Battery covers with the final matte finish

Didn’t we all dream about that the case mass production should become reality?

Well, it has. We got some brand new pictures for you.
The mould has been successfully calibrated and mounted on the machine.
The pieces you see are the first that has been spit out by the machine, so those are testing ones which are being checked.
Not all have the finishing applied – one nice picture (above) that does show how it will look like with finishing applied is the one with the battery lids.

Those samples are being checked – and if they are okay (and they really do look fine), they will continue to spit out the cases and apply finishing.

Enjoy!

(EvilDragon)

Source

Oh, and a small addition from Fatih, the man with the translator:

The pictures are from China. We don’t need to confirm anything about the cases. Everything is on track right now.

A loong official blog post from EvilDragon.

Long time no blog post – and a lot has happened, really!

First, let’s start with some OS development.
The OS is getting better and better. We will probably add another minimal menu, similar to gmenu2x with no fancy effects and graphics but PND-Support.
This is for all the purists of you.

Also, notaz and DJWillis are slowly stepping forward in getting WiFi working.
While it’s not perfect, the packet loss is decreasing and things are getting better.
It might still be a long way (or it might be finished soon, you never know with such things), but it’s improving.

I also successfully managed to setup a Bluetooth PAN connection to my mobile phone. I got an IP address via DHCP, I got DNS resolving and I could ping the phone.
Pinging websites outside of the phone didn’t work yet, but that might be my mobile phone (custom cooked ROM, never tried Bluetooth PAN before).
As I did use the terminal to set that up (it only takes a few lines to do so), the next step is including this into the Network Manager.

Next let’s go on to the Mass Production:
As most of you already know, we moved the assembly from US to UK – we’ll do it ourselves!
This is because the company in US finally gave us a price for doing this – a ridiculous high price.
The boards will still be populated there, but we will assemble the units ourselves. Craig is currently setting up the village hall to turn into a proper place to do this, including buying everything needed (ESD stuff, etc.)

Our current roadmap is like this:
(note: It still depends on the case production and on the board production. This is based on the dates they did tell us – but as we already experienced a few times, we are a small client for them and therefore have low priority… let’s hope they keep their dates this time!)

March 18th: Production of 1000 cases is finished and will be shipped to UK.
March 22nd: 1000 cases will arrive in UK and will be inspected. If all is well, the next 3000 will go into production.
March 22th – March 26th: 500 populated and tested boards and all parts will be shipped to UK.
Approx. April 1st: Assembly will start.

Yep, another promise broken – whereas the company in Texas told us they can test 1000 boards a week before, it’s now down to 500 boards a week.
At least they kept their shipping dates for all the prototypes and testing boards so far, so March 22th – March 26th should hopefully be fine.

Some parts already started to arrive in UK, e.g. the PSUs are there.

We decided to start on April 1st to have a small bufferzone for the stuff to arrive.
It doesn’t make much sense if we all sit around in the village hall without having any parts to build together

The complete assembly process will be broadcasted live via Webcam. That will be fun!

BTW:
The Pandora stirred up a lot of interest in Germany currently.
I’ve been at the CeBIT in Germany doing a presentation about the OpenSource gaming handhelds and of course the Pandora.
It was crowded.
Thanks to Radio Tux, you can listen to the presentation.
You can also download the PDF I used for it here.

They also did another interview here.

And if anybody wants to watch it, we’ve got the full thing available as video on Youtube here.

Beware, it’s all in German!

After the presentation, a lot of guys (some from the community as well) could get their hands on the Pandora and play with it.
They all loved how well the controls and the keyboard work. Looks like our design is working well

That’s it for today – hopefully we have good news within the next two weeks!

Source | Forum discussion

The UK’s newest assembly line is showing the first signs of life, with the arrival of several boxes of PSUs and one very tired pigeon. (A few Twitterers mistook the boxes for something else from China until Craig cracked one open for a closeup. Arrgh!) Note that a UK mains plug is shown, but you’ll be getting something to suit your region.

Tweets: [1] [2]

Click here to view the embedded video.

EvilDragon presents EvilDragon at CeBIT! Sadly there is no English version, but it’s surprisingly watchable as it is. ED appears to speak German quite fluently too, good for him. Tidbits of translation can be found in the forum link below.

Video Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

Forum discussion

If you’re not in Europe you may need a reminder that CeBIT, the largest computer expo in the ‘verse, is currently underway in Germany. A certain Michael Mrozek will be there to host a talk on open handhelds, and there are no prizes for guessing which handheld he’ll have held in his hand. German commerce broadsheet the Handelsblatt interviewed EvilDragon in the leadup to the event, taking the story of Pandora out of the usual geek circles and onto the dry breakfast tables of 140,000 businessmen and beancounters. Read the translated version here.

If you’re heading to CeBIT, EvilDragon will be doing his presentation tomorrow (March 6) on the Linux Hotel Stage, Hall 2, Stand B36 from 12pm to 1pm.

