Production and Shipping Update
over 4 years ago – Fri, Jan 24, 2020 at 02:19:02 AM

We know many of you have been as anxiously waiting for our first 2020 update as much as a new Nintendo Direct - (well maybe not) but we'll pretend anyways!  A lot has happened since we last updated so there's a mix of good and bad but overall we're making big progress.

Our last update talked about how we pushed through the holiday season to drive production and it was a valiant effort from the team but we've still hit a few hiccups.  So for full transparency I've put together this diagram to help talk through all the hurdles we've been through to get to the point where we are today:

So we've essentially had 2 manufacturing runs, one toward the end of last year through the holidays and one early this year. The first one, which was our 'test production' was delayed a week due to a transformer core we were waiting on from Hitachi. After test production we had basically found a couple issues:

• Soldering took an extremely long time due to joining vertical and horizontal board process (making this 1/10th the size really took a lot of refinement and had to toss away thousands of PCBs)
• USB-A port was upside down, the HDMI port was way tight while USB-C port was too loose, global adapters were a bit too tight and difficult to remove
• After certification testing we found it to slightly go over heat it was 2 degrees over the limit for an audio/video device (cause well it has a power adapter attached to it)

So to the first point we did two revisions to the board to improve the soldering pad clearance, this was key to make the manufacturing time at least 10x faster since this was the main bottleneck for us considering we have almost 30K units to make for KS alone.  Adjusting the three ports and global connectors was a pretty easy design adjustment from Chris

The Fundamental Problem with Regulators

“If a regulator agrees to change a rule and something bad happens, they could easily lose their career. Whereas if they change a rule and something good happens, they don’t even get a reward. So, it’s very asymmetric. It’s then very easy to understand why regulators resist changing the rules. It’s because there’s a big punishment on one side and no reward on the other. How would any rational person behave in such a scenario” - Elon Musk in talking about SpaceX and innovating in the “space” space.

I quoted Musk mainly because what we’re doing, although not as ambitious as SpaceX, is challenging a lot of the established categories of products. The issue around the heat was quite annoying and we spent an extra week trying to resolve.  Essentially we made two modifications, we replaced some components with ones that were more expensive but more efficient and we made these guys:

So these brass rings basically ensure that the heat generated isn't concentrated in one area but the problem then becomes we need to isolate the high and low voltages in the charger using mylar tape to insulate - this becomes an annoying extra step that also increases the production time per unit.  (We're learning so much about optimization of production at this point).

After we’ve resolved all the heat issues, we still have had some hurdles to address regarding certifications because now that we have this faraday cage of sorts there has been a slight trace of radiation from the HDMI port (which is super typical and only a fraction of what most audio/video equipment have but above that of a standard charger which essentially has none). This has caused delays for some certifications which means at the moment we cannot ship to countries that require CE, KCC, PSE, or BSMI - and expect this issue to be cleared by mid February.

Our January production batch turned out much better than our test production but there are still many processes we need to optimize. It was unfortunately delayed slightly as we waited for a component from Taiwan. Additionally we've discovered that are folding prong supplier actually made some adjustments to our first batch production that we hadn't been aware of, essentially not allowing them to send power consistently when the prongs are folded in. This makes sense generally but because we designed the global adapters to pull power from the prongs that are tucked inside the covert dock this makes the global adapters work inconsistently. We've caught this too late and already have a fix but has rendered us only able to ship the non-global versions.

When does Covert Dock ship?

First, we now have a team handling shipping, so if you have any questions regarding shipping status you can email [email protected] - but before you do please read below:

So it's been a double whammy for us since we're relying on components, testing facilities, and product assembly on both sides of the planets, having Christmas and Lunar New Years being so close together in 2020 has basically caused some rather annoying delays, hitting pause and go at a critical time for us. So we're a decade late, literally.

The good news is we're in the middle of shipping our first batch of 3,000 units this week, actually half of them have already been shipped and we're uploading tracking numbers now (this may take some time). Our original intent was to ship everyone's order in the order they backed us on Kickstarter - we know that many of our most awesome backers grabbed global adapters or aren’t based in North America and it really kills us that we can’t fulfill them alongside the first batch. Unfortunately because of the combination of certification delays and the prong issues for global adapters we'll only be able to ship the orders who are Earlybird backers, who do not have global adapters, and are not based in Europe, Australia/NZ, S. Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and China (we have UL/FCC/NOM). 

