GCW News- Status Update May 20th, 2014 Part II

Regarding the battery discussion, it's true that the prototype consoles had a 2800mAH battery with RAM that was 3.3 volts with a battery life of 8 to 10 hours.
It has just been brought to our attention here that the KS units have a 2200mAH battery and this was confirmed with the factory that indeed, it was a 2200mAH battery- but one with Low Power RAM that operates at 1.2 volts. It's true, regrettably, that the factory changed batteries without our knowledge.
Nonetheless, it's virtually an even trade off and there is no loss of battery life as the KS model ram is drawing considerably less power than the prototype models did. The average is still 8 to 10 hours as attested to by many people here and other forums.
GCW based the Zero's technical specs off of the prototype models when we started the Kick Starter campaign. This was before production had commenced, and therefore the specs could have changed. At that point in time though, GCW had no knowledge they had been. Had we known, the specs had changed we would have put it in an update long ago but it was just brought to our attention. Bottom line, despite the change in battery model, the battery life is still the same as it had been promised from day one- 8 to 10 hours of use per full charge due to its Low-Power memory RAM (vs the 2800mAH which ran at a higher voltage).
As for HDMI, at PAX Prime 2013 in Seattle we performed a demo using an experimental HDMI driver that was not completely full screen running just off the battery. During these demos, the average battery life was 6 to 8 hours.
We have a great and dedicated development team. To knock them or put them down is not warranted as the GCW Zero would be nothing without them helping it become the great piece of hardware that it is. They work tirelessly to add new features and optimize those already implemented. They have continued to work for this cause no matter what has happened and they deserve respect and admiration for everything they have done and continue to do on a daily basis for GCW and The GCW Zero.
As for the shipping order of the consoles, they are shipped from a list that is exported from Kick Starter we are unsure as to why the order is off. We do know and feel that everyone deserves to get their console and no favoritism should be given to those who backed first on a particular day or backed later. Everyone deserves to get and will get their consoles and we will fulfill that promise.
As for why there were no shipments during the last week, it was explained in my update that the developers had to remove certain games from the firmware image as they are no longer viable as pre-installed software since the author of the music from those games has joined GEMA an authors guild.
Also, many have reported getting an unflashed unit or one that's the wrong color from ones that were pre-packaged in USPS mailers. So with that in mind all units are being re-flashed with the new firmware image (minus certain games for the aforementioned reasons), tested and boxed for packaging.
Those units that are already flashed, 60 in total, will be packed and begin shipping tonight so keep eye on Kick Starter inbox for confirmation of address and/or actual shipping confirmation. More units will continue to be flashed, tested, and packaged this week and will go out Saturday or Monday.
There have been delays due to unforeseen personal and health-related events Justin’s life. Some people close to him, like me and others in the forums have seen proof that all are legitimate and very unfortunate.
They know that none of the things he has stated that have caused the delays are lies or stall tactics to buy time. He has had a rough last nine months with personal, health, and just plain flukes of bad luck.
Come what may, he has stayed the course and continued to ship consoles to make this Kick Starter project a reality and a success in delivering consoles to all supporters. He will fulfill his promises that anyone who pledged for a console will get theirs, as promised.
Unlike certain posters continue to claim, contact with backers has not stopped either from Justin or myself commenting as PR.
We have also produced all the consoles as were promised to all backers and have frankly experienced events, many beyond our control, that have slowed or temporarily halted shipping on some occasions.
We will continue to work as hard as we can, continuing to fulfill the rewards earned by each and every one of you who has made a pledge for a console.
In closing, here are examples of other Kick Starter projects that have run into roadblocks or unforeseen events out of their control. It is not uncommon and most do, ultimately, have a happy ending like the one we strive for every day with our project.
"Kick starter, the world's largest crowdfunding site, gives entrepreneurs a platform to raise money for pet projects like a new business, a film, or even a music video.
To date, the site has collectively raised more than $679 million for more than 100,000 campaigns, launching the likes of the new gaming console Ouya and funding a feature film for "Veronica Mars" fans.
But not all Kickstarters have a happy ending and success can be difficult to bear. Some fundraisers simply aren't prepared to handle the demand that comes with thousands of new backers and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
1. Ed Carter hoped to raise $21,000 to fund his board game. Instead, he lost his house and job.
Carter's plan was to raise money to produce a deluxe version of his board game "Glory to Rome." It was a smashing success. At the end of his 21-day funding period in the summer of 2011, Carter had raised $73,102 from 1,600 board game enthusiasts — more than three times his goal. In return for the donation, Carter promised his backers free shipping of his game.
