Dear Kickstarters,

I know that it has been almost a month since our last update and that you are likely wondering how things are progressing with the COOKOO watch project. 

I am sorry I kept you waiting so long.

This past month has been very eventful for us here at ConnecteDevice starting with with the official COOKOO launch at CES 2013 in Vegas.  Thank you to those who came out to greet us there.

Our R&D team has been hard at work on both the Android app and the root causing and resolving the issues observed by some iOS users (esp. things such as dropped connections, difficulty pairing, higher than expected phone battery drain on iPhone 5, etc.). 

Resolving the issues brought to us by our customers is critical to us, and has been the team's 100% focus (including mine). 

To root-out the connectivity issues, I attended a testing event to help foster better interoperability between devices. As a result of the testing at the event expect that the user experience will be vastly improved in the next iOS app update still scheduled to submit to Apple this month, and we were able to advance our Android app. 

Unfortunately, this 100% focus meant that communication was lower than I would have liked as I couldn't spend time updating you all and responding to every message in a timely fashion. It also made it clear that we needed to consolidate our communications. 

As such, moving forward, we will keep backers and customers alike up-to-date by creating regular updates on our cookoowatch.com website and by updating our Facebook page (facebook.com/thecookoowatch) and this will be the last Kickstarter page update for this project.

COOKOO Watch Shipments 

We have now shipped almost all of the watches to backers. 

If you have not yet received your COOKOO watch, it is likely due to a request to hold the watch until an Android app is released, an address error, shipping issue, or other logistic issue that most likely requires additional information from you to resolve. If this is you, please contact our support team at support.cookoowatch.com. 

Keyfobs

We rejected the January batch of keyfobs from our supplier and, due to the Chinese New Year holiday at the factories, will not be receiving a new batch until late February or early March. We will ship these out as soon as they have been received. 

Watch Band Packs

We will be sending-out the final watchband packs in at the end of February after our supplier's have resumed operations following the Chinese New Year holiday. 

iOS App

As noted, our iOS development team has been 100% focused on resolving the connectivity and battery drain issues raised by our customers. Our next iOS app update will greatly improve the experience. 

We have also added usability enhancements to our app including our "Notification center", "My accounts", and "My settings" screens plus the ability to turn on/off music control feature from within the app settings. We have also added Twitter notifications so now you'll know when you get a tweet! Check out the video to see the new enhancements in action (note that this is an early demo of the new features). 

Email notifications will, however, be deferred to the next build of the app scheduled for March. Stay tuned for more updates at www.cookoowatch.com. 

Android App

We were able to advance the Android app, however, as noted in the update in November (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cuckoo/cookootm-the-watch-for-the-connected-generation/posts/352332), the Android space continues to be fragmented. 

In the end, we will need to create multiple Android apps in order to support individual platforms including at a minimum: 

• Samsung (S3, Note 2, etc.) using new Samsung APIs (not yet released).
• HTC, LG, Google Nexus, etc. using new Broadcom Bluetooth 4.0 APIs (not yet released).

• Incoming call alerts
• Missed call alerts
• SMS alerts
• Alarm alerts
• Calendar alerts

Once we have received the new APIs, we will be able to complete the app, release it to our BETA customers, refine the app based-on our BETA customers' feedback, and formally release the app to all of you. 

Our revised schedule is now to release the Android BETA for selected Samsung and HTC phones one month after receiving the APIs, and the final app following the one month BETA. 

APIs

Due to our focus on the iOS connectivity enhancements and Android app, we will be shifting our release of the iOS APIs and developer center until March. The Android APIs will be released following the final app release. If you are developer, please reach us at Developer@ConnecteDevice.com 

Thank you as always for your support throughout this project and I look forward to chatting with you on Facebook!

Peter @ ConnecteDevice

Yes - you heard right!

To YOU our faithful backers and customers - we just wanted to let you know that the app update you've all been waiting for is now ready for sale in the app store.

