Stretch goal #3: Memoto Wifi Dock, Waterproof Case and Wide-angle Lens - Your help is needed!

*Project update #14 for Memoto Lifelogging Camera, posted Nov 7, 2012.*

Dear Kickstarter Backers,

First off, we would again like to express our love to you. Your engagement is inspiring and there are no words to describe how happy we are with the support you are giving us. To really highlight how committed we are to making your wants and ideas reality, we want to announce a new stretch goal.

The past week we have been looking at what value can we create now that we couldn’t before. All the comments and messages we have been getting have been a guiding light in this work. The input you are providing really couldn’t be more aligned with what we ourselves want to achieve with Memoto!

Now, the following is a pretty voluminous, but please bear with us. We have some questions we’d like to answer within this update:

• Why $700,000 is in fact a reasonable goal

• How a Wifi Dock makes the Memoto camera even more easy to manage

• Where you can use your Memoto camera when it’s put in a Waterproof Case

• What your Memoto camera will “see” when given an optional Wide-angle Lens

• How you can help!

• What our stretch goal bonus secret is about

• What our answers are to some of the questions you might have

• Why we’re so in love with stretch goals

Okay, let’s move on. Long text follows:

New Stretch Goal: $700 000 - WOAH!

Our Kickstarter project has exceeded our expectations over and over again. So, in terms of our next stretch goal, we decided to look at what we can achieve if it keeps doing that, i.e if we would end up raising $700 000 or more in total. The results were awesome and we are truly excited about what we are able to announce today.

Any sane person reading this should be healthily sceptical about the level we ended up with. $700k is A LOT. But when we looked at the progress so far ($400k in two weeks, with almost four more weeks to go), and the value we could provide with $700k met, we decided to go for it. It will be so worth it if we get there!

Stretch goal result no 1.: Development of the Memoto Wifi Dock

As we are talking about stretch-goals: I would love to see a Memoto charging dock, preferably with wifi to automatically upload the pictures. I would be willing to pay extra for this, as it would make the user experience much better.

• Jelle Prins

My biggest concern is about the uploading/syncing/recharging. This needs to be made simpler. [..] The first addon that is needed for the memoto is a charging/syncing dock. [..] This dock has to live on the bedside table and allow the memoto to be charged/synched overnight with no more interaction that just pushing the camera into the dock.

• Philip Gladstone

Is it possible for you to put a microSD card slot in your device? So it will be possible for long offline stays for field trips.

• TechkNighT Tenente

If we meet this stretch goal, we’ll have the funding to start development of a Wifi-enabled charging dock for the Memoto Camera. The requirement of charging/syncing the Memoto Camera through a laptop has been a concern of us as well as you the community. With the Memoto Wifi Dock, charging and synching is as easy as putting the camera in the dock at night and picking it up in the morning without the need for a computer. Still no buttons to press, and as simple as it can be.

The Wifi Connector is a whole new device, with a processor, wifi-chip, RAM memory, firmware flash, DC adapter and so on. It will be almost like a fully functional little computer on the inside. Thus, the development will take some time and be quite costly. Meeting the stretch goal does not allow us to give away the Wifi Dock for free, but we will provide a 10% rebate off of list price to Kickstarter backers. The target list price is around $79 and if we start designing the dock before the end of November we expect to be able to have it ready to ship before the summer. Delays may occur depending on events outside of our control.

Last but not least: The Memoto Wifi Dock will have an SD-card slot for exchangable memory storage, making it useful for charging and offloading photos from the Memoto Camera even when there is no wifi around for syncing. There is no room for a SD-card slot in the camera itself, especially keeping it weather protected.

Stretch goal result no. 2: Development of a Waterproof Case

Suggested features to stretch goal: Some sort of case / magnetic mechanism for other lenses and full waterproofing

• Nicky Lewis

HUGE +1 to "Some sort of case / magnetic mechanism for other lenses and full waterproofing"

• a ward

Waterproofing, because depending on the area, rain is not an uncommon occurence. That, or swimming pools, oceans, lakes, etc.

• Chris Olson

The Memoto Camera comes with a weather-protected case built in, making it possible to wear in wind and rain. Which is an amazing achievement by our engineers in such a small form factor. But weather-protection does not mean waterproof, and not scratch-resistant or dirt-resistant either. For all of you who imagine doing heavy duty lifelogging, whether it be swimming, hiking, scuba diving or doing hard work, we would like to develop a sturdy waterproof shell for the Memoto Camera. It would be made of hard transparent acrylic, have a really beautiful design but still be very functional.