Fast forward a year and Carter was in deep trouble. His backers-turned-customers still hadn't seen their board games. Turns out, the games were ready to ship but were crushed in transit after Carter forgot to indicate that the packages were fragile. And free shipping was easy enough to finance for domestic orders and even to Brazil, but a large order to Australia cost Carter more to ship than the game itself.
The blows kept coming. Carter was laid off from his full-time job with Staples. As he ran out of money, he had to dip into his personal savings account to pay for the game production and subsequently stopped making payments on his mortgage.
The writing was on the wall at that point. Eventually, Carter lost his Boston home. Despite bankrupting himself, Carter has managed to deliver all of the games he promised and says he'd do it again.
"I’m doing this because the corporate world is one of the best games ever invented," he told Quartz.com.
2. Childhood friends raised thousands to produce eco-friendly sandals. Then they completely fell off the radar.
John Eades and Michael Ferreri created the Vere flip-flop, a sandal they marketed as having "its eye on the environment." The childhood friends hoped to raise $12,000 to build a sandal-making factory in Geneva, N.Y., telling would-be supporters they had the experience and equipment, but needed help with production costs.
The two raised $52,618 — almost four and a half times their goal — in the spring of 2011.
Ten months later, Eades and Ferreri found themselves in the hot seat with their 1,091 backers. The sandals that were promised to customers were still nowhere to be seen as of December 2011, way past flip-flop season.
"It’s been a long, frustrating process to say the least, and we’ve hit more roadblocks than even we expected," they wrote in a letter to BetaBeat.com. "Kickstarter orders were overwhelming, and if we were to do it again we would definitely have put a limit on the number of backer awards available."
The two sporadically updated backers, citing mechanical issues, short-staffing, and the late arrival of materials.
They were still fielding complaints from customers in January, but it seems like they've finally managed to get on track. The sandals are finally being sold at retailers across the country.
Technology and design-related projects, three-quarters of which don’t finish on time, make up 4.2 percent of successfully funded projects on the site, according to Kickstarter’s statistics. They drew in 21 percent of money raised. The website has helped spawn several consumer-electronics makers and artistic endeavors that probably wouldn’t have existed otherwise. Success stories include the LunaTik iPod Nano watch, which is available at the Apple Store, and is expected to reach $10 million in sales by the end of the year, according to Kevin Brennan, a general manager for the company. After being rejected by venture capitalists, Eric Migicovsky turned to Kickstarter in April to pitch his Pebble watch, which became the site’s highest-grossing campaign, with $10.3 million in funding. Even then, there was some skepticism about whether popular Kickstarter projects would come to fruition.“When a cool project shoots up, it shoots high,” Migicovsky said in an interview earlier this year. “Unfortunately, most of the products on Kickstarter come a bit late. So we’re hoping to change that.”Last month, Pebble joined the club. Migicovsky posted a note to backers saying Pebble Technology would miss its September target of delivering to them a watch that can display messages from a smartphone. In an e-mail, he declined to forecast a new date. Enough Kickstarter campaigns have hit snags that some rivals are seizing on the opportunity. New crowd-funding contenders have emerged, including Indiegogo Inc. and RocketHub Inc. Reicherz, formerly of private stock exchange SecondMarket, is working on a service called CrowdHut to help entrepreneurs figure out what to do after they raise money from crowd-funding sites. And several incubators have emerged, including Jeremy Conrad’s Lemnos Labs, to lead hardware startups down the right path.“They go on Kickstarter, and wake up one day with $150,000 in the bank, and say, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing,’” Conrad said. In January, Jason Giddings’s Kickstarter project for a touchscreen keyboard and mouse raised $143,584. He missed his July target for completing the product, and expects it to take at least another six weeks, he said.“It didn’t really seem on the surface like it was going to be that challenging, but it has been extremely challenging,” he said. “A lot, lot slower than I expected. A lot, lot more money than I expected to spend.”Kickstarter backers aren’t silent partners. Giddings’s page on the site is full of people demanding progress reports. Video-game studio Harebrained Schemes, which raised $1.84 million in April, ended up hiring someone to handle its requests from backers.“You really do have to plan on a huge amount of energy and time in being responsive to your backers,” said Jordan Weisman, Hairbrained Schemes’ chief executive officer. “That was something we underestimated when we launched the campaign.” "
Best wishes,
Craig Strother and the GCW Team