Post by: makoshark on October 03, 2021, 01:26:20 am
It looks like PR1 samples were introduced on 7/12/19 for Cosmo.
For Astro, this date was 9/5/21.
PR1 Samples: Cosmo-07/12/19 >> Astro-09/05/21
PR2 Production Run: Cosmo-08/16/19 >> Astro-10/10/21
Production Start: Cosmo-09/03/19 >> Astro-10/28/21
GMS Approval: Cosmo-09/06/19 >> Astro-10/31/21
Ready for Assembly: Cosmo-09/18/19 >> Astro-11/12/21
First Mass Production: Cosmo-09/26/19 >> Astro-11/20/21
Start to Ship: Cosmo-10/12/19 >> Astro-12/06/21
Backers from Japan, USA: Cosmo-11/15/19 >> Astro-01/09/22
On the way to Europe(Germany, UK): Cosmo-11/22/19 >> Astro-01/16/22
3500 out of 4000 Produced, 80% of Backers received Cosmo-12/09/19 >> Astro-02/02/22
I am hoping much earlier schedule for Astro, but if it goes similar timeline, many of backers will receive Astro Dec 2021 - Jan 2022.
Post by: Daniel W on October 03, 2021, 02:51:02 pm
I did some similar, though cruder, estimations for the Cosmo, https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?topic=35829 (https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?topic=35829) and it ended up arriving much later than my estimations. While it would be nice to get it before Christmas, as long as my Cosmo works, I am in no real hurry this time (getting by on a Gemini while waiting for a Cosmo was painful, though). That said, I do look forward to not needing the CoDi, perhaps finally getting a working compass and a better camera.
Post by: ArchiMark on October 03, 2021, 08:01:47 pm
I guessing we'll be lucky to see our Astro's by Christmas....and might be after New Year........
So it goes.....
:D
Mark
Post by: Zarhan on October 04, 2021, 05:13:52 am
That said, I do look forward to not needing the CoDi, perhaps finally getting a working compass and a better camera.
The camera issue was addressed by Shuntcap's custom builds of the camera software. The primary feature I'm interested in would be better speech quality for phone calls...
Post by: makoshark on October 04, 2021, 09:31:11 pm
I did some similar, though cruder, estimations for the Cosmo, https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?topic=35829 (https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?topic=35829) and it ended up arriving much later than my estimations.
I saw your post. It looks like you have more details and added the actual result!!
I will put the actual dates if I have time, too.
I am currently using Blackberry KeyOne and planning to use Astro as a daily driver.
I wish I can get Astro before Christmas...
Post by: Daniel W on October 06, 2021, 07:44:36 am
The camera issue was addressed by Shuntcap's custom builds of the camera software.While Shuntcaps lovely custom builds alleviated multiple quality issues, they are, by neccesity, rather basic, lacking even white balance control, and the viewfinder is, for technical reasons, pretty slow. I am, however, mainly looking forward to better camera hardware, with better optical resolution, faster and more accurate focus, better dynamic range etc. A main camera module clearly surpassing my 2013 Samsung would be nice.
Oh, well, I'm getting off topic. Would mass production actually begin on Monday (October 11), we could perhaps push all the estimated dates 17 days earlier (than October 28), but as I read Update #40, Planet will place the order for mass production on Monday, not actually begin mass production, so I think the actual date when the factory begins assembling Astros for backers, might remain to be determined. That said, I'd love to be wrong.
Post by: Daniel W on November 05, 2021, 09:53:34 am
16th November - All materials arrive for PCB mass production - many have already arrived
End of November - Astro PCB mass production
30th November - All materials to arrive for Astro Assembly
1st half of December - Astro Assembly and packaging
Mid-December - 1st Shipment of Astro Slide from factory to Planet warehouse
Fitting the events above, as best as I could, to makoshark's milestones, gave me these earliest possible dates:
(PCB) Production Start: Cosmo-09/03/19 >> Astro-10/28/21 >> #43-11/16/21
GMS Approval: Cosmo-09/06/19 >> Astro-10/31/21 >> #43-ongoing as of 11/05/21
Ready for Assembly: Cosmo-09/18/19 >> Astro-11/12/21 >> #43-11/30/21
First Mass Production: Cosmo-09/26/19 >> Astro-11/20/21 >> #43-12/01/21
Start to Ship: Cosmo-10/12/19 >> Astro-12/06/21 >> #43-12/16/21
By "earliest possible" I mean that the "End of November" Astro PCB mass production cannot possibly begin earlier than 11/16/21, when the required materials are expected to have arrived, and will likely not begin until a few days later. Likewise, the factory cannot possibly be ready for assembly earlier than 11/30/21, when the materials for that are expected to have arrived, and will likely need a few more days to set everything up. Further, shipments from their warehouse cannot possibly begin earlier than "mid December", when the first shipment to the warehouse is expected, and will, based on the Gemini and Cosmo, not begin until a week or two later. December 16 isn't specifically mentioned by Planet anywhere, I just picked that as the middle of December.
