More Pandoras

[marktuson]

Do we know when the second wave of Pandoras is planned for? I've got my money here waiting, and can't wait to get one in my pocket.

I've been watching the OpenPandora site for a few years now, and seeing them close to completion is rather exciting for me, but I do hope that they'll be released soon, and that the second wave will follow almost immediately.

There are a couple of questions I have, though:
What will the UK price be?
Will the RAM and internal storage be upgradable?
How complete is the GNU toolchain? I want to be able to do stuff on the Pandora that I can do on my notebook at the moment; including extensive use of xterm and gcc/g++.
How many machines will be made for the second wave?

Thanks muchly.

 

[borgqueenx]

why not order from the first batch?

the second batch will only have 1 change, that is silkscreening.

 

[WizardStan]

There are a couple of questions I have, though:
What will the UK price be?

first batch is 200GBP, second batch is probably going to be higher due to rising costs of silicon. I would hazard 220GBP, but only Craigix can really say for certain.

Will the RAM and internal storage be upgradable?

We've been told time and time and time again that they will not change the hardware unless there are very broken parts of the design that need to be fixed. RAM and NAND is going to remain the same. By the way, calling it "internal storage" is a misnomer. While the flash is 512MB, it's not recommended that you store anything on it. Keep the NAND for just the OS, the Pandora has two SD slots for external storage. You can literally buy a 1GB card (double the internal storage) for a dollar, so there's no excuse.

How complete is the GNU toolchain? I want to be able to do stuff on the Pandora that I can do on my notebook at the moment; including extensive use of xterm and gcc/g++.

If you run Linux, it's pretty trivial to install a cross compiler that will let you build things right now. By "trivial" I mean you copy a few commands, and then walk away while your computer spends the next 40 minutes building all the tools automatically. These instructions tell you how to set up the toolchain for the BeagleBoard. I've successfully had applications run on the Pandora built with this tool chain with only minor change.

How many machines will be made for the second wave?

Craigix is on record as saying 4000, somewhere. After that, they're hoping to get more per batch.

 

[greendots]

Dont forget the price increase too...

 

[WizardStan]

If you run Linux, it's pretty trivial to install a cross compiler that will let you build things right now. By "trivial" I mean you copy a few commands, and then walk away while your computer spends the next 40 minutes building all the tools automatically. These instructions tell you how to set up the toolchain for the BeagleBoard. I've successfully had applications run on the Pandora built with this tool chain with only minor change.

Ok, what the heck? I just double checked that URL to make sure the instructions were still as readable as I remembered them and THEY ARE GONE!
*sigh* if you want to build applications, instructions for installing OpenEmbedded are here, at an older copy of the setup page.

 

[dflemstr]

It'll of course also be possible to install GCC directly on the Pandora and use it from there...

 

[Fzero]

what? you paid 200 sheets for yours Wizard?

Ive been done!

damn, looks like I missed the boat then and got charged the increased price of 260 sovs.



I also didnt know that the 2nd batch would be diferent to the 1st batch ["the new batch"...more gremlins refs!]
Now im going to read what exactly this silk-screening is to see what i will be missing out on.

 

[gibberish]

those that pre-ordered when they first went live were privvy to a £200 price tag.
i was quoted £270 for a second pandora last month, i declined for now.

 

[craigix]

those that pre-ordered when they first went live were privvy to a £200 price tag.
i was quoted £270 for a second pandora last month, i declined for now.

Alas the pound is very poor against the dollar at the moment. But consider all the Pandora can do, and it's built in England.

I'm sorry we can't make it cheaper, all those products out of China tend to avoid all the safety laws.

 

[aliking]

I believe the future price quoted for the second batch, which is also being used for any preorders that happen now is $330.

To get the UK price, you need to convert it and add VAT at 17.5%

So right now $330 is about 219GBP, with tax about 257GBP. However that is the exchange rate off Google, who knows what rate they would actually use, maybe their bank's. So yeah, 260 - 270GBP sounds about right.

 

[Gricey]

those that pre-ordered when they first went live were privvy to a £200 price tag.
i was quoted £270 for a second pandora last month, i declined for now.

Alas the pound is very poor against the dollar at the moment. But consider all the Pandora can do, and it's built in England.

I'm sorry we can't make it cheaper, all those products out of China tend to avoid all the safety laws.

I read your latest tweet. I too am sad for the state of UK manufacturing. The problem though is not intent or capability, it's pure capitalistic greed. People go to the absolute cheapest option all the time (the tendering process being often responsible) and so the UK will never stack up because of things like you mentioned, safety etc.

I wish consumers would vote with their feet and it would fix some of this bullshit. Where possible I use companies that take pride in their work and believe in customer service, even if that means paying over the odds (when I can afford it ofc).


edit: fixed quotes

 

[Fzero]

I wasn't moaning anyway just joking, I'm ok paying that for one, it's a fair bit of money but then it's a good bit of kit. I've sold some old consoles to cover my funds, goodbye gamecube, micro and ds, they won't be missed

I'd only be gutted if the new batch come out and are much better, leaving me wanting one of those ones