This means if you’re an earlybird backer, based in US, Canada, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, China, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Guam and didn’t get global adapters you will very likely receive an email next week with tracking information.  And honestly this is a logistical nightmare for us as it’s much easier to send everyone out in order but we didn’t want to hold onto this batch and as promised would get Covert Dock out to as many of you as we can as fast as we can. For those that aren’t in this small first batch, on behalf of our team we want to seriously apologize.

And I know being transparent with this information will also cause many of you to request downgrading to the non-global one but the truth is we’ve spent a week with our fulfillment team to identify how to make it possible to ship everyone’s order in time and they have already been selected based on the criteria above. Changing it now unfortunately won’t move you up the queue as frankly we can’t fulfill a moving target. There are also some caveats to know about this first batch. These non-global versions will not actually work with the global adapters when they are completed, this means if you were to  grab a set of our global adapters after the campaign they may not consistently work.

We’re super hesitant to overpromise the delivery dates for the next batches but I can tell you we’re very actively working to be able to ship all the early bird orders by mid-February and the rest by the end of February through early March. We expect most if not all certifications to be ready by then and I do understand this is a lot later than many of you have expected. We actually always had planned to deliver before the end of last year but as the scope of the project grew and the complexity of building a hybrid charger and dock surmounted, we had to essentially spend a lot of our time building new processes and up-skilling factories to make this than we could have ever anticipated - among all the headaches we've shared above.

Nothing easy is ever worth doing though, right? We’re going to get back to work!

Happy Holidays!
over 4 years ago – Mon, Dec 23, 2019 at 11:45:46 PM

First things first, happy holidays. We know we're a little late on shipment and that a lot of you are traveling which would've made this the perfect gaming companion especially if you're visiting family. We sincerely apologize for the delay, pioneering new categories of devices always takes some time, and the Pareto 80/20 principle applies here, that 80% of the effort was done in 20% of the time but the last 20% is what is taking 80% of the time. We seriously hate being late as we really originally targeted finishing up late November but alas even the most well made plans don't always succeed. As we know more we'll be sure to update as soon as possible, January will be a really really busy month for us.

The good news is that we've finished test production and the product works in terms of its core features - docking and charging safely.  It's all the finer points that we're now having to tweak and refine from an HDMI port being too tight, balancing the certification of a product that is in-between power supply and audio/video equipment (apparently this is new territory for certifications as it's sort of in both categories but not), and now we're even applying gold plating on all the PCB contacts to improve the production rate.  Yes, you can now brag that there isn't just Gallium Nitride inside but also Gold. We have a handful of Covert Docks from this test production that aren't really 'consumer ready' because of some of the things mentioned above but work as intended. 

A peek at the package

So what does a complete package look like? Here's the box:

We've decided to give the package two distinct personality personalities, from one angle with the red background it's shown as more of a multi-purpose one charger and display adapter to for all your portable travel charging and watching needs.  On the other blue background side it gets to the core where it's all about the Nintendo Switch and how to use it and the tech inside.

Inside is pretty straight forward. We'll have a simple manual (it's dead simple to use) and the USB-C cable will come on a small box that goes on top. And the Covert Pouch will just be outside the box. The ones who ordered without global adapters will get the same box though it's slightly big for it. We've had a packaging engineer help us out here so that we can minimize shipping related damages.

Fulfillment Update

So ultimately what everyone wants to know is when will they get Covert Dock.  We'll all be working this week and Chris and Andrew have already canceled their vacation plans and will be will be working through the holidays with our various suppliers.  We'll be getting all our updated PCBs this week and proceed with mass production, trying to optimize it so we can fulfill everyone's orders as soon as we can, which we're targeting throughout January.

Some of you have asked about shipping priorities and right now we can tell we'll aim to prioritize based on the order in which you backed our project on Kickstarter as much as we can but there will be some delays with certifications with stricter regions - specifically Europe and East Asian island nations. Again, we're doing everything we can and are pretty proud of the quality of the product and hopefully it shows when we get it to your doorstep.  

We'll also be locking addresses next week, you'll get an email warning you that you have 48 hours before its locked so in case you're a procrastinator you can do that.

If You're in Brazil

We've been told by some of our Brazilian backers that a new law is being enacted at the start of 2020 that requires you to have your ID number included in your shipping package to clear customs. Please aim to update your address on BackerKit (just log back in and view your order details with the link near the top) with this information on the second address line. We won't be able  to ship your package otherwise! 

