?
?
?
Dear Mathieu
?
Thank you
for the update on the VRS3 in relation to Audible your
news is so disappointing.
?
I would like
to write to someone at Audible to express my concerns and
wonder if you can supply a name and email contact?
?
Best wishes
Henry
?
?
?
?
?
?
Hello everyone,
?
I wanted to give you an update on the
latest about what¡¯s going on with the Audible
integration on the Victor Reader Stream 3.
?
I¡¯m going to pull the curtain back a little
and let you in on the inner workings of such an
endeavor.
?
For context: we initially contacted them in
July 2021 (two years ago) to let them know we had a new
product coming and to prepare. We contacted them again
in July 2022.? We were told to just use the previous
implementation (the one we have on Stream2/VRTrek).
?
In November 2022, it became clear that the
fact we¡¯re now using MTP wouldn¡¯t work in AudibleSync,
so we reinitiated contact, let them know, and sent them
a device at their request for testing. This is all
before anyone knew the Stream 3 was coming out.
?
As I¡¯ve mentioned on some podcasts and here
before, it was then radio silence for a couple months. I
would email them once or twice a week and get not
answers, in December and January. That is, until
Jonathan Mosen in late January initiated a very
successful open letter/petition that caught their
attention, then they started communicating back with us.
?
Since then, we¡¯ve had some meetings, in
theory bi-weekly, but a few ended up being cancelled
with little to no notice. We were told in February we
would be sent a test account, it took about two months
to receive it (April). We then we kept being told, from
meeting to meeting, that ¡°it¡¯s going to work in the next
few weeks¡±.
?
Finally, around mid-June, we finally were
contacted by one of their engineers who started looking
at the issue. From the questions they asked, it seemed
clear that this was the first time they even plugged in
the Stream 3 to a computer.
?
I¡¯m going to open a parenthesis here.
?
Now, what you need to understand is, there
is about a month¡¯s worth (4-5 weeks) for one person of
work to do on our side to create the interface on the
Stream. We need to build an app, build the user
interface, etc. We¡¯re a small company, and we cannot
afford to put that much work into something that ends up
not working because AudibleSync won¡¯t support MTP, so we
are waiting until we have confirmation that the Stream
is seen before we start the work. That means that in
order to make the 1.2 update, we¡¯d have to get the
AudibleSync thing sorted out before end of July, then
start the work which brings us to early September, when
we can then do QA and beta testing.
?
End of parenthesis.
?
Two weeks ago, we had a call with some
higher ups at Audible that told us that we would get an
update by July 21st, which was last Friday.
As we had not heard anything this morning, we asked for
it. They responded quickly, and the update is: we¡¯ll
give you an update by July 31st as we¡¯re
evaluating whether or not we can do MTP.? So, basically,
same as two weeks ago.
?
We at Humanware are really disappointed in
this turn of event. The fact that we¡¯ve given them a
heads up two years ago, provided them with a test unit
over 8 months ago, and to be quite blunt, not much has
been done since at all...
?
I¡¯m the kind of person that calls it like
it is. When we mess up at Humanware, and we do
sometimes, I don¡¯t shy from it, I voice it. Doesn¡¯t
always make me popular, but I tell it like I see it, and
I¡¯ve even said on this list sometimes that we made a
mistake.
?
In this instance, for Audible, I can say
that we did EVERYTHING right. We answered them in a very
timely manner every time they asked us a question,
provided them with all that we could, attended every
single meeting with them, etc. We really did everything
we could humanly do.
?
As it stands, it seems very unlikely we¡¯ll
see Audible support in 2023. Mid-2024 would be my bet.
And that¡¯s if they don¡¯t decide that MTP is too complex
to add.
?
We are looking at a plan B right now if
that¡¯s what they decide, to see if there¡¯s something we
can do¡ we think there may be a way, but without going
into details, it¡¯s a bit ugly and we¡¯re really hesitant.
It would also require a lot of work.
?
So there you have it. I¡¯ve always been
transparent with you all, and my goal here really isn¡¯t
to throw Audible under the bus or anything, but just
relay things as they are, factually. We¡¯ve expressed our
disappointment with them but told them that despite it,
we¡¯ll still cooperate and do all that we can to make it
happen sooner rather than later.
?
So yeah. Thank you for taking the time to
read this long update. I¡¯m sure that we¡¯ll eventually
get there, it¡¯s just a bit of a long, winding road. Like
Sheryl Crow sang, ¡°I get a little bit closer to feeling
fine¡± ?
?
Thank you for reading this.
Mathieu Paquette
Product Manager
Humanware
