Case factory makes contact, set your watches for the 22nd
March 2, 2010Craig tweets:
Looks like everything will have arrived here by the 22nd. How exciting.
EvilDragon tweets:
Production, here we come! Just confirmed with Fatih, cases will arrive in UK March 22nd. We’ll have the assembly site ready by then! Go!
Craig elaborates:
(The 22nd) is when everything should be here, including the cases. To be on the safe side we probably won’t start until a few days after that.
I feel a lot more confident about this now we are back in control.
Our own assembly line, this will work far far better for batch 2 and so on. It should always have been like this.
Perhaps not quite the news you were waiting for today, but solid information beats cold silence in most cases. This gives Craig ample time to set up the new production line with things like ESD protection and business hammocks, and ED the opportunity to set up the best webcam feed this side of the Thames. Whatever that means.
another month…
ps- first!!!
HOLY SHIT IN HELL, please say you mean February the 22nd.
well, think of it this way. all those dozens and dozens of problems with the system at this point in time will be fixed and there will be more emualtors and games (please no jinx).
Yeah, that’s what I thought LAST YEAR. Developers not only need a Pandora, they need an audience with Pandoras as well before they start working. Kudos to the guy who made the N64-emulator, but other than that I haven’t seen anything usable in quite a while now.
Also: Why does everybody seem to think the extreme opposite, that software development will cease once Pandora hits the doorsteps? The GP2X was almost literally thrown onto the market with “all those dozens and dozens of problems”, but developers wrote very useful software for it in much less the time we’ve been waiting for the Pandora now, turning it into that well remembered system we know today.
Ok, that does it.
Three weeks before even starting assembling the final products? I’m getting more and more disappointed.
Just wait until the date comes and goes without any actual progress! We’ve all seen this show a dozen times before. Remember when the cases revisions 3 was going to be done January 15th? Remember when the Pandoras were going to all be shipped out by December 23rd? Remember when they were going to be done in November, September, July, the December before because the LCDs were the only hold-up? If you think this is finally it and they’re going to be done/making/shipping Pandoras starting shortly after the 22nd you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
thanks for summarizing it all
… and remember on the forum (when I was still reading it), when people were playing the “date guess game”??
April 2009, someone said. LOL
I remember the date guessing game. My guess the first time around was “Never”. Sadly, I still hold the correct answer…for a little while, at least.
I don’t remember where I said it before, but I was agreeing with the april 1st shipping date…when everyone else was saying december january….how sad that we’ve come this far.
3 weeks to produce and ship, 2-3 weeks to assemble, 2 weeks to deliver. I guess ’2 months’ ™ is still in action …
Yes, I think we now have enough empirical evidence to start referring to the 2-month theory as a law.
Not quite. “Two Months” has always referred to the time to the first really real Pandora being shipped, not when it arrived.
Assuming the cases arrive on the 22nd as planned, the first really real Pandora can be shipped shortly thereafter, they don’t have to wait until they’re all done. So the first really real Pandora could ship before the end of the month.
A great LOL (of irony, followed by a wail of agony) will go out if they intentionally wait until April 1st to start shipping though.
APRIL FOOLS! =D
Then they’ll actually ship it on April 2nd after having a good laugh at everyone’s expense. =P
no actually the joke come April 1st is that there never was a pandora in dev beyond five kits and the whole project will disappear without a trace
Glad I at least got a refund. I bet there are plenty of spots open now for the “first batch.” it wasn’t even the shipping from the UK that made me laugh and cancel my order – it was the list of problems with the gui / software it was going to SHIP with. I’m not gonna sit there writing code so my new $300 toy works properly
It’s a shame you cancelled on that basis. What you call the “list of problems” is just a status list typical of any project, and many of those items have been ticked off now anyway. Everything you’ve ever bought has a list like that, we just don’t get to see it.
I do figure that if and when it ever ships (my guess is January 2011), if it’s still the leading mobile emu platform on the market, I’ll have no problem picking one up through ebay or the website. I have really just lost interest in having over $300 tied up in possible vaporware. Plenty of better things to spend that money on right now. Even if I can’t get one and they are as amazing as advertised, I think I’ve grown out of my handheld obsession by now. I am two years older, after all.
will be fun to find out how many (of the uncased, nontheless) boards will break whilst shipping US -> UK.
