Twitterix: The case race
October 29, 2009Toot toot, all aboard the hype train. A tweet from Craig:
Finally, the cases ship at the weekend!
Thankfully Craig was standing by in the forums to expand on this essay. The bolded questions below have been paraphrased from forum comments to give the quotes a bit of context. As always, read the discussion on GP32X for the full picture.
Yes if these test run cases are good then finally some Pandora consoles will ship.
Q: Are these actual, real, final cases?
Yes, Wizardstan is right, these will be a small test run of real cases.
If they are okay we will make up a batch of Pandora consoles and send them out, probably to devs (so they have a free unit to reward them for their work) and for press reviews.
Then we will start building the rest. We are aiming to have a good supply going out by the end of November.
People in the Dallas area are welcome to come and help us build these as they come off the production line (as long as we get permission), it would speed things up.
Wow, could the adventure finally be over?
Q: The press? But they haven’t paid for theirs like we have.
It’s actually more to do with the fact the press won’t get (to) keep them and we need to remove the ‘vaporware’ myth. It’s likely we will use the well tested boards in them – I’d rather not give them to customers.
I get the nasty feeling there’s more delays on the way
But I really hope this is going to be it!
I think the comment was a little misleading, or at least the thread was. We’re still some way off from all 4000 being ready to be shipped. I did a bit more scouring around and it seems like the mass-production motherboards are still some way off; they then have to be sent over to the assembling plant in the US (Dallas), along with the cases also, to be assembled and then shipped to their distribution points (craig and EvilDragon)…
The amount of times I’ve run over that story in my head. Hopefully they’ll be fine though and the go ahead can be given, and shortly we’ll hear about the mass-production motherboard progress. Quite possibly might accelerate development on the software/emu. front if they’re receiving nearly finished product.
Trying to temper my excitement.
That’s correct Jon.
Right now they have 105 (heavily abused) boards sitting there, while the rest of the 4,000 boards are still on the way. So they’ll be faced with a choice:
- Put the abused boards into cases and send them to customers, or
) for paying customers.
- Do some photo shoots, reward some devs, and save the “virgin boards” (thanks Sphinxter
aren’t the motherboards being made in the U.S. anyway?
No, they’re being made in China. This was revealed a few weeks ago.
It was revealed that The actual PCB itself is made in china, but the components (OMAP, etc.) are being installed on it in Texas.
Depending on those cases being good it’s looking early/mid December.
New year if they’re not good.
so basically they’re about 2 months away. sweeeeeet.
(great to hear that final cases are shipping)
Can I just say what the majority of us are thinking? The whole two months joke is getting REALLY old. I understand the irony and it was clever at first, but I swear I can’t read a comment on gruso’s blog or a thread on the forums without the whole thing turning in to “TWO MONTHS LOL TWO MONTHS” over and over. Yes, multiple times we’ve waited for 2 months. Yes, there might be 2 months left to wait. Now be done with it, please.
Something like this takes awhile to die down, I’d say give it about !@#$&%#@#\.,
[edit] Your post was eaten by a Gru.
wow, didn’t see that one coming…
I saw that one coming two months away.
~puts on sunglasses~
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
hey, that’s the first time i made the joke. it used to annoy me a lot, too… but it keeps working, so i figured i should just jump in on it, too!
Get over it (in two months time you’ll stop having to read it).
Yeah but after we have our greedy little mitts on them will the 2 months joke spawn a new life of it’s own? All your base are 2 months away.
:}
I’m going to quote that and use it for the rest of my life.
Just 28 little days till a GOOD supply of Pandora’s ship. Wonder what craigs definition of a good supply is? I’m still a little unconvinced that OP will actually bang these out before christmas but I suppose it’s coz of all the previous missed dates, I do hope they can pull it off for christmas. That would be super awesome, although I’m not in a rush anymore coz I ended up having to buy a iphone 3gs so I can have the internet on the move. That’s really why i bought the Pandora in the first place.
Thanks for keeping this blog so up to date! I remember the early days of this project, when we’d beg borrow and steal to get any shred of straight information on the project…now it’s dropped right into our laps. Thankfully, every post is still ambiguous enough to leave us with days of uncertain speculation and flamebait…sorry, I meant, discussion!
Just hoping to get it by Christmas…2009!
people in the Dallas area? Dallas texas? Dallas Texas USA?!? That’s where i’m at
so if i help with the production on weekends, do i get my pandora fresh off the production line right after i assemble it???
Well, you’d have to make some before you got yours. Otherwise, you’d make one, take it, and go off to enjoy without doing any others.
that’s not what i meant, but i can see what you mean. i’d be there for the day just assembling pandoras, and at the end of the day i’d take mine.
