Many of you have commented on the lack of firmware upgrades for the recorder and there seems to be some confusion surrounding the Gamma program. Further there have been questions regarding future versions of the recorder and all those issues tie together into different faces of whats really one issue: Supporting our users through our development process.

As many of you know, we created the Gamma program to enable us to launch products to the market quickly and get your feedback and comments quickly so that we could rapidly incorporate that feedback into our next versions of the product. In short that feedback really accelerates our ability to get the right, mature and stable product into your hands. The intention of the Gamma program was that once the hardware was stable, wed release with our 1st pass as firmware and software and rapidly enhance that in the field. In recognition of the fact that such enhancements are somewhat unpredictable and might not suit a given user (for a variety of possible reasons) the Gamma program is coupled with an extended, no questions asked return period (6 months in the case of the MPEG-4 Recorder). This was designed to protect our customers from any kind of dissatisfaction from any source. Even if we, or a competitor for that matter, comes out with a product that better serves your needs, just return the Gamma product, and youll get a refund. As you can imagine, this is a money losing proposition for us, but we do it in return for your participating in our product development process. In retrospect, we should have done a better job of articulating that position in the woot sale and well do so going forward. That being said, we never release a product that we dont feel is of value to our consumers at Gamma or any other stage. In fact, weve had very few returns of the MPEG-4 recorder to date and many folks continue to use their device happily. But if you arent happy with the MPEG-4 recorder in the Gamma program, please feel free to return it at any time before August 9, 2005 and well be happy to refund your money.

In terms of feedback, the Recorder Gamma program was a smash success. We have great clarity on what future versions should offer:

1) More standard file output, ideally DIVX
2) Higher resolution recording and playback
3) optional storage options including USB Host or internal Hard Drive
4) PSP/memory stick compatibility
5) networking would be a big plus
6) Timed recording capability
7) a host of UI and usability enhancements have been suggested

Unfortunately items 1-4 cannot be solved with firmware upgrades, they require new hardware. In addition, even some of the things that should have been firmware upgrades have ended up resulting in hardware modifications. The net result is that the hardware we sold as Recorder Gammas on 2/9 will be the only version of that hardware that we ever sell. As much as we have struggled to avoid this outcome, it has become inescapable at this point. Although things like this are definately regretable, they are sometimes unavoidable. Because we listen so closely to your feedback, and value that feedback so greatly, we often are compelled to make modifications that quickly obsolete old hardware at the early stages of the product lifecycle. What can be done to avoid hard feelings during those early stages when the product changes quickly. Number one, we need to do a better job of articulating the nature of our Gamma products going forward. Two, we need to make our Gamma program understood so that consumers feel comfortable abour returning products. Three, we need to put ourselves in a position where we can better understand limitations and can react with firmware upgrades more quickly than we have with the recorder.

I appoligize to those of you that were banking on a particuliar upgrade to the Recorder, and who will be inconvenienced by having to return the product. Well continue to drive forward on the enhancements even though they will require hardware modifications and through the Gamma program you will have first access to those modifications (although it will be more inconvenient than a simple firmware download) For those of you buying the new versions of the product that will be out shortly, we will continue to make sure that you are protected from obsolecense through our upgrade programs which Ill describe in the next post.

Discussion of this subject will continue on the forums:

http://www.neurosaudio.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6083