Kickstarter

We received 10 more EVT (Engineering Verification Test) units from our manufacturer. Here are 8 of them stacked up and installed with the latest firmware and software update!

Extensive tests are being conducted on the units to make sure that we make all the necessary design changes before we enter the next stage of manufacturing. Tests include:

• wifi stability test
• battery performance test
• CPU/RAM stability test
• touch panel sensitivity test

We are also iterating on packaging design to ensure that Instacube gets to you and your loved ones in perfect condition, no matter where you are. User guides and help contents are also being created to allow anyone (from grandmas to tech heads) to start enjoying the Instacube experience right out of the box.

From left to right:

• New iteration of the Instacube packaging design!
• Instacube Quick Start Guide
• EVT units running performance tests

We would like to thank all of you who have engaged with us on Instagram and Facebook in the past week for the photo submission. We received some really amazing photos. We will review carefully and choose the best ones to use for Instacube.

Thanks everyone!

Team Instacube

An open letter from the CEO of D2M

Dear Instacube Backers:

Many of you have written me curious as to the status of your Instacube and have expressed concern about the delay. I assure you I have read every message and question; and I wanted to take this opportunity to provide answers.

Shortly after completing our Kickstarter campaign, we realized that the marketing, distribution, and administrative efforts were much greater than we could fulfill internally at D2M and warranted spinning out a separate company. That company is NuMatter, Inc. The legal formation of this company, the recruitment of its staff, and the launch of its infrastructure have cost us time and effort. This has contributed to the delayed launch of Instacube. However, the benefit of creating NuMatter is that we now have the tools and infrastructure in place to support our customer base not only for the initial delivery of Instacube, but also for ongoing product upgrades and feature releases. Our goal is to exceed the user experience that our campaign represented both in the short and long term. The creation of NuMatter will enable us to achieve our long term vision of delivering the best software-hardware experiences for social networks.

Though NuMatter has separate and independent management, I want to assure all Instacube backers that D2M is working with this management team to ensure the timely delivery of the product. You, the backer, were a major reason of why Instacube exists and we continue to be inspired and grateful for your support. All of us at D2M stand behind Instacube. We have a 17 year history of delivering innovative and successful products to the market for hundreds of companies, and though sometimes there are unforeseen bumps in the road, we always deliver. Instacube is well on its way to be a part of our successful legacy. We will deliver your Instacube(s) and we guarantee that you will not only be pleased with the product, but you will be blown away.

Sincerely,

Andy Butler

CEO, D2M | Design to Matter

We are making great progress at Instacube HQ! Here are few updates from software to shipping and a few things in between.

SOFTWARE

As you know, Instacube is built on Android, and we have a team working on both the app as well as the Android internals. The final product will be an "appliance", meaning that the whole product will be built for a seamless Instacube experience. No need to navigate around the Android home screen or Android settings pages. All you'll need, or want, is the Instacube flow. We have a team of smart Android hackers, and we're grateful that Android can be customized to bring you the best possible Instacube experience.

Recent work includes performance and stability improvements on key flows, including both photo streaming and navigating of feeds. We are also architecting the software in an extensible fashion, so that we can easily add new features for update over wifi. Instacube is going to be a living device, with a lot more functionality coming down the pipe after we launch the 1.0 version!

For anyone who have messaged us about becoming a beta tester, a big THANK YOU! We are thrilled to see so many of you interested. We have selected a team of well-qualified beta testers. And we really appreciate everyone who has volunteered.

STANFORD COOL PRODUCT EXPO

Last week we presented at the Stanford Cool Product Expo. We brought our EVT units and demoed to hundreds of students, professors, tech enthusiasts and press. Instacube received very positive feedback from the crowd.

Here are a few of our favorite moments from the event:

The Instacube buzz is continuing - check out our Facebook page for recent press and social media chatter about our product.

https://www.facebook.com/Instacube

LOGISTICS

We have been so fortunate to receive backing for Instacube from around the globe. We know the product has wide appeal and we are now challenged with shipping Instacube to 66 countries around the world. We are working closely with our test lab in Shenzhen to acquire FCC and CE certification for Instacube. So when we ship, we can make sure that every Instacube will get to you safely, wherever you are.

Many of you are concerned about shipping charges and our earlier offer to ship International orders at US domestic rates. With our current packaging, our costs will be higher than we budgeted due to the dimensional weight of the box. This situation, coupled with rising international shipping rates across most carriers, has prompted us to begin exploring creative solutions to satisfy our backers and allow us to continue to develop and enhance the Instacube experience.

We hope to have a solid plan and costs for international shipping in the next few weeks. We will communicate directly with all of our International backers at that time.

SUPPORT

We want to apologize for not being able to respond to every message in the past few months. We are a small team that up to now has been primarily focused on development. Our communication has been inadequate, and we are in the process of growing our team so we can respond to your concerns and give prompt feedback. We are currently building out the support page on our website as we expect inquiries to increase as we get closer to shipping.

Again, our team here want to sincerely thank all of you for supporting us all along. We have added below some common FAQ’s that we have been hearing lately - if you have a question please send it along at support@goinstacube.com or ask it in the comments section.

Best Regards,

Team Instacube

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: I moved! How do I changed my shipping address?
A: Please send a message to support@goinstacube.com with your new shipping address and reward level. We will update your shipping info for you.

