Keep reading, Kahuna, there’s more than just that. Pretend you have no Treg unit and are a long suffering customer who has been there since the beginning. This is important. If you are a tregger you are blind to the digs because they have zero relevance to you. You are not an impartial person in this regard.
No. You claim they made digs. Provide the example. I've already scanned twice while out, and read through carefully when I got back. I've also offered what I thought you might be referring to. All of which is way more than I should need to do since, you know, YOU are making the claim and could simply provide the example.
As for impartiality, that happens to apply to you as well.
If you actually have something, provide it and people can decide if it makes sense.
In response to the question regarding whether an update, and by update I mean the promised "technical update", will be available by 2019-06-21:
Info about our next firmware release will be on our site, (not in this article comment zone). Please look for it there.
I did not ask "where will it be/" nor did I ask "can you post it here?"
Did you misunderstand the question? here it is again:
I look forward to your next update, can you let me know whether it will be before 2019-06-21 or not?
I'll help; the possible answers are:
Yes.
No.
I don't know.
I refuse to say.
Not to answer the question.
Everything past the first line of your response does not answer the question.
I can not ask this question on your site, and as a customer I think that it would be a simple question to answer. (Yes it will, no it won't, i don't know, I refuse, look a squirrel.)
So.
Let me know whether your next update will be before 2019-06-21 or not?
oh, well. More than 1000 posts with very little to nil new & useful product and project status information. Hopefully before May is up we will have the promised detailed technical update. Roughly a week left...just sayin'
Please do not engage in the same behavior you condemn in the same breath: Instead of attacking the posters answer the questions please. (Even if you feel slighted do not engage in bickering / personal attack & defense) ==>That would be a more productive use of your time and comments sections of this article and much more valued by your audience.
A few points:
a) DBK does not need you to defend him.
b) He is not the only "real customer". You have very many past, present and future prospective customers in this audience. Don't get confused.
c) The Assembly / MC argument was interesting (not the attacking parts in any direction), BUT it was a side argument at best, and completely unrelated to the topic in question. Why engage on that but dodge all product & project questions ?
d) Just answer the PRODUCT & PROJECT questions please. That is what we are all here for. We have not received 1 single product & project answer except you will provide a technical update before the end of May after 1024 posts so far. IMAGINE THIS. You are not WT and this is not about the TB. You are a regular customer:
1- You are a customer that placed an order for something years ago, and you have not received it because of delays for WHATEVER (valid) reason
2- You are engaged enough that you have not forgotten about it, and in fact you read about it almost every day for 4+ years
3- It is only natural you would be upset, anxious & frustrated, and wanting information on the product & status of the project
4- INSTEAD of a deluge of information, the information you receive as a customer has been less and less and now almost nothing and even the updates are lately not coming almost at all.
5- The vendor (proudly & constantly) offers refunds for frustrated customers as if that solved anything. You just want your thing.
6- There is an exclusive very small group of testers that have had units for years and tell you constantly how great the product you can't have is. How "worth of the wait" it is. (Side comment: Kind of bizarre situation that somebody that has what you want, tells you that you should be happy you don't have it and you should be happy to keep waiting. That is what "worth the wait" means for us. WE will tell YOU later if it was worth the wait or not).
7- After you post at the vendor site, you get silenced like in a police state. You get banned & perhaps even forcefully refunded too for your troubles.
8- You believe you did nothing to warrant being banned. When you email the vendor, you receive no response, or you get one liners or comments that have nothing to do to what you posted. The best you get is "we will let the ban stand for a while". 7 months more go by and you are still silenced.
9- The vendor does not post much info on the product & project, but spends a ton of time discussing unrelated Apple stuff helping a tester with his computer, cooktops, helmets, and airplane crashes. BUT NOTHING on the project status dodging every question and postponing any answer to future upcoming updates.
10- You see a glowing review article and you jump into the comments section but the vendor only engages in attack and defense posturing, and provides nothing substantial and dodges every product & project questions, and only promises an upcoming update.
==> Have you been able to follow this exercise and visualize yourself as this customer ? Can YOU imagine how YOU would feel ? THINK ABOUT IT. Suggestions:
1 - Do an AMA as it was suggested many times. Perhaps after the technical update it would be great to have a Q&A session (on topic).
2 - Unban people reminding them of the WTF forum rules and move this discussion to your site. Some of us engage here because we have no other venue. Capiche ?