I don’t mind waiting, I believe pandora is worth the wait. We are getting closer however I wish the OP would stop giving dates. They are never met.
That argument “it’s worth the wait” is getting quiet tiresome to hear months, after months, after months for two years.
Perhaps for you, but I orded in december so I can wait a few more months.
I BOUGHT IN OKTOBER 2008 FFS!
By the time I will get it almost 2 f*cking years are passed! ><
You could still get your money back and buy a wiz or something, then order a pandora from the second batch once it is proven to have been able to release itself.
It’s true that the dates never quite hold up, but I think the 22nd is so far away that *hopefully* some delays are at least accounted for. And this is REALLY the final stretch, once everything is delivered, they are literally starting production. Nothing left to do but wait for deliveries. I hate that it’s still two months away, but at least it’s more likely to be done in two months than it ever has.
PS-I’ll be back in two months to repeat this comment lol
When I ordered my pandora in july 2009 I thought I’d get it before my birthday in the end of april 2010. Now I’m not so sure, it might as well be july.
You’d still get it before your NEXT birthday (Law of recursion applied).. Cheer up!
Hopefully, before the last one.
Same case!
It had to be birthday present for my son!
April is possible, but… it will be july.
Dad? Is that you?
What is a ‘business hammock?’, and why wasn’t I made aware of such a thing!!
Hammocks? My goodness, what an idea. Why didn’t I think of that? Hammocks! There’s four places. There’s the Hammock Hut, that’s on Third. There’s Hammocks-R-Us, that’s on Third too. You got Put-Your-Butt-There. That’s on Third. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot… Matter of fact, they’re all in the same complex; it’s the Hammock Complex on Third in The Hammock District.
Oh, the hammock district.
>Hammocks? My goodness, what an idea. Why didn’t I think of that? Hammocks! There’s four places. There’s the Hammock Hut, that’s on Third. There’s Hammocks-R-Us, that’s on Third too. You got Put-Your-Butt-There. That’s on Third. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot… Matter of fact, they’re all in the same complex; it’s the Hammock Complex on Third in The Hammock District.
LMFAO!
You know it’s time for getting down to business because I’m wearing my business hammock.
Nice.
I guess craig and co need a firm date to book travel for the team, but i wish they’d stop giving them out to us. It is just a recipe for more disappointment.
i love the spin they’ve put on this. realistically this is one of the biggest disasters so far. i remember years ago there was a forum joke about having to build the pandoras by hand, the view being that it was a ridiculous, long winded and dangerous idea and would never happen. craigix laughed it off as something that would never be possible and would never happen.
now all of a sudden they’re forced into either finding a new company to assemble them, or do it themselves. lo and behold they’re doing it themselves. probably with a handful of clumsy and careless joe public thrown in for bad measure. this project is an utter farce. you think you’ll see your pandora in 2010? barely a chance in hell of that happening im afraid.
i’ve been here since 2007 following this project, as many others have as well – and i’ve realised the biggest reason i havent gotten a refund is that it will feel like 3 years of my life wasted. it is a gut wrenching feeling to realise that. i so badly want my pandora, but it wont live up to the wait, the expectation and the hype that has surrounded it. unfortunately i think the time is nearing to cut my losses and leave, taking my refund with me. a very sad day for me.
For crying out loud: Get over it!
All this angst about a small electronic gadget!? It’s a very cool gadget and I’m still eagerly waiting for mine – I ordered in the first week or so. Yeah, I thought I’d see it in 2009 – guess I was wrong. Oh well.
Plans change all the time. Figuring that this is all a farce and that they’re going to screw it up is just whining BS. If getting a refund feels like you wasted 3 years of life then that just means you have a pretty sorry excuse for a life! Coming on here and deriding folks who want to help is just as pathetic. I suggest you cancel right now and go out and get one (a life that is).
Yes, I think I’ll see my p&|a in 2010 – in fact I’ll place a bet with you if you like. Looser pays $10 to the charity of the winners choice. Are you game?