Covert Docks in the Wild

Right now there are approximately 15 Covert Docks in the wild. So one of the comments pointed out that a Taiwanese YouTuber recently showed off an early test production unit of Covert Dock, this came from 3 units that we gave to our Taipei distribution partner. There are 2 units in the Amsterdam, 2 in Tokyo, 2 in Hong Kong, and 5 in Los Angeles and 2 en route to Norway. We promise to ship our first production units to our Kickstarter backers and will hold on to that promise.  Actually you can tell whether a unit is a test  production based on the USB-A port being flipped.

But if you're itching to see Covert Dock in action we've actually partnered with two booths at CES Las Vegas to demo it, one is under VLC Distribution and the other Navitas (to be confirmed). We honestly haven't had any time to prepare a proper display for the booth cause we're swamped with production but I'll try my best to make it there and say hi and check out what else is cool out there. I (Eddie) actually grew up in Las Vegas and still have family there so it'll be a nice to squeeze in a visit. We're actually pretty hyped for 2020 and we've also been working on some new crazy sci-fi product concepts out there but let's get past the first hurdle of getting Covert Dock into the hands of everyone here.  

The Fun Stuff for Last

So I found two links that I thought were pretty awesome.  First is dekudeals.com which basically organizes all the current Switch game sales in one page across many venues.  This is awesome given all the current holiday deals and beats going through the eShop store browsing. 

The second link is a summary of your Switch gaming throughout 2019, you can check it out here https://switch.nintendo.com/year-in-review/  Somehow I feel weird saying that I have a backlog after seeing how many games I've played this year... it's almost embarrassing but it is part of the job I suppose.

I'm sure you can tell a lot about a person based on the type of games he plays. I just grabbed Witcher 3 and Ni No Kuni during the holiday sales. At least this time we have the Covert Dock to play on the big screen each night coming back from production.

Anyways, would love to hear what your top five most played games are!  I have no idea if this is high of low but I don't doubt that some of you have played more than 600 hours this year right?...

Happy Thanksgiving!
over 4 years ago – Fri, Nov 29, 2019 at 01:52:30 AM

We have a lot to be grateful this year - we want to thank the 26,406 backers who believed in our product and our team, which is helping us remain an independent indie hardware startup that’s able to push new ideas through nimbly. I’m personally thankful that the Switch is thriving in 2019 and into 2020 with wonderful gems like Untitled Goose Game and The Touryst. We hope that everyone is well-fed and able to spend some time with loved ones as we enter the holiday season. 

Fulfillment Form Update 

For those that have provided us their add-on and shipping information we will be locking your order this weekend. You will receive an email with a 48 hour notice confirming this. This allows us to provide exact figures to inform our production, packing, and shipping. You’ll be able to change your address as needed until we lock addresses which should be in about 2 weeks. It'll also be your last chance to grab any add-ons at a discounted price.

There’s still about 1,700 or 7% of backers who have not responded to their Backerkit. For those of you who haven’t filled it out by this weekend, your shipment will likely be delayed as it will have to be handled/packaged manually. If you did not receive a Backerkit email yet please do the following:

• The quickest way to get to your survey is to go to the following site and enter your Kickstarter email address: https://covert-dock.backerkit.com 
• Maybe you're checking the wrong email account. Your survey was sent to the email address that is associated with your Kickstarter profile. Not sure what email that is? Login to Kickstarter, click on the icon in the upper right of the screen, and go to Settings > Account.
• Search your inbox and SPAM folder for "Covert Dock" or "Response Needed."
• If all else fails, go to https://covert-dock.backerkit.com, click the FAQ link, and then click the Contact tab. The kind folks at BackerKit are here to help!

Production Update

The biggest news is that we’ve gotten through the fog and almost out of test production. We're still working tirelessly to optimize an assembly line and as you can imagine - when you’re making something completely new you really have to be careful not to make any assumptions. The process for making chargers for example is very different when trying to combining two usually isolated disciplines in electronics (high speed and power electronics).  Bringing both worlds up to speed is trailblazing to say the least. We ran into two minor issues that took us a bit longer to get through but we’re happy to say they’re all resolved. 

