MAGZET: The Audio Jack Reinvented with the Power of Magnets

[jon_hallsten]

Hi Super-Charged Backer Club Members -

I am Jon Hallsten the creator and inventor of the MAGZET. The project can be found here: http://kck.st/1G9ygi8 Being that I respect all your opinions. I have a few questions that I would love to hear your input on if you wouldn't mind. They will be very valuable to our MAGZET team as we plan to improve not only our kickstarter campaign but also as we plan for the future. They are as follows:

1) What do you think of the MAGZET? If you backed it why? If not why? What do you think about it's long-term viability in the marketplace?

2) Do you believe there are any pain points with traditional audio jacks and/or values of the MAGZET that were not properly discussed in our Kickstarter content?

3) If we could improve upon the MAGZET what would be your advice?

Thanks in advance for all your wisdom and insight.
Jon Hallsten

[togepreee]

Hi Jon. To answer your questions, I personally didn't back your project because I've never really experienced issues with headphone jacks. I looked it over and couldn't justify spending 20 dollars (at the early bird price) on something that I've never thought needed improvement. I don't mean to debase your product -- I'm sure that if I had one, I'd use it all the time. I just didn't think it was necessary to purchase one. That leads us to long-term viability. I think that this technology would be better served hard-wired into devices, rather than having to purchase an add-on to your device. This, unfortunately, would probably be impossible, due to the prevalence of the 3.5mm.

Of course, this is just my unprofessional opinion, and I'm probably far off the mark I backed your project for a dollar to help you out. Good luck!

[jon_hallsten]

Hi Jon. To answer your questions, I personally didn't back your project because I've never really experienced issues with headphone jacks. I looked it over and couldn't justify spending 20 dollars (at the early bird price) on something that I've never thought needed improvement. I don't mean to debase your product -- I'm sure that if I had one, I'd use it all the time. I just didn't think it was necessary to purchase one. That leads us to long-term viability. I think that this technology would be better served hard-wired into devices, rather than having to purchase an add-on to your device. This, unfortunately, would probably be impossible, due to the prevalence of the 3.5mm.

Of course, this is just my unprofessional opinion, and I'm probably far off the mark I backed your project for a dollar to help you out. Good luck!

@ togepreee: Thank you for taking the time to offer some feedback and your $1 of support. If you haven't experienced the pain points of traditional audio jacks I wouldn't expect for you to be super excited about the idea. However, many people have and that is one of the reasons we have raised over $100K on this project to-date.

As far as the long-term viability I would like to paint a picture of how MAZGET sees today and the future which should help bring some context to why we came out with the MAGZET.

As far as today, we firmly believe that the longest tech standardization in human history (~50 years) the audio jack is in serious need innovation and the tech giants have not brought it to us. Our long-term vision is bringing new standardization to the industry. How do you do that will the "prevalence of the 3.5mm" jacks around the world?

Well, you create a stepping stone beloved by the public. Let me explain.

Today MAGZET has a two-piece solution; the MAGjack - designed to go into the device, and the MAGkap - designed to go on the end of the audio cable. This works with ALL the existing equipment consumers already own. Our aim is to hit the MAGZET out of the park from a usability and customer experience perspective. Then, create partnerships with the OEMs of the world to incorporate the MAGjack and the MAGkap into their products at point of manufacture, in response to consumer demand. If one side of the OEM solution hits first - no problem - just use the other piece of our solution, which is compatible.

We see a MAGZET stepping stone as the most realistic, technologically advanced, and viable means to change the standardization across all platforms.

What do you think members? Do you think our plan makes sense? I welcome discussion.

Jon

[TashaTurner]

As togepreee says I didn't back because I've not had a problem. As someone with hearing problems I use hearing aids which stream music to me. Prior to surgery a a number of years ago I couldn't tell the difference between a good set of speakers and a bad set. I'm having surgery again as one of my ear bones punctured my ear drum thanks to a car accident (2012) causing the bone to move and apparently it continued to move over the years. Headsets have never been something I use(d).

Your plan might work. It's hard to say what large manufacturers might do. They might partner with you or they might come up with their own solutions if they see your product (and other solutions) showing they need to do something.

Please don't take my answer as an opportunity to explain why your product is so great as you did with @togepreee. Advice should only be asked when you want to hear what we have to say not as a "slick" way to do sales/marketing pitches. That is one of the fastest ways to annoy backers on the forum. Either genuinely ask for advice or simply promote your product but pick one and be honest about it. Active backers on the forum appreciate honesty and integrity from creators. We want to have genuine conversations.