3- Provide more info and answer questions. Unless you have a gag order by a court it is incredible that you are not eager to share much more and have your "come to Jesus moment" and spill clearly what the situation is and what can be expected. It would relieve you a lot of the stress and would help you in your troubled relation with your customers. WE ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS.
WayTools asked that I acknowledge their responses to my queries. For some reason my original response is still in moderation. I'm guessing it's because of the links in their responses. I'm going to remove the links so you can decide for yourself how helpful their responses are. Remember, my emails to them were basically, "when will the product ship." I asked more stuff at the end, but you get the point. Their unedited responses are below (except I removed the links).
Keep in mind their first reply 1 year and 9 months after my order hints that shipping is just around the corner. The next one, 2 months later even told me the shipping process. In 2018, they said it was "going to be a great year for TextBlade and all its users." In August 2018, they confirmed my shipping estimate was "this summer" and even underlined it. 3/21/2019 was the first time they mentioned getting a refund in an email to me. That was after I mentioned the FTC.
You can also see the post that got me banned from their site (3/21/2019). Hey, it's their site and they are welcome to ban me, but you can decide if it was a bit draconian.
9/29/2016: Hi John, Thanks for your email. We certainly understand that folks are eager to get their TextBlades, and sorry for our delay. We will be adding more TREG users, and will keep you in mind. Either way, just as TREG deliveries did happen, so will your shipment, and we hope you do love it when yours arrives. New TREG shipments always reflect the latest build process knowledge, and TREG user input is working very effectively to validate update details to help expedite general release. We've posted a Q4 window estimate on your status page while we work through inventory updates based on extensive user testing data, and flex fab is progressing as planned. You're in an early shipping group, so we do hope it'll be by your anniversary, but we'll have better visibility once we've tested finished TextBlades from this new process. We're using everything learned from TREG user experience, and putting it into what we ship to everyone. The heavy user testing is a conservative philosophy and takes time, but we think it's right for a big step forward. We very much appreciate your interest, and we are working hard to release something you will love. Thank you, WayTools Team
11/21/2016: Hi John, Thanks for your email, and sorry for our delay. We've identified and believe we've now resolved an intermittent issue that could sometimes cause character swaps for some users. We've shipped newly updated units to the field, and we're analyzing more user input now to be certain that's it's completely validated, but so far it looks good. Customers have been reporting good improvements with the units that we've shipped out with these changes, and we believe we understand what was causing it and how to prevent it. We are testing firmware and lamination process changes we've made to address this. In the meantime, we've preemptively ordered some additional lamination part stock, to let us move pretty quickly if all checks out ok. So we have units in the field right now with the firmware and lamination changes, and we're hopeful that let's us start general release within this quarter. After our test release group customers confirm no further details to address, we'll start shipping general release. You'll get a Configuration Email a few days before your shipment is ready to go out with a link to control all the details, so you'll be notified automatically. Customers are pretty happy with our test release shipments, and you can read some of their comments on our Blog page (link removed). We certainly don't want to take longer than needed, but with a significant advance, there's a duty to respond on those details, so everyone can enjoy what this new machine can really do. Thank you, WayTools Team
8/13/2017: Hi John, Thanks so much for writing us, and very sorry for holding back general release. We are currently working with an expanding group of Test Release Group (TREG) users who we've shipped, to find and resolve any detail points they report based on their daily use. We'll confirm a final ship date for you once the remaining user observations have been settled, and that's expected over the next few months. We're very sorry our estimates can't be more precise right now. We'll update your Status Page (LINK REMOVED) again as we approach general release, and dates will become more definitive at that time. For many of our TREG customers, testing is already complete right now, but our users are pretty thorough on the details, and some have found unusual cases that are worth addressing before general release. They are finding less and less now, so that's quite encouraging. We're sorry that takes time, but we think you'll find it's definitely worth us making that extra effort. Very much appreciate your patience, John. We hope you are very pleased when your TextBlade arrives. Thank you, WayTools Team
3/15/2018: Hi John, Thanks for checking in, and sorry for the late reply. Our team is in full swing, and very busy working together with hundreds of users who are helping validate TextBlade for general release. TREG users who have it now are already giving us strong validation that it is superior to all their other keyboards.
