Sunday 4 January 2009

Updated Pandora Production News

Here are the latest Pandora updates from the GP32X Forums:
  1. A delay to the final prototype case has arisen due to a slight change in the battery size from the supplier, as the final battery is delivered the final prototype case will be produced. An initial deadline of 15th Jan has been set for this activity - Posted by Evil Dragon
  2. blendenzo and mazza558 have posted the lovely fan made pandora rendition shown above on the http://openpandora.wordpress.com blog.
  3. The following mega update was posted by Chip on 4th January:

More news from the development team for the new year:We have made a couple tweaks to the MK2 board design that was sent to all the devs, and we should have a MK3 prototype in a week or so. If everything is fine with that board, it will go into mass production very shortly thereafter.

We could have just used the MK2 board and left the minor bugs in as "quirks", but with all the other delays, it was worth it to do one more revision and get it perfect.The cases will be going into mass production on the 15th.

That's our deadline for making any last minute tweaks, and it looks like we'll be in great shape for that. We already have the new LCD ribbon cable for these cases and it's working nicely.

The keypads will go into mass production in the next week or two at the latest. The keypad layout will be very similar to the one on the original renders. I am told there will only be "minor changes" between the render and the final layout.

There may be separate layouts available for the middle east and Asian regions, but all other regions will have the same standard layout for now. It is very likely that alternate keymats (including blank mats) will be made available for a small price at some point in the near future.

We now have the SGX video drivers in their entirety. We're just waiting for a few documents to come back signed and then we can release both the binary part and the open source driver shim to the public. Expect OpenGL ES demos soon.

Reorders are happening now, slowly. We're sending out details and a reorder URL to customers one at a time, starting with US customers. Some have already been sent, and the rest are on the way.

We're doing it slowly to avoid any potential problems with the CC processor and to avoid overwhelming the sales ladies. Do not worry, everybody will have the opportunity to reorder in time to get their Pandora.

We are meeting with the bank this week to fix the Amex situation. They cannot simply sit on the money forever, and we're not accepting any more of their stall tactics. If the bank simply refuses to rectify the situation, there is a backup plan.

Anybody who paid for a Pandora will get one, no matter what the bank does. One way or another, this situation will be remedied this week.

We're coming down the final stretch

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