Hello everyone.
It has been a while since I posted an update on the state of things. Here, I’ll outline the fulfillment plan and sequence, and detail some of the features coming your way.

I will have another update for you in a week or two with a hands-on video preview of the final product. I’ll also rebuild the campaign page to reflect the final product.

Fulfillment Timelines

We’re into July now, and I was expecting fulfillment to kick off in June. So, I wanted to post an update to assure everyone there is no crisis or emergency. Things are moving along fine, just a bit slower than I anticipated.

After speaking with the Crowd Supply team and talking strategies to get you your stuff, we are going to be doing fulfillment in batches or "waves" of 150-200 units. This is for a few reasons, but it is mostly because the printed enclosures are the biggest bottleneck. We’ve got just shy of 200 of them complete, and the ability to make about 150 per month. That is the one major downside to the way I’ve approached the enclosure production, though I think the end product will be worth it.

The earliest backers of the campaign will be the first to receive their units. The majority of the backers from September/October will be served in the first wave.

When Does Wave One Start?

I don’t like pushing back timelines or promising dates and cancelling them and so on. I know it is exhausting and frustrating for you guys, and it is even moreso for me.

I am still waiting for updated production estimates from the manufacturer, but I can provide you my own estimate based on how things have been going. Hardware is complete. Software is complete. Production has been underway. There were some minor revisions in the last leg to improve cabling, adding a ESD protection circuit, improve connectors, and so on. The last remaining step is some declarations of conformity and other documents the manufacturer will help me submit, or submit on my behalf. It shouldn’t hold things up.

An off-the-line production unit is en-route to me now. With that, I’ll be rebuilding the campaign page content and updating all photos and videos to reflect the final product.

I would estimate we are 4-8 weeks from wave one shipments going out to your door. As I receive more updates from the manufacturing team, I will let you all know. If there is something I’ve missed, I will let you all know.

So What Have You Been Working On?

Well, hey! I am glad you asked:

A lot. The extra time has significantly improved development. Looking back on my prototype videos and campaign content, well, we’ve come a long, long way.

I’m going to save the details for the next update with the video walk-through. But here’s a list of some of the features I will be demonstrating, that are already on your Zerowriter Ink. Consider it a preview before the next deep-dive:

• Optional custom fonts via SD card. You can add any fixed-width font you like to your Zerowriter Ink, in whatever font size you choose. There's a simple tool to generate those fonts from any .ttf font file.
• Optional "Bookmark" system, a simple version of the Pomera DM30's "Outline Mode".
• Optional status bar with document stats, writing session time, and other metrics.
• Optional toggle between "Full Editing" and "Drafting" modes. Choose to enable or disable cursor-based edits, navigation, text selection, deletion, copy, paste, etc.
• Optional safety storage system: if Zerowriter Ink fails to save to SD card, it will write to internal storage.
• Full document handling for a whole bunch of text characters, meaning: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and a whole lot more. (Note that only latin-based characters are supported, for now)
• Rebuilt file management, with simple organization tools designed for ease of use.
• Granular control over mechanical performance settings (e-paper specific stuff)
• Across-the-board speed and performance improvements.

I might split these features up into their own little videos or shorts. You might have noticed my Youtube channel has gotten quiet… Time for content.

…But I Haven’t Lost the Plot

The above features were built with care and respecting the ethos of the project. The Zerowriter Ink is not a replacement for Microsoft Word or an editing suite — this is a purpose-built tool for drafting words and helping you create. All of those above features are designed to support that workflow and to stay out of your way if you don’t want to use them.

The Zerowriter Ink is designed to loosely manage your writing and your working documents. It’s designed expecting you to somewhat regularly offload your working files to somewhere else, while keeping things as simple as possible.

I want to assure you: it cannot do everything and I don’t want it to do everything.

But it is the best-in-class tool for drafting text files. It’s pretty darn cool.

For Developers: Zerowriter Ink Simulator

And this one for people who want to build: When we are fulfilling, and I push all the code to github, I’ll also release the Zerowriter Ink Simulator in XCode.

This is an extremely useful tool used for rapidly building out the above software features that would have taken a lifetime testing and deploying on raw hardware. The simulator needs a bit of polish to get matched up exactly with the production release, but I’ll be putting it out there for anyone who wants to develop their own code based on Zerowriter hardware.

Until Next Time!

Talk soon! Thank you for your patience and ongoing support!