First we had a bug where the USB port wouldn't charge independently unless something was also first triggered in the Type-C port - it's one of the complexities of making the USB port both a charging port and a hub port. Secondly we wanted to reduce the overall temperature so we added some more components but decided ultimately that we should still have a brass ring for extra heat dispersion and safety. This adds a bit of unforeseen costs on our side and ticks up the weight by 15 grams (half an oz.) but feels great!

So where does that leave us now? Our test production is wrapping up and we learned that it's basically a pain in the ass to solder 35 connections to combine the horizontal and vertical circuit boards for each of our ports, which we identified as a potential problem.  So we're reconfiguring the board a bit to simplify this process. 

Our mass manufacturing begins next week and we left Chris behind to spend some time to capture some brutal tests we’ll be succumbing it to. Also the certifications testing was delayed due to the hiccups above during test production but they have all been submitted and we hope to have some of them ready by mid December.

Now everyone I'm sure is asking when will the get Covert Dock. The more batches we ship the slower it'll be before everyone gets it. At the same time we should be able to have many to ship out mid-December but realistically with holiday shipping (as chaotic as it is), it'll be a bit difficult to get in most people's hands before the holiday season. Last year for our Genki Audio we suffered from post office overflow but effectively this should mean that many of the December orders will more likely arrive in January, in fact we're trying our hardest to basically get every unit shipped out by January. In terms of shipping order it'll be a balance of earlybird orders first and whatever regions we get certs first. 

Please, give us a bit of breathing room here, we will share exact shipping dates when they're known both through Kickstarter updates, Backerkit emails, etc. We'll have a dedicated email address and team to tackle this gigantic logistical beast of making/packing/sending 27,000 packages out to 90+ countries.  

Also, I’m giving away one free code for US E-shop users, it gives you a Nintendo Switch Online 3-month Individual membership: C065TQDRC6DYMPHR, enjoy! 

And randomly what are your thoughts on the Cybertruck? 👾

Surveys incoming!
over 4 years ago – Thu, Oct 24, 2019 at 12:21:44 AM

Surveys are making a splash this week

We are excited to announce that your fulfillment surveys will be sent out over the next 48 hours! We're sending them out in batches so we can ensure there are no technical issues. The survey will be sent to the email address associated with your Kickstarter account. The email subject will say "Response Needed -- Get your reward for GENKI: Covert Dock for the Nintendo Switch" and will be from [email protected].

In your survey, you'll be asked for the following info:

• Your final shipping address
• Your add-on products (if applicable)
• Feedback to help us improve future campaigns (optional)
• You will also have the ability to change your reward, or buy additional items (at exclusive Kickstarter prices) that will be shipped alongside your reward.

Last year we got a ton of questions around survey time, so we've gone ahead and laid out all the answers we can think of below. If you've got a question, we kindly ask that you start by reviewing the FAQ below (inspired by Peak Design). If that fails, email [email protected] and let them know you're asking about the Genki Covert Dock campaign.

KICKSTARTER SURVEY FAQ

1. WHERE'S MY SURVEY? I CAN'T FIND IT.

• No worries, surveys are sent in batches to ensure there are no technical issues. Check your email periodically between now and the middle of next week.
• The quickest way to get to your survey is to go to the following site and enter your Kickstarter email address: https://covert-dock.backerkit.com 
• Maybe you're checking the wrong email account. Your survey was sent to the email address that is associated with your Kickstarter profile. Not sure what email that is? Login to Kickstarter, click on the icon in the upper right of the screen, and go to Settings > Account.
• Search your inbox and SPAM folder for "Covert Dock" or "Response Needed."
• If all else fails, go to https://covert-dock.backerkit.com, click the FAQ link, and then click the Contact tab. The kind folks at BackerKit are here to help!

2. WILL I BE ABLE TO CHANGE MY SURVEY AFTER SUBMITTING IT?

Yes, you'll be able to change anything—your address, add-ons and even pledge level—up until we are ready to start shipping. When we're ready we will "lock down" all completed surveys, load your info into our shipping software and begin shipping your stuff. We'll tell you before we lock down surveys so you have time to make one last pass at them - it should be around late November.

Note that we cannot lock down surveys that are incomplete. You must fill out your survey in full in order for us to ship you your rewards.

3. HOW MUCH TIME DO I HAVE TO FILL OUT MY SURVEY?

As long as you wish. The sooner you fill your survey out and submit it, the sooner we'll be able to plug your shipment into our fulfillment system. But if you don't want to fill out your survey yet, you don't have to. For example, if you're moving between now and December and you don't know what your new address will be, you may opt to fill out the survey later.

