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.
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.
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.
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:
We expected the worst; Chinese New Year would be two weeks, but, a tweet from Craigix:
Chinese mould factory are back at work
Could it be? We have production before we hoped? I can’t say for sure, but this is good news.
It’s the last nagging detail of the Pandora accessory suite. We’ve seen the AV cables, we’ve seen the power supplies, but where are the cases? No, not the ones in China. We know where they aren’t. The carry cases. Finally, Craig has posted a picture in the forums that believe it or not, introduces another question. Craig describes this as “the hardcase which will probably come with the carry case free.” This could mean that the case you ordered is larger, with this one thrown in for free. Or that the case you ordered is this one, and it comes with a limited edition Tote Bag (with Craig screenprinted on the front). Whatever the case, it does look pleasing. Better get one for Justin.
Let’s cut to the chase – there will be no mass production cases shipped before Chinese New Year. Despite the keen promises of the factory (4,000 before CNY) and the more realistic quantity requested by OP Ltd (500), employees giddy for the impending break did not meet the target.
EvilDragon has taken the time to list the great contributions that people have made to the project and some history of it’s birth. Frankly, I can’t say more or add more than what ED has already said:
A big thanks to all of you!
Well, it has been a wild rollercoaster ride. It was fun. It was annoying. It was amazing. It was frightening. It was unique.
And Craig twote:
Started to populate the Pandora appstore. Probably not the final name…
Edit: Refer to our earlier post for a general summary of how the appstore/box/repo/thing will operate. Remember, call it what you want, just don’t call it a pappstore.
The green light shone. The roar went up. The blog went down. And here we sit, pensive in the afterglow. So what happens next? Let’s take a look at what the coming weeks have in store.
We are pushing them to ship us 500 on friday. [...] The factory have already been instructed to get on with it, we should hear something today. We don’t know if they will manage it, but we hope they will. They have told us pretty much every customer makes this week hell for them.
(craigix)
We spoke to the factory over night, everything is cool. Those errors were because the machine was not warmed up/tweaked/cooled. They would never mass produce something with such errors.
They just assumed we would know that.
So, green lighted.
(craigix)
Update: EvilDragon elaborates on the green light and reflects on one of the most tumultuous weekends the project has seen, in a new post on the official blog. Congratulations, team Pandora.
Fresh from the twitter of Craigix:
The cases have arrived early, wow, some good luck for once!
When I say early I actually mean weeks late I suppose.
Well, not perfect, but I guess we will have to go with them.
Sit tight, grab some popcorn, we’ll bring you updates as quickly as we can.
I can confirm it. That statement(including the assurance that everything will be ready before the New Year) came from Fatih this morning after his friend had asked for confirmation in Chinese.
EvilDragon (Translated)
Maybe we’ll finnaly get those delicious images some time next week!
We spoke to the factory, they confirmed the moulds are finished and they are shipping final samples this weekend.
Craigix
Keen case followers will recall that China named Friday the 15th as the completion date for the latest round of fixes. Friday passed without fanfare, but it seems the deadline was quietly met. Craig gives us a suitably cautious status update:
Yes we have heard from the factory, and yes the cases should arrive this week with Michael, yes they are supposed to be final with all the tweaks complete, but until we see them and check them, we don’t want to say anymore.
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