You can read about what we're doing on the Feb 17 report on your order status page (link removed). We’ll update as we complete the testing and begin general release. Very sorry our estimates can’t be more precise right now. Your pre-order purchase entitles you to significant savings and other benefits with our Early Adopter Guarantee (link removed). Those benefits include free MultiMap (save $19 per TextBlade), free future-proof swap (save up to $99), and a special gift based on your order date. All of those are included free of charge with your pre-order, and each are worth quite a bit of money. Our intent is that folks who ordered early should get a better deal. If any of those benefits is not of interest to you, we'd be happy to let you trade one for having us pay expedited shipping for you. We’re committed to doing all that’s needed for a high quality general release, and expect that 2018 will be a fantastic year for TextBlade and all its users. Thank you, WayTools Team
8/28/2018:
Hi John, Thanks for your note, and very sorry for holding back release during validation. Yes, your estimated ship window is this summer, and we will update you on your Status Page as the details are cleared. We’re shipping more TextBlades to expand the installed base of users, and the process is working really well. As the punch list has narrowed, we bring in more users to surface any remaining details, at a pace our support team can resolve quickly. Sorry for the time for this phase, but it’s really the fastest way to deliver the best experience in general release. Once you get your TextBlade, we hope it’ll be clear why this approach is smart for a major paradigm shift in technology. We very much appreciate your patience, John. Thank you, WayTools Team
3/21/2019: Hi John, Thanks for your email. We’re complying with FTC Regulations. We understand your impression on a quick read of them, but there’s more to the provisions, and you’ve conflated some of them. The context here is quite different from a default presumption of 30 days, if no time estimate had been stated. Here, we provide estimated dates which are some months out, and update as we have more info. We disclose and acknowledge the uncertainties of ship date on our order process, and don’t promise final dates until we have cleared certain technical milestones. We always let customers take a refund at will, at any time. If you study the FTC guidelines in depth (our legal team has), they apply to promised dates certain, rather than estimates that are disclosed to be uncertain. Ultimately, it’s always in the customer’s control whether to keep an order or get a quick refund. It’s easy for a customer to decide this online at any time, based on their view of contemporary status. The FTC always advises customers that the first recourse if not satisfied is simply to obtain a refund. That is the primary resolution mechanism. The regulations also provide for a vendor to make refunds preemptively and independently if needed, at the vendor’s discretion, in order to resolve any concerns of customers. The mod’s will suspend posts when they see information posted that is materially incorrect, which is represented as authoritative. In this case, this topic had already been visited many times on many threads, which are available on our site, and you can peruse. At this point, there is much published on topic covering the same points we discuss here with you in this email. We appreciate your interest, and hope you are delighted when you receive your TextBlade. Thank you, WayTools Team
3/21/2019: Hi John, 1. To your timing question, we’ll be updating our order status server with new info soon.You can read a little about what we’re preparing right now, on our forum here - (Link to forum removed). While we’re updating the firmware, for a rough idea, please assume it will be around summer when we get sign-off from the treg users, and can start general release. The team is working through detail points on this right now, so we’ll have a more defined forecast when we update the server. If you’d like to see some impressions from the customers we’ve already shipped, you can find them here (link to forum removed). 2. To the comments about a class action, we’ve not been noticed of any such action, which is a legal requirement for an actual suit. We know a couple customers mused about this as a way to push shipping them as part of treg, however we don’t see a bludger as a way to invite a friendly relationship. Please forward the contact you received and we’ll talk with them to answer their questions. 3. For forum posts, mod’s do change trust level for a cooling period when they see assertions that misinform. That’s the essential utility of the trust rating. In your post, the language was postured as a fairly imperative form of a declaration to all our customers. It suggests FTC conflict. Yet it’s in a forum where the audience is well-informed of the delay, and indeed conversing about it. We have no interest in heavy-handedness. But experience has shown that common sense caution is wise to avoid unproductive debate where a party may have interests other than resolution. Below is the language from your post - “Of course, if it doesn't ship, we should all be reminded of the notification rules required by the Federal Trade Commission relating to sales on the Internet. (REMOVED LINK TO FTC WEBSITE)” You can weigh whether the mod’s take seems arbitrary, or rational in this context. Thank you, WayTools Team
