Craigix Pandora Article In Click Magazine.

[gruso]

Something you rest your feet on when reading the paper.

 

[BaDToaD]

Something you rest your feet on when reading the paper.

The Image that pops into my head when reading this is hilarious

 

[WoD]

He is my real-life proof that reviewers do have to return the unit they use.

Not always but often true. It depends on the value and reusability of the unit. 99% of all cases/accessories I've reviewed for gadgets have not needed to be returned, some of these are high value- approaching and often exceeding £100 at retail. If the item is a designer case, returning them is futile because the quality of the item is very highly dependant on its aesthetic appearance- a few journos getting their grubby paws on it will quickly compromise quality.

High value items such as computers, projectors, phones and such like are almost always returned. However, I've had samples in this category which, for one reason or another, didn't need to be. Various retailers and PRs will extend discounts to journalists on ex-review items, which is nice. Furthermore, in one specific example I actually had the opportunity to keep an item in return for proof of a charitable donation- there's a guilt-trip-a-thon for you!

The Pandora, of course, being in limited supply and being supplied by a company of a limited budget will always have to be returned. It's in these circumstances that I simply opt to buy the gadget- if, any only if, I know I'll miss it.

It's a very mixed world, a lot of people might think that keeping an item is morally wrong, and would be likely to create a positive bias toward it in a resulting review. This isn't true for anyone with at least an iota of integrity.

Anyway. The Pandora needs much more than just a one-off review- it needs community, articles written for and about the various games, patches, updates and other happenings. Unfortunately, "gifting" Pandora's to journalists doesn't guarantee such ongoing support.

TitanUranis - If you're even half decent and motivated at writing, I'm still looking for someone to make regular contributions to the very, very neglected Pandora section of Gadgetoid. This could extend to accessories in future, too.

Torpor - Number 1 couldn't be truer. Tech guys are the journos, and we want sexy women in their mid twenties and early thirties chatting us up about the products they represent... not other blokes!

 

[Pete]

tough crowd

i wrote the article and got in touch with the lads for an interview. to the best of my knowledge at the time of print what i ran was accurate, obviously some of it wasnt or it wouldnt have been brought up here, that can be sorted with the interview which will be in the next issue. we didnt have the lead time to get it into the last one, so pandora gets 2 issues of coverage rather than one - which surely isnt a bad thing?

also just to clear up, i never asked for a review unit of pandora, nor hands on time with it - as michael will confirm im sure

so apologies to anyone who thought there was some sort of evil plot in the makings here, i assure you there wasnt. we happened across a pretty neat product on our travels and decided that since it was open source and essentially home built that we'd give it some coverage. that's all

pete

 

[torpor]

Pete - awesome that you are here and participating!

 

[gruso]

Welcome. I thought it was a good piece on the whole, especially compared to some other articles in the past which have missed the point entirely. As Sugar Kane says, this place is very snippy and we could all use some ice cream.

 

[WizardStan]

to the best of my knowledge at the time of print what i ran was accurate, obviously some of it wasnt or it wouldnt have been brought up here

I think the only problem people really had was mentioning DS and PSP emulation. Both of these things are theoretically possible (with a PSP emulator actually in the works and showing some great progress) but they are a long way (possibly years) from being anything actually worth using. Don't want to give people the wrong impression about what it can do right now; one day in the future, maybe, but right now it gets annoying the number of people that show up and say they heard it can emulate the DS and how does it do the dual screens and blah blah blah
Incidentally, the Dreamcast is also in that list of "things that it can theoretically emulate but are still a long way from being useful"

 

[Pete]

gotcha! we'll clear that up with craigs interview anyway

 

[TitanUranus]

gotcha! we'll clear that up with craigs interview anyway

Sorry if I offended you with my "3rd rate Journalist" quote. I appologise and raise your status to "2nd rate journalist" pending reappraisal on your next effort.

 

[Xenu]

gotcha! we'll clear that up with craigs interview anyway

Sorry if I offended you with my "3rd rate Journalist" quote. I appologise and raise your status to "2nd rate journalist" pending reappraisal on your next effort.

Let me raise your status to a class 2 ass, since you were able to appologise but still being rude; pending reappraisal on your next appologising effort of course.

 

[BaDToaD]

Welcome to the forum Pete. Personally I thought the writeup was pretty good. Very positive.

One thing you might like to mention in the follow up is the fact there are shedloads of legal ways to get hold of old games. There is an excellent list here of various legal emulation resources.

 

[mali]

Yeah, welcome Pete I'm looking forward to the interview article

 

[TitanUranus]

Let me raise your status to a class 2 ass, since you were able to appologise but still being rude; pending reappraisal on your next appologising effort of course.

Ever heard of a thing called "a joke"? You might want to read up on it, since your whole life might be one. Yes, that was one too. Don't take it too seriously - really, I love you all.

 

[Xenu]

Let me raise your status to a class 2 ass, since you were able to appologise but still being rude; pending reappraisal on your next appologising effort of course.

Ever heard of a thing called "a joke"? You might want to read up on it, since your whole life might be one. Yes, that was one too. Don't take it too seriously - really, I love you all.

Apparantly I failed at trying to make a joke as well, good thing I'm not a professional comedian then I guess...

 

[torpor]

Hey Pete, one thing you should also be aware of is that the emulation scene is resulting in *new* apps being built for older machines .. the Oric-1/Atmos machines (8bit wonders from the 80's) for example have had 4 new games released for them so far this year, mostly driven by the emulator scene .. this is something that goes a bit undiscovered in most journalism of the homebrew/FOSS scene and it would be worthwhile for you to note something about this .. these are legal ROM's/files being produced for these old machines, and perfectly validate the emulator formula.

 

[TitanUranus]

Apparantly I failed at trying to make a joke as well, good thing I'm not a professional comedian then I guess...

I once considered being a professional comedian, but I was frightened people would laugh at me.

 

[SomeGuy99]

Hey Pete, one thing you should also be aware of is that the emulation scene is resulting in *new* apps being built for older machines .. the Oric-1/Atmos machines (8bit wonders from the 80's) for example have had 4 new games released for them so far this year, mostly driven by the emulator scene .. this is something that goes a bit undiscovered in most journalism of the homebrew/FOSS scene and it would be worthwhile for you to note something about this .. these are legal ROM's/files being produced for these old machines, and perfectly validate the emulator formula.

It's true. Check out this:

http://playpower.org/

The $10 computers they are talking about are Nes clones. It inspired me to start learning how to program them B)

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

yeah i thought it was an informative article.Bet pandora preorders might get a little boost from this.Nice on pete

 

[DaveC]

- really, I love you all.

That is scary coming from a guy with a nick that is a play on "tight in your anus" and has an avatar of a huge phallus

tough crowd

i wrote the article and got in touch with the lads for an interview. to the best of my knowledge at the time of print what i ran was accurate, obviously some of it wasnt or it wouldnt have been brought up here, that can be sorted with the interview which will be in the next issue. we didnt have the lead time to get it into the last one, so pandora gets 2 issues of coverage rather than one - which surely isnt a bad thing?
pete

That pic you used for the Pandora on the first page is ancient. It kind of stood out right away to me as I am the one who did the Pandora case design but still you should use a new render for that.

 

[SomeGuy99]

- really, I love you all.

That is scary coming from a guy with a nick that is a play on "tight in your anus" and has an avatar of a huge phallus

I thought it was 'tighten your anus'? As in: something that scares you shitless.