One date to keep in mind might be Saturday 01/29/22, which, as far as I know, is the last working day before the, certainly well deserved, Chinese New Year holidays. New Year's Eve is on Monday 01/31/22 and on Tuesday 02/01/21, the year of the Water Tiger begins. What hasn't left China by 01/29, isn't likely to go anywhere until after the Lantern Festival on Tuesday 02/15/22.
Post by: Daniel W on December 04, 2021, 03:09:00 pm
First Mass Production: Cosmo-09/26/19 >> Astro-11/20/21 >> #45-12/16/21
Start to Ship: Cosmo-10/12/19 >> Astro-12/06/21 >> #45-12/23/21
Though I'd love to be wrong, I do personally, at this point, given how absolutely choked both international and domestic logistics tends to be around Christmas, not expect one single backer to receive their mass produced Astro in 2021, and I suspect some of the less common keyboard layouts will, again, get caught up in the CNY.
Post by: ArchiMark on December 05, 2021, 09:48:13 pm
I now assume that I might see my Astro in February....hopefully, latest date will be March....
Mark
Post by: Daniel W on December 26, 2021, 09:22:54 am
The direct Vimeo link embedded in the update mail doesn't work, and the video isn't listed (currently anyway) on the Planet Computers Vimeo user page. The link via Indiegogo does work and does lead to where it's supposed to, but it's half a mile long and I'm not too fond of links that redirects to another domain than the one in the actual link, so, in case others might feel like me, or just wants a link that's feasible to share, here's a Vimeo link that, at the time of writing this, does work:
https://player.vimeo.com/video/659960664
The video itself isn't too exciting, a six second vertical video clip of, I would presume, finished Astro circuit boards coming out of a soldering machine, ending with a semi-closeup of four (still joined pairwise) circuit boards.
One perhaps interesting detail is the unusually narrow width to height ratio of the video. Rather than the usual 16:9 it's (very close to) 19.5:9 which also, according to the Indiegogo specifications, happens to be the aspect ratio of the 2340x1080 pixel screen of the Astro (it's rounded to 20:9 in the specs, but 2340/1080 = 19.5). It wouldn't inconceivable that a device with a 19.5:9 screen has a 19.5:9 video mode, so perhaps those six seconds were recorded on an actual Astro?
Post by: bolderz on December 27, 2021, 12:05:27 pm
Post by: makoshark on January 08, 2022, 03:42:49 pm
Post by: Daniel W on January 18, 2022, 10:15:41 am
Post by: Daniel W on February 03, 2022, 12:57:47 pm
According to the OP, once Cosmo deliveries had begun, it took a little less than one month to reach "80% of Backers received Cosmo". Back then, I had to wait about 1½ months longer than that, and I was far from last to get mine. Now, we also need to factor in the CNY (roughly half a month).
If I just add up those days, that would suggest I might get mine in early May, provided there are no further Covid issues... so, well, my guess, back in October that the Astro might end up a full year late, might turn out to be correct, at least for us with the less common keyboard layouts.
Edit 2022-Feb-08: As I just happened to reread my contribution confirmation from Friday, April 3, 2020, I noticed that my "Early-bird Special" had an original estimated delivery of March 2021, not May, so yeah... a full year late is no longer just a possibility at this point, it's absolutely for sure. However...
While I was eager to get my Cosmo, this time, I am in no hurry. My Cosmo still works well for what it is. A few keys are getting unreliable, though I think a good cleaning should help. Since I stopped using the CoDi, my battery, once again, lasts a whole day. While I expect that to get worse over time, the battery in my Gemini is still OK, so I think my Cosmo will hold up long enough.
Post by: makoshark on March 01, 2022, 11:04:05 pm
This could complete Japanese Kana keyboard initial production... so next could be US English keyboard that seems like the second largest keyboard order group.
Edit 2022-03-12: I watched again carefully... 800-1000 Dr. Janko said was not total number shipped but total number waiting Kana keyboard... so it will be a little longer to wait. Besides, according to IGG comments, next production run seems like UK English keyboard.
Post by: Zarhan on April 21, 2022, 03:52:18 pm
I backed Cosmo in Nov 2018, got my device Feb 2020, so year + 2-3 months.