Via pandoratoday.de

Update: ED has kindly provided more pixels! High res image [2.7mb]

Update 2: Screeny’s report from CeBIT, photos galore!

Click here to view the embedded video.

EvilDragon gets busy on the INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY.

Silkscreening looks to be off the table for the first batch. Over to MWeston, who doesn’t mince words:

These cases will not have a silkscreen as that would push delivery out into April and even then Craig worried they would screw it up and stiff us with the cases. The problem is the mold company outsources the work and so they all have to be packaged up carefully, sent to this other company, printed, repackaged carefully and sent back to the mold company to be shipped to Craig with everything else. It could cause as much as another month of delays with the way we should trust them.

I built a unit using a silk screened case and I really liked it but the truth is, 10 minutes after using it, the silkscreen is forgotten and you don’t even notice it anymore. The way you normally hold it in the 170 degree open position means you can’t see any of it anyway. The LEDs are also color coded so maybe that helps too. The sticker under the battery with serial number and model number also has all the voltage and current details for the unit so in a way, not having that on the back is covered. I don’t know if any of this is comforting but it’s an unfortunate result of a product that can’t afford more delays.

(MWeston)

Edit: If anyone is unclear about what all this silkscreening is, here is an example.

Source

Click here to view the embedded video.

A triple treat on Youtube today for those who ticked the UMPC box on their Pandoria visa application. First up is a solid ten minutes of OS bits and bobs, delving into office apps, audio & battery settings, and multitasking. Tacked on to that is a further two minutes devoted to themes and colour schemes. No matter what operating system you’re coming from, there’ll be something in here to make you feel at home. To cap it all off, ED toys around with some Pygame source code and launches it from the terminal – all on the Pandora. Hey, stop giggling up back. Barbie Seahorse Adventures is awesome.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Craig 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.

Sources: [1] [2] [3]

It’s set to be Panarchy in the UK in the coming month, as team Pandora descends on a sleepy village in the north of England to finish what they started in Texas. This change of plan has come about following an exorbitant quote from the factory in Texas (think six figures) to case up the first batch of Pandoras. It seems that MWeston’s stringent assembly procedures were a little daunting for the Texans, who expressed their concern with zeroes. So MWeston sent the procedures to Craig instead, who just happens to own suitable premises for the job.

At this point a lot of readers will be asking questions and wanting answers fast, so let’s jump into some bullet points:

• The cases will now ship from China directly to Craig.
• The Texas factory will continue to populate the boards, this hasn’t changed. They will send completed boards to Craig.
• Finished Pandoras will ship directly to customers as they are assembled each day.
• Michael (MW), Michael (ED) and Fatih will all be jetting in to Craig’s home town to do the assembly work themselves (along with some extra help).

Craig is not at all distressed by this development, as it gives the team tighter control of the product they’ve sweated over, and could cut down the time it takes to get the first units out the door. If nothing else it’s a reminder that it really is just a handful of guys behind this project, and to have them taking these final steps in such a personal fashion adds that little bit of zing to the first batch adventure. EvilDragon even hinted at setting up a webcam in the workshop. Should we hold him to that?

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Click here to view the embedded video.

There’s something for (nearly) everyone in this video, as Skeezix shows off his own apps Kronos and BattleJewels, launches a video in Mplayer (don’t worry, there is a GUI for that, he’s just not using it), and throws in a bit of file browsing and PND recognition for good measure. He also gives us his take on the current state of software, in the brief text below.

Some real-world stuff here When EvilDragon posted some status updates, some folks loved it, some did not — its a new device, a niche target, for hackers and joe public alike. Some features are rough around the edges, but most of the device works great. Still, thought I’d show a few real world scenarios – run a couple games and apps.

Things are starting to pad out a little, even though general devs don’t have devices yet; we’ve got Picodrive for Genesis emulation, Hatari for Atari ST, UAE for Amiga, MAME, Vice for Commodore 64, and a really groovy port of DosBox with full touchscreen mouse emulation, for instance. We’ve got Abiword built in, along with some little utils — djwillis crammed quite a bit into that firmware space! Some ports are coming along .. Quake 1, 2, 3 — with Quake 3 running at like 20-30fps so far! GemRB, Descent..

Anyway, here’s just a few things I thought I’d show off — video, my new Kronos interp, and BattleJewels. If you want to see Quake 3 or something, let me know..

Video playing is one of those things we all just want, day-zero; we don’t have hardware supported decode yet, so are relying on pure software decoding. This can be troublesome for some video playing software, but others handle things much better. It will struggle _right now_ with software decoded full high def …. but watch the video, and you’ll see full speed no framedrop playing of a standard def ripped right from my DVDs. So its not all bleak like some people think — I can watch my med-quality DVD rips of Firefly no problem! Want to watch animated stuff.. no problem! ITs hyour high def rips that are a problem right now, and we’ll get hardware decode sorted out eventually.

