I followed tlrobinson's advice and bought Sleep Cycle for the iPhone. It's 0.99 and works well. Still, I'm optimistic about WakeMate, especially the analytics.
Just bought it thanks to both of you!
WakeMate Photo Op
21–30 of 40 posts
Re: WakeMate Photo Op
#22Long overdue
Re: WakeMate Photo Op
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
The time consuming part is probably getting the HW manufactured. Why not code up the software for multiple platforms while waiting on that? I think covering both iPhone and Android is a pretty good move.
I am not a hardware guy, but the few pieces of hardware I've seen ordered took a week to get a run of 100 test units, they spent two weeks working some bugs out, then put in an order of 1000 which came a week after placing the order. This was done out of a shop in the US, not sure what it is like doing production runs overseas, but I can't imagine it's much slower. This of course ignores the time spent designing/rede…
Unless you are dealing with supply chain issues on new(ish) or rare components, which can take many months to resolve. The WakeMate is simple enough that I wouldn't expect this to be an issue, but who knows?
Re: WakeMate Photo Op
#24i'm confused why people are so mad. doesn't the pre-order only cost $1?
Re: WakeMate Photo Op
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am not a hardware guy, but the few pieces of hardware I've seen ordered took a week to get a run of 100 test units, they spent two weeks working some bugs out, then put in an order of 1000 which came a week after placing the order. This was done out of a shop in the US, not sure what it is like doing production runs overseas, but I can't imagine it's much slower. This of course ignores the time spent designing/rede…
Unless you are dealing with supply chain issues on new(ish) or rare components, which can take many months to resolve. The WakeMate is simple enough that I wouldn't expect this to be an issue, but who knows?
Their blog talks about how you have to have a special auth-chip to pair with an iPhone, that could be an issue...Though I think Apple would make sure those were in large supply.
Re: WakeMate Photo Op
#26i'm confused why people are so mad. doesn't the pre-order only cost $1?
It was $5 - but it's not about the money.
It's about a company promising something and not following through. Top that off with a big helping of poor communication, and you start to get an idea of why some people are frustrated.
Re: WakeMate Photo Op
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
The time consuming part is probably getting the HW manufactured. Why not code up the software for multiple platforms while waiting on that? I think covering both iPhone and Android is a pretty good move.
I am not a hardware guy, but the few pieces of hardware I've seen ordered took a week to get a run of 100 test units, they spent two weeks working some bugs out, then put in an order of 1000 which came a week after placing the order. This was done out of a shop in the US, not sure what it is like doing production runs overseas, but I can't imagine it's much slower. This of course ignores the time spent designing/rede…
I saw an FCC stamp – getting FCC approval would have taken at least a month. And I have no idea whether something like this would require FDA approval, but I'm sure they had to at least research that.
Re: WakeMate Photo Op
#28Great to see a sign of life from wakemate, now let's hope stay awake and keep updating, say a small progress report once every two weeks or so. At that level the time invested is manageable and you keep your customers in the loop.
Amazing! It's funny how if Wakemate hadn't screwed up, the world wouldn't be justified in demanding periodic updates! I mean, do you really ask Posterous to give you bi-weekly updates? I just hope the Wakemates realize that (a) the bar is significantly higher because they're YC-backed (b) every day they spend not putting the product in a customer's hands, they're setting themselves up for more work (such as sending bi-weekly status updates) which may not even be common under normal circumstances, or risk pissing off more [potential] customers.
I really hope someone does a detailed post-mortem analysis on the Wakemates (AndrewWarner?); there's a ton of stuff to learn about how not to do PR/marketing in here for the rest of us to learn & implement. :)
Re: WakeMate Photo Op
#29Re: WakeMate Photo Op
#30Great to see a sign of life from wakemate, now let's hope stay awake and keep updating, say a small progress report once every two weeks or so. At that level the time invested is manageable and you keep your customers in the loop.
Amazing! It's funny how if Wakemate hadn't screwed up, the world wouldn't be justified in demanding periodic updates! I mean, do you really ask Posterous to give you bi-weekly updates? I just hope the Wakemates realize that (a) the bar is significantly higher because they're YC-backed (b) every day they spend not putting the product in a customer's hands, they're setting themselves up for more work (such as sending b…
If they had delivered when they first promised there would be no issue at all. But once you go across your self-imposed deadline you have to make sure that those that pre-ordered are kept in the loop on the hows-and-whys.
It's like BP estimating the outflow from that leak way too low. If their estimate had been 'on target' or 'high' there would have been no problem, by estimating too low they've set themselves up for all kinds of trouble.
The interesting thing is that I don't see any perceived cost in overestimating, but a significant cost to underestimating.