Archive for the ‘Official’ Category
August 2, 2010
Posted by: gruso
EvilDragon sure is busy for a guy on a beach.
Hi!
As said, I will write a couple more lines today.
I got some more Pandora infos for you. Software only, as I didn’t follow anything else out here.
I think I never told you what will be included in Hotfix 4… here is a small preview. You will get the beta for testing in the following week.
Just yesterday I was working on the pnd_run-Script. sebt3 cleaned it up a bit and added a first support for the clockspeed settings of PND files. I enhanced the clockspeed stuff.
Now, if you run a PND which has a recommended speed setting, the system will first check if your current clock speed is higher or lower than the recommended one. If it’s higher or equal, it will simply run the game. If it’s lower, it will ask you if you want to change the clockspeed to a recommended one, to a custom one or if it should stay the way it is.
After you finish the game, the clockspeed is set back to the value it was before.
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Posted in Official, Software | Tagged evildragon, hotfix, language barriers that you'd think we'd all be used to by now, Shipping | 15 Comments »
August 1, 2010
Posted by: foxblock
Despite being on a four day vacation ED still manages to update the official blog with the following message coming directly from the beach of Mallorca.
There is no big news, but a good advice: If you are tired and angry of waiting, ranting about the board factory or defending the Pandora, just take a break for a while. Go outside, do whatever you want, but don’t visit the boards and by the time you get back, refreshed and with a clear mind, the production might already be rolling again at full speed.
The whole team here at PandoraPress wishes ED a good vacation and recovery from all the stress.
Anyway, here is the blog post:
I have no idea whether any of you is interested in what I write right now – but well, if you are not, don’t read up 
This may not be the Pandora news you’re all waiting for. But for me, it’s an important event, so I thought it will fit in the devblog here as well.
I’m currently on a short vacation. Only for four days… but it’s the first vacation I have since we started the whole project… and boy, this has been a loooong time.
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Posted in Blog, Misc, Official, Pandora | Tagged beach, ED, official blog, Pandora, vacation | 75 Comments »
July 22, 2010
Posted by: gruso
A classy new vid from EvilDragon, demonstrating the current state of Pandora software (thanks in no small part to the Pandora community, who are pumping out the releases). Sadly it’s just going to make you want your Pandora more, but never the less it’s worth heading straight to the source to watch it in 720p. Also, a word from Craig on the next lot of boards, which are set to turn up on Monday again.
203 boards arriving on Monday with the nubs tested (if UPS don’t mess up).
There are 203 cases ready for those boards to go straight in to so they will ship next week too.
Then we hope it’s all go go go for Aug/Sept.
Every few hundred we make we improve the build process, this is very important to get right since we plan to use this case and system for a couple of years.
(craigix)
Posted in Emulators, Games, Hardware, Networking, Official, Pandora Homebrew, Releases, Software, UMPC | Tagged Boards, craigix, evildragon, Software, ups | 28 Comments »
July 16, 2010
Posted by: BackAssward
It is unusual to get two ‘official blog’ posts within a day, never-mind within a week. However, now we have a third blog post to report.
It seems the company manufacturing the nubs, is one of integrity. By all reports, they are going above and beyond to fulfill their obligations. Yet again, I will let EvilDragon tell it:
EvilDragon on the official blog:
Nub Update Report
Just some quick update report on the Nub status:
The company is doing electrical testing for bad traces, bad resistance in the joystick and is also setting aside any nubs that feel loose or gritty.
I’m pretty sure that test is way better than any of our “move them around for a while to see if they work fine”-testings.
While we don’t know yet if this is related to the few nubs that kept sticking in one direction (those nubs are still on the way to the manufacturer to be tested), it could well be the reason. If the rubber is a bit too gritty or thick, the resistance is wrong and it could lead to a sticking nub.
500 tested nubs (tested in one day! ) are ready to be shipped today to the board manufacturer. Shipping takes one day, so if we’re lucky, by next week more boards will be ready.
I’ll keep you updated!
source
Posted in Blog, Hardware, Official, Pandora | Tagged Blog, evildragon, Update | 16 Comments »
July 15, 2010
Posted by: BackAssward
Brace yourselves, we have had two official blog posts in no less than 33 minutes!
Now, I know you are asking yourself… how can this be? Two official blog posts, both right away? You might think to yourself, what could they possibly say in such a short time? Official blog posts are few and far between, usually weeks apart. Right?
Well, I’m here to tell you that they contain a very welcome and descriptive insight into the current state of the project. The most recent post is on the software currently available, the software in the works, program updates, and some work on the OS, (plus an extra special feature you will have to read the post for). There have clearly been contributors who went above and beyond, but I don’t want to spoil it for you, and EvilDragon says it so much better.
In case you missed it, here is our previous article about the hardware news. Wait no further:
EvilDragon on the official blog:
Software: What’s happening
Wow, what amazing six weeks!
