craigix
Mega GP Mania
The most common problem I deal with in customer support is people not knowing how to use the Pandora.
Here is what happens:
Casual gamer buys Pandora.
Casual gamer downloads various apps.
Casual gamer puts apps in root of SD card (or a folder they have made and named at random 'games' 'steves emulators' ect.
Pandora does nothing.
I explain to them how to make it work.
Later apps become out of date and they say their app isn't doing 'x,y,z', and tell me other users are doing 'x,y,z'.
I explain to them the apps do not auto update or even tell you there is an update.
Solving these two issues would stop 80% of new users teething trouble. It would also make the Pandora far more user friendly.
Here is what I propose:
The root is scanned for *.PND files, as well as all directories one deep.
Pandora Apps adds a key to the file names which are downloaded eg:
'Snes9x.pnd' would become 'Snes9x.Pv1.PND', doing this removes the need to 'repack' the PND, but marks it so minimenu can see where the app has come from 'P' (for pandora apps) and the version of the app (v1). It's quick and simple.
MiniMenu can then know where this app came from and can quickly call Pandora Apps to check for updates to it, probably like this: pandoraappsURL.com/chk.pl?Snes9X.Pv1.pnd, Pandora apps would return 'N' if that is the latest version, but would return 'Y' if there is a newer file. (it could then also drag information, messages etc. too).
Minimenu can then put a little 'update available' icon on the icon for the app. Because the process is so simple and the Pandora and PandoraApps only have to look at file names it will be as close to instant as you can get. The user can decide if they want to update it from there.
If a developer wants to use their own webspace they can add the url to the PND format itself (but I'll leave that to the people who maintain the format).
So, in conclusion, doing these two things would solve many an issue I face with supporting users 'behind the scenes', as well as making things work better.
These are just my thoughts on the matter and the simplest way I can think of to fix them. It's the first step to pulling the Pandora in to the i-user-friendly arena, something which, as more and more casual gamers buy Pandoras, we need to move towards.
Here is what happens:
Casual gamer buys Pandora.
Casual gamer downloads various apps.
Casual gamer puts apps in root of SD card (or a folder they have made and named at random 'games' 'steves emulators' ect.
Pandora does nothing.
I explain to them how to make it work.
Later apps become out of date and they say their app isn't doing 'x,y,z', and tell me other users are doing 'x,y,z'.
I explain to them the apps do not auto update or even tell you there is an update.
Solving these two issues would stop 80% of new users teething trouble. It would also make the Pandora far more user friendly.
Here is what I propose:
The root is scanned for *.PND files, as well as all directories one deep.
Pandora Apps adds a key to the file names which are downloaded eg:
'Snes9x.pnd' would become 'Snes9x.Pv1.PND', doing this removes the need to 'repack' the PND, but marks it so minimenu can see where the app has come from 'P' (for pandora apps) and the version of the app (v1). It's quick and simple.
MiniMenu can then know where this app came from and can quickly call Pandora Apps to check for updates to it, probably like this: pandoraappsURL.com/chk.pl?Snes9X.Pv1.pnd, Pandora apps would return 'N' if that is the latest version, but would return 'Y' if there is a newer file. (it could then also drag information, messages etc. too).
Minimenu can then put a little 'update available' icon on the icon for the app. Because the process is so simple and the Pandora and PandoraApps only have to look at file names it will be as close to instant as you can get. The user can decide if they want to update it from there.
If a developer wants to use their own webspace they can add the url to the PND format itself (but I'll leave that to the people who maintain the format).
So, in conclusion, doing these two things would solve many an issue I face with supporting users 'behind the scenes', as well as making things work better.
These are just my thoughts on the matter and the simplest way I can think of to fix them. It's the first step to pulling the Pandora in to the i-user-friendly arena, something which, as more and more casual gamers buy Pandoras, we need to move towards.