Kickstarter

Hi there

In the last update I talked about the product arrival in Honolulu and the unpacking of the first Juicies. This update is to let you know that Juicies are now being shipped daily and have also already been picked locally in Hawaii.

Hawaii Backers

Last week I had the chance to meet with a bunch of Backers from Honolulu. I gave out rewards, shook hands and got big hugs. It was really nice to finally meet some of the people that made Juicies become a reality. I wish all of you 1674 Backers (or at least most ;-) could have been there! Everyone was very happy to finally get their reward. And quite a few of them actually picked up a few extra Juicies as stocking stuffers and gifts. If you guys are interested in that as well, rest assured you guys will always be on the top of my list. Once the Kickstarter campaign is wrapped up and all rewards are shipped out I will be sending you a link to pick up more Juicies at a special Backer price.

Shipping

All of you have received the address confirmation email and most have confirmed or updated by now. I have been going over the list a few times now to make sure all addresses and the reward selection is correct. I also picked up an entire car full of envelopes and have been going mailing label crazy ever since! The bigger shipments of 5 or more Juicies are leaving this week. All others, which are the bulk of it, will be send out shortly after that. A lot of the European shipments have been packed up already too. They will be send out directly from Germany by my partner Hannes. He is in charge for Juicies in Europe from now on.

Below are pictures of Happy Backers in Honolulu, about 2000 envelopes in my car, some packages being shipped from Germany and lot’s of Juicies on a table.

Thank you once more for your patience and support. I really hope you will like your rewards!

Aloha

Laurens

808.351.2891

info@juicies.com

Hi there

In the last update I talked about the manufacturing process and the new Juicies Micro USB cable. Today I want to let you know that just about everything in regards to the manufacturing process is done! The assembly of the cables and housings for all three products (the Dock Connector, the Micro USB cable and the USB Extension cable) is now complete! At the moment, we are getting ready to ship the products from the factory to the US and Europe. I also wanted to share with you that the new Juicies.com website is live. Go ahead and have a look and let me know what you think. I will take critical and productive feedback very seriously.

Dock Connector & Shielding
I am sure most of you still remember the big fuss I made about the inner shielding of the Dock Connector parts? Well, I am happy to let you know that all the trouble was worth it. Together with the manufacturer we figured out a great way to completely shield all wires and PCB parts on all three of our Products, including the Dock Connector! This means that our Dock Connectors are some of the best quality and most durable ones out there in the entire market! That's a huge deal since there are literally over a billion of these cables in existence.

iPhone 5 & Lightning Connector
Some of you have contacted me regarding the iPhone 5 and the new Lightning connector. You asked me how this will affect Juicies and also you, the backers. Well let me put it this way: YES the iPhone 5 is awesome and YES the new Lightning connector is already shaking up the entire mobile accessory market worldwide. But don’t forget that the Dock Connector is not about to just disappear overnight. According to Tim Cook’s recent presentation at the iPhone 5 launch event, there are over 400.000.000 active iOS devices that were sold through June 2012. These are just iOS devices so this number only includes the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. It does not include devices such as the iPod Nano, iPod Classic and all the other older iPods that still work just fine. If you include all these models, the number of Dock Connector-based devices easily climbs to over 500 Million! On top of that Apple itself is still selling and will continue to sell the iPhone 4, the iPhone 4S, the iPad 2, the iPod Touch 4th Gen and the iPod Classic. From a report I just read, Apple is expected to globally sell even more iPhone 4S units this coming quarter than they did in the last. The iPhone 4S will probably be sold for another full two years! So I do believe that the Dock Connector cables will still be needed for quite a while.

Although I would have loved to give you the option of a MFi certified Lightning Connector right away, our Apple certified contract manufacturer has informed us that the earliest delivery date for the new connector will be at least 4-5 months after its release date. Of course I expected this from the beginning, so this is why why I decided to produce the Juicies Micro USB Cable and the Juicies USB Extension Cable as an alternative to the 30 Pin Dock Connector. This extra variety comes at no additional cost to you, so in my opinion this was still way to respond to changing technological standards.

Website
The new Juicies online store is now live, but the inventory is still set to “sold out” until the shipment arrives in the US and all your rewards have been mailed out. I have already included the Micro USB cables on the website. A few weeks ago we did a photo shoot on “how Juicies may be used in real life” and it came out very nice. You can see some of those photos we took on the new website and I am posting some other ones below. I want to say a big thanks to Singer/Songwriter Lucie Völcker for letting us use her VW Bus by the name of Frida as a prop. Also many thanks to Daniel Würschl for taking such amazing pics. You guys are awesome.

Address Change & Shipment
In order to make things easy on you guys, I am setting up a page on our new site where you will be able to see how much you pledged and what color you originally chose. On that page you will also be able to change your color and cable type (how about a USB Extension instead of a Dock Connector for all you new iPhone 5 owners?), as well as update your shipping address. I will send you the link to this page in the next update which should come very soon. That being said, we are preparing things for shipping now. So when all the big boxes arrive, your rewards will be ready to go out.

Below are pictures of some of the finished Juicies USB to Dock Connector cables, the Juicies USB to Micro USB cables, a picture of the packaging and some pictures from our photo shoot. As you can see, we are very close now, hang in there! I am looking forward to your comments as always and I thank you once more for your patience and support.

Aloha

Laurens
808.351.2891
info@juicies.com

Hi there

In the last update I talked about the manufacturing process, our new website and the project timeline. In this update I will give you some brief information about the current manufacturing status. I also want to share some good news with you: The Juicies Micro USB cable!

Micro USB
Many of you are wondering about the new iPhone 5 Dock Connector. Me too! As a matter of fact, no official details about the technical specifications have been made public yet. Therefore, it doesn’t make much sense to prepare anything regarding the new Dock Connector, until it is officially released by Apple on September 12. Instead I have opted for another solution: Micro USB.

Some of you said that you own a Kindle or some other Tablet, while others have let me know that they have an entirely different phone now. Most tablets and pretty much all new Smartphones – including Android, BlackBerry & Windows Phone – are based on the Micro USB standard by now. As you might recall from one of my previous updates, we had to order a rather large amount of cable in order to get the right colors. So, instead of just making tens of thousands of Dock Connector cables, I have split the production into three product lines: Juicies USB to Dock Connector, Juicies USB to Micro USB, and Juicies USB Extension cables. That means you will be able to choose from either (or several) of these three products, in case you don't want the cable you originally asked for. I will contact you all directly regarding your choice of product and color as soon as the production is completed. At that time you will also be able to update your address, if you need to.

Production Status
As far as the production is concerned, all is coming along well right now. The manufacturing of the actual cables and the housing parts is complete. The individual parts will now have to be assembled. Most of the USB Extensions are actually already finished! The MFi-certified Dock Connector parts have to be integrated into their respective housings – this is currently being worked on. The Juicies USB to Micro USB cables are being manufactured alongside the Dock Connector cables. That means the Micro USB cables will be finished around the same time as the Dock Connectors. Right after the assembly comes the packaging. The eco-friendly packaging material we ordered from a specialized packaging manufacturer should arrive very soon.

Below are some pictures of the manufacturing & assembly process and also some pictures of the new Juicies USB to Micro USB cables.

I am very glad that things are moving forward now. Thank you once more for your patience and support. As always, I am looking forward to your comments.

Aloha

Laurens
808.351.2891
info@juicies.com