Updates? More Consistent Interaction from Dev Team

[rubleaj 53]

Like (hopefully) everyone here, I am extremely excited to see this device come to market, and hopefully succeed and lead to new devices for this company! That being said, one of the most important factors in getting a device like this up is more consistent interaction with your marketplace (specifically the people on your forum). Even if the posts/forum replies from an inside "moderator" of sorts were short, more consistent and timely updates would give me more confidence in this team, and therefor their product.

 

I look very much forward to seeing this company succeed; take advantage of your fans here and give us updates to help spread your ideas and get more people excited about what you're doing!

[elvissteinjr 359]

Responsiveness is key... after function perhaps.

It really does not need to be much.

 

There appear two kinds of moderators (the "Keymaster" rank, I suppose) on this forum. The one that is part of the dev team and the one that seems to be very eager, but in the end is or at least very much appears to be "just" a community moderator who can't answer anything new. Without clear distinction.

 

The social media/Twitter feed has largely be uninteresting for their followers too. I get you want to sell this device. But recent posts were just rehashes of old tweets to stay relevant I guess.

 

I'm just gonna assume everything's going well and production is going to happen as planned. This isn't crowdfunded and you don't owe us a look into the process after all. Nevertheless, more communication makes you seem more human and approachable. This device has a chance to have a nice community built around it, which would come with loyal customers and recommendations to acquaintances.

 

This probably sounds more negative than I mean it. I'm positive about the overall product. Your overall actions are pretty good, especially in regards of the QWERTZ layout process.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

I agree that more team interaction would be nice. As a volunteer, and not a staff member, I only give out already public available info.

 

(I was "Moderator", but due to that limited me in doing something (forgot what it was) they gave me the higher role).

 

I will forward the existence of this thread to the staff.

[Waxberry 638]

Thank you Eske.

 

We are indeed working hard to bring more news. We will try to post more regularly regarding the progress and news. :)

[gtmaster303 0]

I agree I want more updates and behind the scenes coverage. We're waiting an awfully long time for the release of this device and will be paying a pretty penny to get it. The least we can get is more info and details about it

[netman 1,424]

Do other phones get much announcing and behind the scenes stuff? Enough was shown to have me jumping in excitement until juli, but I'd love to see more :D.

[_DW_ 628]

Do other phones get much announcing and behind the scenes stuff? Enough was shown to have me jumping in excitement until juli, but I’d love to see more :D.

 

This phone needs the news to get people aware and general publicity. Other phones don't needs this as much due to been a long standing brand .

[EskeRahn 5,471]

netman wrote:

Do other phones get much announcing and behind the scenes stuff? Enough was shown to have me jumping in excitement until juli, but I’d love to see more :D.

This phone needs the news to get people aware and general publicity. Other phones don’t needs this as much due to been a long standing brand .

 

Well one could argue that this forum is currently to keep us that are already aware of it interested. But catching new people would need other ways as they are unlikely to find this forum by accident. ;)

I guess the forum is going to be much more alive when we all get the devices in our hands, and have all kinds of questions and wishes for what could be tweaked in software updates, or perhaps things shared user-to-user.

Personally I hope there will be a way to share logical key-layouts, so the less nerdy can benefit from what the nerds among us will do for our own devices anyway. (And hopefully possible without the need of rooting).

[Waxberry 638]

We indeed want to bring updates to users as much as we can. April will be a busy and exciting month (especially in the second half) and we target to bring news and interesting things related with manufacturing aspects. We also plan to software progresses we have made. (Hint: Long press a key to launch custom app)

[_DW_ 628]

Well one could argue that this forum is currently to keep us that are already aware of it interested. But catching new people would need other ways as they are unlikely to find this forum by accident. ;)

 

Well I'm hoping all the activity on here help to get the search engines interested. But your right press releases to the correct sites will do a lot more :)

 

 

[EskeRahn 5,471]

Well I’m hoping all the activity on here help to get the search engines interested. But your right press releases to the correct sites will do a lot more :)

 

And whenever we find it relevant to refer to the Pro¹ in other fora to do so, and perhaps with links pointing to this site.

We are a small niche of users that want hardware keyboards, so the more we spread the good word the better...

The more that find out the existence of this, the more potential buyers there will be, and this again will help this whole project to be profitable. And this again gives us a users a chance for better support and later updates and follow up products, including any Pro².

