Official blog: 98% success rate!
November 18, 2009ED has followed up today’s tantalising Texan photos with an official blog post, and some pictures of his own.
We’ve got some good news! 103 out of the 105 boards did pass the test, this is slightly more than 98% success rate!
TI set up a unique testing environment, especially for the Pandora boards. With a special firmware, every hardware piece of the Pandora can be checked with as little human interaction as possible.
We also got some news from the moulds company. It looks they’re finally nearing completion of the last mould which means we should see the final case moulds soon. There’s not much time left until christmas – but you can be sure we’ll do everything possible to assemble and ship it out just in time!
The latest OS image is also running pretty stable. I’ve been playing around with XFCE myself for the last hours and didn’t encounter any crashes. I’m currently working on Pandora themes in various sizes.
Another step we did was finishing the silkscreen. Want some pictures? Here you go:
Enough blog posting for me today, back to work on the Pandora OS
Sticking to the first batch in front eh? Okay I guess.
So after that whole long thread, and some great suggestions, along with the “we really like some of these ideas”, they decided to … change absolutely nothing on the screens? Big surprise.
Wait a minute, the hole for the headphones is square. Will my headphones work in it? I can’t believe I never noticed this before
You’re such a square
-.-
The hole is round. The render is a little bit off, but if you check better you’ll get it.
Oh, thanks. I love your emote, btw ^_^
don’t you just love troll mod edits
don’t you just love troll commenters
no.
yes
http://images.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/f/f1/Trollface_HD.jpg
um… it’s definitely round. you just need to look a bit closer.
Good news
Nice. But when you see the number of things that had to be made, I wonder how we could believe that the console would be ready for Christmas 2008.
I am worried about Christmas 2009 too.
Let’s hope it’s not Christmas 2010. Not sure how many will hang around if it takes that long.
Do I understand it correctly, that only the 103 Pandoras will be finished before Christmas 2009?
It looks that way. Id be fine up until the end of Febuary though.
No, the current plan involves all 4,000 boards being ready to go into cases at the end of this month (and the cases being ready by then too). Then it’s just assembly, testing & shipping. If all goes to plan – and we know it rarely does, but if it does – they should be able to ship a good number of Pandoras by Christmas. Maybe not the entire first batch, but more than the first 100.
If, etc.
Thanks gruso.
Heh I want to know where I’m at in the queue! I’m really hoping it goes by who has been waiting the longest. I’m in that group that paid prior to the first deadline. This would be AWESOME if I could get this by Christmas and not have to wait until February.
“ED has followed up today’s tantalising Texan photos with an official blog post, and some pictures of his own.”
in what way were those photos texan? they were taken in china, where the boards are being made.
They’re the first 105, so I believe they are in Texas. I think. In any case, Texas is way easier to alliterate.
chinese china, cruel china, catastrophic china… see, it’s not that hard!
Why not chilling China? Or Chinese chamberlain of China? Or chestnut choccolate chasy Chinese chipmonks?
Ok… chasy should be crazy, but that does not really alliterate, does it?
Testing is done in Texas.
It is all done in Dallas.
what is all done in dallas?
you mean the testing is done in dallas right? manufacture is still in china isnt it?
great. another almost-progress-but-not-quite-update. still no plastic, no new boards and “the mould is done soon” gets old.
[you can be sure we’ll do everything possible to assemble and ship it out just in time!]
at least that made me laugh. almost.
“Then it’s just assembly, testing & shipping.”
Hmm, that should take about just two more months, right?
Two more months(TM)*
Sorry, just had to correct you.
Anyways, good things takes time, and seriously, dont you the OP team wants to see the moulds done too? Dont you think they want everything to be finished now? Do you think they WANT delays. Isnt a blog post saying “this have happened, its not much, but its something” than no blog post at all?
Just sit down and think for a while and everything will make more sense, I promise.
“Anyways, good things takes time, and seriously, dont you the OP team wants to see the moulds done too? Dont you think they want everything to be finished now? Do you think they WANT delays. Isnt a blog post saying “this have happened, its not much, but its something” than no blog post at all?”
Was that directed at me? Not sure how you turned my post into a rant against the OP team?
I have great respect for the team. I just think it’s somewhat amusing that they KEEP promising optimistic dates after 2 years. A couple of things spring to mind:
1) “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.” We’re now up to about “Fool me forty-six times…” – you figure it out.
2) When will they learn to “under-promise and over-deliver” rather than the other way around?
None of this takes away from the project. These guys are doing a wonderful thing – they’ve achieved a hell of a lot and I take my hat off too them. They’ve also had my $400 for over a year now – they’re welcome to it. I still have faith that I’ll get a great hand held.
But, I reserve the right to chime in with the ironic 2 more month mantra.
In fact, perhaps we should all think of it as a mantra. Then, finally, when it does turn up (who knows when?) we’ll be pleasantly surprised…
Peace and goodwill.
haha no no not really. I corrected you, you forgot the (TM). The rest of the post was towards everyone as a mindopening little speech.
No offense at all.
By the way: BT for bluetooth and First Batch is VERY UGLY and unprofessional.
If you can’t use the official Bluetooth logo why not design another one ? Not that hard…
Same for First Batch, why not a single stars for example ??
I agree with you there. the silkscreen looks *exactely* like the one that was posted on the forums before. I can only assume someone was a bit lazy.
I believe they did in the forums, but I guess time is moving on and a simple and quickly implemented change is the way to go.
