Pandora/Wiz Softcases

posted by: PlopperZ

Andrewe1 has been hard at work on his embroidery machine making some very nice Pandora and Wiz softcases. He plans to sell some in small quantities, assuming he gets permission from GPH and the Pandora team.

These are just prototypes he whipped up in a day, and he’s looking for input, so post in that thread (source link) if you’ve got any ideas!

More pics and Wiz case after the break.

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A fake PSP and a fake Pandora

Posted by: PlopperZ

Craig uploaded a neat video showing off an unrelated Chinese PSP clone and an early cardboard mockup Pandora (starting at ~1:40)

EDIT: Oh yeah, and there’s also an assembled (real) Pandora in there too 🙂

Video after the break.

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Gentoo 0.0.3

Posted by: PlopperZ

JavaJake:

We’ve come a long way from where we started. Six months ago, neither viridior or I had any idea of what we were getting ourselves into. Nevertheless, we survived, and in the meantime we’ve created our first truly usable Gentoo release.

If someone could boot it up and play with it and make sure the essentials work (emerge can build new packages, internet works, and so on) we’d be extremely grateful. We want someone to pick through it like the average Gentoo user might, so knowledge of Gentoo would be helpful. If Gentoo experience is lacking, that isn’t a big deal. Simply trying to emerge (install) a package we haven’t already installed or pre-built would be great!

So, whoever wants to try it out can get a copy of the latest release here. Since the latest is 0.0.3, you probably just want to go straight to 0.0.3‘s page. Pandora testers will want to select the plain 0.0.3 “base” variant, while BeagleBoard users might want to use the “base-beagle” variant. Be sure to read the “Install a Pre-built Image” page for installation instructions.

We’re looking for feedback on your entire experience! Was the website easy to use? Where might we improve? How about the image itself? Are there any tweaks we should’ve included? Everything is still under heavy development, so it will be relatively easy to change things now rather than later.

Here’s a big thanks to the testers who use precious time out of their day to test our images! We really appreciate it!

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AV Cables and July Release?

Posted by: PlopperZ

From MWeston:

I’m told production samples of the A/V cable are being built next week so whenever they are done, some will be shipped to me to review and destroy (well one of them for sure to check the internals and make sure they followed my guidelines). It doesn’t look like there will be a problem shipping these cables with your initial orders and as I mentioned before, we had to place a minimum order of 5000 cables so there are plenty out there if anyone wants to add it to their order.

I wish we could have just thrown these in for free like you get with those Chinese MP4 players but this thing was pretty expensive to make using the custom connector and the price even went up after the initial quote because they were obligated to use more expensive materials that meet environmental safety/recycling rules or something like that. At least the Pandora project is doing its best not to destroy the environment with its product!

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From Craig: (add the usual grain of salt)

I’m prepared to say July.

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Update: More July talk.

I’m pretty sure on July. Unless something goes wrong with the dpad redesign we will be good to go.

Edit: What I can’t promise is 100% wifi compatibility, that’s still a work in progress, but it won’t stop us shipping as I’m pretty sure you are all capable of installing an updated driver.

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GP32X is back!

Posted by: PlopperZ

After 2 long weeks GP32X.com is back with a bunch of fancy new features. It’s lightning fast at the moment, but might not stay that way as more people begin to come back.

Twitter Update: Final Boards Ordering This Week

Posted by: PlopperZ

Craig posted this on Twitter:

Final boards are being ordered this week…. 🙂

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Lord of the Rings: Classic DOS Game Port

Posted by: PlopperZ

Daeglin is planning to port his engine for the original DOS game Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with improvements such as a better user interface, optimization for input devices, higher resolution support, and mod support, as well as a map editor.

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No Sticky Keys?

MWeston made a post regarding the keyboard layout that seems to imply that sticky keys will not be available:

This layout as it is shown in the picture is impossible because you can”t press 3 keys at once unless it is game button/keypad combos. I have already let ED know that so I”m sure he”s still working away at it.

UPDATE: Nevermind
From MWeston:

I think sticky keys should definitely be used. That will be great for keys that are used less and were less optimally placed for that reason.

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GP32X Problems

All of the forums at gp32x.com have mysteriously disappeared. You can still use the other forums (forum.openpandora.org) until everything is sorted out.

Manufacturing Time Guesstimate

From Chip:

Four to six weeks from the first to the last of the first batch Pandoras. Give or take a couple weeks for testing and tweaking the assembly process.

Once the manufacturing process is 100% nailed down (2nd batch onwards) the plant can make ~5000 per month, though they can only make them as fast as we can get parts. Second batch will probably start up about two months after the first is finished (again, depending on parts availability).

So at least 3-4 weeks before first batch starts, 4-6 weeks after that it finishes, then ~8 weeks until the 2nd batch starts. If you want a Pandora soon, order from the first batch. Otherwise you’ll be waiting a while.

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