Hi All,

Apologies for the infrequent updates, I have a LOT to do, including managing the corporate side of things. Rest assured that our products are on the way to market and you will be thrilled with the results. We have a former Belkin product manager on the team, together with two very experienced industrial designers, several software guys, social marketing guy and a web design team and myself overseeing it all. 

Our intention is to make JaJa perfect, I only want 5 star reviews - that takes a little time and a lot of concentration! :-) 

Here is a quick run down of what we have been up to since my last update.

1. Finalised electronic design - see image below - I have included a micro sim so you get an idea of the size.

the sensor we are using is not visible in this photo because I'd like to keep that confidential. The sensor has been selected, tested and preordered, I have 10 of them on hand for testing and calibration. We had assumed that quantities would not be a problem but the lead time is going to cause us a delay of 3-6 weeks, we now expect delivery of the finished product to you late in June.

2. Design has needed some minor internal tweaks - if any of you have ever worked on micro electronics and then tried to make it all fit inside a a very small space, and THEN tried to make it all work... you'd understand that these things don't just work first time. Then to top it all off I am demanding extremely high standards of fit and finish. We have gone through several iterations and we are now comfortable that you will get a very high quality product. What you see below is a second to final prototype, metal is not anodised, and the top tube is a printed product, end cap is not inserted. 

The final proto will be on the way to us on Friday. The stylus feels brilliant in your hand - you are going to love this thing!

3. Tooling for the plastic parts commenced last week. We expect no further schedule slips once the sensors arrive in factory. 

4. SDK has been completed and we are just awaiting the final version with our final frequency tables, which I should get tonight. Our original frequency table design needed a few changes - all fixed now. I'll then send our developers a separate update regarding SDK etc. Remember we use inaudible high frequency sound rather than battery draining Bluetooth, so we have no setup or synching - I think I should be able to show this working fully in the actual stylus body next week.

Website is live at www.jajastylus.com our new company has been setup and will live at www.hex3.co from later today, along with www.laserblaster.com for the AppTag sales. I'll be in China with our industrial designers and product manager for late May and then travelling to see developers and distribution partners around the USA and Europe with our T1/T2. Hopefully visiting Techcrunch Disrupt in NYC too.

Thanks for your continued support
Jon

Sorry for the infrequent updates - we have been very busy getting both the JaJa Stylus and the AppTag Laser Blaster into production, we have a lot of people asking me "where can I get more?" or "My friend wants one!" etc. I thought I'd let you know that we have the online store up.

We're now accepting pre-orders for the JaJa Pressure Sensitive Stylus - so if you know someone who missed out during the Kickstarter program, or if you want to order more please visit http://www.jajastylus.com and you will be first in line after we ship to our original backers!

NOTE - the shipping date on the website is after our backer shipments go out!

There are a surprising number of parts in the stylus and making sure it is going to work flawlessly is a huge job - never-the-less we're confident you will love it when it ships. We'll have some cool things to show off in the next 10 days or so.

If you want an AppTag Laser Blaster the pre-order page for that will be up next week. But for now you can take a look at the latest update on the AppTag Kickstarter page - for some final design images of the AppTag.

If you are interested in distribution please fill in our contact form found at: http://www.jajastylus.com/pages/contact

Hi All,
In the last few weeks I have personally been working on our AppTag Laser Blaster Kickstarter project – it just has 3 days to run and is 120% funded, there is still time to get yourself one!

My work on AppTag has not slowed JaJa though, since our two design engineers have been working hard to get the JaJa perfect – I hope you like where we have gone with this, the same perfection is being applied to AppTag!

Anyway, here’s what we have been doing! Feel free to skip to the updated pics below, and come back… I’ll wait… :-)
The internals of the JaJa are tiny<!>, and it has taken a lot of work to get the design and materials just right. After a lot of discussion with our distributors, some backers and the factory we have also made some design changes. Below are the changes we have made and the reasons for them.

Battery life – Our expected battery life is 80-90 hours of use, probably double your mouse battery life! Whack - Take that Bluetooth! :-) A Pressure Sensitive Bluetooth Stylus would struggle with 15 hours, we deliver 6 times that!

The tip - this has probably been the most difficult thing to get right, in general, other stylus tips are ugly black blobs or have internal components that block the view of the screen or cause skipping when moved across the screen. Our tip is different – the picture only tells part of the story, but it is an elegant, refined solution.

The speaker grill – Now an simple slot with some metallic mesh to block debris (similar to iPad 1 speaker) - our original design called for 288 x 0.4mm holes – it looked great, but would halve the battery life, since we needed double the sound output. Remember our high frequency sound is how your Tablet knows how hard you press etc. Small holes and sound don’t mix too well.

Battery – We have decided to go with a user replaceable AAA battery, I know some of you might be disappointed with this decision, but many more will applaud it, let me explain: I had many negative comments about my original choice of internal fixed rechargeable battery – many of you wanted battery you could change. The JaJa is designed for an iPad - you want to be mobile! When the battery dies you don’t want to find an outlet – or worse still find a USB port – iPads don’t even have a USB port! A AAA battery allows you to switch battery and just keep drawing! Obviously you can use a AAA rechargeable, but you wont be stuck with a dead stylus.

Styling – what can I say, I hope you like our refinements, I think it looks like a pretty classy technical writing instrument now. It was nice before – but the JaJa is going to be amazing now!

Delivery Date – sorry to say it has slipped a little; we had a couple of delays with materials samples. I’ll confirm more next week when we have the final schedule. It’s looking like 3rd week of May.

Finally – color choice questionnaire, and delivery address – we’ll be doing the color choice questionnaire next week, and the delivery address just prior to delivery – so fear not – we will be getting to that!

Feel free to message me with any queries or problems! Next update will be from the factory!

Greetings!

Here's a few updates on the jaja stylus.
1. We were approached during the week by a company that produces the worlds most important creative authoring software, they are keen to integrate jaja support with their touch enabled apps! This is HUGE news for us and our backers - congrats folks, you picked a winner.

2. Electronics design is on schedule and the same PCB will be found in our new Kickstarter project  - AppTag - Laser Tag, which is now 50% funded after just 10 days.  If you are a distributor or reseller for the jaja - consider the AppTag project too, it uses the same core tech.

3. The jaja nib or tip has been fully redesigned after feedback from backers! We have heard that the ball and socket joint found on another stylus is problematic (that design was from an Apple patent too). We now have a significantly better solution which I will reveal when you open the jaja box! :-) Plus as we develop improvements into the future ANY tip we build should fit the current model jaja - our stylus is future proof! If the iPad 3 (4,5, etc) has a higher resolution sensor grid, we can modify our tips to work, and you won't need a whole new stylus...

4. My company is growing, with the addition of a product manager who has had huge experience in consumer electronics. We are appointing distributors around the world and have large commitments starting to come in from them. We're not ready for consumer pre-orders just yet, but soon you and your friends can order extra stylus at
www.jajastylus.com

Thanks again,
Jon Atherton

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Our new project that uses the jaja electronics is live:
AppTag - Laser Blaster for iPhone, iPod & Android