Spring has finally arrived to Sweden. We’re happy for a bit of sun and we’re happy to bring you the weekly update!
Hardware
There’s a lot of hurry up and wait going on with the manufacturing process at the moment. We know you’re eager to get any kind of estimate on delivery and these outside factors are part of what make giving an estimate difficult at the moment.
- We’re waiting for both the first plastic parts and the first mass-produced PCBs.
- We’re also finalizing the production of the USB cable.
We received the mass-produced versions of the GPS antennas last week and have verified that they work according to our prototypes. Now it’s just more quality testing.
We are continuing work on the production test PCs and preparing them for the setup in Taiwan.
Still waiting for packaging samples, are having the texts on the packaging and in the quick start guide sent to a copywriter for feedback and editing if needed.
Software
Development on the windows client is well underway. We’re working on optimizing the Windows Uploader for multicore machines. This will improve both network performance (since we can upload multiple photos simultaneously), and make it more responsive.
We want your experience with Memoto to be as intuitive as possible, so streamlining the “new user” experience is a priority. The goal is to make you love the Memoto Lifelogging Experience from first use.
Backend
The backend is mainly focusing on improving performance and stability and to make the upload and building of moments process smoother. We’re making headway, we can build, persist, and load photo metadata in a faster and easier way than before. It is also easier to add and use metadata that depends on other metadata thanks to a new dependency resolver. This will likely remain the focus in this area for a few weeks, since this process is such an integral part of the Memoto Experience.
Have a wonderful weekend and feel free to send us questions and comments.
/Memoto Team
2 Comments
Mr. Källström,
Well this is getting a little embarrassing, isn’t it? I keep posting questions as suggested by your own web site and for some reason I don’t seem to be important enough to get a peep out of you… or for that matter nothing out of Niclas or Sarah who are only a few pixels over on my right (not sure what they are getting paid for if they aren’t even willing to be your proxy here and respond to my questions?).
But wait! Just over a week ago a backer did post a question somewhat similar to mine on the Kickstarter comment section… now let me refresh your memory …
Anders M on April 26
“I’m curious as to how you’re planning to run the business side of
things, to ensure the sustainability of the service over time.
Subscriptions, tiers, how you will scale, future plans etc. to the
extent you want to share…”
And, drum roll please, here is the ever so eloquent answer by Mr. Källström …
@Anders “We take our responsibility to run a sustainable business very
seriously. We want to change the world, not merely make a cool gadget.
Memoto or the heritage of Memoto should be around for your
grand-grand-grand-kids to experience, so they can travel back in time to
look at how we lived today.
We will accomplish this by having the right balance between keeping
our own vision firm but still learn from our users and adapt to their
needs. If you use our products and services, you are the customer. You
are not a pair of eyeballs that we sell to advertisers. We want to earn
your trust, and with time become the world’s most trusted brand in
wearable technology. It is no small undertaking, but nothing is easy.”
Now I am absolutely convinced that Mr. Källström was a politician in a previous life because only a politician could come up with such a complete and utter wishy-wasy feel-good non-answer to what was actually a pretty simple and straightforward question which amounted to something akin to “How the hell are you going to make a business out of this and scale so that you remain in business and I don’t lose my photos??!!”
Perfectly acceptable and reasonable question just as mine are, but because you now insist in outright ignoring me then one can only assume you are in financial difficulty and you do not have the gumption or business savvy to address which are perfectly normal questions for people to ask.
Come on, Mr. Källström, I know you are reading this, so what is so hard about saying we have raised X through VC, X privately, have a burn of approx. X, and are looking for additional capital of X?? Why leave people thinking that you have zero financial concerns when you will launch 6 – 10 months after you said you would and is costing a great deal of cash to get there – AND THEN – you have to finance ongoing operations with a small subscriber base. Show a bit of professionalism and let your backers know that you can finance this and that their pictures won’t get lost in the cloud somewhere!
“… Memoto should be around for your grand-grand-grand-kids to experience, so they can travel back in time to look at how we lived today”
Well, the way it seems right now with your refusal to reveal any detail on your finances, a year from now (or less) no one will have any access to any pictures – period.
Mary
I just looked, the team suggests we feel free to “send us questions and comments.” No where do they promise to answer! That could be a clue . . . . I think your questions are cogent and deserve an answer. I do not intend to lose all of my pictures whether the problem is inadequate funding or miserable busines model. Wonder if we can all get our money back?
Linda Odum
PS I was considering buying many of these for my Instructors to use during seminars and training sessions to capture the audience.