Hello Kickstarters,

To start off our Friday update, we thought you deserved one last video for Une Bobine. 

If the video is not embedded below, you can view it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2fKw7yzPH8

Shipping Information

We have setup a database for all shipping information and reward selections to use for integration to our shipping system. We decided that it would be beneficial to provide you with access to that for final verification of your address and selections if you needed to check on it. You can access it at http://kickstarter.fusechicken.com and enter the email address you use for Kickstarter along with your exact pledge amount. This can be found on your Kickstarter Backer History page under the account link at the top right of Kickstarter.

This page now contains shipping status that will be updated as your rewards are shipped. Because we have thousands of packages to ship to you, we ask that you check this page for the latest shipping information prior to emailing. Shipments have already started today and new packages will go out every day until all rewards are fulfilled. We currently have 4 product shipments in transit that will continue arriving every few days. The 2 final shipments will leave the factory on Monday and Friday of next week. We expect that our daily shipments will keep pace with the incoming products through the final shipments which should arrive approximately 3-5 days after they leave the factory.

We also learned that our shipping labels must contain the exact shipping date on them. This means that we will be printing the shipping labels on the day they go out. If your status still shows that shipping is processing, you may email updated address information to jon.fawcett@fusechicken.com.

How Do You Bobine?

Once you receive your rewards, we would love to see how you use your Bobines! You can  email photos to jon.fawcett@fusechicken.com. We'll post the best and most creative ones on the website!

The Fine Print: By submitting a photo, you are granting Fuse Chicken a non-exclusive, royalty free license to use your photographs on our website, print, advertising, and other product marketing materials.

[FUSE]Chicken Mailing List

As we approach the completion of the Kickstarter project, we want to provide a way for you to stay up to date in the future for new Kickstarter projects and [FUSE]Chicken products. We respect your privacy and don't want to continue to utilize Kickstarter's messaging and updates system for future products. So we have setup a mailing list for you to stay informed after this project is complete. Visit http://eepurl.com/oB_3X or our website at www.fusechicken.com to signup. We will never sell or share your address.

Thanks Kickstarters,

Jon

Hello Kickstarters,

There is a lot of detail in this week's update as the scheduling has started to become very precise for when we will receive units and when we will ship them to you.

Incoming Shipments

We have 2 shipments of products in transit to our office! I never anticipated how complex the shipping process would be to get the production units shipped to us. For both of these shipments, we have worked until the very last moment communicating with our freight forwarder and the factory at all hours of the day and night to work out the details for the shipments. The good news is that we have learned a lot on these first 2 shipments that should make the remaining shipments go smoother.

We expect the shipments to arrive on back to back days either Tuesday/Wednesday or Wednesday/Thursday of next week. For international backers, next Monday is a US holiday if you weren't aware. So that has been a major source of hassle working out the logistics for these 2 shipments and has added additional transit time because all couriers will be closed.

Today, we received the packaging, thermal postage printer, and rolls of 10,000 postage labels to begin labeling and sorting of all the packages.

All other items for rewards are ready to be shipped. We completed the print run of about 300 different video frames yesterday and have those ready to ship.  In case you are curious, the frame below was the most requested frame from the videos by a wide margin.

Schedule

We have been able to improve the schedule that we shared last week for quantities, but not dates. The remaining 3 shipments of products will still be sent out from the factory on 9/5, 9/10, and 9/14. However, we have been able to increase the quantities that will ship on 9/5 and 9/10 so that most  Bobines needed for rewards will ship out from the factory by 9/10. The final shipment will be mostly our inventory supply.

The quantity in transit now is about 3000 units. These will begin shipping on whichever day they are received next week.

The shipment on 9/5 will contain an additional 3100 Bobines and 3400 USB extension cables. The shipment on 9/10 will contain 5000 Bobines and 6600 USB extension cables. These numbers may change prior to 9/5, but should only be increased if they do change.

