Bluetooth headsets to the rescue

[Steve Mosher]

Perhaps I can clear up some of the confusion about the official fix.

What we have is this as a rough timeline etc.

1. We have Joerg's SOP. Joerg, Werner, Tony Tu and I worked to get this 
document reviewed and out to the community. At that point I wasnt 
apprised of any wired headset mic issue. Joerge put out a draft. I Wasnt 
aware of any wired headset mic issue. I think even if I had been I still 
would have let the document out.

2. We asked if engineering had verified the change and they had. 
However, We wanted to insure that the SOP could actually be followed by 
somebody in the feild. That it was it good enough to pass out to the 
community and tell people to just follow the instrcutions.

3. Several individuals in the field followed the instructions and 
reported back that the fix worked. ( I dont recall any of the early
reports back indicating issues with wired hreadset mics. Nobody tested 
it I suppose )

4.  We asked for a test proceedure that would indicate whether the fix 
actually succeeded. The answer was our standard audio test. I'm pretty
certain that it doesnt test a wired headset mic.

5. Engineering approved the SOP.

6. Now we need to actually test the yeild rate. One individual in the 
feild had screwed up his phone. I replaced it free of charge. And so
we contacted a rework house to bid on fixing the remaining stock of
A6 we have. They took the SOP, reworked some boards and gave us a quote.
Given that the yield rate was unknown we planned to do sample rework of 
a  couple hundred to see what the actual cost is.  Since A7 is fairly 
close to shipping, it made more sense to the team to hold off on the 
rework and focus on getting A7 shipping.

Now thats just the process for OM to fix the phones it has in store.

What about those in the feild? Which is what the list really cares more 
about.

What is our official position and Policy? Well, first and foremost we 
tend toward solutions that involve the community. Volunteers. We do it
in software by having write code, we do it in marketing by having 
community members man trade show booths, we did it in sales with the
group purchase, so when it comes to fixing the A6 in the field we are
going to start with a volunteer approach. I think the actual idea came 
from somebody in the community who suggested that people bring their FR 
to a local show and they get somebody to fix phones. Building on that 
idea we throw in the party idea. So first and foremost this is going to 
be a community effort.

We are just in the process of working out those details. I've shipped 
the parts to fix phones to a few individuals and disty who have asked.
and spare phones for those that get borked up ( how many should that 
be??) There are some volunteers with soldering irons ready to do their 
best.

Will there be a program beyond this? I don't know. It depends on how 
well the volunteer fix it approach goes. But we've got other ideas that 
we will test out there as well. Right now We ae doing what we can with 
the people have and the resources at hand. Is it going to take longer 
than we like? yes. will everyone on the list be happy? no.






Paul Fertser wrote:
> ezuall <ezuall at gmail.com> writes:
>> Would it be worth while to start a petition for the official fix in
>> the wiki
> 
> No. They obviously know that community is extremely irritated about it
> and want to hear _any_ official statement. But they prefer being
> silent.
> 
> I guess we'll need to wait for another month for the final
> clarifications.
> 
> And btw, in case you missed it, there're already 2 officially
> (OM-the-company) supported buzz rework parties planned.
> 
> And don't forget that the proposed rework doesn't fix wired headset
> mic, it will still produce a lot of buzz.
>