WakeMates are ready!

December 18th, 2010 by Craig

Hello All!

WakeMates have made it successfully through the production process and are one weekend away from shipment. This is a very exciting day for us. We’ve included some media below that we hope you find entertaining!

Pre-Order Customers:

If you have placed a pre-order, you will receive an email with instructions on how to complete your order. Deposits placed through Paypal, Google Checkout or the WakeStore have been refunded and you will be charged the full price of $49.99 for your WakeMate.

We’ve worked really hard so you can receive your WakeMates before Christmas. If you complete your pre-order before 11pm on Wednesday, December 22nd and choose Overnight shipping, you are guaranteed to receive your WakeMate by Christmas Eve*. Unfortunately due to high volume during the holidays we cannot guarantee delivery dates for Ground and Smartpost shipments. For those of you extremely early orders who received free shipping; Smartpost is free and Ground and Overnight have been discounted by the cost of Smartpost.

*International Pre-Orders:

Unfortunately we have run into a speed bump with international shipments, due to certification and shipping logistics.  We need a little extra time before fulfilling these pre-orders.  We apologize for this inconvenience, but are not legally permitted to ship units outside the U.S. until this is resolved.  We are making headway, and will keep you posted throughout this process.

*If you have not yet placed an order:

You will notice that we have increased the price to $59.99 (for new orders only!). For people who order today, we have some units available to be released before Christmas and will have more available for release after Christmas. Important: Since we do not know how many NEW orders we will receive, we cannot promise that your order will ship in time for Christmas. We will be updating the site and the blog in the next couple of weeks to let people know when we have units that can be ordered immediately and when we are again out of stock.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Sea of WakeMates

Cutting the WakeMates:

In Production

December 16th, 2010 by Craig

Just a quick update. We had a great visit with our contract manufacturer today. WakeMates are in production and we should be seeing units off the PCB assembly line Friday morning. We will be at the factory to test the first unit, and pending its success, we will then begin order fulfillment (emails will go out). Customers who have pre-ordered a WakeMate will then need to respond to the email and complete checkout (give us payment and shipping information, and phone type — this is where you’ll get to update any of your information that has changed since you pre-ordered).

Expect to hear from us on Friday.

In the meantime, enjoy a few pics from our visit:

WakeMate production

Designed and Assembled in the U.S.A.

WakeMate PCB assembly

Designed and Assembled in the U.S.A.



Factory Visit Tomorrow

December 14th, 2010 by Greg

We spoke with the factory today and they confirmed that WakeMates were in production today. It is a multi-step process so none of the units have been completed yet, but they are underway. We will be going down to the factory (it’s in California) tomorrow to speak with them directly and get a more full update. We will report back with all the details we can after.

~Greg, Arun, Craig, Tom

WakeMate Update – Still waiting to hear back from the factory.

December 13th, 2010 by Greg

Everyone,

Unfortunately we are still waiting to hear back from the factory. We are supposed to hear from them today regarding scheduling, but are still waiting on the call. We wanted to post something to keep you guys informed, but we can’t really offer much new info.

We will post scheduling info as soon as we get it from the factory.

~Greg, Arun, Craig, Tom

All bugs are fixed!

November 29th, 2010 by Greg

That long awaited time is finally here! All of the known bugs have been fixed and we will be going into production at the end of next week. At that time, we will provide a timeline with as much detail as possible.

~Greg, Arun, Craig, Tom

I’m so close…

November 5th, 2010 by Greg

WakeMaters,

Apple certification is complete!

The final hurdle is our last round of internal testing. We currently have implemented fixes for all the bugs on iPhone and Android and believe the will solve all the outstanding issues. We will need to test these changes rigorously, but we are hopeful this will be the final version of the software and firmware. Testing will take about two weeks.

If things go well (a VERY big if) we will be assembling the units and sending order completion emails out. The assembly process is expected to take about a week.

Remember: this is all up in the air if the testing does not go well, but in an effort to provide intimate details into what is going on, we want to let you know the status. We will update you about how the testing goes, and provide more concrete details on timeline.

~ Greg, Arun, Craig, Tom

Quick Update

October 24th, 2010 by Greg

It’s the end of the week and we just wanted to touch base with you guys. Unfortunately, there is nothing much to report. We are still waiting to hear from Apple and continue to work through Android bugs. Hopefully we will have something to report in the coming week.

~Greg, Arun, Craig, Tom

First Step (of 2) for Apple Approval Completed!

October 11th, 2010 by Greg

WakeMaters,

I am VERY happy to report that the WakeMate has officially been approved through the first of two steps by Apple! To our knowledge, we are the first SPP Bluetooth accessory to be approved.

Approval is a two step process: approval of the prototype then the production device. However, at this stage the prototype is the production device so while we are forced to go through the process again, we should breeze right through it.

In Android news, thanks to our great testers we’ve continued to work around bugs present on certain phones and only a few remain until we achieve our compatibility goals.

More news to come next week!

Boxes & Bugs

September 24th, 2010 by Greg

Hello all,

We currently have all the parts in one place ready for the mass build, but there are two issues that will determine when we will build and ship units for non-Apple and Apple devices, respectively:

  1. We’ve encountered some new bugs in Bluetooth implementations on some Android phones which we’re currently working around with our testers and the phone providers. We’ll start shipping non-Apple units as soon as they’re resolved.
  2. The Apple certification process uncovered a few minor bugs on the iOS platform that we’re currently working out with Apple. We plan to submit a new build to Apple on Monday and will start shipping Apple units as soon as the certification is complete.

We’ll provide an update next week on the progress of both of these. As it stands, orders will be fulfilled for each platform independently in an effort to get you your WakeMate as soon as possible. From the “pics or it didn’t happen” department:

Nearly Final Update!

September 8th, 2010 by Tom

Some important updates from the WakeMate front lines:

The first mass run of wristbands was finished this week! The factory needs to “re-press” some of them that did not pass quality control and will ship the wristbands once they are finished. We expect to have them at our manufacturer early next week. Once they arrive we will begin the assembly process, which will take about a week to churn out the first units.

As for Apple certification, we’re in the midst of the process and it looks like it will take a little longer than we were initially quoted. We haven’t determined if Blackberry/Android units will go out before Apple units as this decision is largely based on the gap between the platforms’ completion, which may or may turn out to exist; we need to juggle the fairness to pre-order customers with our needs as a company to make a solid first impression (after all the delays we’ve had, it’s pretty important! ;) )

Expect another update when assembly has completed or when there is an update on the Apple certification, whichever is sooner—the week of September 20th being the latest.

Until next time, thanks for your continued interest and Zen-like patience!