Pandora News - On and on it goes. Still going strong (2011-11-09)

November 15th, 2011, 13:11 Posted By: wraggster

I was very busy preparing for the Replay Expo last week, therefore I didn't find the time to post updates.
Of course, that doesn't mean nothing has happened - so here's a quick summary of the current situation.

1. The ReplayExpo - a very quick impression

Well, there are already a lot of posts about the ReplayExpo in Blackpool, so there's no real need for a in-depth-post about it.
The ReplayExpo was great. We don't have such a big retro-scene in Germany, so this was totally overwhelming for me. So many cool arcade machines, pinball machines and classic computers.
Awesome!

While the Pandora is no classic system, most visitors were amazed by it.
Our table was crowded most of the time, all five Pandoras I had with me were being played on most of the time.
Most thought the price was decent, which is a good sign.

It was also awesome meeting some community members. And a VERY welcomed change from the daily organization work.
Thanks again to pmprog and sbt for the airport ride.

I'm pretty sure I'll be back next year


2. No break, everything going according to plan (that's something new, eh?)

Signed contracts are arriving daily (yeah, we need to send them back and forth using snail mail ), and each day more investments arrive on my bank account.
This actually made it possible to pay and order some parts already, which is great, as we need them for the prototype run.
The documents for the customs that are needed to move some of the parts from CC to Germany are also finished, so the pickup will hopefully also happen within this week.
I already got the WiFi modules and nubs for the prototype run, so we're pretty much set with the parts.

The bare PCBs have also entered production state. The company had 14 questions to Michael Weston which he all replied to.
The prototype run is still planned to happen in November, we're perfectly following our timeframe right now.


3. TV Out Cables

I promised that one of the first things I will order as soon as the investments are there are the TV Out cables.
I instantly requested an updated quotation (copper price changed within the last months), and as soon as I get it, the order will be signed and the cables will go into production.


4. The Website

Delicator volunteered to update the website quite a bit.
Here's what we've planned:

* Upgrade to latest Joomla Version (from 1.5 to 1.7)
* You can use your forum login on the site as well, which will enable you to do the following:
- Upload your own Pandora pictures into the user gallery (which will be public)
- Put your own videos (YouTube links) onto the user video gallery
- Post reviews
* Include a shop into the website (incl. Credit Card payment, etc.)
* Optimize the website (SEO, content, etc.)

When new users find out about the Pandora, they should find a plain and clean website that offers a wide variety of user commited content (videos, reviews and pictures) as well as links to the most important sites (repo, boards, wiki, etc.).


5. Some other things

Annette, a new employee I've got, will help me two hours a day with packaging and shipping, tax stuff and after a little while also with eMails.
This will help me catch up with all the mails and repairs I have to do, so things should get better soon (hopefully )

We're also working on improving the cases a bit to prevent the most popular cracks from happening in the future.


That's it for now
Let me know if you have further questions

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