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Leap Motion Controller Delayed Until July for Longer Beta Test

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Apr 12, 2001
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The public release of the Leap Motion controller has been delayed until July because the company feels it needs a longer beta test, reports TechCrunch. Best Buy has sent notifications to customers who preordered the device, and Leap today said the device will ship July 22th.

Leap Motion's controller is a touch-free device that allows users to control their computers via hand gestures in three dimensions. It works in conjunction with the Leap Motion software, and development units have been sent to 10,000 developers around the world.
Leap Motion says it wants to make sure that the product they deliver is the best they can offer, and says that there is "nothing catastrophically wrong" with the hardware as of yet. The company believes that it could have shipped by the original date if it had really pushed things, but wanted to make sure that things were ready for prime time. The new July 22 ship date is firmly set, according to [Leap Motion CEO Michael] Buckwald, and this is "the first and only delay there will be."
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The Leap Motion controller is currently available for pre-order from the website for $79.99. At the moment, however, the Leap Motion website still says it will ship on May 13th.

Article Link: Leap Motion Controller Delayed Until July for Longer Beta Test
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/04/25/leap-motion-controller-delayed-until-july-for-longer-beta-test/
Very sucky. It was only a couple weeks away and I was getting excited for it.
 
This is why big VCs avoid hardware startups. They're wrought with delays and issues that hurt the potential customers more than software delays.
 
Interesting. Maybe apple should look into buying them out. However I bet they already have experimented with this technology.
 
Oh for pity's sake, I pre-ordered this at the end of June last year. 13 months is unbelievable ...... Hope they throw in some decent goodies for those of us that pre-ordered so far back.
 
MacRumorUser said:
Oh for pity's sake, I pre-ordered this at the end of June last year. 13 months is unbelievable ...... Hope they throw in some decent goodies for those of us that pre-ordered so far back.
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Ugh, I know right. It was so close, I was getting super excited. :( lame
 
I'm so buying this

edit1
if a piece of software should be added in their so called "airspace", that's zbrush.

edit 2
browsing ponr on this is going to be an issue
 
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Btw, question....

Is this going to function just like a USB mouse / input?

Will it work with our OS globally at launch and will all my native apps? What about third party apps like photoshop? Or do I need to wait until all third party companies like Adobe to support it in programs like photoshop?
 
And the email lands... :(

I wanted to reach out to update you on the status of our ship date. After a lot of consideration, we’ve decided to push back the date and will now be shipping units to pre-order customers on July 22nd.

This is not a decision we take lightly. There are hundreds of thousands of people in over 150 countries who have pre-ordered Leap Motion controllers, some as long as a year ago. These people are part of our community and there is nothing more important to us than getting them devices as quickly as possible.

We’ve made a lot of progress. When we first started taking orders back in May we were twelve (very tired) people in a basement. Now we are eighty (although still tired and possibly still in a basement). We’ve manufactured over six hundred thousand devices and delivered twelve thousand to amazing developers who are building applications that let people do things that just wouldn’t have been possible before.

These developers have given us great feedback that we’ve used to make huge improvements to the stability and polish of the product. We’re really proud of Leap Motion as both a company and a product.

The reality is we very likely could have hit the original ship date. But it wouldn’t have left time for comprehensive testing. This will come in the form of a beta test that will start in June. We will give the 12k developers who currently have Leap Motion controllers access to the feature complete product including OS interaction (today developers only have access to the SDK). We will also invite some people who are not developers to join the beta test.

Ultimately, the only way we felt 100% confident we could deliver a truly magical product that would do justice to this new form of interaction, was to push the date so we would have more time for a larger, more diverse beta test.

I really appreciate your patience. I know it’s been a long wait. Everyone at Leap Motion is working tirelessly to make sure that the wait is worth it. Thanks so much for your help and support.

David and I will be participating in an open video Q&A using Google Hangout tomorrow at 11:30am Pacific time. To join our hangout, please visit our Google+ page. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact our support team at support@leapmotion.com or my personal email (buckwald@leapmotion.com). As always, we will not charge pre-order customer’s credit cards until the devices have actually shipped.

Thanks again.

Michael Buckwald
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s!ke said:
Btw, question....

Is this going to function just like a USB mouse / input?

Will it work with our OS globally at launch and will all my native apps? What about third party apps like photoshop? Or do I need to wait until all third party companies like Adobe to support it in programs like photoshop?
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You should be able to let it function like a mouse on most basic level, but obviously the more time developers integrate it into apps the more things it'll be able to do.

Bing able to grab an image in photoshop and pinch the air to zoom or control / move it around etc.
 
1st delay?

This is definitely not the first delay of the leap. When I preordered it towards the end of last year I was told it would ship in either December or early January. Then it was pushed back to the May date, and now July... Its getting to the point where I feel like its never coming. My initial excitement about the whole thing is long gone
 
It would be fantastic if Apple could license this tech to go in future iMac's and their laptops. It would give a wow factor missing from some of it's products even if most users didn't use it every day.
 
Lancer said:
It would be fantastic if Apple could license this tech to go in future iMac's and their laptops. It would give a wow factor missing from some of it's products even if most users didn't use it every day.
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HP are going to start building it into their laptops, I hope it works well in Windows 8.
 
Exotic-Car Man said:
I'm waiting for the wireless second generation anyway. Hopefully that'll be out before 2015.



Too many people are screwing this up nowadays. It's not that hard: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.
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Well, it isn't as black and white as that. It's true that most of the pattern is simple, but consider this: 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th etc... I imagine it can be confusing for people new to it, but then again with education as it is today, a lot of those people are native speakers.

To be quite honest, the lower 10s are a complete disaster.
 
ijohn.8.80 said:
As someone who knows zero about this tech. Is this the same as what's incorporated in the S4? :confused:
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No. This is VASTLY more accurate.

The S4 uses its camera and sensors but by all reports it s hit and miss most of the time.

The leap motion can detect depth and also 10 individual points (fingers).
 
MacRumorUser said:
Oh for pity's sake, I pre-ordered this at the end of June last year. 13 months is unbelievable ...... Hope they throw in some decent goodies for those of us that pre-ordered so far back.
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I hope so too. I pre-ordered right after they showed that video last year ... it's been quite the wait.
 
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