I backed Astro in Apr 2020, and now getting device hopefully soon-ish, so 2+ years.
Then again, Cosmo did not have supply chain issues and Covid...
Post by: Daniel W on June 10, 2022, 08:18:45 am
In update #59 there's a top shot an open outer shipping box, in which ten Astro Slide boxes are visible. Below that, is a picture of a stack of such outer boxes, where each of them has a sticker with ten lines of three bar codes each. Would each barcode corresponded to an individual Astro, an outer box would contain thirty Astro units. With very slim packaging, that might have been possible. However, as shown in update #43, the individual Astro boxes seems to be the same size as those for the Cosmo and Gemini, so we can conclude that the outer boxes contains a single layer of individual Astro boxes, which means ten units per outer box.
<Nerd>
One unit per line of barcodes makes sense, as if we look closely, the rightmost barcode on each line seems to be a tad longer than the other two, suggesting it represents something else the first two. I'm guessing the two first on each line are the IMEI numbers for the dual mobile modem, and the third is either the MEID (Mobile Equipment Identifier) or the serial number of the individual Astro unit. As a MEID barcode is over 40% longer than that of a IMEI (as measured on my Cosmo box), while the serial number barcodes of the Gemini and Cosmo only were about 15% longer, I'd say the third code on each line one is likely the serial number.
</Nerd>
Anyhow, the picture in update #66 shows 20 boxes and thus depicts 200 units, out of several thousands to be made, so while progress is being made, there's still some way to go.
Update #65 mentions "Japanese, US, UK and German Astro Slide devices" being quality checked. AFAIK, no update has suggested that any other versions, perhaps beyond test samples, has been manufactured thus far. It mentions that "Further shipments of Astro perks to Japan are taking place" and that "We have also shipped the first UK Astro perks to some very early first day backers, who are not on the EE network."
Update #66 says they are testing a firmware to be factory flashed onto Astro units for the UK EE network. This seems to, at the moment, hold UK shipments back a bit. The update ends with "we hope to see first posts from US backers with their Astros by the end of next week". Thus, apparently, no US devices has actually been shipped yet. I have also seen no mention of any German Astro Slide devices shipping. So it seems that Japanese devices are shipping in some quantity, shipping of UK devices has technically begun, in very small numbers, while some US and German devices has been made, though none of those has actually shipped yet.
I doubt much will happen with any other variety until most or all of the Japanese, US, UK and German has shipped, so all of us who are waiting for some other keyboard layout, can probably snooze for yet a few weeks.
Post by: ArchiMark on June 19, 2022, 12:20:46 pm
On about June 9th, I saw my status changed to 'Locked' !
Finally......
Although have not received any email from PC saying my Astro has shipped or a tracking number....
So it goes....
:)
Mark
Post by: ArchiMark on June 25, 2022, 08:40:02 pm
Received my Astro yesterday, 6/24....only took 2 years, 3 months...
Pretty nice so far....
Bit different than using Cosmo....for both physical design and different version Android reasons.
So, in process of getting used to it....
Display is bright, sharp with vivid colors.
Keyboard is good of course...
Will report with more info after using it a few days....
Mark
Post by: Daniel W on June 28, 2022, 12:43:40 pm
Backers from Japan, USA: Cosmo-11/15/19 >> Astro-01/09/22
On the way to Europe(Germany, UK): Cosmo-11/22/19 >> Astro-01/16/22
3500 out of 4000 Produced, 80% of Backers received Cosmo-12/09/19 >> Astro-02/02/22
So far, this seems to be known:
Japan: 2/ 6/22 (Update #53)
UK: 6/~2/22 (Update #66)
USA: 6/24/22 (Above post)
Update #67 (6/21/22) expected the first German QWERTZ and US-keyboard/EU-plug Astro devices to have reached the warehouse last week and begin shipping this week. It also said production had started on Swedish/Finnish and French keyboard Astro variants, but apparently scheduling the next quality check visit by the Planet team to the assembly factory, won't happen until the whole batch is done, which given the restrictions over there, seems reasonable, though it likely means actual shipment of these devices won't happen just yet. My Swe/Fin Astro, with a <2000 Contribution ID remains unlocked as of writing this.
Post by: Ra_Shoe on July 11, 2022, 08:19:52 pm
Post by: SNiX on July 29, 2022, 01:48:48 pm
Couple of annoyances thus far:
1) Updater seems to run excessively frequently (49 times in past 7 days). I don't see a setting to control this. When I go in settings everything shows as updated to latest version. Planet Updater too, though not quite so often (4 times in 7 days)
2) Every so often the screen sensitivity seems to change by itself - cranks to the max so that it becomes impossible to scroll as the slightest touch taken as a 'tap.' A reboot fixes this and takes it back to my settings... Not the end of the world, but annoying when it happens.