Address and Reward Information

We have setup a database for all shipping information and reward selections to use for integration to our shipping system. We decided that it would be beneficial to provide you with access to that for final verification of your address and selections if you needed to check on it. You can access it at http://kickstarter.fusechicken.com and enter the email address you use for Kickstarter along with your exact pledge amount. This can be found on your Kickstarter Backer History page under the account link at the top right of Kickstarter. We will also be updating this database with information as labels are printed and items are packed and shipped. This will give you real-time access to shipping information on your rewards.

If your information is not correct, you can email jon.fawcett@fusechicken.com with updated information as long as the website does not list the shipping labels as already printed. We intend to begin printing labels this weekend, so please provide updated information as soon as possible. For security reasons, we are not allowing changes to be made directly on the website.

[FUSE]Chicken Mailing List

As we approach the completion of the Kickstarter project, we want to provide a way for you to stay up to date in the future for new Kickstarter projects and [FUSE]Chicken products. We respect your privacy and don't want to continue to utilize Kickstarter's messaging and updates system for future products. So we have setup a mailing list for you to stay informed after this project is complete. Visit http://eepurl.com/oB_3X or our website at www.fusechicken.com to signup. We will never sell or share your address. 

Thanks Kickstarters 

Jon

Hello Kickstarters,

I will be out of town tomorrow through the weekend, so this week's update is a day early. This also means it will take a little longer to reply to any comments or messages.

First, the good news

At this time, all products have been approved for production! We approved the Micro|USB changes earlier this week and have been busy working out the final logistics the last few days.

Next, the not-so-good news

The supplier for Apple connectors had an unexpected delay in delivery of the 12,000 connectors we need. And the molding of the Micro|USB connector housings is taking longer than expected. Our manufacturing engineer is in China this week working with the factory directly to see what can be done to improve their delivery times.

What this means...

The factory is estimating 3 weeks for receipt of the full quantity of Apple connectors and Micro|USB housings with a final shipping date of all production units by September 14. This date includes our inventory quantities, so all reward quantities should ship prior to that date. However, we are working to cut this time down to an acceptable delivery time and will let you know as soon as we are able to finalize the details. In the meantime, our plan is to do smaller production builds several times per week with the quantities available until we can sort these details out.

With that said, the first production units will ship from the factory on Monday August 27, followed by additional units every 3-4 business days. We will start shipments to you next week when they are received.

If we finalize details to improve the delivery date like we hope, we will post an update as soon as we have the information.

What you can do...

Address Changes: We will begin printing shipping labels next Tuesday. Please send us any address corrections no later than Monday. If we receive changes after that time, we may not be able to update your address.

Reward Changes: As shipping labels are printed, they will be sorted and affixed to proper packaging according to the Bobines you are receiving. So we will need to have any updates to Bobine selections by Monday as well.

Communications

Next week will become very busy for us. To help us keep everything running smoothly, please refer to the questions and answers below below before emailing.

When did/will it ship? We will send emails when shipments go out. Depending on your location, shipments could take from a few days in North America to a few weeks in other countries (if customs holds your delivery for some reason). Before emailing, please allow enough time for it to have made it to you and also check with your customs agency to see if you have a package waiting.

What about the new iPhone? Many comments and updates address the new iPhone. Please read through the Kickstarter pages which should answer all of your questions.

What about...? If you are not receiving Kickstarter updates via email, please check your Kickstarter account email address and your junk mail settings. If it cannot be resolved, you can follow Twitter @fusechicken or facebook.com/fusechicken which have links posted for each update.

[FUSE]Chicken Mailing List

As we approach the completion of the Kickstarter project, we want to provide a way for you to stay up to date in the future for new Kickstarter projects and [FUSE]Chicken products. We respect your privacy and don't want to continue to utilize Kickstarter's messaging and updates system for future products. So we have setup a mailing list for you to stay informed after this project is complete. Visit http://eepurl.com/oB_3X or our website at www.fusechicken.com to signup. We will never sell or share your address.

