Who will be making Pandora 2?

[Mr_Loon]

It's great to see plenty of discussion relating to Pandora 2, there is however an 'elephant in the room' that is the question of who will be responsible for the manufacture / sale of Pandora 2?


I tried to get confirmation that Pandora 2 would be a joint venture from Open Pandora GmbH & Open Pandora Ltd in this post.


No answer was forthcoming so I thought it might be worth a separate topic.


My speculation is that the Pandora 2 would be made as a collaboration between ED's & Craig's companies though it would be nice to have this clearly confirmed.


From my perspective it would not be a desirable situation to have different versions of Pandora 2 produced in the UK & Germany but there have been a few things that make me fear this could be a possibility :


Craig seems to see Pandora 2 as an Android device with Linux as an unsupported extra.


From my understanding (rather than any official statement) ED would see Pandora 2 as a Linux device with Android as a desirable extra.


Craig is speculating about using Kickstarter as a way of funding Pandora 2 development, from my understanding (rather than any official statement) ED would use profits from sales of Pandora 1 & direct community investment to fund Pandora 2.


It's fully appreciated that we're in the very early days of the Pandora 2 project and that many things could change over time, however I think it would be most helpful if who will be making Pandora 2 could be officially confirmed.

 

[TDT]

I'm honestly surprised so many are into thinking about the pandora 2, when the pandora 1 isn't in mass production/shipped. I have a feeling once things settle down to being somewhat consistent (a year, probably, at least) we'll see the pandora 2 actually being given real thought.

 

[craigix]

It's likely, for legal reasons, that a new company will be formed.


Probably called something like OpenPandora2 Ltd.


I and Ed are in basic agreement about what the P2 should be.


We have some overall plans for manufacture and they are quite different from the current set up, but many things also remain the same.


We're not going to speak much more about this as it's all SPAM SPAM SPAM.


As the name of this forum suggests.

 

[skeezix]

<posting got deleted .. bah :/>

 

[craigix]

<posting got deleted .. bah :/>

Because it was worryingly inaccurate, this might be the spam forum but things like that can be taken as fact. Please don't post crazy guesses and wrap them in facts as if to suggest they might be true.

 

[skeezix]

<posting got deleted .. bah :/>

Because it was worryingly inaccurate, this might be the spam forum but things like that can be taken as fact. Please don't post crazy guesses and wrap them in facts as if to suggest they might be true.

.. which is why I noted it wasn't official and was guesses; and of course, a lot of was quite right, about the firmware; the appealing for people to come help and noting that if no one else steps up that I might start an Android sub-project in a few months, thought that would be of interest Mind you, about every other week I stick a request for peopel to join in on firmware but rarely any takers.. shucks


If no one steps up (which seems likely), I might kick off somethign in awhile; I'll post about it then. I'd like to at least get the two Android ports so far put togethe rinto a nice git, with some documentation for folsk to pull and build, and maybe look into the hw accel side; I've got an OMAP based crumym chinese tablet that is basiclty same hardware as Pandora and it runs pretty poorly (Froyo mind you). Android needs hw accel or a fat processor to not stink, so we'd really need to get that working.


jeff

 

[craigix]

I PM'ed you all the P2 facts.

 

[Mr_Loon]

Many thanks for the response Craig, great to hear it's likely to be a joint venture. It's understood that it's spam & speculation at this point and that nothing is set in stone, but it can't do any harm to let the community know basic things like who'll be making the Pandora 2.


I'd of course be very interested to hear ED's take on the idea of a new company especially as to how this would impact community investors in Open Pandora GmbH.


@ skeezix : bet everyone is intrigued as to what you posted now the android stuff is certainly intriguing enough.

 

[Ian J]

I feel an Android device would be accepted more by the public at large but it would also be difficult to distinguish it from the myriad of other android devices.


Having said that if the community here gets behind it I'll support whatever comes out.

 

[Christoph.Krn]

&lt;posting got deleted .. bah :/&gt;

Because it was worryingly inaccurate, this might be the spam forum but things like that can be taken as fact. Please don't post crazy guesses and wrap them in facts as if to suggest they might be true.

Sorry for the off-topic, but I have a question: Do you believe it is wrong that things like these are dangerous for this community? See: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/61751-lol-banned-from-openpandora-forums/page__view__findpost__p__963034


I mean, if a post is deleted even though it had been declared as unofficial guesses (as opposed to, say, correcting the things that were wrong in a follow-up post), then doesn't that go against the kind of culture that is the reason the Pandora even exists? It really appears as if the OpenPandora ltd.s and GmbHs are becoming more and more like ordinary companies.

 

[Binky]

&lt;posting got deleted .. bah :/&gt;

Because it was worryingly inaccurate, this might be the spam forum but things like that can be taken as fact. Please don't post crazy guesses and wrap them in facts as if to suggest they might be true.

