March 19 Update - Production Underway
about 6 years ago – Tue, Mar 20, 2018 at 01:01:27 AM

Dear Backers,

Last night, the first large-scale production of Jack officially commenced. 

Please update your Backerkit accounts to reflect your current, correct address. Once updated, your Backerkit account should reflect your changes instantly. If you need assistance, please message us. If you have emailed us with special change requests but not received confirmation of a change, please message us again and we will make sure to confirm. The deadline to make any changes is March 25.

We will update everyone at the end of the week as we get more data on the production. Until then, please enjoy some videos of the production line!

Attaching the antenna to the PCB:

 Gluing on the LED light pipe:

Assembling the plastic around the metal clip 

 Shaping and anchoring the antenna with EVA foam:

 Completing the assembly:

Note: this was a very difficult design to achieve because the board must be assembled sideways and essentially "floats" in the middle of the housing. This is important so that the ports and buttons can be centered. Most other electronics are assembled layer by layer (more like a sandwich) which makes it easier as you can build upon a stable base. We worked out a way to pull off this sideways design (with guides and board component design) so that the metal clip could be a single, uninterrupted part, which we feel is a much more appealing visual design.

Installing the screws

Note: The sideways assembly design also meant that in order to screw the two sides together, the screws needed to be extremely thin but also unusually long. Therefore, we needed to order custom screws. 

Testing:

Note: We test every Jack for Bluetooth connection, audio playback, and button functionality. No exceptions. 

Best,
The Podo Labs Team

March 6 Update
about 6 years ago – Tue, Mar 06, 2018 at 11:24:18 PM

Dear Backers,

As announced in our prior update, production is underway to deliver all of the Jack units! They are expected to finish in batches of 6-10,000 every 4 weeks. If you need to update your shipping address, you may do so here: https://jack-by-podo-labs.backerkit.com/ If you have not answered the survey to provide us your shipping details to this point, your Jacks will be shipped after everyone else's.

Here is what 25,000 metal clips look like:

These will be welded and eletro-plated to be finished. The other components such as the plastics and PCBs are being completed at the other suppliers as well. The PCBs have been flashed with the latest firmware (which has been continuously worked on and upgraded during this time) and will be tested thoroughly this week. Assembly may begin as early as Friday.

Thank you everyone for your support, and especially to those who sent us encouraging messages to pull through. It has been a challenging 12 months but we all had a shared goal, and we're happy that it will be a happy ending.

Please look forward to more updates soon, and have a great Tuesday!

Best,

The Podo Labs Team

Feb 26 Update - Good News
about 6 years ago – Tue, Feb 27, 2018 at 12:54:39 AM

Dear Backers,

Last update, we posted that we were facing a difficult position and unsure if and when delivery would happen. Today, we are relieved to announce that we are back on track.

Delivery will commence in March. Currently, the factories are getting back into it after Chinese New Year but assembly will begin without delay once they are back. The goal is to produce 3,000 units a week, and to speed that up as the process becomes solidified.

We apologize for the lapses in communication. Our primary goal is to deliver every Jack and we have been going to all personal lengths to make it happen. We remain committed to the end result. 

We will post another update shortly to mark the beginning of assembly. Thank you for your patience so far and we look forward to providing pictures and tracking numbers asap.

Best,

The Podo Labs Team

Jan 26th Jack Update
about 6 years ago – Mon, Feb 26, 2018 at 03:51:39 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Jan 9 Update
over 6 years ago – Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 12:00:07 AM

Dear Backers,

Hope everyone had a healthy and safe holiday season! We're excited to move into 2018 with you all.

We are still on track to produce the next wave of units this month. We are waiting for one last material to arrive and finish assembly. We thank everyone for your patience.

Our customer service has been down since around the holiday season; if you've emailed us recently we're very sorry for the lack of reply. We have a new customer service hire returning to the states Jan 14, and her first day should be Jan 15th. We will do our best to catch up on every last email and invite you to resend your comments after this time. We know many of you have been asking for refunds, though as stated during the campaign in the FAQ and in prior updates, we cannot accept these requests as everyone's pledges together are essential in bringing the whole project to completion. We're very sorry for the delay but we're confident in the product, and we thank all of you for making this possible despite the setbacks. We are getting this done.

We will post another update shortly covering the assembly of this next wave of units. Thank you everyone, and again, Happy New Year!

Best,

The Podo Labs Team