SNI
Post by: Daniel W on August 06, 2022, 07:46:08 am
Post by: gymbo on August 06, 2022, 06:22:26 pm
Congratulations!
As I will have the Norwegian/Danish model, I can only DREAM of even that still, as it is not even mentioned in the latest update. I really would have preferred if they had made a "Scandinavian" model (also for the previous two phones), rather than splitting it up in Swe/Fin and Nor/Dan...
Post by: Daniel W on August 08, 2022, 02:28:46 pm
I really would have preferred if they had made a "Scandinavian" model (also for the previous two phones), rather than splitting it up in Swe/Fin and Nor/Dan...If allowing ourselves to go a tad OT while we keep waiting; yes, since laptop makers has managed to create a common "Scandinavian" keyboard, I think it should work, and simplify somewhat, for Planet too. Actually, when I look at the Nor/Den layout, more of its symbols seems located about where I'd expect them to be, than on my Fin/Swe, and the Nor/Den has a ~ too, which I must use Sym to type. While I have gotten used to direct access to Ö, I'd gladly adopt to a "Scandinavian" layout, based on a minimally modified Nor/Dan, perhaps like this:
Obviously, the key to the right of L would need to be properly marked with both Ö/Ø and Ä/Æ. I didn't bother and I think the sketch works anyway. The original image belongs to Planet Computers and was, for illustrative purposes, slightly modified, without seeking their permission, so it should probably not be spread wide and far, okay? If they could somehow trade the two least used symbols (¤ and ° maybe?) for ð and þ (in reasonable locations), we would have a truly Scandinavian layout. Yes, I know I can long-press D or T but as ð and þ are fairly common in Icelandic, I figure that disrupts the typing flow quite noticeably, which reasonably works against the idea of having a physical keyboard in the first place.
Post by: Zarhan on August 09, 2022, 07:13:04 am
Post by: Dixit on August 17, 2022, 07:52:33 am
Alas...
My order is still not locked. That is in line with update #71, because Planet stated that all US keyboards / EU plugs are to be locked up until number 2700. And I am contributor 2767.
I am still surprised, though, that many other contributors in the ranges up to 4000 have been locked and are receiving their units (be it with other keyboards).
Oh, and my Gemini died yesterday. Who would have expected on May 1st, 2020, that the Astro would arrive after the Gemini's life span ?
Post by: Daniel W on December 10, 2022, 07:23:35 pm
Post by: jakfish on December 10, 2022, 10:10:53 pm
Jake
Post by: Daniel W on December 15, 2022, 11:46:53 am
As I have, courtesy of my unusual-ish keyboard, used myself as the cutoff point for "most backers have received their Astro" (sorry, gymbo - I really hope you'll get yours soon), I'll stop tracking deliveries now, some 21 months after Planets original estimate. That might be a bit soon, as it seems the FIN/SWE keyboards got made fairly "early" this time, but I must move on. That said, my thoughts are with backer in places that, as of now, might not even have functional international postal services, or even electricity. I look forward to the day when Planet reports that every single crowdfunded Astro has been delivered.
While I haven't even booted my Astro yet, I have taken a bunch of photos, which I intend to upload to a new thread as soon as I can find the time. /D
Post by: Wolfgang on December 17, 2022, 04:11:32 am
Got mine (German) a week ago and still setting it up to become my daily toy.
We'll see! ;D
I promise this is the last "about me" post in this thread. Wednesday, December 14, 2022, my Astro finally arrived. It was scheduled for the day before, but, apparently, the delivery vehicle broke down about a mile from my home, so it seems safe to say there were delays in every part of this journey.
As I have, courtesy of my unusual-ish keyboard, used myself as the cutoff point for "most backers have received their Astro" (sorry, gymbo - I really hope you'll get yours soon), I'll stop tracking deliveries now, some 21 months after Planets original estimate. That might be a bit soon, as it seems the FIN/SWE keyboards got made fairly "early" this time, but I must move on. That said, my thoughts are with backer in places that, as of now, might not even have functional international postal services, or even electricity. I look forward to the day when Planet reports that every single crowdfunded Astro has been delivered.
While I haven't even booted my Astro yet, I have taken a bunch of photos, which I intend to upload to a new thread as soon as I can find the time. /D
Post by: Daniel W on December 20, 2022, 09:06:10 pm
/Daniel