Sorry for the off-topic, but I have a question: Do you believe it is wrong that things like these are dangerous for this community? See: http://www.gp32x.de...post__p__963034


I mean, if a post is deleted even though it had been declared as unofficial guesses (as opposed to, say, correcting the things that were wrong in a follow-up post), then doesn't that go against the kind of culture that is the reason the Pandora even exists? It really appears as if the OpenPandora ltd.s and GmbHs are becoming more and more like ordinary companies.

I mostly agree with that. It would give a better impression if the original post remained, even if accompanied with a big "unofficial rumormongering" tag

 

[craigix]

I've PM'ed Skeezix and I think once he reads it he will realise why what he posted needed to be deleted.

Many thanks for the response Craig, great to hear it's likely to be a joint venture. It's understood that it's spam & speculation at this point and that nothing is set in stone, but it can't do any harm to let the community know basic things like who'll be making the Pandora 2.


I'd of course be very interested to hear ED's take on the idea of a new company especially as to how this would impact community investors in Open Pandora GmbH.


@ skeezix : bet everyone is intrigued as to what you posted now the android stuff is certainly intriguing enough.

I don't think the investors would have anything to do with P2 unless Ed wants them to be involved on his side. It would be entirely up to him and I think it would require new contracts and new investment.

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

I and Ed are in basic agreement about what the P2 should be.


We have some overall plans for manufacture and they are quite different from the current set up, but many things also remain the same.


.

This is what i was hoping for both of ye working together.I like the sounds of being different from the current set up but also with some things staying the same as this was what i wanted too.A P2 that was only a more powerful p1 and identical to the p1 would not excite me as much.
Also any news about product 3 im intriqued.

 

[darkborn]

I tried to get confirmation that Pandora 2 would be a joint venture from Open Pandora GmbH & Open Pandora Ltd in this post.

I'll tell you why that will never happened.


[troll] Craigix can't forgive Alan Sugar that he "stole" Sir Clive and continue to sell ZX Spectrum under the name Amstrad/Schneider. h34r:


Pandora project proves that British should give production of great ideas to more competent ..producers. :rolleyes:


But Craigix won't learn. [/troll]

 

[EvilDragon]

There are many speculations, but nothing is set in stone yet


I'll be happy to work with Michael and Global Components together on the PCB design and production, whereas Craig could take care of the case.


The reason for that: When we did Pandora 1, I didn't have any money to fund anything, so Craig did fund the full development.


With the Pandora 1 going, I could probably get money from there to fund the PCB production this time, and as I'm working closely together with GC, it would make sense.


Craig worked with UK companies on the iCP Case already, so it would also make sense if he did that work for Pandora 2.


I've got pretty good knowledge about how PCB mass production works now, how to prevent possible issues, whereas I have no idea about case production. It's probably the same for Craig just the other way round.


So my favourite thing would be:


The full team: Ideas and basic design, Craig mostly organizing case, me mostly organizing the PCB production, Michael designing the PCB.


Don't know if Dave would like to design the case, but Craig might know this already.

 

[DaMummy]

would be nice if ed focused on linux, and Craig focused on android

 

[Binky]

Aren't those jobs for hardcore software devs, not businessmen?

 

[PokeParadox]

<posting got deleted .. bah :/>

Because it was worryingly inaccurate, this might be the spam forum but things like that can be taken as fact. Please don't post crazy guesses and wrap them in facts as if to suggest they might be true.

.. which is why I noted it wasn't official and was guesses; and of course, a lot of was quite right, about the firmware; the appealing for people to come help and noting that if no one else steps up that I might start an Android sub-project in a few months, thought that would be of interest Mind you, about every other week I stick a request for peopel to join in on firmware but rarely any takers.. shucks


If no one steps up (which seems likely), I might kick off somethign in awhile; I'll post about it then. I'd like to at least get the two Android ports so far put togethe rinto a nice git, with some documentation for folsk to pull and build, and maybe look into the hw accel side; I've got an OMAP based crumym chinese tablet that is basiclty same hardware as Pandora and it runs pretty poorly (Froyo mind you). Android needs hw accel or a fat processor to not stink, so we'd really need to get that working.


jeff

Just a note... I would help with FW stuff if I thought I'd could be helpful... I'd probably need a little mentoring though...

 

[skeezix]

Yeah, we perhaps need a 'getting started with firmware..' process, getting notaz/djw to tear off some smaller tasks and hand them out if possible or something. But its tricky/annoying stuff usually Building OE is a right pain all by itself


Fire off an email in the firmware-dev mailing list and maybe we can kickstart..


jeff

 

[pmprog]

Yeah, we perhaps need a 'getting started with firmware..' process, getting notaz/djw to tear off some smaller tasks and hand them out if possible or something. But its tricky/annoying stuff usually Building OE is a right pain all by itself

I joined the firmware-dev list, but tbh, I see some of the mails come in, but all in all, I'm like "Is there something I should be looking at? Where do I start?". That said, I don't have a great deal of spare time at the minute, but I think the firmware group lacks something to guide new developers in.


BTW - How are the Minimenu changes coming?