3/22/2019: Hi John, We’ll re-send your status page link via email. Use the Change tab there to cancel, and it will let you send the credit to any card you choose. So no worries if your old card expired. On your status page right near the schedule estimates, the explanations you want are located there, as the attached markups show. Your status page changes as we update with new information. You do not get an email each time your bank balance changes, for example. You just go online to your bank and can see the current balance. Your status page works the same way. We tried the notification email approach on earlier products, and many customers complained that there were simply too many notifications, so we adopted this method and customers prefer it. We had inventory when we made our first press announcement, but we held it back from mass release during this time, at great cost to us, because of the refinement work that we reported on in great detail as we progressed. You’ve referred to our press release, but didn’t acknowledge all that we reported since then. We accept that you don’t have faith in us, and won’t try to change your mind. But we do take pride in doing something distinguished, and treating our customers honorably. You can choose what to see, and what to ignore, as you please. In fairness, we did what we did, and posted what we wrote, even if you prefer not to read it or credit us for doing so. You may wish to judge us only on the part of the picture you choose to see, and are free to convince yourself we are uncaring, or unworthy. That’s up to you to decide. We mention these points not for our benefit, but on the chance that it might provide some closure and peace for you. With your refund, we’ll consider the matter settled. We’re grateful for your interest. Thank you, WayTools Team
It's a shame. I want the product. All they have to do is ship it. If so many TREGs are happy with it, then why not ship it? And for those that are so vocal, why not ship it to them and shut them up? If they have complaints, I would think that it would be easier to say, "hey, you are part of the TREG - we know there are still things to work out."
Thanks for posting our responses Mims. It helps clarify how we endeavored to address your questions.
But you did fail and continue to fail to answer the main question that I had: When will the product ship? You did a good job of implying that it will be very soon in the emails to me, but that was 3 years ago. I hope you will actually give us an answer.
I assume the current status estimate is "SUMMER." Do you realistically think you will ship over the summer or will you quietly change the estimate on September 23? Choose one: - Yes - No - We really have no idea
Mims - as previously answered on this comment zone, please look for all news on our code update and general release estimate on our forum and website. Thanks
And, considering the many discovered issues, that makes sense.
But it was nevertheless interesting to see they took the time to write lengthy responses, answered a number of questions, and were cordial about it.
It boggles the mind that they launched thinking they could ship in weeks.
They must have known there were problems before launching, which makes the launch claims bold, a lie etc.
There are plenty of explanations and reasonings as to why the delays occurred post launch, but to think none of this was known from the very beginning just doesn’t have the ring of truth to it, and shows the original orderers like myself, and you DBK, were misled.
It’s a shame. I hope the May update delivers real news. The excitement at the forum over new features is very nice, and a great sign of what is to come, but it’s a bit like discussing future iPhone X features when the original iPhone is still waiting to be delivered, and all the other iPhones in between needing to be released first.
MK can exclaim “wow” all he wants, but until non-Treg customers can say wow too, it’s rather academic.
MK can obfuscate all he wants, but he studiously avoids answering the simple question in 993.
I pray the doubts are unfounded, but right now we are looking down the barrel of 2020 and still no TextBlade, with the “yes” to will TB launch this year already explained by MK and DBK to mean maybe.
993. 993. 993. It’s troubling that MK can’t simply say “yes”, and even if he did, we know that this isn’t guaranteed.
Maybe that’s why MK hesitates to be honest. No true Knighton would have such a hesitancy.
It boggles the mind that they launched thinking they could ship in weeks. They must have known there were problems before launching, which makes the launch claims bold, a lie etc.
It’s a shame. I hope the May update delivers real news. The excitement at the forum over new features is very nice, and a great sign of what is to come, but it’s a bit like discussing future iPhone X features when the original iPhone is still waiting to be delivered, and all the other iPhones in between needing to be released first.
MK can obfuscate all he wants, but he studiously avoids answering the simple question in 993.
1.I don't know what was going on at that time, but I do know a fair amount of what happened during early Treg - when they thought they were ready to ship in a few weeks as well.
Based on that experience, I remain pretty convinced that things were working well, based on their own testing. I think two things factored in:
A. They didn't realize how the different ways people typed could cause major problems.
B. As they found problems while just doing in-house testing, they saw they fixed them quickly.
Now, taking those two things together, I think it explains a lot. First, that even when they still knew of problems or maybe even anticipated new ones coming up, they also knew that most fixes were pretty quick. So they probably expected that to continue - thus ship in a short time.
