Then it was January, then February, then it was "Oh shit everyone order again, Oh and if you ordered in the US your out $60". And by that point I bailed.

It deffinately looks like a cool handheld, and can do SOME stuff PDAs cant do, but not much.

I mean hell, my cell phone company just gave me a free phone upgrade, its got a full qwerty, and runs most of the emulators I wanted Pandora for. I didnt even have to mod anything to do all this cool stuff.

I'm not saying its AS cool as the Pandora, but at this rate, by the time the Pandora comes out, I think more and more people are already going to have small computers that can do alot of the same stuff.

Maybe not with cool little dual joysticks, but I mean hell, my friends iPhone can do 90% of the cool things Pandora can do, and alot it cant. And without taking my money a year before I see the toy <_<

 

[christo930]

Yeah this is starting to make me really mad. Give me one with a slightly high D Pad, I dont care. I wanted it by the start of summer and now that's not going to happen. I've held off on buying a laptop forever because of this thing, because there's no reason to have both, and its really been downright inconveniencing my life.

While I have always maintained that they were being a little optimistic about their forecasts, how could they have foreseen all the things that have happened that don't even have anything to do with them? There was an international banking collapse and the US nearly fell. Not exactly an average couple of years. If your life is being inconvenienced at the lack of a Pandora, I suggest you consider yourself extremely lucky. Imagine if you lived in Pakistan right now! After watching people you care about be tortured and murdered by religious nuts, you get to leave your home because the army and the Taliban are fighting right in front of your face complete with rockets and bombs. Or you could be in Africa where millions have been murdered. You could be in N. Korea where millions are starving and their asshole dictator threw all the humanitarian workers out of the country and is putting resources into the army and nuclear bombs while his citizens live in starvation and poverty. You could be in S. Korea wondering if the North is going to invade tomorrow or maybe nuke you. You could be a woman in Saudi Arabia...
I'm not trying to single you out, but I am using it as an example. Once in a while things should get put into perspective. You still have a right to be pissed about your money, I'm not saying you don't. But think about it. How good is your life when you have the major problem of not having a Pandora!

Well enough of my tangent here...
The OP team has made some mistakes along the way, but some things were hard to foresee. I think they should have been more realistic with their shipping dates, but I really don't think they were deliberately misleading people.

Chris

 

[christo930]

If assembling the case could be done with simple tools and there wouldn't be any soldering, I'm sure many people would opt-in. I certainly would.

Would there be any sort of partial refund for a diy kit? I'm sure that lowering the price a little would bring even more users. Price has been the sticking point for me. I just can't justify spending nearly $400 on a game system ($330 + shipping + memory cards). With the dollar dropping like a stone, it might go up from there. To me, it needs to be under $200. I know how powerful it is, but it's still a game system and I have bigger responsibilities. There are probably some younger guys who can afford to buy the latest things at any price, but when you have a household and kids and a wife to answer to...

Chris

 

[hells_dark]

And without taking my money a year before I see the toy <_<

Come on…
YOU gave that money before seeing the toy…

 

[gp2.eXe]

DIY Pandora... I suggested that a while ago after an assembly video. I would definitely get one of those if it would save me a few bucks. :lol:

About waiting, well I'm waiting for the 2nd batch, but I still think that this is too good of a chance to let it pass away.

Edit: (Off topic)
Hey hells_dark, what are those stars on your rank? Is it your cuztom title?

 

[Exophase]

With the dollar dropping like a stone, it might go up from there.

Is the dollar actually still dropping like a stone? Looks like it stabilized around February and has then been trending up since, although I've only looked at relative performance to other currencies. Not sure if there's really any other way of valuing one.

 

[cowai]

You thought it would be availalble in 4 weeks back in Oct.

As far as I'm aware, its always been 2 months...

Me too :lol:

 

[fretfrenzy182]

I think the self assembly is a good idea, but come on people. asking for a partial refund is a bit much i think. they're already losing money and sacrificing a great deal just to get the first batch out. I think its wrong to ask them for money at this point.