Q: I forgot to fill out the backer survey. And now I don't know where to find it. What do I do?
A: No worries! You can still send an email to support@goinstacube.com with the following info:
1) Reward Level
2) Name
3) Shipping Address & Country
4) Phone number
5) Preferred Instacube Color
And we will add these to our shipping database.

Q: Can you guys remove the Instacube logo on the front cover glass?
A: Unforunately we can't. This was a design decision.

Q: I changed my mind. How do I request a refund?
A: We do not offer refund for Kickstarter orders. We are confident that when you receive Instacube, you will love it! However, if for any reason you don’t think Instacube is awesome as we do after you receive it, we will be more than happy to refund you then.

Q: I want to buy more Instacubes! How do I buy one now that the campaign is over?
A: We will soon start to take pre-orders in the US. You can go to http://goinstacube.com/reserve-now/ and put down your email address. We will inform you as soon as pre-order goes live!

Q: When will Instacube be available for sales outside of the US?
A: We are working hard on certifying Instacube in as many as countries as possible. But most likely Instacube will not be ready for sales outside of the US until 2014.

Q: Will Instacube support any photo-sharing services other than Instagram?
A: Yes, we do plan on supporting other photo-sharing services (Facebook, Pinterest etc.) in future software releases.

Q: Will the software will be open source so we can write our own integrations with popular API's?
A: This is a real possibility. Our intent is to build a platform and ecosystem around Instacube. That will include opening the platform to external development, via API, SDK, and common tools. There are no dates for this yet but it is on our roadmap.

Hi backers! We have had a lot of exciting things happen here at the Instacube HQ since our last update. Last week we kicked off EVT (Engineering Verification Test) build. This is the first production-level test build done at the manufacturing site. The purpose for this build is to ensure that the unit performs to design specifications and goals.

Vivian, our mechanical designer from our Silicon Valley office, went to China for a week to assist production and troubleshoot design with our Hong Kong team. We met with all of our suppliers and worked through a few issues on tooling, received painted samples for all four colors of Instacube, selected packaging material, refined assembly procedures and finished 23 assembled units for reliability tests.

To read the full version of Vivian's week on site in China, please visit our development blog: www.goinstacube.com/development

Logistics:
Some of our international backers have expressed concern with shipping cost. We would like to assure you that we will be getting the most competitive shipping rate for you guys wherever you live. We have spoken to all major carriers and gotten several rounds of quotes. We will update you very soon with further details.

Get your hands on an Instacube early!
We are invited to present at the Cool Product Expo (http://coolproductexpo.stanford.edu/) at Stanford on April 10. We will be demo-ing the first units that came off EVT line. If you are in the Bay Area, you should definitely check out the event and come say hi! 

Some photos from China:
Here are members of our EE design house connecting flex cables:

One of our various assembly factory workers making molds on the CNC:

And here come the blocks of Instacube steel! (Housing)

A part for Instacube hot off the injection molding machine:

Here’s the tool our CM uses to mask off the housing before painting. To get better consistency, they spray the soft touch paint while the housing is spun around the shaft:

Members of our CM factory busy assembling 23 units:

Here’s the clean room where they bond the FPC (flex cable) onto the touch panel sensor:

Instacubes everywhere! 23 assembled EVT units:

Color chips for all four Instacube SKUs to be shipped to our Kickstarter backers:

It’s March, which means you’re likely biting your nails awaiting the arrival of your Instacube. Unfortunately, the production schedule has slipped somewhat, and we’d like to explain why.

We are detail oriented, borderline OCD, perfectionists who love amazing gadgets. We are, at our core, engineers and designers. We take on a project, we lock ourselves in the lab, and make amazing, revolutionary things happen. We’ve been quiet lately because we’ve been doing our jobs, testing the software, adjusting and perfecting mechanical and industrial design, iterating on the UI… all to ensure that your Instacube unboxing experience is as magical as possible.

We received over 3,000 orders from 66 different countries. That’s 66 different customs procedures, country taxes, and shipping costs we have to consider.

As a reality of our passion, and the nature of the rigor of the design decisions we’ve made to make Instacube mind-blowingly awesome, we’ve had to adjust our delivery schedule to the following:

March: First shots from our molds, first hardware PCBs, first set of factory assembled units for testing (Engineering Verification Test) 

April: Second round of fully assembled units for more testing (Design Verification Test) and Beta software completion 

May: Pilot run on the final assembly line and ramp to mass production 

Late-May: Instacube sets sail from Hong Kong for our warehouse & distribution center in the Bay Area 

Mid-June: Instacube arrives stateside where we drop ship direct to all of you 

July: 5,123 Instacubes are delivered to 3,434 backers in 66 countries

We apologize for not communicating this sooner, but we wanted to be certain of a concrete schedule moving forward. We are committed to being more transparent by showing you each step of the process above, allowing you to keep along with us as we progress through manufacturing. 

Here are the touch panels and the color swatches for the final design of Instacube:

Many of you (over 1/3 of our backers) have been patiently waiting for updates on international shipping costs. When we initially looked into it, the cost was exponential and unacceptable. Instead of going through traditional methods, we now have a dedicated team flushing out the most cost effective way to get Instacube to all 66 countries it was purchased in. The hard work our team is doing is saving each of you precious cash in the long run. 

To remind you what we’re all striving for, here is what a wall of Instacubes might look like:

With sincere gratitude for your understanding, and serious enthusiasm for the amazing product soon to be delivered to your doorstep,

All of us at team Instacube