[jon_hallsten]

As togepreee says I didn't back because I've not had a problem. As someone with hearing problems I use hearing aids which stream music to me. Prior to surgery a a number of years ago I couldn't tell the difference between a good set of speakers and a bad set. I'm having surgery again as one of my ear bones punctured my ear drum thanks to a car accident (2012) causing the bone to move and apparently it continued to move over the years. Headsets have never been something I use(d).

Your plan might work. It's hard to say what large manufacturers might do. They might partner with you or they might come up with their own solutions if they see your product (and other solutions) showing they need to do something.

Please don't take my answer as an opportunity to explain why your product is so great as you did with @togepreee. Advice should only be asked when you want to hear what we have to say not as a "slick" way to do sales/marketing pitches. That is one of the fastest ways to annoy backers on the forum. Either genuinely ask for advice or simply promote your product but pick one and be honest about it. Active backers on the forum appreciate honesty and integrity from creators. We want to have genuine conversations.

@ TashaTurner: Thank you for your thoughtful response. I want a honest and transparent conversation. I apologize if that is not how it came across. I wanted to explain that we had thought through the OEM angle that @togepreee had brought up. We have been thrilled with some of the fantastic insight brought to us by our backers... here is a great example I received from Niall from Ireland just a couple days ago who is visually impaired. We have engaged the organizations suggested.

@ Creator:
Hi Guys,
I am happy to be a backer of the MAGZET.
I am visually impaired, and I think your project would be of great benefit to the visually impaired and blind community.
I have shared the project on a number of mailing lists and applevis.com.
I would encourage you to make contact with organizations which work with those with sight problems.
Some organizations to start:
National Federation for the Blind / US
RNIB / UK
NCBI / Ireland
CNIB / Canada
Vision Australia / Australia
Many others exist throughout the world.
Headphones are used by many visually impaired and blind persons.
Good luck with the rest of the project!
Kind regards,
Niall

[mdtommyd]

I'm sure MAGZET does it's job. While I've had my headgear yanked every so often, its not a 'must have this' for me.

Can you make a Bluetooth version of the MAGZET? A much more common problem I see is that the device I'm plugging into has no BT capability (i.e. headphone jack on a computer, older audio equipment, etc.) Your MAGjack coupled with a MAGZET that could do BT, and I could use my BT headphones virtually anywhere.

[jon_hallsten]

I'm sure MAGZET does it's job. While I've had my headgear yanked every so often, its not a 'must have this' for me.

Can you make a Bluetooth version of the MAGZET? A much more common problem I see is that the device I'm plugging into has no BT capability (i.e. headphone jack on a computer, older audio equipment, etc.) Your MAGjack coupled with a MAGZET that could do BT, and I could use my BT headphones virtually anywhere.

@ mdtommyd: Excellent idea!  I envision we could multipurpose the MAGjack where in one case it would interface to a MAGkap and in the other case to the Bluetooth version (let's call a BLUkap).  The biggest challenge I would envision is that consumers would now have two battery devices to charge and manage - their BT headset and the BLUkap. However, to your point it would make any traditional audio jack source Bluetooth enabled.

[LouPhi]

I had backed you for 55$+10$ (shipping).

1) I think the price is perhaps a little too much but I certainly
2) have the pain so I backed!
My laptop fell a few times when I had to take a phone call or something cooking in the kitchen and jumped fast forgetting I had a headset on.
In expeditions, one person might get filming with a long cable and another person holding a microphone. And suddenly a person not seeing the cable (a tourist or animal) would get the feet/legs in the cable = damages.
3) of course, i'd be great to have the system becoming mainstream.

Advice:
* Try perhaps to launch the project timed with an inventor event (like concours Lépine)
* Launch during or just before an international Audio event ?
* add a 1$ perk
* lower goal ==> But have already distributors perhaps in place to buy thousands in several countries. Focus perhaps on what countries have this "pain" the most or loving gadgets (japan, korea) or where the power of money is big (switzerland, norway)
* Launch on KS first then a smaller one on IGG for those who missed the date (and create new early birds at same price as early bird KS) ==> once successful, you can benefit fro the IN DEMAND as long as you want = cash entering + continuous promotion.