[rubleaj 53]

I love that this topic has been picked up so quickly, so thank you to those who are contributing (especially EskeRahn and Waxberry).

 

My main driver for this topic was that, unlike other major brands, F(x)tec doesn't have hundreds of millions in advertising budget or an established market presence already. I would imagine most people on this forum are already sold on this phone, and that's wonderful. However, if the only people to order the phone are people on this forum, that's a problem.

 

Additionally, search engine traffic is a good goal, but (especially here in the US) I had never heard about it until press from MWC, and that's only because I went actively searching for a keyboard phone other than a BB. I already know the moment I have the phone in my hand, and the first time I slide it out to send a message it will immediately grab people's attention, but any buzz and info that can continue to be shared prior to release is only going to help. It's a silly analogy, and maybe not 100% relevant, but you don't want to be a Van Gogh; you want your product to be worth something before you're gone.

 

I wish this team all the best, and if you ever need someone to test the waters and be a rep in the US, I'm here to help!

[Waxberry 638]

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First news for this month - we have implemented long press a key to quickly launch a specific app. Much loved function from other keyboard phones. :)

 

In case link does not work here is the URL to the tweet which has the video.

[anonim001 105]

Yes, advertising is something this product needs. Just check how many people are following F(x)tec's facebook profile - it's just passed 300 likes, each post is liked by 20-some people. That's not that much if we're talking worldwide. Facebook is a communication platform, a lot of people TYPE there their posts and a lot of people are using it to communicate with friends - places like that should be perfect for advertising a product made for TYPING, just add a good camera and "viola".

I think what people may be afraid of is seeing another crowdfunded project like thousands of others that reached the funding target, showed a few news, some early-beta sample on a short video and disappeared. 650€/$/£ is quite a lot of money for the phone (with, remember, not the best specs - I think the keyboard should be enough to convince people to it, but remember there's a lot of people who want "only the newest, only the fastest, only the best" - You really have to show them that a good keyboard is worth more than a Snap 855 or 865 which they will probably never need) when there's a risk You will never get one. I think You could maybe send a few pre-release devices to media groups like LTT, XDA-Devs or other trustworthy sources with lots of followers for a real, full review (with a comment, that the device is still in development)? As far as I remember that's what HTC was doing back in the times of their Wizard phone to get more attention. This could show the undecided ones that the development of Your product is in a highly advanced state and/or is close to be finished and ready to release. That could also reveal some bugs You might not notice in the development process and give You time to improve.

July is coming and all we have seen so far for real is a few short reviews on YT from people who have seen it or played with it on MWC and showed us "look, here's a phone with a cool qwerty keyboard, we haven't seen those lately, right?" - and actually nothing else. No real tests of the camera (which means a lot for mainstream), no tests of the screen (just a comment, that the manufacturer is about to be changed - to what? Apple? Samsung? LG?), no tests of the fingerprint scanner (is it fast? is it accurate? is it comfortable to use it?), not much comments on the keyboard (is it still as comfortable by 6" display as it was with 4"?), no software tweaks, no info on Android optimization, no comparison to features of other phones. Remember, that the less people will buy PRO1, the less the chance that we will ever see the PRO2, and if the company will vanish from the market, the people who bought it will also be disappointed - the phone will work only until the first hardware failure, since there will be no spare parts and no after-sales service.

Yes, it's a niche, but this does not mean other people should not know about Your device - don't make a niche in a niche.

So far it looks to me that this phone is supposed to be exclusive, that You have to do a research to know that it is about to exist, but these days almost nobody wants a exclusive phone because You can't buy a case for it, You can't repair it in a local repair shop, You can't personalize it. I also don't want a phone if there's a huge risk that I won't be able to change the battery if it dies (and it sure will happen in +/- 2 years - will the parts still be available in 2021-2022? "Hopefully" is not enough for a phone that costs 650€/$/£!), I won't be able to repair the screen if it cracks or the power button if it gets stuck.

[MortisAngelus 2]

It might just be me, but for an indie project like this one, it would really be nice to see some more activity and input/responses from the devs themselves every now and then. I read in the support sub-forum about a lot of issues with e.g. the pre-orders and yet no response from the devs. I also sent a couple of questions to the devs via their info-email, but has not received any replies.

 

If this was some big, self-centered company I could understand this behavior, but for small indie-devs and projects like this I think it is crucial that there is a tight communication between the devs and the very niche-market target customers,

 

The only time I have gotten any response from the devs, it is via Twitter.