I then pop into my new Kronos application, which is a player for interactive fiction games (Magnetic Scrolls, ZMachine/Infocom style, Scott Adams, and possible others.) We’ll also port over TADS and others standalone I’m sure. But for now, let me just fire up a couple moments of The Guild of Thieves, a classy game I’ve been meaning to work on for oh, 15 years or so

Further, I run the pnd-file version of my BattleJewels game.. a rather cross between head to head action RPG and puzzle games — cast spells, chop down your opponent, buy some gear and level up! pnd-files are working great .. just double-click to run, pick them from the menu, or run them from your own organized directories using the file browser.

Lastly I show the pnd-file auto-discovery as the SD is ejected/inserted — no work installation of the games.

Bear in mind – no overclock here, this is 500mhz default!
Also bear in mind it is hard to tap on a screen or fiddle with buttons, while your other hand is holding a tiny camera

Enjoy

More talk on the forums.

We still haven’t been let in the front door of the app store (name pending), but as of today we can follow progress from a slightly different angle. Craig was wedged a Twitter API into his store code, giving followers a live feed of new additions to the catalogue. You can follow the dedicated Twitter account, or if you think Twitter is dumb, just grab the RSS feed.

EvilDragon has also been turning over the tweets, with a string of OS updates over the past week:

Standby mode working, battery LED blinks on low power, shuts down on critical power and display goes off when closing lid. Thanks devs!

A quick way to run an app: Press Pandora-Button, type in part of the name and press Enter. Works nicely in latest OS with XFCE4

Wooot, fullspeed movieplaying (not yet hardware accelerated) with the current image for DVD Quality movies. Okay, 720p x264 doesn’t work

Just finished keymapping for X11. Now ALL keys do work fine. The buttons are mapped to Pg Up / Pg Dn, Home, End for easy text editing

Oh, and Shift + Upper Firebutton is mapped to Compose key, so people can now also type special characters (tested and working fine).

twitter.com/PandoraApps | twitter.com/Craigix | twitter.com/EvilDragon1717

When a photo of the latest board revision was posted a few days back, a handful of commenters pondered the possibility of a labelled version. The GP32X trainspotters had actually done this before, on a much older revision. So a new request went out on the forums, and the community got busy once again. And how! Click the image above and you won’t just get a high resolution version, you’ll get a space-age interactive experience with enough hotlinked reading material to sink a brick shiphouse. Thanks go out to all contributors, with special honours to wea0 for digging up the bulk of the part numbers, urjaman for putting together the clicky version, and LeChuck87 for re-hosting it.

Please note that this is 100% unofficial. It has not been endorsed or confirmed correct by OP Ltd. If you’re planning on building your own Pandora from this diagram, you’ll have to figure out what’s on the other seven PCB layers. Ha.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s been one of the most requested videos since Ari64 materialised in the scene with dynarec in hand, and it’s been delivered today by Adventus. He doesn’t own a HD camera (or a video camera at all – this was filmed with a mango), but look past the lo-fi exterior and you’ll find ten glorious minutes of sixty four. From the Youtube description:

This video shows a Pandora prototype running Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Sin and Punishment on Mupen64plus with Ari64’s Dynarec and my gles2n64 graphics plugin. The Prototype is at 800mhz. Its being rendered at 640×480 with No frameskip or sound. I would say Zelda is fairly playable, the dungeons are ~75-100% but some cutscenes/towns are slower ~65-80%. Sin and Punishment is OK but not fullspeed, ~50-80% depending on how many enemies are onscreen. Gorgeous game though, looks like it could be on DC. This emulator is still in development, there’s still a few bugs and rendering problems.

Sorry about the Video Quality, I do not own a video camera. Thanks goes out to CraigIX / the OpenPandora crew for sending a prototype my way.

Adventus has also posted his impressions of the device itself (remember, it’s a rev3 prototype) on the forums: Link

“You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.” If these legendary words mean nothing to you, you’ve been deprived of one of the great lost arts of gaming: the text adventure. But fear not, weary traveller. It’s never too late to be eaten by a grue, especially when Skeezix is bringing his interactive fiction interpreter Kronos to the world’s textiest known handheld.

If any of you have been following me since the old Palm OS days (Palm, Tapwave) you may remember Kronos for Palm OS; this is a from ground rewrite of course, for Pandora (that will run also on Windows, Linux, OSX, etc). I’ve got a lot to go yet (add the picture-frame for games with artwork, add some onscreen controls so you can tap on word suggestions), add cheats and note taking (auto-mapper and such); but just thought I’d like to show — text adventures are coming soon for the first real mobile game device that can support them (has a keyboard )

Maybe I’m the only text adventure nutbar around, but I just have to keep The Pawn and Zork handy (and people are still creating new adventures all the time, no joke.) This app of mine includes interpreters (written byh others) for Infocom/Zmachine (Zork etc), Magnetic Scrolls, and Scott Adams games.

Source