Kickstarter

Hey

In my last update I had stated that the T1 samples are on the way to Honolulu and the cable color samples are in progress. Here is another update, which refers to the latter.

The small corrections that I shared with you in the last update did all get taken care of. The manufacturing of the whole product actually consists of several components, most of which are being produced in the one factory we are working with. However, the cable sleeve (the colorful rubber-like material) that we usually would refer to as “the cable itself” comes from another larger factory that makes only cables, and nothing but cables. Since this part is made from a different type of material than the housing parts of the Dock Connector, the male USB and the female USB, the colors have to be perfectly matched first. Check out the pictures below, I feel that the manufacturer has done a good job regarding this matter.

Nevertheless it is still challenging to work with a manufacturer abroad. Another small thing that came up is the following: the imprint on the cable should say “Designed by Juicies in Hawaii   Assembled in China". Even though this was already called for on the spec sheet back in August 2011, they still sent me samples that say: “Designed by JUICIES in Hawaii   Assembled in china". Here you can note the improper capitalization and on the picture below you can see that there are huge gaps in between each word. Doesn't seem like to big of a deal, I guess, but then again I don't want to print another piece of paper or make a sticker and attach that to the cables because of this. Each newly manufactured item that gets imported to the US from overseas needs to be labeled with the place of origin. A proper imprint on the cable itself would take care of this requirement. These are only some of the small obstacles, which I am talking about. The communication can take a lot of effort at times

The next steps for the color samples are as follows:

• The correction on the imprint on the cables has to be made

• The connector housing parts have to be manufactured according to the T1 samples

• The cables and connector housing parts have to be assembled

It would have been much easier and faster if I had opted for a non-MFI licensed cable, but then again I wanted a certain standard for the product right from the beginning. It took me about a month to produce the colorful non-MFI licensed samples back in 2011 before I launched this Kickstarter campaign. However, while those looked great, the quality was basically junk. They stopped charging intermittently and sometimes even damaged the devices I was trying them out with. The MFI program is great. Also, if there will be any updates in the future to connectors on the OEM side (i.e. Apple, etc), then it should be rather easy and much and faster for us to just update as well. (Thunderbolt to Dock Connector rumors anyone :-) Anyways, some of you have asked what MFI actually stands for, so let me describe the MFI Program very briefly:

“The Made for iPod, Made for iPhone, and Made for iPad logos mean that an electronic accessory has been designed to connect specifically to iPod, iPhone, or iPad and has been certified by the developer to meet Apple performance standards.

Developers receive technical specifications describing the iPod Accessory protocol, the communication protocol used to interact with iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Developers also gain access to the hardware connectors and components that are required to manufacture iPod, iPhone, and iPad accessories.”

You can read more about it here: https://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi/

As you can see, some delays in production just can't be helped, yet I want to state once more that I take full responsibility for completing the project. It is not my intent to blame the manufacturer or any other person. The only reason I am sharing these problems and obstacles of my JUICIES product venture with you, is because I feel that you, the backers deserve more transparency and I want to show you what I am currently working on.

Thanks for all the useful comments, which I have received as a response to the last update. I hope this update was helpful too. Aloha.

Laurens

808.351.2891

…one last thing, yes JUICIES will work just fine with “The New iPad” (3rd Gen).