January 24, 2012
Posted by: foxblock
Update:
All developers get an extra month to brew up something awesome:
Okay, [deadline] extended until end of March.
Source
Also erico and quatercast have been working hard on a banner (top image) and all sorts of other graphics for the competition, which you can check out here – this is not officially approved yet, though.
Meanwhile this topic is to collect ideas/wishes for software you want to see from the competition.
Original post:
It’s ON!
EvilDragon just announced an official OpenPandora software competition with the first price being a new and shiny Pandora right off the prototype production run in a unique golden or pearl-white case (photos to be uploaded soon).
Everything is good in this competition, may it be an original game, a port, new software, ported software, an emulator, a whole OS or a digitalized unicorn spreading love and peace, as long as it follows the rules posted by EvilDragon (see below).
You can enter alone or as a team, but hurry, the deadline is the 29th of February! That is not as much time as it might seem now, so better get started immediately!
If you are good friends with pixels, listen up as EvilDragon is looking for someone to create a nice banner and splash screen for the submissions. Head to the forum thread for more details.
Here is the full quote with all prices and rules (read them if you are considering submitting anything):
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Community, Official, Pandora | Tagged competition, game, golden Pandora, prizes, rebirth, Software, white Pandora | 20 Comments »
January 9, 2012
Posted by: foxblock
In case Replay Expo was not near you, there is another opportunity coming up to meet the team behind OpenPandora (okay, so far only EvilDragon): The Free And Open-Source Software Developers’ European Meeting or FOSDEM in short.
It will take place in Brussels, Belgium on the 4th and 5th of February.
EvilDragon will hold a talk about the Pandora on Sunday the 5th (12:40 to 13:25) and you will also have the opportunity to meet Ivanovic and several other people of the Wesnoth and Frogatto development team in the Hackers Room.
Several other community members will surely be there, too (the crowd is just gathering).
More details here:
Announcement post (OP board)
FOSDEM website
Posted in Community, Pandora | Tagged convention, FOSDEM, team, wesnoth | Comments Off
December 29, 2011
Posted by: foxblock
…aaand we are back. Sorry for the prolonged downtime, seems like I jinxed it in my last update (and everyone was busy with Christmas to fix it).
A lot of stuff has happened in the last week and as I am in a rush to get some things done before the New Year, I won’t summarize it here, but redirect you to the forum (which we always just copied anyway…).
Let’s just say the prototype run in Germany appears to be complete success, even after some initial problems and hick-ups.
Following are two news posts by EvilDragon on the official boards, as well as a video giving you insight into the production facility.
Finally, rom everyone here at PandoraPress, we wish you a good celebration of the passing year and an even better start into the new one. See you guys in 2012!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Blog, Official, Pandora, Software | Tagged Boards, GC, hotfix, no copy-pasta this time, production, prototypes, psx, VVVVVV | 7 Comments »
December 16, 2011
Posted by: foxblock
First of all, sorry about the recent downtimes, the WordPress set-up was getting old and unstable and needed a reset every now in a while. Admin atomicthumbs now upgraded to a new version (thanks!), so those problems are hopefully a thing of the past.
In the meantime we missed two blog posts by EvilDragon, which I will try to summarize in the following. You can find the full quotes after the break.
The preparation for the prototype run are full steam ahead, the parts being held back at CC’s finally passed customs and are on their way to a new destination: GC. Other parts needed for the mass production run are on their way, too and should arrive over Christmas and New Year. With them there should be enough for the first run of 1000 Pandoras.
He also got a sample of the new version of the case, which should prevent the cracks users have been reporting – another 4000 will be ordered of those, they will be used when he runs out of the remaining ones (Source).
Concerning TV-out cables he is still waiting for a quotation and a sample before New Year, so fingers crossed on that.
Sadly this was followed by some bad news, some less, but still bad news and some very bad news.
First of all the RAM did not arrive as ordered, so ED had to get a quick replacement, which will arrive Friday or Monday pushing the prototype run back to that date.
Loading the machines with the parts (minus RAM) was still done and during that GC noticed that the Pick and Place files (data telling the machine which parts got on on which position) were incompatible, MWeston is contacted to make some slight (and easy) changes to them.
This quick line of communication is also a nice change as EvilDragon is now in direct contact with all necessary people and information has not travel over multiple stations (like it did before).
Last there is the mentioned very bad news, which is not production related:
A member of the community, jonai, has been murdered a few weeks ago. He was active on the German and gp32x.com boards as well as in ICQ contact with EvilDragon.
His death was cruel and inhuman and sadly the police has no clue so far, in case you knew him closely and might have important information contact EvilDragon who is in contact with the police about this.
My sincere condolences to the family and friends of the victim. Let’s think about him for a minute.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Official, Pandora | Tagged CC, GC, jonai, parts, production, prototype | 10 Comments »
December 12, 2011
Posted by: foxblock
Here is something we failed to mention so far: There is an online shop solely dedicated to the Pandora.
Community member Link has set up a site for you to get all kinds of accessories on, from earphones to cases (he claims those to be bombproof, mcobit, B-Zar and I can confirm that), from cables to solar chargers, he got it all and everything is suited for the Pandora.
