Hello everyone,
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I'm sorry if I've been a bit more absent on the list this past few weeks, but it's been quite busy!
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We've just released a hotfix on the StellarTrek, our GPS product for which I am also the product manager, so I had to deal with beta testing on that, as well as an ongoing beta for the Stream 3.
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I know everyone is waiting on the Stream 3 update. So I wanted to give a quick, well, update on it. :)
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Testing is going really well. TuneIn is working out to be really great, and we have squashed quite a few bugs!
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So our plan was, and still is, to release the update by end of October. I'm currently aiming for an Oct 31st release.
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HOWEVER.
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We have found a bug last week (that's also present in 1.1) that happens with some SD cards that are 256 gigs or larger. The team is currently in debugging mode and looking into it.
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At first glance, it appears to be a driver issue, which is bad news, as changing a driver can have other unforeseen impacts that we'll have to test out.
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So there are three scenarios at this point.
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1- We find a fix rather rapidly, and we meet the October 31st release date. That's best case.
2- We find a fix, but it takes a few weeks to fully implement and test, in which case, we'll push back the release by a few weeks. I would say November 21st would be my very latest for this scenario.
3- We find a fix, but estimate that the fix will take more than 2-3 weeks to implement. In this case, we'll release 1.2 on October 31st with the bug still present, and fix the issue in 1.3.
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I'm hoping for 1 or 2, and we are working very hard towards that.
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Also, to set expectations, there will still be a few bugs with this release. I'm expecting 1.3 will be the more definitive version (not to say it will be the last, as I have already stuffed planned for 1.4, but 1.3 should be the last significant bugfix update).
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Switching gear, I've seen some people mention that they would like to see more frequent updates. And you know what? I 100% share the sentiment. I also wish, as a PM, that I could have more updates on my products. If it were up to me, we would have 5, 6 updates a year.
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But the reality is that we're a small team at HumanWare, and the team that works on the Stream also works on other products (such as the Braille Readers). And while some features can be co-developed and ported on both the Stream and a Braille Reader, that's the exception, not the rule.
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I like to say, Google and Apple have more janitors than we have employees. We're in a small, niche market, and we do the best we can with the resources we have.
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But rest assured that the team is dedicated, passionnate, and we want to make sure to deliver you the best we can. I understand we haven't always hit the mark in the past, but it's not for lack of trying.
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On a final note, we are getting good cooperation from Audible on issues we're encountering, so that's very positive! And I have a meeting with another 3rd party tomorrow, I won't say who yet, but I think it's something that a lot of you would love... more info to come ;)
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Thank you all for your understanding.
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Mathieu Paquette
Product Manager
HumanWare