Probably !
I wouldn’t tolerate another month just for 2 dumb stickers
In order to wait more peacefully what I’d like to see is a more “classic” daily use of the Pandora rather than Emulator.
Like
- Playing high quality movies on a TV thanks to the TV Cable
- Email, Forum and Instant messaging
- Write some code on the fly from dev IDE
- More advanced web surfing experience
- Managing files from USB HDD
- Exchange stuff via Bluetooth
- FTP, server, network, etc.
- Microphone testing
- …
For heaven’s sake, get a sense of perspective! You’ve got a team of guys who have full time jobs, doing some really really innovative stuff, and pratts like you are sniping about every little think you can find to moan about. Presumably youre finding it so ugly and unprofessional it’s going to put you off buying it…
Why call this an open source device and follow is development for +2 years if I can’t even give my opinion on what I found bad when everything is still editable ??
I already buy it so in a way I trust the project of someone else. At this stage a good silkscreen design won’t cost you much more !
If I create a incredible video game with shitty graphics I may not only reduce my sales but get a bad designer reputation too.
It is a matter of common sense.
Now if you are neerdy enough then go for ENIAC.
This machine probably won a lot of public funding at the time.
Sorry for Pandora Team but it’s true…
They are not a charity, and we do not made cash donations.
So, from the time on they committed themselves to deliver this product(with a deadline set a year back) any excuses are silly – THIS SHOULD BE THEIR FULL TIME JOB! not a 1h/week project.
Hey, are the boards down?
im unable to open them about 4 hour ago
If they look that ugly, then it’s a good excuse to mod them. Can i get a cheap item from the store if i make a good mod?
Because you know, i’d void my warranty for the sake of knowledge, all that…
Breaking news: http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?/topic/50437-status-of-boards/page__view__findpost__p__774535 <– 1000 to be shipped by early December!? Could it be!?
This just in! Breaking news!
“We are expecting the final part to be shipped today (it might already have been shipped, yesterday), then if Michael isn’t busy with the MP boards he will build a case and post a photo. But the boards and firmware are the ‘thing’ this week.” – craigix
Source: http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?/topic/50407-new-pix-from-mweston/page__view__findpost__p__774561
Can anybody say, “Wooooohoooooo!!!11!!1″
Wooooohoooooo!!!11!!1
Remember. It’s Craig saying this. It’s November and he’s looking ahead for December. So… sorry… it’s still Craig. I don’t believe anything before holding it in my handy. Not any longer. Not a single forecast, especially not from Craig.
A cobbler should stick to his last. Tell me what you are doing, but, please, not another forecast you can’t hold your breathe on!
exactly, its been 2 years and you lot still dont understand that craigix says what he thinks you want to hear, whether it is true or not.
Hmmm, so alternatively we should take our advice from someone with the onscreen name of “randy hotcock”
Thanks all the same for your well thought out analysis of the situation…
But I think I’ll stick with Craig – he (and the rest of the team) has got us this far after all!
No, you should believe the post written by irgendwer. This “randy hotcock” was just agreeing with him.
Agreed… Craigix was also the guy who said ‘i’m prepared to say July’ – amongst many many other things. He probably sees lots of major things starting to wrap up and is completely dismissing the time the ‘smaller’ things will take (getting power adapters, etc)… has a pretty solid track record of doing that.
And if the whole thing was to be a scam????
Seriously, we have been hanging. We all or nearly all know how it was hard for the GP32 to be born. The GP2x wasn’t an easy delivery either. This is the same thing here. However, unlike the previous devices, this one, even after 2 years of dev, is still on par with much more commercial/corporate productions. AND open-source. Even for those compagnies, deadlines are rarely met yet, they do not even need you to prebuy anymore: they have the mean. Seriously, be patient and comprehensive… Or buy a PSX/NXX/I[POD/PHONE]/.
I thought I was patient, but…
I wonder if the final cases fit perfectly now with the board. I still go for January 2010, if it come before then I won’t be disappointed
Definitely waiting for a significant post next week. And by significant, i mean mass production initiated. And by mass production initiated, I mean sexy pandora goodness.
By the way someone spot this on IRC today :
Domain Name:OPENPANDORA.ORG
Created On:09-Dec-2007 20:00:13 UTC
Last Updated On:12-Jan-2009 11:20:08 UTC
Expiration Date:09-Dec-2009 20:00:13 UTC
Hope they won’t forget something or then we know when we get fu** ^^
Hosting companies usually take care of that.
Some cybersquatting idiot appeared on the forums the other day trying to sell “openpandora.net”. He didn’t last long, lol.
Ah well… as for waiting, for the meantime I pre-ordered an radeon HD5970 to soften my pain.
Bet its a really good card. Did you buy the XFX Black Edition ?
no, the sapphire ce edition ^^
I was tired waiting and had bought a Laptop for Christmas just in case the pandora would be late – lol LAST Christmas. This year I’ll just wait…
Where are the rest
how much longer for the rest of us?
Craig reckons they should have the first 1000 shipping before Christmas, maybe more. We’ll see.
I hope so !
So few updates for a machine that launch in nearly a month I find…
lurk
I’m prepared to say… another two months
I want to believe I’ll get it for Christmas, but in my heart of hearts I know I won’t be seeing it before 2010
I share the same feeling.. after many months.
Perhaps it was a better idea to stop speculating about the approximate release date.