Whiners please just shut up. We know you’re unhappy – but guess what this IS a forum for fans of the pandora. If you’re unhappy then just go away and do something else. Don’t expect to come to a blog about pandora and crap all over the people involved.
Sheesh!
OK, I’ll go take my valium now…
+1. I fear the Pandora is going to be a huge let-down at this point after having expectations raised and lowered so many times. Have a feeling it’s going to turn into one of those ‘Man.. did I really wait 2 fricking years for this thing?’ type deals.
-1. I’m hanging on in there as I still believe it will be worth it.
Yes, well:
- relatively high def movie player without the need of conversion
- pocket size
- 10 hour + battery life
- pressure sensitive touch screen
- browser / office software / calendar
- USB-ports, bluetooth, 2x SD slots
- game controls, and possibility to emulate at least anything below and including Playstation
…err, yeah. It’s still lightyears before anything present on the market in many areas, as it combines so many awesome features into one product that it’s not even funny.
Without the hassle of chipping, risk of bricking, and with a universe of possibilities and probably a virtually endless stream of new software and optimizations after its release.
Worth the wait? Worth the money? Hell yes. But of course, the fact that the Pandora IS what it IS makes the wait a pain in the rear.
2 years ago it was lightyears ahead. Leaving out the gaming controls, there’s a lot of stuff coming out now that matches up. I’m looking at some of the new Archos android tablets now – less money than the pandora, bigger screen, good battery life etc..
Other multipurpose devices with gaming controls are appearing:
http://www.pocketables.net/2010/02/mysterious-moblic-e7-mid-teases-us-from-mwc.html
And, of course, there’s Craig’s own iControlPad for the iPhone/iPod.
I see neither nubs nor a pleasant-looking keyboard, and I see a touch screen always exposed. And I bet it will have the same userbase and lifespan as the Pandora (irony).
The thing is, yes, there are plenty of devices with the same features as the Pandora, but not at the same time. And the biggest thing they lack, is the community, and the developers’ direct contact with it.
This post deserves the Pandora Seal of Astro-Approval.
Do you have a quote for this? I do believe you, but I’d love to read it with my own eyes.
I just did a quick search for craigix posts containing the word “assemble” any time in 2009. Found this:
“The Pandora is shipping even if we have to assemble and test every god damned unit ourselves.”
so liek 2 more months, amirite?
well, it’s truely disappointing to we don’t have our pandoras by now but the latest news is a rather good one:
there is a fixed date when assembly starts (22nd) and all devs meet in the uk. they scheduled a few days (or weeks?) of buffer time to make sure _everything_ will have arrived, _even_ the cases
So if they are clever, they also ordered the second wave of 1000 boards by now so that right after the first 1000 units are done they can continue without delay…
That’s really good news to me, sounds very realistic unlike many other statements heard over the last 2 years…
There is no fixed date it is just another Craig estimate and we all know now they are less then truthfully spoken words.He is wearing his pinkies yet again.
*laugh* Fixed date? Where have you been for the last two years?! This is yet another date in the litany of deadlines we’ve been offered.
I can understand why people have a hard time leaving Scientology… with all that time & money invested in something, you just cannot leave when you find out about Xenu because that means you’ve wasted two years of your life… maybe the aliens will arrive in Two Months(tm) and make it all worthwhile!
I assume it’s a fixed date because all other devs seem to have bought flight tickets to the uk; further, ED is involved, too, and he is much better organized as Craig, leveling out some of Craigs manics..
no, none of the devs have tickets. it has been stated that they will buy their tickets once the stuff has arrived. fills you with confidence doesnt it.
I confident that they will not make it.
Marvellous! I think I have some words marked somewhere that the Chinese factory would not be very quick.
What is does mean is that I will not be getting my Pandora until April and too late for my holiday but worse still I’ll lose the bet with my wife and owe her £300. Mega bugger!
Did this date come from the factory? I fear it may be a stalling date just to keep us happy. :blink:
Well, a marraige is a partnership, so can’t you say that because you are married, your debt is her debt and call it quits at £150.