Ok, that seems pretty reasonable. I’d definitely be willing to do that. Maybe even several days of helping. Too bad I’m not nearby.
I’m in the Dallas area too, ready, willing, and able to help (if that idea is approved). I sent an email to the Pandora sales address to volunteer.
watch out, maybe youre assembeling my unit
Or mine ^^ that I will be getting in ‘two months’.
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
“Then we will start building the rest. We are aiming to have a good supply going out by the end of November.”
What exactly does this mean? Starting to be built? Shipping to end users? 100? 1000?
I find the phrasing slightly disturbing as well. Will we only start building these once the ones for reviewers are done? Is that the mass production of them (e.g. send to reviewers, and then some more delay), or that the first few dozen will go to reviewers, and then as the rest of them *continue* to come off the press they’ll be sent out?
Customers won’t be bumped back in the queue if a few review units go out. They’ll be using boards from the 105 – boards that won’t be sent to customers anyway. Do read the forum link provided for the full discussion… we should all know by now not to over-analyse a few isolated quotes.
I try and avoid the boards with all the fluff, speculation, mis-information, and whining. That’s why I come here!
There was a discussion a few months ago, now, about what to do with the first 105 boards – developers, for people willing to pay extra, or the first 105 people, as had been originally promised. I’d thought it had been decided tosend them to the first 105 people, which would, by definition, push me further back in line. I’m willing to have that happen, since I think sendiung some to reviewers is worthwhile. But let’s be honest about the impact, and that decisions were changed.
Really think about this. They were never going tobe ableto give you a perfect date for these things when they have to deal with companies that don’t follow their schedual. They give rough estimates because that’s all they GET from the companies that build the stuff for them. As for the ‘bumped’ we’re talking about hundreds of these things being built even if you fire off a hundred to the press you dont know where you even sit in line, for all you know you’re #1793 so who cares, you could still end up waiting a month for yours even if they didnt send some to reviewers.
i just wet myself – woohooo – end of november
would be great…. *hoppingaround*
cheers, murphy
Still waiting for this product to pass being vaporware.
12+ months delay is insane.
7 months waiting until production of the second batch is plain stupid do not lose the momentum and make a second batch as quick as possible 7 months can kill demand (this product is getting dated)
To the Pandora huggers don’t get to upset by my remarks i am a sceptic.
You wouldn’t also happen to be one of those who didn’t get in line for the first batch, would ya?
I mentioned that i am a sceptic so what do you think.
LOL
I’m firmly hugging my imaginary pandora.
As long as it’s here before Christmas, it’s fine with me.
And in one possible future it will be.
Well, 2009 certainly isn’t going to be the year of the Pandora like previously touted, at least, not to any significant degree. Looks like 2010 definitely will be though. Better late than never. Good job!
I’d rather they save these boards for customers, than reviewers – honour your existing customers and all that jazz.
I disagree actually. The tested boards have been run hard specifically to attempt to shorten their lifespan, that’s the whole point of the test boards. I’d rather have a fresh one right off the assembly line.
Why would anyone want a used and abused board in there new pandora?????
Send this guy a burnt out board in a cnc case for his order, lol
because dear chap, electronics that have worked continue to do so. electronics straight off the production line have a certain percentage failure rate.
these boards have been proven to work and will more than likely continue to do so until the end of their “normal” life span.
have a google for “baththub curve”, it may enlighten you.
They’re stress testing all 105 boards? First I heard of it.
i think that was the idea. i cant be arsed to look wade through the forums to see tbh though. So maybe they only did a handful, but since they were more testing the mfg process rather than the boards themselves per se it would make better sense.
Im glad there’s some progress in th casemoulds.
But correct me if im wrong, it seems there’s going to be more time needed for devteam, since they will be sent a full working unit to do some coding?
A bit wrong. The devs of the OS have had the final boards and prototype cases for a long time now. This post is simply about the case. The hardware has been finalised for a long time now.
Has the board even changed much since last year? Okay so some chips moved around, we got more RAM and some nubs with their own firmware. It’s still pretty much the same right?
Send at least some of the first 105 to customers. We’ve been waiting patiently – don’t you think we deserve a reward along with the developers? You’ve had our money for over 12 months now… For cryin’ out loud.
And I’m with mosschops – all this BS about “burned out boards” is simply that, BS. Also, there’s still the damn warranty to fall back on.
So, if any of the first X folks that get offered their p&|a don’t want it then proceed to the next guy in line.
Just 2 months now is getting old. But not from the joke aspect – from the reality aspect.
Patience is NOT an INFINITE resource…
Do you really want a board that’s been subjected to burn-in testing?