4. WHEN WILL STUFF SHIP?

As messaged on our Kickstarter page, FAQ, and previous updates, we plan to ship your rewards in the month of December, 2019. Obviously we'll keep backers posted if anything about our planned fulfillment schedule changes.

Note that we expect rewards to leave our warehouses in December, which means that there is a chance that they may not arrive on your doorstep in the month of December. Shipping can take anywhere from 2-3 days (in places like the US and parts of Canada, UK and EU) to 2-4 weeks in some other parts of the world.

5. CAN I PICK UP MY REWARD EARLY OR PAY TO EXPEDITE IT?

We unfortunately can’t do that. In order to fulfill 26,000+ shipments of brand new products worldwide in a timely manner, we have important processes in place that can't be broken. Products will be manufactured, packaged, put on pallets and in containers, and shipped to different global warehouses. From there, they'll be received, organized, picked and packed, and shipped to you via carriers that are automatically selected by our fulfillment vendor for speed, reliability, and cost. It's a logistical beast, and the goal is to provide the best possible speed and experience for everyone.

6. WHAT IS BACKERKIT?

BackerKit is a 3rd party service that helps project creators like us make our backers happy by sending out easy-to-use surveys and giving them another chance to take advantage of our Kickstarter discount. We've worked with BackerKit for on our last Kickstarter project, and their services just keep getting better and better. So, please don't be alarmed by the backerkit.com URL or the BackerKit logo at the top of the survey... you're in very trusted hands.

7. CAN I BUY MORE STUFF AT THE KICKSTARTER PRICE?

Yes, and this survey is your last chance to do it. When you finish your survey questions you'll be presented with a screen that looks like a web store, and it includes nearly every product we make, including our new Covert Dock and accessories. Here you can add whatever products you want to your reward at an exclusive discount.

8. HOW DOES THE ADD-ON THING WORK?

It's actually very straightforward. You can add on whatever items you want to your reward. If the cost of those items exceeds what you pledged, you can pay the difference via credit card in your BackerKit survey.

If you pledged more money than the value of your award+shipping, you'll see a credit when you get to the Add-On screen in the survey. As you add things to your reward, that credit will decrease. If your credit hits $0 and you keep adding things, then you will owe additional funds. Once you are finished adding stuff you can pay those additional funds via credit card in the next step.

9. WHAT SHOULD I GET AS AN ADD-ON?

Well, first off if you didn't get the global adapters and you need them, this is a good animation of how it works. We've re-engineered the notches that keep it more secure especially for those who need to use an adapter for more permanent uses.

We know many of you have been interested in our previous Kickstarter project so we of course highly recommend our Genki Bluetooth Audio adapter.  We've re-bundled it now so that all packages come with the dock adapter and microphone.

And if you haven't backed our previous project you're probably also missing one of the best portable stands ever in case you didn't want your Switch lying next to your TV:  

Check out this video where IGN raves about the portable stand here, scrub to 52:40, seriously we'll wait. We couldn't have said it better ourselves and we're giving people who missed our first project a big exclusive backer discount because for those that want to display their Switch more beautifully by the television.

Now it may sound odd to brag about cables, but really we've designed some pretty special cables. The fantastic news is that every Covert Dock comes with our 6ft/1.8m USB-C 3.1 cable.  It's important to note that typical USB-C cables do not transfer video data, only cables rated USB-C 3.1 and above do and these tend to be pretty stiff. What we haven't mentioned is that we've built these cables with graphite so that  they're not only strong and reliable but also much more flexible than other cables - designed with portability in mind.  Additionally, we're also selling matching super flexible HDMI cables that are only 3.6mm in diameter - compare this to your typical 6-10mm which is a nightmare to pack into a bag. These cables are made for constant plugging and unplugging for those on the road. We also have both cables in 10ft/3.0m variations for those that need a bit more clearance.

Last but not least, we tried to bring some fun into what could possibly be the most boring Nintendo Switch accessory category: screen protectors. Born from frustrations of choosing various screen protectors we've basically come up with a pack of premium screen protectors that offer a variety of experiences. What this means is that each pack comes with 3, each with its unique features. A crystal clear screen protector is the most typical one for those that want like an experience where they don't even notice the extra layer. We also have a matte anti-glare finish which is great for those long road trips in the sun, and finally we have a unique blue light filter one thats easy on the eyes especially for late night gaming sessions and children. We have them for both Switch and Switch Lite. 