Thanks Kickstarters

Jon

Hello Kickstarters,

Today we have approved Une Bobine for iPhone to start production! 

We received the new production samples yesterday for testing. The changes we made to resolve the weld between the 2 housings has solved the issue and they have passed our force tests. Over the next several days, the factory will be building 11,850 Une Bobines for iPhone.

The new production samples for Une Bobine - Micro|USB were loaded on a plane in Shenzhen today and are due to arrive at our office Monday morning. These incorporate the changes to the injection molds to tighten the fit of the Micro|CAPS. We will be testing the changes as soon as they arrive and starting production as soon as we verify the changes corrected the issue.

While we gear up for production, we are busy making final arrangements for shipping from China to our office for 17,000 units, working through the logistics of shipping to you, selecting shipping packages, and getting ready to print a few hundred glossy photos of Bob. The next week will be a very busy week for us.

[FUSE]Chicken Mailing List

As we approach the completion of the Kickstarter project, we want to provide a way for you to stay up to date in the future for new Kickstarter projects and [FUSE]Chicken products. We respect your privacy and don't want to continue to utilize Kickstarter's messaging and updates system for future products. So we have setup a mailing list for you to stay informed after this project is complete. Visit http://eepurl.com/oB_3X or our website at www.fusechicken.com to signup. We will never sell or share your address.

How to Contact Us

While you may always send us a message directly, please also check these updates and comments for the latest information on dates, issues, and news. We will continue to reply to every message and comment received, but the volume of messages has been increasing. So it may take us an extra day to send out a reply. 

If you are not receiving Kickstarter updates via email, please check your Kickstarter account email address and your junk mail settings. If it cannot be resolved, you can follow Twitter @fusechicken or facebook.com/fusechicken which have links posted to for each update. 

Thanks Kickstarters,

Jon

Hello Kickstarters,

There are only a few small items of news for this Friday's update. We have completed the testing of production samples and our production quality tests and found a few issues that must be addressed. 

For the Micro|USB version, the fit of the Micro|CAPS that allow adjustment for different devices was too loose. The factory has completed a change to the injection molds and will be building a second set of production samples to be tested.

For the Apple version, we initially thought there would be no changes required. However, upon further testing, we discovered a problem with the weld process that holds the 2 halves of the connector housing together. The factory is examining if this is an assembly issue or if we need to make a change to the injection molds. It should only take another few days to finalize this and have an additional set of production samples built.

While we can't provide an exact shipping date yet due to the 2 changes above, we can say that we are getting very, very close to full production. As we have mentioned before, once we approve production, it will only take a few days to manufacture the production run of almost 20,000 units. We will let you know in an update as soon as this process starts.

FAQ

We have been getting several questions frequently that I would like to answer here.

When will I receive my Une Bobine?

We will be doing an initial production run that will cover all Bobines purchased through Kickstarter, our website, and an additional quantity for inventory. We plan to begin shipping all units as soon as they are received at our offices. As soon as we have an official date when the production run is starting, we will post an update.

What about the rumored iPhone 5 Connector?

At this point it is only a rumor, however it appears more and more likely everyday that the new iPhone will have a different connector. Because this connector is not available yet and we do not know what the manufacturing costs or design implications will be once it is released, we are not able to offer it for your current orders. However, we will begin looking at the connector the day that it is released to work on the next Bobine. We also plan to offer Kickstarter backers as much of a discount as possible on this next product once it is released.

What about....

While you may always send us a message directly, please also check these updates and comments for the latest information on dates, issues, and news. We will continue to reply to every message and comment received, but the volume of messages has been increasing. So it may take us an extra day to send out a reply.

If you are not receiving Kickstarter updates via email, please check your Kickstarter account email address and your junk mail settings. If it cannot be resolved, you can follow Twitter @fusechicken or facebook.com/fusechicken which have links posted to for each update.

Thanks Kickstarters,

Jon