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Dear Mathieu
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Thank you for the update on the VRS3 in relation to Audible your news is so disappointing.
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I would like to write to someone at Audible to express my concerns and wonder if you can supply a name and email contact?
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Best wishes
Henry
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Hello everyone,
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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.
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I¡¯m going to pull the curtain back a little and let you in on the inner workings of such an endeavor.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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¡±.
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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.
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I¡¯m going to open a parenthesis here.
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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.
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End of parenthesis.
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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¡± ?
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Thank you for reading this.
Mathieu Paquette
Product Manager
Humanware