The Pandora has just been delivered to the first 600 users – and software comes flooding in.
Besides the official hotfixes (where a few contributions have come from the community, too) which fixed most of the bigger problems, quite a few ports, games, emulators, etc. have been released.
So all of you still waiting for your Pandoras: You will have a LOT of cool stuff available ready to play! I know it’s hard to wait – but just think about what you can do with it once you receive it…
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Posted in Community Links, Emulators, Games, MIDI, Music/Media, OS Updates, Official, Other Apps, Pandora, Software, UMPC | Tagged Blog, evildragon, firmware, Games, Software, Update | 24 Comments »
July 15, 2010
Posted by: BackAssward
Well, there’s not much for me to say. This is an excellent and long update from EvilDragon that many of us have been waiting for. It answers a lot of questions about the hardware status, current build state, and everything in-between.
Enjoy:
EvilDragon on the official blog:
Preparing the big run
It’s been kinda quiet in here lately, hasn’t it?
Well, I hope this will change in the near future and I’ll find more time keeping you up-to-date with what’s happening.
During the last days, it has been so incredibly hot in here… 30°C in my room at night… it was really hard to concentrate on what you’re doing.
Good news: The Cases
4000 new cases have been produced and are being painted at the moment. Over 1000 of them will ship using UPS, the rest will probably go by sea (takes a bit longer, but is way cheaper… and we will be busy with the first 1000 cases until they arrive).
And yes, you read correct: It will be 4000 cases. We will need some for replacements ourselves – and I guess quite a few of you will want to be able to buy replacement cases for modding, etc. yourselves.
Thank god, case production seems to work fine now.
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Posted in Hardware, Official, Pandora | Tagged assembly, Boards, cases, evildragon, Hardware, mass production | 34 Comments »
July 1, 2010
Posted by: foxblock
So you were playing with your Pandora and ran into problems?
Fear not, as EvilDragon just released the third bug fix package (aka Hotfix) after two beta rounds as a final release for the current firmware called Zaxxon.
Hopefully your bug is on the list and your favourite handheld is another step closer to perfection.
In case it is not, help the devs by submitting a report here:
http://bugs.openpandora.org/
Download HotFix3 here:
File Archive Download
To install just drop the pnd on a SD card, exec the fix and remove the package afterwards (you should know the drill by now).
A complete list of changes can be found here:
Source
In other, related, news:
A webpage for ready-to-be-flashed firmware images has been set up by ED.
You can find the latest, state-of-the-art builds there, in case you did something stupid and somehow broke your Pandora… or just want to try out the new kernel.
The page can be found here:
http://openpandora.org/firmware/
For more information as well as install instructions you can click this link:
Source
Update:
Hotfix3 contained a small bug related to the mass storage mode.
The packages have been updated, so please re-download it and run the update again.
Additionally there now is an official Support page:
http://openpandora.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=178&Itemid=32&lang=en
You can find all of the official patches here as well as a current firmware image.
Posted in OS Updates, Official, Pandora, Releases | Tagged bug, bug tracker, ED, evildragon, firmware, hotfix, Official | 20 Comments »
June 21, 2010
Posted by: gruso
“Second verse, longer than the first.”
Hi folks!
As promised, here is our current report about things that happened and things that will happen.
First, let’s start with the most important information for most of you:
How is Mass Production going?
Well, I’m honest here: Could be better – but could’ve been A LOT worse.
All in all, we’re pretty content. And a bit proud it all worked out and there are now real units out there! We can either speed up production but have a bad quality – or work a but slower and make sure the units we deliver are properly working (and that’s the path we chose).
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Posted in Hardware, Official, Software | Tagged evildragon, firmware, OS, production | 38 Comments »
June 21, 2010
Posted by: gruso
Playing a bit of catchup here! This is the first of two official blog posts that went out over the weekend.
Phew – just answered over 100 eMails to day and did now catch up with my Inbox.
notaz and me also did work some more on HotFix 3, while DJWillis is currently setting up the official Pandora repro (including sourcecodes).
I’m also trying to catch up with infos about what happened in assembly (news you’re all working for).
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Posted in Hardware, Official | Tagged hacker manual, hardware hacking, mweston, schematics | 15 Comments »
June 7, 2010
Posted by: gruso
Craig Rothwell, Michael Weston, Michael Mrozek, M. Fatih KILIC
Back from the weekend, back from hell, same same.
Wow, that were some 1,5 weeks in Newcastle, building Pandoras – and meeting Craig and Fatih again after all these years. And Michael for the first time ever! Okay, and it wasn’t hell – but I liked the sound of it, so I used it as blog title
(BTW: We hid a group picture somewhere…) (not so well hidden now – gruso)
We had a lot of work to do. It took as a couple of days to setup everything, check out everything is okay and start building the units.
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Posted in Hardware, Official, Pandora | Tagged 2nd batch, assembly, craigix, evildragon, fatih, mweston, production, team photo | 54 Comments »