Has anyone heard anything about iBlinds recently? Their website recently updated. Also noticed they have a new section indicating voice control through Amazon Echo and Google Home integration. Will be interesting to see if anything comes out of it. Their subscribe for newsletter field does not work though.
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This popped up on their twitter account this morningā¦
Itās considered better etiquette to embed the actual URL āLink to Tweetā, so that the Twitter account owner gets the benefit of more followers, click tracking, and so on 
ā¦ (rather than a screenshot).
received an email update from iBlindsā¦
Thank you to our loyal community of followers
While weāve been silent, tons of work has been done in the background! Thank you for your continuous support and hanging in there with us as we work to bring iBlinds to the market. We plan to begin taking pre-orders in January.
Hereās an update below on the things weāve been working on to bring iBlinds to the next stage.
Z-Wave Certification
Our iBlinds product has completed Z-Wave Lab testing and is now an official Z-Wave certified product. Also, HAB Home Intelligence, LLC is now a full member of the Z-Wave Alliance.
Z-Wave encompasses a broad ecosystem of smart products and services that work seamlessly between brands and versions. This interoperability, which has been the hallmark of Z-Wave technology since 2002, is achieved and maintained through Z-Wave certification, a testing program administered by the Z-Wave Alliance consortium.
Z-Wave certification ensures that all Z-Wave products work together with each other regardless of brand, including backward-compatibility between versions. The certification process includes technical testing, programs for uniformity of marks, and enforcement of the certification standards.
Ready for Production
We had an opportunity to travel to China to tour several manufacturing facilities. As a result, weāve established relationships with three factories that will be a part of our supply chain. In addition, we were able to meet with the factory production engineers to assist us with updating our design in such a way that will ensure it is easy to manufacture.
Testing
Based on feedback from manufacture design engineers, weāve distributed the updated version to a group of Beta testers who are currently within the testing stage. We have received great feedback and the results have been positive. There were a few comments in reference to the noise level which weāve addressed. Weāve also acquired office space for updates, assembly, and testing.
Indiegogo Campaign
We are currently working with an Indiegogo counselor with plans to begin taking pre-orders January 2018.
That last line is what I hate.
Indiegogo is NOT a pre-order. Itās an investment. There is no guarantee of any return, including a product.
I wish this kind of deceptive marketing was illegal.
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Itās not deceptive if:
(a) People understood how and the importance of reading that black & white disclaimer line (it doesnāt take a law degree to understand what those 20 words say)
And
(b) if the Campaign was extremely careful to never use the words: sale, purchase, discount, store, refund, ā¦ etc.
Itās behavior (b) that most Crowdfunding violates and IGG and KS do not enforce.
Hopefully the 3rd time is a charm and the funding will go through this roundā¦ Need about 12 of these for the windows around my house.
Not much for DIY, else i would have made my own ā¦
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Pre-Order Feb. 27th, Early Bird specials starting at $65
.
@tgauchat Hi, Terry. (I think this is my personal record for the oldest post I have quoted.) Iād appreciate your informed opinion. FlipFlic is my first and only foray into crowd-funding and Iām having trouble with lack of perspective. FlipFlic sure seems to have gone radio-silent, indicating to me that the project is dead or all but. However, I donāt see anywhere on KS where they identify the health - good or bad - of any given project. Do you think FlipFlic will ever deliver? If there is a better place to see this info, a link would be appreciated. Thank you.
If you are a Backer, you have and will receive updates from the project.
If not, then it is up to the company to decide how to manage ongoing PR to their potential future Customers.
backer ā customer
amazing already 181% past goal! get em while you can!
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/iblinds-make-existing-window-blinds-smart
Flipflic has a recent update and videos on the KS site. I have been waiting a long time; the last projection was Q1 but now late Q2 on final(?) rev of product. They seem to be alive and kicking so back to the mantra.
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Estimated delivery: October 2018
And that is just the estimate. I would be surprised if we see it this year.
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Color me skeptical. I am a backer and the lack of regular simple updates is not confidence-inspiring. The recent update was February 19 and referred to six months until production, so that puts it squarely into Q3.
Most of the backer comments are requests for refunds.
Another thing, on the KS site there is a āPreOrderā button that links to IGG; where it still has March 2017 for delivery.
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How are these companies addressing the patent issues?
MySmartBlinds has been on the retail market ( including being sold at Home Depot) for over two years and holds over 50 patents on retrofitting smart blinds. They are going to have a really strong position for protecting their patents.
Are the kickstarter project companies just going to license their patents? Because otherwise I donāt see how they ever come to market in the US. So far I havenāt seen any that have alternative patents, although maybe I missed that.
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Interesting point. Curious if the Bluetooth vs z-wave factor is enough. Probably patented the tilt mechanism separately which is the sticky point. Man this stuff is expensive. My DIY ones are about $40 per window. Even less for windows that are right next to each other that donāt need separate controllers. I use particle Photon which could save me like $15 on top of that if I switched to some of these cheap esp chipsets.
Ah what times we live in. Hope all is well old friend @JDRoberts .
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Do you have a guide for making the $40 kit?
Hello,
The project is here:
Itās based off of this project:
Iāve recently taken everything off of my GitHub due to personal reasons. Iām thinking of putting most things back up based on demand.
Let me know if you need the code, Iāll be very busy until the weekend so it probably wonāt happen until then.
Good luck!
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