But then Treg revealed more problems because of the many more typing styles and layouts (some problems don't become obvious in one layout, but will in another). For example, I can into a big problem when typing any word starting with "th". No problem with just "t" and no problem with "th" that did not start a word. For some reason I would hold the space bar down for the preceding space longer than what WT research showed was the normal range. Thus I was not getting a space - I was activating the green layer. But I was using Dvorak. If using qwerty, it wouldn't have shown up. Because on qwerty, those keys would be "kj". Not many words start with "kj"!
Different layout, the specific order of characters, and personal typing styles (I don't mean touch-typing vs other methods - I mean little things you never would even think about on a regular keyboard such as angle of fingers, etc) all have a big impact when you have 3-6 characters on each layer for one keycap. It's one of the reasons I wondered if it would have been better to have all separate keys. However, when WT explained why, it made perfect sense.
Anyway, all these things and more kept bringing up new problems to solve. Most were, as before, solved quickly, but only when we could manage to get a log of it. That could take a lot of time.
2. I certainly want that update too. I've sure pushed them on it enough! But, as it happens, it isn't unusual to find stories about the next year's model iPhone before the present year's model ships. We don't even know what they are doing with these suggestions. At this point it may be nothing more than someone just organizing the list of ideas. Maybe not even an engineer or programmer. Thus when they do GR, they have a nicely organized list of things to consider.
3. I had posted about that question in 993 but for some reason (I've seen it happen twice now), when I clicked "post comment", it simply disappeared. So, I'll post it here.
Frankly, I don't understand why that question is being asked about an update before June 21st. Because we presently have an update they said they planned to release in May. Now, based on past experience, it may not happen (don't screw this up, WT), but if it is anticipation of it not happening in May, I still don't see why it would be asked if it will happen before June 21st. Because why would the people who are assuming this one won't happen before May is over accept any statement that it will be before June 21st?
Now, if they do miss the May date, I could see asking about June. More logically, I could see asking if they still planned on doing it in May. After all, the closer we are to the end of the month, the smaller the window, thus they should have a better idea if they can make it.
Their last comment on this they said something like, "around the end of May". Unfortunately, that both means a little before and a little after. I don't like that. Not after all this time.
It's a shame. I want the product. All they have to do is ship it. If so many TREGs are happy with it, then why not ship it? And for those that are so vocal, why not ship it to them and shut them up? If they have complaints, I would think that it would be easier to say, "hey, you are part of the TREG - we know there are still things to work out."
"All they have to do is ship it" kinda oversimplifies things! Reasons for not shipping yet in spite of us being happy with it have already been given.
If they shipped to just those who are vocal, then is that far to those who waited just as long, but haven't been ranting and attacking?
Keep reading, Kahuna, there’s more than just that.
Still waiting for you to provide an example of what you claim they did (make digs at customers) in that section under "availability/shipping update".
@alexonline Please don't do it. Learn from my mistake. We've already had countless posts on the meaning of the well-defined term "Yes", and we don't need countless more on the poorly-defined term "dig".
@alexonline Please don't do it. Learn from my mistake.
So much better to just make a claim that WT made digs on that page rather than show it actually happened? These things matter. Especially after having someone making accusations about things (like what ADC does in assembly) which were completely bogus, contradicted by their own link!
if someone will go that far, it shows how important it is to make clear what an accusation is based on.
I suspect i know what Alex’s is, and if I’m correct, he is mistaken in his interpretation. But I don’t know, so I await his examples. If he doesn’t want to give them, he shouldn’t be making the claim.
As a tech journalist, I am busy preparing to go to Computex.
The digs to current and former non-Treg customers are very obvious, but if you’re a Tregger, they’re easy to miss, as you already have your unit and as such care much, much less.
I’ll get to it. I’ve been travelling between cities the last couple of days and travel internationally to Taiwan tonight, but I’ll easily show the digs - as I said, they are quite obvious.
I know DBK will vehemently disagree, as he has suggested already, especially as he has his unit, but he’ll just have to be patiently waiting. (sorry @patientlywaiting)
Anyway DBK will soon have a new bone to chew and we can all soon marvel at his mental gymnastics once more when I present my evidence. I don’t mind helping DBK dig his own grave on the meaning of dig, he has already dug a deep ditch on the meaning of yes, which he has yet to climb out of.
My life doesn’t revolve around TextBlade, although as I’ve said time and again, I bought one in January 2015 and expected to have been using it the last 4+ years where my life would have revolved around it, but it isn’t.
