Hi backers!
First off, let me introduce myself: my name is Natalie and I will be in charge of communicating with you for our updates at Instabeat. This means faster response time and more updates! 🙂
We are sorry for the long absence, but rest assured we are still alive! We shipped a batch out in June, and got some really valuable feedback from the first users, but it has been difficult to ship out more units. We still haven’t smoothed out our manufacturing process, so we are taking our time to ensure quality.
We have some good news! We finished manufacturing all of the circuit boards and are working on running more tests to make sure that all parts are cohesive and to our standards! ALL units should be shipped in the next few weeks. We can’t promise a specific date, but it will be soon! 🙂
Ultimately, we want to thank you for your patience and understanding. If you do not wish to wait any longer, however, you can email [email protected] to request a refund.
Thanks for believing in us and sticking with us through the rough patches!
-Natalie and the Instabeat Team
Hello!
Will be there any personal e-mail notification about package shipping?
Thanks.
We will be sending you an email asking you to confirm your address when your unit is ready!
Natalie,
Glad to meet you and I hope that you can keep the promise of more frequent an responsive communication. Along those lines can we ask for some specifics? How many back orders are still outstanding? How many units have been produced? What is the expected timeframe for shipping the first units of the new batch? And most importantly, when can we expect the next update post from Instabeat?
Sure thing!
To answer your questions,
1. 500 units are still outstanding.
2. 500 units have been produced.
3. We manufactured a first batch a couple days ago, so 200 units should ship out from China mid-next week.
4. The next blog post will go up by the end of this coming week!
Hope this helps 🙂
Natalie
Ummmm the end of that week has come and gone. I haven’t seen any updates!
Hi Natalie,
What about the idea someone posted here? You could send an order confirmation e-mail to everyone with the order number. (Maybe with the current production/shipment rate.) It would give a guesstimate how long the queue is before one.
Are there any other news or updates? Will it have a proper desktop software to check the charts and numbers, or can one use only a smartphone app toy, like showing (off) the results on social media? How does it go with the firmware, will one be able to update it? And did you manage to get stroke recognition? Etc.
And any plans for the future? Like using some wireless connection for data transfer, as the loop around the goggles would make a perfect coil for wireless charging - thus eliminating all open electric contacts.
Thanks,
George
Hi George,
to answer your questions:
1. Send an order confirmation email with an order number
-We are actually working on this feature right now, so we hope to get it up and running soon so it is available to our backers!
2. “Will it have a proper desktop software to check the charts and numbers, or can one use only a smartphone app toy, like showing off the results on social media?”
-Yes to both! You can download the desktop software here: http://user.instabeat.me/downloads. Keep in mind that this will not be operable until you receive your instabeat. As for social media, the smartphone app allows you to share your stats on various social media outlets 🙂
3. “How does it go with the firmware, will one be able to update it?”
-The firmware update will be through the desktop app, you simply plug in the device to the computer and it will automatically update it.
4. “Did you manage to get stroke recognition?”
-We do not count strokes because since Instabeat is not on the arm we cannot get a good accuracy. We currently detect breathing frequency, laps, turns, swim style recognition, distance, and speed!
5. Plans for the future
-We already have a bluetooth low energy module on your hardware! It is not activated because we are waiting for the certification, but as soon as we get it we will update the firmware and you will be able to sync your data directly to the app!
We are definitely looking into wireless charging for the next version, for now the charging happens through the USB port and it is gold plated so you can swim with it without any problem!
Hope this helps!
Natalie
Hi Natalie,
Thanks for the exhaustive reply and these awesome news.
Re #4, I meant the difference between freestyle and fly, instead of getting a stroke count. Along with the turn recognition it will make a perfect swim logger.
I’m so excited to get my hands on the stuff and on the application. 🙂
Another idea that also may be already present in Instabeat is to upload a swim plan in advance and then get traffic-light-like start signals for each set/rep at the desired intervals.
Or to have a TempoTrainer(TM)-like mode when one of the LEDs would flash at the pre-set stroke frequency to be followed.
Thanks for your input! We do have swim recognition-on your Instabeat dashboard, it will tell you what kind of stroke you were swimming at certain times!