 

So please, dev-team. Try to at least reply to some of the forum-posts at least once a week or something. It gets kinda unmotivating to support a project like this when there seem to be no acknowledgement from the devs to the target consumers.

 

 

[Doktor Oswaldo 906]

It might just be me, but for an indie project like this one, it would really be nice to see some more activity and input/responses from the devs themselves every now and then. I read in the support sub-forum about a lot of issues with e.g. the pre-orders and yet no response from the devs. I also sent a couple of questions to the devs via their info-email, but has not received any replies.

 

If this was some big, self-centered company I could understand this behavior, but for small indie-devs and projects like this I think it is crucial that there is a tight communication between the devs and the very niche-market target customers,

 

The only time I have gotten any response from the devs, it is via Twitter.

 

So please, dev-team. Try to at least reply to some of the forum-posts at least once a week or something. It gets kinda unmotivating to support a project like this when there seem to be no acknowledgement from the devs to the target consumers.

 

I agree with you in your point, but would also like to defend them a little bit. I bet they have an awful lot of work to do until July and not that much time to answer questions. It may seem like little work, but I guess some of the questions are sent over and over again.

Yes it would be nice to hear more, but this isn't crowdfunding. They have not taken our money, they own us nothing. Still they at least do much more than the big companies do.

[MortisAngelus 2]

MortisAngelus wrote:

It might just be me, but for an indie project like this one, it would really be nice to see some more activity and input/responses from the devs themselves every now and then. I read in the support sub-forum about a lot of issues with e.g. the pre-orders and yet no response from the devs. I also sent a couple of questions to the devs via their info-email, but has not received any replies.

 

If this was some big, self-centered company I could understand this behavior, but for small indie-devs and projects like this I think it is crucial that there is a tight communication between the devs and the very niche-market target customers,

 

The only time I have gotten any response from the devs, it is via Twitter.

 

So please, dev-team. Try to at least reply to some of the forum-posts at least once a week or something. It gets kinda unmotivating to support a project like this when there seem to be no acknowledgement from the devs to the target consumers.

I agree with you in your point, but would also like to defend them a little bit. I bet they have an awful lot of work to do until July and not that much time to answer questions. It may seem like little work, but I guess some of the questions are sent over and over again.

 

Yes it would be nice to hear more, but this isn’t crowdfunding. They have not taken our money, they own us nothing. Still they at least do much more than the big companies do.

 

Yeah, I am not neglecting that they have a lot to do. They obviously do. But on the other hand, two weeks on the forum, and also reading some elder forum posts, they havent been very responsive.

 

Because even if they arent crowd funding, for such a niche product as this, I believe it could be good to stay in regular contact. E.g. my pre-order decision is much based on potential shipping costs and also on what keyboard layouts they will offer in the end.

 

Anyway, I hope you are correct and that they will get more in touch when things have calmed down.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

Yeah, I am not neglecting that they have a lot to do. They obviously do. But on the other hand, two weeks on the forum, and also reading some elder forum posts, they havent been very responsive.

 

Because even if they arent crowd funding, for such a niche product as this, I believe it could be good to stay in regular contact. E.g. my pre-order decision is much based on potential shipping costs and also on what keyboard layouts they will offer in the end.

 

Anyway, I hope you are correct and that they will get more in touch when things have calmed down.

 

As doktor.oswaldo said, I too think they are more than busy with the hardware, and likely certifications of various types. And the whole project is at such a late state that only software is likely to change substantially. So any feedback for the hardware is too late to affect a Pro¹ and a bit early for any successors...

 

And on the software side it is my impression that they want to be as close to native Android as possible, so our wishes here are things that could be handled after release also, so not urgent for them to handle it now.

 

Do not get me wrong, I too am impatient and can't wait to get my dirty paws on the device. And I'm sure there will be a flood of feedback once the device is on the street,with suggestions of what could be done differently or additionally. But it is much more urgent to get the hardware out as planned, with stable software. Improvements of the software/firmware can be (relatively) easily handled at a later time.

[Doktor Oswaldo 906]

 

But it is much more urgent to get the hardware out as planned, with stable software. Improvements of the software/firmware can be (relatively) easily handled at a later time.

 

Absolutely. A nice stable product which can open this fabulous niche again is the target.

Yes other projects have a fancy social media guy which does polls and ask for feedback all the time, but in this project-phase it is just show. I like the silent concentrated approach. They do not promise us anything they can't deliver (I at least hope so).