My goodness. I come to tail end of replies and found so many pages about Assembly and ADC? Before I ask my questions, and It's been a long time since I did assembly, and I don't know where it started, but both of you are correct in a way, and wrong. I think. ADC does not do add function. It's more like modulus in modern (x mod y = z). Very simple! i.e., 10 % 3 = 1 (way to show remainder of boolean math, % = mod). However! you can use to do add of big numbers... so whoever said is wrong, and right!
But here is my curious thoughts! I have questions about Textblade. Is it ready to buy now? The writer says I must wait patienly, but how long? He says the bluetooth is problem. Can I buy one w/o bluetooth and use USB only? I don't need to travel with keyboard. Well, maybe that's nice. But I just need a small keyboard for my small desk and small room.
And oh, it can do Japanese characters. correct? Someone can please answer me?
Hi @onnanoshiro ; Yes, you can pay for it now (pre-order) but the release date is not firmly defined. Only WayTools knows how long we need to wait until TextBlades are broadly released.
I personally don’t have problems with Bluetooth and my TextBlade. Daily I use TextBlade across iPhones, iPads, MacBooks. A USB version has been talked about for after this initial device is out and widely available.
I’m not familiar with the usability of Japanese characters, though I’m sure there are others who could chime in here.
Comments
As for impartiality, that happens to apply to you as well.
If you actually have something, provide it and people can decide if it makes sense.
In response to the question regarding whether an update, and by update I mean the promised "technical update", will be available by 2019-06-21:
I did not ask "where will it be/" nor did I ask "can you post it here?"
Did you misunderstand the question? here it is again:
I look forward to your next update, can you let me know whether it will be before 2019-06-21 or not?
I'll help; the possible answers are:
- Yes.
- No.
- I don't know.
- I refuse to say.
- Not to answer the question.
Everything past the first line of your response does not answer the question.I can not ask this question on your site, and as a customer I think that it would be a simple question to answer. (Yes it will, no it won't, i don't know, I refuse, look a squirrel.)
So.
Let me know whether your next update will be before 2019-06-21 or not?
R
Hopefully before May is up we will have the promised detailed technical update.
Roughly a week left...just sayin'
Please do not engage in the same behavior you condemn in the same breath:
Instead of attacking the posters answer the questions please. (Even if you feel slighted do not engage in bickering / personal attack & defense)
==>That would be a more productive use of your time and comments sections of this article and much more valued by your audience.
A few points:
a) DBK does not need you to defend him.
b) He is not the only "real customer". You have very many past, present and future prospective customers in this audience. Don't get confused.
c) The Assembly / MC argument was interesting (not the attacking parts in any direction), BUT it was a side argument at best, and completely unrelated to the topic in question. Why engage on that but dodge all product & project questions ?
d) Just answer the PRODUCT & PROJECT questions please. That is what we are all here for. We have not received 1 single product & project answer except you will provide a technical update before the end of May after 1024 posts so far.
IMAGINE THIS. You are not WT and this is not about the TB. You are a regular customer:
1- You are a customer that placed an order for something years ago, and you have not received it because of delays for WHATEVER (valid) reason
2- You are engaged enough that you have not forgotten about it, and in fact you read about it almost every day for 4+ years
3- It is only natural you would be upset, anxious & frustrated, and wanting information on the product & status of the project
4- INSTEAD of a deluge of information, the information you receive as a customer has been less and less and now almost nothing and even the updates are lately not coming almost at all.
5- The vendor (proudly & constantly) offers refunds for frustrated customers as if that solved anything. You just want your thing.
6- There is an exclusive very small group of testers that have had units for years and tell you constantly how great the product you can't have is. How "worth of the wait" it is.
(Side comment: Kind of bizarre situation that somebody that has what you want, tells you that you should be happy you don't have it and you should be happy to keep waiting. That is what "worth the wait" means for us. WE will tell YOU later if it was worth the wait or not).
7- After you post at the vendor site, you get silenced like in a police state. You get banned & perhaps even forcefully refunded too for your troubles.
8- You believe you did nothing to warrant being banned. When you email the vendor, you receive no response, or you get one liners or comments that have nothing to do to what you posted. The best you get is "we will let the ban stand for a while". 7 months more go by and you are still silenced.