10. MY PAYMENT FAILED. WHAT DO I DO NOW?

If your payment failed via Kickstarter, there's still a chance for you to get your same rewards for the same Kickstarter price. You will still have a survey emailed to you, but it will show that you pledged $0. You will be able to pick whichever reward and add-ons you want, and then pay with a credit card.

Some international payment methods (particularly international bank cards) might not work with BackerKit's payment system. So, you may have to use a credit card for the payment to go through.

11. I'M MOVING SOON! WHAT SHOULD I LIST AS MY SHIPPING ADDRESS?

Give us your expected shipping address for the month of December, 2019. If you don't know what your address will be during that time we recommend not filling out your address yet. We'll let you know when we're ready to start shipping bags, and at that time you can go in and enter your correct address.

12. WHAT DO I DO AFTER FILLING OUT MY SURVEY?

Glad you asked! Last year we created Genki Lab to use as a focus group for product development. We're evolving this to become more of a community rather than just individual conversations; think of it as safe fun space for you to ask any technical questions, show-off your photos, and give us feedback on new product designs.  We're migrating Genki Lab to a Facebook private group here.  Ultimately this helps us understand what makes you tick, so we can continue to design great products that solve your needs. We also pour tons of effort into these Kickstarter campaigns...not just in the design and development of our new products, but also in reaching new people who we think would dig our gear. We want to get a sense for what efforts paid off and where we can improve moving forward.

Manufacturing Update

We saved this for last because well it hasn't been super exciting. The past 5 weeks have been dedicated to tooling, PCB assembly, and the more boring packaging development. Packaging development sounds fun and all but last time we had a lot of cases break during shipment so we've actually brought on a packaging engineer to help us this to survive the rigors of global postal workers. Tooling also maybe not so exciting but we've upgraded our mold actually so that now the transparent section and the non-transparent section are super seamless and made as one piece. You only see this kind of manufacturing in really fancy hardware.

In terms of PCB Assembly testing we’ve hit a one-week delay because Hitachi, the makers of our transformers didn’t ship on time despite us ordering these components for our test production a month in advance. The good news is we’ve used this down time to improve some of the cooling, it's going to get a bit technical.

Gallium Nitride technology enables chargers to run cooler and become smaller but when you have 30 watts charger and high data transfer dock circuitry combined - even a single watt of wasted heat can make a huge difference. Despite being able to conform to regulations, we're exploring two ways to make it run even more efficient than our first prototypes.  Figure 1 shows how we prototyped using a traditional copper ring heatsink used to dissipate heat. 

This however isn't an ideal solution for us only because visually it's ugly especially since we have a semi-transparent case, but also since it's just passively spreading the warmth. So Andrew has thought up a way to use the extra week to improve the energy efficiency of the dock circuitry by offloading the inefficient internal power regulator with more efficient switch mode external regulators for the HDMI and USB 3.0 chips. (Figure 2) With greater efficiency more power is put to work rather than heat thus cooling down the Covert Dock.

Win!

We're excited to announce that we have a winner of the Link's Awakening keychain from last update's giveaway. Drumroll please... and its Karl D. from Dublin! We'll send it to the address you fill in from BackerKit!  Also I would like your help in congratulating Chris and Roanna who just got engaged earlier this month! They're not sharing photos with us but that leaves only one bachelor left from the team! 

Thanks for getting this far, we'll see you in November! Hopefully we'll look more fit with all the bouts of Ringfit squeezed in between testing sprints.

Fun(ded)! What now?!
over 4 years ago – Mon, Sep 16, 2019 at 02:46:40 AM

Woohoo! Covert Dock is a Go!

Thanks to the support of this Kickstarter community, we can continue to make awesome products for elevated play experiences. We developed this because of our love for gaming and we’re glad this resonates with everyone here.  Last year our Genki Audio was the most funded gaming hardware project of 2018 and we're happy to carry the tradition forward with the Covert Dock. This is by far our biggest undertaking and we've actually become the most funded gaming hardware Kickstarter project since the Oculus Rift set the bar back in 2012.

A big thank you from our small team. Thank you for everything! 

We can't wait to get Covert Docks into 26,406 mailboxes across 95 countries but first you're probably wondering what's next?