To recap - this app brings you:

• Improved background operation (reliable notifications even when backgrounded for a long time)
• Improved connection stability (far fewer unexpected connection drops)
• Music control (start your music player, then control your music from your watch by pressing the COMMAND button to play/pause (short button press), SKIP (medium button press), and stop the player with a long button press.
• Warranty registration
• Alarm clock (so that you can be woken-up by your watch when your phone is muted).
• Timer (so that you can receive timer alerts on your watch when your phone is muted).

Hi Kickstarters,

I know I've been a little difficult to reach of late, and for that I'm sorry...  I haven't forgotten about you, and we have much to announce following a very successful CES2013 for COOKOO!  

Here are a few articles that came-out during the event:

• http://www.macrumors.com/2013/01/06/ces-2013-cookoo-watch-brings-bluetooth-smart-connectivity-to-ios-devices/
• http://blog.laptopmag.com/cookoo-smart-watch-lasts-9-months-on-a-charge-uses-status-lights
• http://blog.laptopmag.com/top-smart-watches-of-ces-2013
• http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112761235/ces-2013-cookoo-smartwatch-review-010913/
• http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jpq1QXlJicyxyuDBAeHAWaLm0ucg?docId=3432bac230b04fa1863f51eaac153c53
• http://tech.co/gadgets-you-might-actually-buy-from-ces-2013-01

We couldn't have done this without you, our backers, and all of the members of the team are grateful for your support!

While part of team and I were at CES2013, the development team, support team, and fulfillment teams were hard at work testing and tuning the COOKOO App for submission to the App Store, working on the Android app, catching-up with the backlog of questions in our support queues, and shipping the watches.

Reward Shipment Status

We are pleased that almost all of the watches have now been shipped.

What remain to be shipped are the balance of the COOKOO keyfobs (ETA early February due to manufacturing issues encountered with previous batches), the multi-band packs, some rewards for Android backers who had requested we hang-on to their rewards, and a handful of backer rewards that posed issues during shipment due to address issues, etc.  

If you have not yet received your watch by January 21st, 2013, please contact support.cookoowatch.com so that we can track down and resolve your specific situation.  

If you are awaiting a Keyfob or other rewards, please be continue to be patient as we receive and inspect new shipments from our suppliers.  

We should have all backer rewards fulfilled by the end of February, 2013.

iOS App Update

We are happy announce that it has been submitted for app review!  

To recap, here's what you can look forward to in the upcoming release of the COOKOO App:

• Background operation is stable - no more missed alerts when backgrounded for a long time
• Connectivity is improved - expect fewer connection drops with further improvements to come in the next version of the iOS.
• A new alarm feature - you can now set an alarm in the app, and alert the watch when its time to wake-up.
• A new timer feature  - you can now set a countdown timer and alert the watch.
• Music control - you can now play and pause your music and skip songs.
• Warranty registration (in-app) - you can now register your watch for warranty questions, etc.

Plus a few usability and functional enhancements.

We are also actively developing the next version of the app (expect it in February) that will add email and twitter alerts, and multi-language support for our international backers and customers, plus other cool features and enhancements.  Stay tuned!

iOS API Update

We are actively building a new developer portal for your, our developer backers!  This will enable you to login, download the latest APIs, pose questions, get answers, etc.  

This developer portal should be fully setup by the end of January and you, our developer backers, will be the first to receive access along with the access to the BETA version of our APIs.

We apologize for the delay, however, we had to work through the stability and backgrounding issues before sharing the APIs, and now must refactor our APIs to ensure that you get the full benefit of the COOKOO APIs whether running in the foreground or background.

Android App Update

We now have a demo app that supports the ConnecteDevice Protocol!  

This is great news as it lays the foundation for the Android version of the COOKOO App.  

This first app works with the HTC One X phone and will be tested with other select HTC phones.  The Samsung version of the app is also under development, however, it may require a rooted Samsung phone (TBD).

Our current schedule has us releasing a BETA version of the app to backers by the end of February along with an ALPHA version of the API, with immediate enhancements to follow.

What's Next?

In the coming months, we will focus on the next iOS app update, releasing the ALPHA and BETA versions of our Android app to backers, launching the Developer Portal, releasing the next shipment of Keychains, shipping any remaining rewards, and continually improving our operations, customer, and technical support.

As always, we thank you for being with us on this journey!

Peter & the ConnecteDevice team