9- The vendor does not post much info on the product & project, but spends a ton of time discussing unrelated Apple stuff helping a tester with his computer, cooktops, helmets, and airplane crashes. BUT NOTHING on the project status dodging every question and postponing any answer to future upcoming updates.
10- You see a glowing review article and you jump into the comments section but the vendor only engages in attack and defense posturing, and provides nothing substantial and dodges every product & project questions, and only promises an upcoming update.
==> Have you been able to follow this exercise and visualize yourself as this customer ? Can YOU imagine how YOU would feel ? THINK ABOUT IT.
Suggestions:
1 - Do an AMA as it was suggested many times. Perhaps after the technical update it would be great to have a Q&A session (on topic).
2 - Unban people reminding them of the WTF forum rules and move this discussion to your site. Some of us engage here because we have no other venue. Capiche ?
3- Provide more info and answer questions. Unless you have a gag order by a court it is incredible that you are not eager to share much more and have your "come to Jesus moment" and spill clearly what the situation is and what can be expected. It would relieve you a lot of the stress and would help you in your troubled relation with your customers. WE ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS.
Keep in mind their first reply 1 year and 9 months after my order hints that shipping is just around the corner. The next one, 2 months later even told me the shipping process. In 2018, they said it was "going to be a great year for TextBlade and all its users." In August 2018, they confirmed my shipping estimate was "this summer" and even underlined it. 3/21/2019 was the first time they mentioned getting a refund in an email to me. That was after I mentioned the FTC.
You can also see the post that got me banned from their site (3/21/2019). Hey, it's their site and they are welcome to ban me, but you can decide if it was a bit draconian.
It's a shame. I want the product. All they have to do is ship it. If so many TREGs are happy with it, then why not ship it? And for those that are so vocal, why not ship it to them and shut them up? If they have complaints, I would think that it would be easier to say, "hey, you are part of the TREG - we know there are still things to work out."
I assume the current status estimate is "SUMMER." Do you realistically think you will ship over the summer or will you quietly change the estimate on September 23? Choose one:
- Yes
- No
- We really have no idea
But it was nevertheless interesting to see they took the time to write lengthy responses, answered a number of questions, and were cordial about it.
They must have known there were problems before launching, which makes the launch claims bold, a lie etc.
There are plenty of explanations and reasonings as to why the delays occurred post launch, but to think none of this was known from the very beginning just doesn’t have the ring of truth to it, and shows the original orderers like myself, and you DBK, were misled.
It’s a shame. I hope the May update delivers real news. The excitement at the forum over new features is very nice, and a great sign of what is to come, but it’s a bit like discussing future iPhone X features when the original iPhone is still waiting to be delivered, and all the other iPhones in between needing to be released first.
MK can exclaim “wow” all he wants, but until non-Treg customers can say wow too, it’s rather academic.
MK can obfuscate all he wants, but he studiously avoids answering the simple question in 993.
I pray the doubts are unfounded, but right now we are looking down the barrel of 2020 and still no TextBlade, with the “yes” to will TB launch this year already explained by MK and DBK to mean maybe.
993. 993. 993. It’s troubling that MK can’t simply say “yes”, and even if he did, we know that this isn’t guaranteed.
Maybe that’s why MK hesitates to be honest. No true Knighton would have such a hesitancy.
1.I don't know what was going on at that time, but I do know a fair amount of what happened during early Treg - when they thought they were ready to ship in a few weeks as well.
Based on that experience, I remain pretty convinced that things were working well, based on their own testing. I think two things factored in:
A. They didn't realize how the different ways people typed could cause major problems.
B. As they found problems while just doing in-house testing, they saw they fixed them quickly.
Now, taking those two things together, I think it explains a lot. First, that even when they still knew of problems or maybe even anticipated new ones coming up, they also knew that most fixes were pretty quick. So they probably expected that to continue - thus ship in a short time.
But then Treg revealed more problems because of the many more typing styles and layouts (some problems don't become obvious in one layout, but will in another). For example, I can into a big problem when typing any word starting with "th". No problem with just "t" and no problem with "th" that did not start a word. For some reason I would hold the space bar down for the preceding space longer than what WT research showed was the normal range. Thus I was not getting a space - I was activating the green layer. But I was using Dvorak. If using qwerty, it wouldn't have shown up. Because on qwerty, those keys would be "kj". Not many words start with "kj"!