 

And of course there are still a lot of wishes, but to be honest this phone is more than I dreamed to hope a year ago.

[MortisAngelus 2]

EskeRahn wrote:

But it is much more urgent to get the hardware out as planned, with stable software. Improvements of the software/firmware can be (relatively) easily handled at a later time.

Absolutely. A nice stable product which can open this fabulous niche again is the target.

 

Yes other projects have a fancy social media guy which does polls and ask for feedback all the time, but in this project-phase it is just show. I like the silent concentrated approach. They do not promise us anything they can’t deliver (I at least hope so).

 

And of course there are still a lot of wishes, but to be honest this phone is more than I dreamed to hope a year ago.

 

I guess that is a subjective/personal opinion. I don't like it when there is too little communication. I guess I have learned to be somewhat suspicious of silent companies from the the gaming industry, where silence usually means they don't care about consumer feedback (albeit on later times, it has been the opposite with EA, Blizzard and Activision bashing gamers that complain....)

 

Of course the Devs should not promise something they cant deliver. But just because they communicate, doesn't mean they should lie, does it? In another thread I just posted a reply I got from the info-mail about what they are gonna do with the different keyboard layouts. They said that they won't provide non-US layouts at launch. And that is fine! Good clarification to an important question. It is not a promise of something they can't deliver - rather the opposite, they tell us what they can't do so there won't be any misunderstandings. Now I know to just wait a bit further before purchasing, and that is totally fine!

 

Now that I know their roadmap a bit better, thanks to their reply to my email, I - like you guys - just hope for a stable and somewhat polished experience both on the hardware and software side. And I can happily just wait for a Scandi-QWERTY version of the phone. :D

 

I really want them to succeed in bringing back the physical keyboard phones!

 

 

[_DW_ 628]

Communication wise I think its great they are planning a community meet up, no better way to show what they have got so far. I'd like more communication as well on the forum but tbh I'd rather they be getting the device ready for release :D

[Waxberry 638]

It might just be me, but for an indie project like this one, it would really be nice to see some more activity and input/responses from the devs themselves every now and then. I read in the support sub-forum about a lot of issues with e.g. the pre-orders and yet no response from the devs. I also sent a couple of questions to the devs via their info-email, but has not received any replies.

 

Can you be more specific of the questions that isn't been answered? I will try to get it sorted. Thanks.

 

 

[nh1402 0]

Well questions in my case where:

 

if the phone has Widevine DRM L1 support, and if it does, does unlocking the bootloader permanently remove that or if relocking would restore it?

 

Does the display have panel self refresh?

 

Or a variable refresh rate display (probably not) and what refresh rate does it have?

 

The phone has nfc but is the reader front or rear facing?

 

Will the phone pass the safetynet test?

 

Being a metal phone I'm not sure how strong the antennas are going to be for all the wireless related things 2g, 3g, 4g, WiFi 2.4,5, Bluetooth, nfc, fm radio. Some people overlook that (Sony did with the Xperia X, it came with a plastic bottom where all the antennas were located, blocking it would significantly drop signal, at least for me).

 

From what I've heard and read, Widevine DRM L1 certification is supposedly free.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

Being a metal phone I’m not sure how strong the antennas are going to be for all the wireless related things 2g, 3g, 4g, WiFi 2.4,5, Bluetooth, nfc, fm radio. Some people overlook that (Sony did with the Xperia X, it came with a plastic bottom where all the antennas were located, blocking it would significantly drop signal, at least for me).

 

I do not know the answers, but on FM, they use the headphones. To get a signal in you need something not far from ¼ wavelength, and in the FM band that is way beyond even the largest phablet. There are good reason while small transistor radios got an external antenna.

 

I can say that the FM reception with the preproduction unit it is EXTREMELY much more sensitive than my last phone with FM, the Xperia (Neo) Pro.

In conditions where the (Neo) Pro struggles to get even audible Mono and if you hold the cable exactly right. The Pro¹, at the same position, delivers (almost) noise free stereo, no matter how I turn or twist the cable, you can even crumple the headphone cable. And this is indoors..... This was a nice surprise!

[EskeRahn 5,471]

Does the display have panel self refresh?

 

Or a variable refresh rate display (probably not) and what refresh rate does it have?

 

We know at the display is from Boe, with the type number BF060Y8M-AJ0-7702 , so you might be able to find the info you want from that.

See e.g. this and previous posts.