1400 rings shipped since last update, order fulfilment up to 70%, delays on Alphas.


Full length video update

TLDR; 1400 rings shipped since last update, order fulfilment up to 70%, delays on Alphas is biggest hold up.

Social Tentacle Ninjas

As you guys know it’s been a really rough few months so when we see social gold like these it really helps motivate us to keep pushing towards the goal of making everyone’s finger smarter.

Thanks guys!

Revised schedule

Alphas

We have had two set backs on the alpha ring deliveries, even at this late date it appears our factory are still making the same mistake over and over again. Firstly ~70% of the Alphas weren’t polished properly, these have been returned to the factory and they will be re-polishing them, secondly the Alphas(Quantity 200) with a transparent side had the wrong inlay (The one with the inlay company logo on), these failed our QA and are in the process of being remade. Naturally this has had a knock on with collection orders as we haven’t had all of the rings available in stock. We hope to get the alphas back into the UK by June the 10th at which point we can continue with collection and alpha fulfillment. The Alphas were our easiest ring to make so hitting these basic production errors so late on is so frustrating. 22% of orders are awaiting an Alpha ring.

Custom Rings

The custom rings came and look great however the majority of the rings were missing and only one ring was engraved. Unfortunately this means we cannot fulfill all of these orders yet.

Out of stock ring sizes

Sizes 8.5,9,9.5 and 10 are completely out of stock in all combinations. This is due to the factory not following our order sheet and due to high numbers of QA fails in those sizes. We’re awaiting new stock however it may be 2-3 weeks until these land due to delays in shipping/holidays, the factory has been aware of this shortage for quite some time but wanted to resolve other issues (alpha/PVD plating) before shifting focus to these. This lack of stock represents about 8% of the remaining orders. We will be expediting this process as much as possible to get our stock levels back up to something manageable and to ensure we can fulfill the remaining orders as ninja-like as possible.

Replacement rings

Out of 200 Blue plated rings ordered we only received 20 (due to plating issues) so as per our previous updates RE plating we have shipped replacement non-plated rings.

We’re at a point now with our factory now where actually getting the correct order fulfilled by them is proving to be impossible, with that in mind to keep things moving some rings that had unique color options have had alternative colors supplied. For example if your order was a Titanium Ring with Red and black inlay covers and we didn’t get delivered this exact color combination then we will have replaced your ring with the closest match for example Red and Transparent inlay covers. If you aren’t happy with this ring you can always return it or request a replacement. We appreciate this isn’t ideal but from the feedback we have had with sending out replacement rings we feel it’s the best possible approach in these circumstances.

Software Updates

The NFC Ring Unlock App is about to get another release for beta testers. The beta version will among many other things include a compulsory requirement for a scanned NFC Ring prior to enabling device security and also a PIN code will be required. This new functionality should make first adoption a little less perilous. We still have a long road to walk with both Apps but we appreciate the support through beta testing, bug reporting and other involvement.

Fulfilling Pre-Orders

May was the first month we began shipping pre-orders. One thing I want to be clear on is that under no circumstance will we ship a pre-order ring that is scheduled for a Kickstarter backer or even a size that may be going to a Kickstarter backer. We only ship pre-order rings we have ample stock that under no circumstance would be due to go to a Kickstarter backer. Pre-order rings should start landing in the next week or two, if you are a backer and haven’t had your rings yet but someone gets their pre-order before you it is for the reason I mention before, it is impossible for us to fulfill your order at current and there is no way to expedite the process any further than we are already doing so. Naturally it’s dangerous for us to do this but there is no point us having Quantity 100 NORMAL-T-B-W rings sat on a shelf doing nothing, they will be no use to Kickstarter backers waiting for an ALPHA-T-T-B. Due to the delays with shipping Kickstarter we decided mid May to move all future pre-orders shipping date to June so we can ensure we remain focused, this obviously means sales are slower but nothing is more important than ensuring that the remaining Kickstarter orders are fulfilled ASAP so the remaining of you that are still waiting can get to hacking!

I have my ring now I want to start using it to do awesome things!

The projects we’re seeing on the forum are really starting to gain some traction now, our catalog of digital door locks that support the NFC Ring is growing and we’re seeing lots of innovation and feedback land so if you haven’t already yet do head over there to get involved.. Other places to join the discussion are Reddit, IRC, our Blog, Twitter, Facebook.

Sharing the company

In the last long video update I talked(rambled) at a length about how I’d like to see the company partly owned by the community. The motivation behind this approach is to avoid an Oculus style experience. The NFC Ring isn’t the biggest project on Kickstarter by a long stretch but like Oculus we do have a lot of new projects being built around our technology so lots of people are becoming stakeholders in one-way-shape-or-form anyway so it makes sense to me to extend that to something more official. We are having a discussion about this over at https://forum.nfcring.com/topic/238/if-shares-in-the-company-were-available#1692 and if you have any thoughts about how this might play out feel free to leave a comment or join the conversation on the forum.

Taking a moment to breath at Devoxx

As you can imagine we have been flat out through May getting the fulfillment numbers up to 70%, to blow off some steam we’re heading to Devoxx UK where we will be exclusively demo’ing some of our newer inventions which include toys to shoot zombies with! The event is probably fully booked but we will be down in London for a few days until after the footy game so if you want to meet up then get in touch!