Different layout, the specific order of characters, and personal typing styles (I don't mean touch-typing vs other methods - I mean little things you never would even think about on a regular keyboard such as angle of fingers, etc) all have a big impact when you have 3-6 characters on each layer for one keycap. It's one of the reasons I wondered if it would have been better to have all separate keys. However, when WT explained why, it made perfect sense.
Anyway, all these things and more kept bringing up new problems to solve. Most were, as before, solved quickly, but only when we could manage to get a log of it. That could take a lot of time.
2. I certainly want that update too. I've sure pushed them on it enough! But, as it happens, it isn't unusual to find stories about the next year's model iPhone before the present year's model ships. We don't even know what they are doing with these suggestions. At this point it may be nothing more than someone just organizing the list of ideas. Maybe not even an engineer or programmer. Thus when they do GR, they have a nicely organized list of things to consider.
3. I had posted about that question in 993 but for some reason (I've seen it happen twice now), when I clicked "post comment", it simply disappeared. So, I'll post it here.
Frankly, I don't understand why that question is being asked about an update before June 21st. Because we presently have an update they said they planned to release in May. Now, based on past experience, it may not happen (don't screw this up, WT), but if it is anticipation of it not happening in May, I still don't see why it would be asked if it will happen before June 21st. Because why would the people who are assuming this one won't happen before May is over accept any statement that it will be before June 21st?
Now, if they do miss the May date, I could see asking about June. More logically, I could see asking if they still planned on doing it in May. After all, the closer we are to the end of the month, the smaller the window, thus they should have a better idea if they can make it.
Their last comment on this they said something like, "around the end of May". Unfortunately, that both means a little before and a little after. I don't like that. Not after all this time.
"All they have to do is ship it" kinda oversimplifies things! Reasons for not shipping yet in spite of us being happy with it have already been given.
If they shipped to just those who are vocal, then is that far to those who waited just as long, but haven't been ranting and attacking?
Still waiting for you to provide an example of what you claim they did (make digs at customers) in that section under "availability/shipping update".
if someone will go that far, it shows how important it is to make clear what an accusation is based on.
I suspect i know what Alex’s is, and if I’m correct, he is mistaken in his interpretation. But I don’t know, so I await his examples. If he doesn’t want to give them, he shouldn’t be making the claim.
The digs to current and former non-Treg customers are very obvious, but if you’re a Tregger, they’re easy to miss, as you already have your unit and as such care much, much less.
I’ll get to it. I’ve been travelling between cities the last couple of days and travel internationally to Taiwan tonight, but I’ll easily show the digs - as I said, they are quite obvious.
I know DBK will vehemently disagree, as he has suggested already, especially as he has his unit, but he’ll just have to be patiently waiting. (sorry @patientlywaiting)
Anyway DBK will soon have a new bone to chew and we can all soon marvel at his mental gymnastics once more when I present my evidence. I don’t mind helping DBK dig his own grave on the meaning of dig, he has already dug a deep ditch on the meaning of yes, which he has yet to climb out of.
My life doesn’t revolve around TextBlade, although as I’ve said time and again, I bought one in January 2015 and expected to have been using it the last 4+ years where my life would have revolved around it, but it isn’t.
Thanks MK.
Before I ask my questions, and It's been a long time since I did assembly, and I don't know where it started, but both of you are correct in a way, and wrong. I think.
ADC does not do add function. It's more like modulus in modern (x mod y = z). Very simple! i.e., 10 % 3 = 1 (way to show remainder of boolean math, % = mod). However! you can use to do add of big numbers... so whoever said is wrong, and right!
But here is my curious thoughts!
I have questions about Textblade. Is it ready to buy now? The writer says I must wait patienly, but how long? He says the bluetooth is problem. Can I buy one w/o bluetooth and use USB only? I don't need to travel with keyboard. Well, maybe that's nice. But I just need a small keyboard for my small desk and small room.
And oh, it can do Japanese characters. correct? Someone can please answer me?
Yes, you can pay for it now (pre-order) but the release date is not firmly defined. Only WayTools knows how long we need to wait until TextBlades are broadly released.
I personally don’t have problems with Bluetooth and my TextBlade. Daily I use TextBlade across iPhones, iPads, MacBooks.
A USB version has been talked about for after this initial device is out and widely available.
I’m not familiar with the usability of Japanese characters, though I’m sure there are others who could chime in here.