Production update

We’re due to begin our phase 1 shipment tracking number on the 20th of January which gives the rings 10 days to get out of Asia and onto a plane. As soon as they are on a plane it will take about 2 weeks to get them through customs and to our US and EU shipping centers. As soon as they arrive we start packaging and posting. We’re not sure how long it will take to pick and package each ring yet but we will be setting up a Web-cam and screen so you can watch the progress live.

Just to remind you guys, phase 1 is all the rings except normal rings with fiber inlays and the custom rings. Phase 2 is due after Chinese new year. Actually doing it in phases will give us a great way to understand the process of customs/import/sorting/packing etc.

App bug fixes and updates

Our updated NFC Ring Control and NFC Ring Unlock App launch was, thanks to you guys, a huge success. We got plenty of bug reports and feature requests, which means we got lots of bug fixes in within the first 48 hours, thanks to everyone. Lots of fixes went back into the Apache Cordova project which is great because everyone using that software also benefits, hurraa for open source!

If you wrote a negative review because you spotted a bug, please consider updating your review as it’s very likely your bug will have been resolved.

We now support Text records (Such as your public bitcoin key). However, due to Windows Phone API limitations this functionality is currently limited to Android.
Windows Phone App

The Windows Phone NFC Ring Control App update has been approved, this includes the new branding and new iconography which should make the App look a lot better on your device. Each time we update this App we have to go through a paper-pushing process with Microsoft which is time consuming, so expect this App to fall a little behind the Android App. Sorry Windows Phone users!

Gearing up for delivery

We have been busy gearing up for delivery; ensuring we have the correct address labels, return labels, printers, spreadsheets, sweet spot stickers, inlays, storage units, boxes, bags, postage labels and packaging. Right now we’re umming and arring between velvet bags or pillow boxes, which do you prefer? The pillow box means we can put an identification sticker on each box so you know what your Ring SKU is.

Kickstarter Inlay Cover pics

Check it out, how slick and subtle do these Kickstarter limited edition rings look? We’re super happy with them, our designer did an amazing job on the artwork and they all came out looking great, we can’t wait to see them in real life!

Quality Assurance

We have begun our QA process at the factory. Because we provide rigid QA documentation and testing tools to the factory, they have done a relatively good job of ensuring quality. However as is always the case, our QA process has uncovered some issues we’re not happy with and we’re working with the factory to resolve them. Some of the ring inlays aren’t cut perfectly and some of the soldering on some ring joints is too weak, these rings fail QA so they need to be re-made). See all of our QA Pics

Sweet Spot Stickers

Woop, they just arrived, hot of the press, here is an un-boxing video and some pics! We’re really pleased with them!

Paladium and Platinum rings

We’ve been investigating and prototyping Platinum and Palladium NFC Rings for a little while now. Due to the expense of the raw materials and the amount of work required to make these, the prices will be much much higher than our standard rings. We thought offering rings in these materials would be a great addition to our line-up and could be perfect for special occasions, or special gifts for a loved one. We were curious if these might be something you guys would be interested in?

My thoughts on the Stealth Bomber (and carbon fiber)

Over the festive period I realized just how awesome the stealth bomber is. Before I was wearing the Stealth Bomber ring I was wearing a titanium ring with carbon fiber inlays, mostly because I thought my lifestyle was too reckless for the black metal to hold up well enough. However, the Stealth Bomber has totally taken me by surprise, it’s held up pretty well. There are a few scuffs starting to appear on the edges of the ring – but I do wear it *all* the time; shovelling coal (it’s cold in the UK at the moment!), generally banging it around and plenty of rough metal on metal contact. So if you want it to remain in really great condition, it’s probably a good idea to remove the ring if you’re likely to be constantly grinding it on things!

However, I still keep catching a glimpse of it at various angles and think how awesome it looks and how lucky I am to have a community that could recognize the importance of real carbon fiber and styling, thank you guys for voicing your opinions on the Carbon fiber issue last month.

One negative thing I do have about the stealth bomber is that in dark lighting conditions it’s really difficult to figure out if an inlay is facing the right way to use it. Obviously this is intentional but it’s worth documenting for those who may want to use their ring a lot in dark lighting conditions (such as unlocking your phone first thing in the morning).

Nexus 5

I know a lot of you wanted more feedback about the Nexus 5 so I ordered one from the play store (and a Jolla handset and also another S4 for testing with). The Nexus 5 arrived yesterday and it turns out the read/write performance is actually acceptable with my test normal ring. My expectation from preliminary testing on my brothers is that the antenna on the Nexus 5 wouldn’t work very well with the normal ring, but I was quite surprised to find it was working pretty well – probably on par with the Samsung S4 (which is our benchmark for poor performance. I’ll be doing further testing with different rings and will report back.
We still recommend to switch to an Alpha ring if you have a Nexus 5, however if you really want to stick with the slimmer normal ring – you can see below that it *does* seem to work ok.

Finally

If you haven’t updated your address before the 15th of Jan on Kickstarter you will need to email support@nfcring.com as we’re no longer using Kickstarter for data.

Please update your reviews if you posted a negative review due to a bug and please try to post issues on the bug tracker so we can fix issues ASAP. Thanks everyone for your input so far, together we’re making this happen!

Also, we’re starting to post content more exclusively on our blog and social networks now so try to follow us on them. As Kickstarter draws to a close, we would love it for you guys to continue helping to steer the NFC Ring ship!

Twitter / Facebook / Youtube / Github / Forum