Add-ons and Address Confirmations

So we just learned that we have over 5,000 first-time Kickstarter backers... which is awesome! So, you may be thinking "ok, what do I do now?" Well, for the next few weeks, actually you don't have to do anything.  Kick back and play some games.

In a few weeks (late October-ish) we'll send out your fulfillment surveys where you'll be able to do the following:

• Tell us where you want your Covert Dock and goodies shipped
• Confirm which add-on items you want (if you added them during the campaign)
• Add-on additional cables/accessories to your reward shipment (at Kickstarter prices)
• Add-on previous products such as Genki Audio and Portable Stands to your reward shipment (at a special discount)

We'll be sending those surveys out using a service called BackerKit and will make sure everyone's notified by another update as well as e-mail.

Yay! Friendly shipping

So some of you may have been wondering why this update is coming like 2 days after the campaign but it's honestly because we've been working over the weekend figuring out all the prep for certification ready production units and just as important developing an awesome fulfillment plan. This probably would've been better to advertise up front but basically you'll see in some comments that we're planning to have EU-friendly shipping.  To do so, we've been working out plans for a network of warehouses, logistic firms, couriers.  The reason we always point to EU is because it tends to be the most stringent when it comes to importation duties and customs, but there are a few others that are tricky that we've also devised plans for including Canada, Australia, and China friendly shipping.  Anyway what this ultimately means is we're going to try our best to handle all the annoying global shipping tax stuff from our side so that it's not messy on your side. 

What's the status of the Add-ons?

We know some of you are still waiting for more details on accessories like additional USB-C cables, the flexible HDMI cable, or global adapters and the answer is we're still finalizing them and will share them on an update as soon as we can.  As for the covert pouch the clear winner is having black on the outside but we'll try to make it as reversible as possible.

Need to Take Your Mind off Waiting?

There are so many cool remakes, ports, and compilations coming out in the rest of this month!  As a RPG/Adventure game fan myself I'm pretty hyped for the new Link's Awakening remake, Dragon Quest 11, Ni no Kuni, Untitled Goose Game(!) and Ori and the Blind Forest (Astral Chain and Daemon x Machina are also on our radar but we've been crazy swamped this month... cause you know).  In the meantime, we're going to giveaway a limited Link's Awaking keychain from the Nintendo's PAX West booth.  Here's how to enter:

• Like our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/Genkiaccessories/ 
• Post an image of you playing the new Links Awakening or an image from this folder to your Facebook tagging our page and letting your friends know that you backed the Covert Dock
• Get at least 5 likes on your post and send a screenshot to [email protected] by the end of the September
• We'll randomly draw from those submissions a winner and announce it on the following update
• And just for the hell of it, let us know what you think about Ring Fit Adventure in the comments 

Some Other Projects on Our Radar

These are some of the other trending projects on Kickstarter that helped grow our audience and so we're returning the favor.  First up is the Zhiyun Smooth Q2. My first experience with using a handheld gimbal was actually the first Zhiyun gimbal because my friend bought it at an amazing price and I borrowed it for a memorable New Zealand trip a couple years back. My biggest gripe was its size and it looks like their newest model radically solves that:

Anyway, looks good, doubles as a power bank, and if you've never used a gimbal it makes your videos so smooth.  The price point is hard to beat and its a team with a track record, check it out here.

Next up is SoundPeats. Now we've actually turned down a lot of projects that want us to cross-promote headphones because we're sticklers on latency. These guys assure me that they can get 60ms off of their aptX codec which is pretty awesome. 

It's really rare to have really really good audio quality over true wireless earbuds and even rarer with aptX especially at their price point.  Check it out here.  

And our last one here, that at first to be honest I felt a bit skeptical especially after personally trying on the bulkier Microsoft Hololens. At this price point for AR tech its definitely got an interesting proposition, you can even simulate a 100" screen playing your Switch on it with the Covert Dock.

You can get a better idea of the image quality by checking out their sample videos on their page, they even test it with a Switch. I really do hope they come up with some cool use-cases especially since they have quite the following on Kickstarter, check it out here.

TTYL

If you've got questions that aren't answered in this update, or in our Kickstarter FAQ, email [email protected] for the quickest response.

As mentioned before, now is a time to sit back and relax while we ramp up our manufacturing, testing and fulfillment processes. Once again, thank you for your incredible support!