Take it safe: 2 months
I think it’s safe to say that whatever news it is from now on, SOMEONE is going to be tired and pissed in the comments
Sure, I understand that waiting sucks. But I also understand that unexpected hold-ups can happen, and that “when it’s done” is far better than “it’s not done, but here you go, have fun with the hardware defects that you can’t do anything about”.
Surely this already happened months ago.
Have they ordered the other 3000 boards yet?
Tell me this assembly line is for all 4000. I can’t bear to think of the delays if this is only for the first 1000.
I hope so
All 4,000 boards are in Texas.
Only 1,000 are populated so far (that we know of), because it’s not practical for them to stockpile 4,000 finished boards. All the components are there so they can produce the remaining ones on the fly.
Ok, today it’s the 3rd. I really hope they are already populating the remaining boards, testing and preparing them for shipping because if not it will be the boards who won’t be there by the 22nd! No, really, this is a joke…
Just to buck the trend, as I’m sure there are plenty of other people who feel the way I do but don’t bother posting: I am not disappointed, and I am completely confident that I will be getting a Pandora someday. Two months, three months, I don’t care. I knew what I was getting into when I placed my order. Frankly I’m still surprised it’s so close to being done! This is a complicated machine made by a small group of dedicated people. To pull everything together the way they have is really impressive! How many other projects can you even think of that resemble this one even abstractly? I don’t know of any.
I think it’s a common phenomenon, this. A friend of mine in a whole other business said this: “People (you make business with) won’t call you unless there’s a problem.”
>Frankly I’m still surprised it’s so close to being done!
Yeah, I too was surprised that everything moved so fast and that it was so close to shipping, but that was LAST YEAR. This year I’m just surprised that there won’t be an end to it ever, no matter how much news are posted.
They won’t have the cases by the 22th. It sounds like the original message they had from the Chinese factory was “ok ok, the production didn’t start yet, but, eeeerh, it’s fine, no problem, ok ok, you will have the cases by the, eeeerh, 22th, no problem, sir.”
Anyway, I don’t blame them, it seems hardware is that way when you’re not a big company which sells millions and can threaten to cancel their orders – you get low priority, and can be delayed for one year.
In fact, I don’t care about waiting for my Pandora, I see it as “I pay these guys so they have the hassle of managing a small hardware project like this one, while I observe them”, having a Pandora unit in the end being a nice side effect. If fact, what I am really waiting for is their documented experience and advices.
For those who ordered a Pandora like a DS, well, I understand them, even more after two years (add a little more and get a gp2xwiz or an A320). But finally, I’m feeling again this strange sensation I had the month before Christmas, when I didn’t buy my toys by myself and had to wait for them
New book at Amazon.com:
“The Longest Two Months in My Life”
Craig Rothwell’s true story.
Preorder, it will ship in 2 months.
LOL. Give me two
LOL good one.
Ouch… after all the quotes about how the Chinese company could turn out a thousand cases in a day, maybe all of them before Chinese New Year… and now delivery is pushed a month beyond the end of CNY. I’ve been optimistic… I only bought in around August ’09, but damn; I really wish I had bought a Nokia N810 at the time (when they cost a lot less too) instead of thinking the “two months” then was realistic. And I *still* have a cautious optimism that this “two months” is for real. :-/
Ok, this is now ridiculous!
No it is still ridiculous.
It started to be ridiculous somewhere around the third fourth fifth sixth disappointment.Lots counting.A well never mind keep smiling.
Don’t be…don’t be…ridic-ulous!
I’ve been crazy supportive of this project since near to the beginning but this is getting a little ridiculous. How is it that it’s going to take until the 22nd when they can supposedly churn out 1000 a day? I’m seriously considering getting a refund and spending it on something else.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the 22nd is when ALL the parts are supposed to arrive in the UK, right? Since they’re being assembled there, that means that the cases, boards, keymats, screens, and anything else must all be shipped there before they can begin. This makes it seem like a more reasonable wait, to me, although the date is still a bit of a letdown. Lets hope it’s realistic, though.
same here thinking about a refund … i ordered in october 2008 and they were thinking about christmas 2008 as delivery date … we are in march 2010 and still the famous 2months to go … I was a high supporter of this project like siphre7 but time pass and archos release new nice tablet pcs …
A certain number are being reserved for online sales… you guys complaining about the wait should get your refund and then buy it online if you still want one when it’s released.