Once again kudos to gruso et. al. who run pandaropress – it is WAY better than the forum. A regular supply of well summarized news.
You guys rock.
I say give all the guys involved in pandorapress one of the 105.
I think at least one of the 105 should be set free into the wild. Give it a robotic body so it can send for itself.
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2009/04/the-future-of-artificial-intelligence/fivealive.jpg
*fend
“We are aiming to have a good supply going out by the end of November.”
Ah, just /one/ more month, then!
“it’s the most wonderfull time of the year”
I smell the pinetrees
Until the little things like the Manuals are ready, the finishing line is not in sight. I fear it’s socks and soap for Christmas. Fortunately they combine to form a potent weapon to vent your frustrations. Santa Claus will never know what hit him.
WHAT ?
Press People and Developers will have free Pandora.
DEV PEOPLE ??
But I’M a Developer ! And I pay a lot of money you know !
And NO !
I DON’T WANT anyone else than the Pandora Team from Dallas building MY Pandora !
I waited so much f**king long for this machine and I don’t want any problem of build with it.
I’m really fed up of this story !
So you decide to be a dick and invent problems? How useful.
stop winning @ssh0le.
Besides, what did you contribute to the pandora as a developer?
@sshüle yourself dick !
I have a game engine based on SDL but I can’t port it since I don’t have it.
Money isn’t probably important for you rich kid so you can buy whatever you want.
I spend my $320 on a Pandora last year and would much rather get one that hasn’t been subject to a test where the objective is to see if they can kill it. The press can have theirs.
I don’t think the press need any. They don’t matter at all. The 4000 will sell no problem and the wave after will be sold easily as well. I hope they modify the 2nd one to output HDTV and add GPS. I’ll buy one of them as well.
Originally ordered 3 and reduced to 2 when the bank screwed everything up and had to send bank transfer…
Craig has clarified a couple of things:
1. There won’t be a bunch of people off the street putting their mits on our Pandoras. They’ll be assembled professionally.
2. Pandoras won’t be sent out to the press willy nilly. In his words:
“There are a small number of websites/journalists who have followed the Pandora project where other sites have ignored it. Some of these people have kept in touch and done a lot to get the word out there. In return I’ve always promised them a first look at a Pandora ahead of other sites/magazines.
That is why they are getting some.”
http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?/topic/50229-what-to-do-with-the-first-105-pandoras/page__view__findpost__p__768868
Now a couple of “unofficial” clarifications from me. This information has already been posted more than once, but I’ll repeat for those who perhaps scrolled past it all…
1. Paying customers aren’t being pushed back in the queue by devs & press. These first Pandoras will contain boards from the heavily stress-tested first 105. Craig doesn’t want to send these out to just anyone, because they may have a shorter life span. Paying customers get brand new boards straight off the production line.
2. When they say they’re sending Pandoras to “devs”, they’re not talking about any old Joe who can code. They’re talking about the small team of people who have donated their time and worked their butts off for the last two years, to put Pandora’s operating system and software together. Without them there is no Pandora.
Well if someone can port this http://www.oolite.org/
Please sent that person one Pandora to it is my old time favorite.
I know it will work on many emus but getting it directly on the Pandora will turn me into a pandorahugger when it arrives (both Pandora and the port).
Also like to see:
http://mercenarysite.free.fr/mddclone.htm
oolite could be cool, just had a nosey at a vid on youtube. Not so keen on the mddclone but each to there own. I’m more of a platform guy myself.
Cool, Thanks for that detail gruso, although there has been many delays they seem to be doing the right thing at each turn.
I was really happy to see that they added Bluetooth at the last moment. I will look into a Bluetooth GPS sender
as for HD I will just have to wait.
Things are finally getting interesting!!
whatever you want until it arrives before the end of the year as promised.
Sorry for the bad news, but I’ve read there was a problem with some of the moulds and they need to be fixed, so we might be waiting a little longer…
Whoohoo – injection mould pics on Craigix’s twitter account!
Hey, I run Game Developer magazine, and was probably the first (only?) magazine to cover the Pandora, and while I do think the press should see it to prove it’s real (I paid for mine months and months ago, before anyone gets uppity), I don’t think they need to be getting it earlier than the folks who have paid.
I’m not trying to be a jerk, but I think it’s a perception issue – people who have paid have waited months and months for this. The press doesn’t really care. They can wait til the first production run, and frankly if they care to cover the story, having units out there that they can’t get their hands on is likely to get MORE traction than less. Send them out to developers, certainly, so that we can get software up and running ASAP. But hold on the press til the larger run, I would say. Or just send one to Engadget and stop there.