As with the Wifi Dock, meeting the stretch goal does not allow us to give away the Waterproof Case for free, but we will provide a 10% rebate off of list price to Kickstarter backers. The target list price is around $35 and if we start with development before the end of November we expect to be able to have it ready to ship during spring. Delays may occur depending on events outside of our control.

Stretch goal result no. 3: Development of a Wide-angle Lens Add-on

Regarding the viewing-angle, have you considered a snap-on lens (similar to Olloclip for the iPhone), ie. having a fisheye/wide angle slide-on...?

• Mikael Svärdh

I also think a wider lens would be essential, and make for more interesting photos.

• Nicky Lewis

For the design of the Memoto Camera, we have made a trade-off in regards to the focal length of the lens. The standard lens has a 70 degree viewing angle, giving the photos the same look as a mobile phone camera. It is no coincidence, since a wider angle lens is too bulky for a mobile phone as well as for the Memoto Camera. And even though a wider angle lens captures more of what is going on around you, the look of the resulting photos is not as appealing to everyone.

All this said, some of you have thoroughly expressed the need for a wide-angle lens. And really, who are we to say you are wrong? The Memoto Camera should be adaptable for any use case and need. So with this stretch goal met, we commit to develop a wide-angle lens as an add-on to the Memoto Camera. It will either come as a functional front cover or as a corner snap-on, most likely giving the camera a 135 degree viewing angle.

The target price point is not set, but we hope it will be less than $20 and Kickstarter backers will have 10% off of list price. If we start with development before the end of November we expect to be able to have it ready to ship during spring. Delays may occur depending on events outside of our control.

Your help is needed!

Your support makes a real difference to our ability to create value with Memoto. We really want to provide something valuable for a lot of people and the response we are getting tells us we have struck a chord.

The simplest way for you to support us going forward is to spread the word about Memoto. Post about us on Twitter, Facebook and your blog, if you have one. Embed our Kickstarter video wherever you like, or share with your friends this amazing segment on Colbert Report about Memoto.

Any contribution is valuable!

Stretch goal result bonus: Better lens for the Memoto Camera

As an added bonus, if we meet this stretch goal we will be able to incorporate a more expensive lens in the Memoto Camera, with aperture F2.4 instead of F2.8. The new lens is a lot more light sensitive than the current one. The f-stop scale is logarithmic meaning that the small change makes a real difference. We are dedicated to optimizing every aspect of your experience of Memoto Camera and App. Also, our supplier says that the better lens is “the same as Apple uses”, whatever that means.

PS. Don’t tell anyone, but we’ll incorporate the better lens no matter if or when this stretch goal is met. We couldn’t not do it :)

FAQ on this stretch goal

Q: Why accessories instead of improvements to the Memoto Camera? A: Some of you have been very clear about the value you see in the simplicity of the Memoto Camera, while some have wanted us to adapt it to their needs. With accessories we feel we can achive a new level of adaptability while keeping the product beautifully simple. It would also be impossible to add actual hardware features without delaying our promised delivery date. This is why we focus on accessories instead of improvements to the Memoto Camera.

Q: Why can’t we have the accessories in February already? Must we wait until the summer? A: We are already up to our necks in work to be able to ship the Memoto Camera and App in February. Compared to the huge companies making other kinds of hardware, we are an extremely small team of engineers. We apologize for not being able to meet your expectations on all fronts. That said, perhaps developing the Wide-angle lens or the Waterproof Case is quicker than we expect. They will be available as soon as possible.

Q: What if you end up not achieving the goal of $700k? A: We will always get some ways toward it, even if it turns out it is impossible before the end of November. As soon as our Kickstarter project is over on November 30th we will start accepting orders on Memoto.com. The orders there will count towards the stretch goal as well, making it very likely to be reached at some point. But the sooner we reach it, the sooner we can start working on development of the accessories.

Q: But I have this other idea! Can you do it too? A: Yes, please let us know your ideas! The stretch goals so far have been the result of people telling us what they want. Our willingness to step up and deliver value for you will not cease with Kickstarter, we will always listen to the Memoto community. Get in touch! You can find us at @memototeam, fb.com/memotocompany and hello@memoto.com.

Finally, an insight on stretch goals (read this if you are planning to do a Kickstarter project yourself)

Before the start of our project we thought of stretch goals as a way of engaging the community in bringing in more backers. But what we have learned is that it really is a useful tool for project planning as well. The stretch goals allow us to plan not for the current level of community backing, but for the next. Instead of changing our plans every day as new backers turn up, with a stretch goal in mind we can look further ahead and plan for greater achievements for the benefit of everybody. It is also a great way of market testing our plans, because if people are not happy about them they will let us know. Stretch goals are actually an invaluable tool.

With love,

The Memoto team