The idea of the shop is not to make as much profit as possible, rather to “give something back to the community” which Link started to like over the years he has been waiting for his device.
iThic.com is the name of the shop and it’s based in the USA, so as a citizen of the US this might also be a good place to actually get your Pandora as Link sells those at their official price (though due to the production relocation he is out of stock at the time of writing). You can also get EXT connectors (including a tiny BoB) from him you can use to build your own TV-out cable in case you don’t want to wait until that situation is resolved.
International orders are also gladly accepted, but you will have to pay some additional shipping costs.
Last but not least and probably best of all, Link is currently having a solstice sale running until the 21st of December with the following conditions:
i-Ecko earbuds, earclips, and speakers are buy 1 get 1 Free
40% OFF ALL Pelican Products, buy any Pelican case and get a choice of a FREE i-Ecko product (earbuds, earclips, or speakers)
25 % OFF All Underwater Kinetic UltraBoxes, buy any UnderWater Kinetics case and get your pick of a FREE i-Ecko product (earbuds, earclips, or speakers)
Following is an interview with the owner of iThic.com, Link:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Misc | Tagged accessories, ithic, link, Pandora, sale, shop | 8 Comments »
December 2, 2011
Posted by: Kloplop321
Milkshake has brought something to the pandora that has been aspired by quite a few for a while, which is to have commercial games.
Note: All the funds go to the publisher, no one, not OpenPandora GmbH, Ltd. or Milkshake gets any of the funds, it all goes to the developer. Except the cut that Paypal takes out for their services.
The first commercial title is also available already: Arora Rift 32X
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Community, Games, Pandora, Pandora Homebrew, Releases, Software, Uncategorized | Tagged commercial, Games, milkshake, Release, repo, repository | 2 Comments »
December 2, 2011
Posted by: Kloplop321
Update 2:
The packages have finally been picked up in Texas and according to FedEx tracking, they should arrive tomorrow in Germany.
I guess it will be Friday or Monday (never trusted FedEx estimations 
), but that means we only got a slight delay with the prototype run and we’re still planning the full production to happen in January 
Source
Update:
EvilDragon posted an update on the situation with CircuitCo.
It seems like all documents had been prepared actually, but there was confusion about how to handle them (or what they are for) on CC’s side.
If this does not work out, ED will simply contact EBV/AVNet to pick up the parts and export them.
Here is the full post
Original post:
This time, we might have reason to celebrate in under Two Months!
A prototype run has been scheduled to happen next week on Thursday or Friday (However, drama changes that).
Mass production at Global Components is scheduled at January 16th in Germany. There should not be any changes to this date, unless there are issues!
Additionally, there’s some progress on TV Cables, currently EvilDragon is waiting for quotes to come back.
Many parts (cases, batteries, LCDs, etc.) are still with Craig, and need to be transported to Germany.
See the full text after the jump!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Hardware, Pandora | Tagged cables, CC, cuircuitco, drama, fedex, GC, global components, parts, prototype, quotations, tv cables, tv out, two months :p | 15 Comments »
November 22, 2011
Posted by: foxblock
Update:
If you are like me wondering what out-of-production parts ED was talking about, here is the answer:
Some Diodes (no big deal) and only one important part: The Memory.
But Micron (the manufacturer of the memory we used) has replacements for those as well, so nothing serious, nope.
Source
Original post:
In short: Production in Germany is still in schedule with the different parts needed being shiped from all over the world (Parts from CircuitCo are being handled as we speak and proper replacements for parts already out of production have already been ordered).
The TV-Out cables, which ED promised to order after production at GC is fully set-up, are the new troublemaker, though.
For some reason the company making those is now refusing to take the order, which means that the already produced tools have to be shipped to another manufacturer, which obviously has to be found first. As the cables are not that much more expensive to produce over here in Germany, ED is looking into that possibility as well.
Some random news bits: Socket-able nubs are currently off the table as the new and improved nubs seem to perform nicely so far.
If your Pandora is currently in RMA you should expect a bit of wait, a user recently reported getting his Pandora back after about one month. ED currently fixes about 8 Pandoras a week in his spare time (between his regular job, organizing the production, sending out contracts and actually getting some sleep).
Here is the full quote with all the gory bits:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Official, Pandora | Tagged cable, GC, parts, production, tv out | 23 Comments »
November 9, 2011
Posted by: Kloplop321
Evildragon and Craig(who was cursed with a moldy ceiling), went to Blackpool to the Replay Expo 2011!
That means they are done now
Many team members, including our repo guy, milkshake, and our friend who lost his name badge along the way, PokeParadox, met and made it on camera!
Furthermore, many visitors found the device quite interesting.
May88′s impressions, photos, videos and more can be found in this article!
Regarding the movement of parts from the dastardly CircuitCo(In Texas) to GlobalComponents(In Germany), the customs documents have been completed.
A prototype run of the PCB is anticipated during this month(November).
As resource costs, such as copper have changed, EvilDragon has requested a quote so that we may soon get the Yet-To-Be TV Cables! Maybe this time Iceland’s volcanoes and South America’s tectonic plates won’t screw us over.
Lastly, an individual that goes by Delicator will be helping busy EvilDragon with the main site with features like a croudsourced gallery, user generated content, and integration with the forum
Full post and source after the jump!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Hardware, Official, Pandora, Uncategorized | Tagged Community, customs, evildragon, gathering, global components, replay expo, retro, tv cables, tv out, website | 3 Comments »