Obviously that’s a gamble since the store will probably sell out fast, but it’s better than whining every day in the forums and comments about your disappointment and lost faith.
Word.
As disappointed as I’ve become, I’m at the point where I believe that the community of devs will really make this device shine.
Since there’s no one saying “No” to anyone’s ideas out there I’m expecting some very creative things to happen outside of all the other MIDs out there.
So the cases will be at craigs on the 22nd. Are they being silkscreened or not? have we had the wonderfull picture from the factory yet?
Officially not going to have Silk Screening per MWeston.
Unfortunately, the whole Pandora thing is over for me as of yesterday. I’ve had a few *years* worth of “birthday/xmas credits” pending specifically waiting on the Pandora, but a few days ago I opted to cash them all in for a new DSLR camera. So even if the Pandora ships tomorrow, I’m afraid I won’t be buying one.
Honestly, this latest development only makes me feel slightly better about my decision. I personally think Craig & co underestimate the work involved and, as someone else suggested, throwing a few random Joe Publics into the mix isn’t going to help matters one bit. And will they be soak testing *after* assembly? Every aspect of the device???
So, to all who are still on the list, good luck! Perhaps I’ll be in a position buy one of the later batches, but for now all I can do is sit on the sidelines and “observe”. Hopefully I’ll only hear positive things from the early-adopters?!?
Two Fortnights
So hopefully, I should have mine by May
or before
Sweet! Im really psyched!!!
oh, if for some reason somebody was put off by this new bit of imformation – message me and Ill gladly take your spot for a Panda.
Someday my prize will come
Someday we’ll meet again
And away to the castle I go,
To be happy forever I know
Someday when spring is here
We’ll find our love a new
And the birds will sing and wedding bells ring
Someday when my dreams come true
i just hope i get it before summer. that’s when i suspected it’d come out (may). if i dont get it by then… well, something would be real fishy.
Without silksreening it will always be a unfinished product. Hope that is not the case.
Well if it is without silkscreen i guess the silkscreen is vapour-(A)ware.:)
It is now 100% official that there will not be silk-screening. Apparently that would add extra delays or some sort of non-sense.
That sucks more then the 2 year wait. To wait all that long to have an incomplete product. OS I didn’t mind as we can get updates and fixes and etc etc.
Its not like we can address this later. Now I am having serious thoughts, would it be better then my iphone or so many other similar gadgets out there.
If some labels you will never care about more than the first 2 or so times you look at the device make or break the fact that the device is better, you have some serious priority issues.
Surely it’s not the clamshell design, the completely customizable and fully functional OS, or fact that it has a god damn keyboard and gaming controls, it’s the little bluetooth icon that reminds you that the blinking light you are looking at is bluetooth activity, which you will constantly need to refer to because you keep forgetting. Absolutely unacceptable.
Seriously, does your car have silk screening that says “door handle” below the door handles? No? Because you know it’s a god damn handle to open the door. You’re also going to know what the damned sdcard slot is on the Pandora as well without the label. We don’t need to have another 2 month delay for such a stupid reason.
Which SD card slot is which? How about the LEDs? Quick, don’t look at the render!
“Which SD card slot is which?”
Now… WE SHALL NEVER KNOW.
Watch your Blood pressure – you might kick the bucket before you get the Pandora
In three months I’ll be flying to Mexico. This is a seriously long and dull journey (over a day in either direction) and I’ve rather pinned my hopes on having a Pandora to keep me sane.
Come on guys!
I have a ton of questions: did the 1000 populated boards in Texas ship to The UK yet? How about some of the components like LCD’s and speakers? Whatever happened to Crag sharing the emails he received from the factory with us. I would really like to know what the factory told Craig that gave him his March 22 date. When will/has production of the cases start/started? How about the key mats. Did he include time for shipping in his march 22 date. How about a buffer? This is the same factory that said the whole thing only takes 30 days.