ROCKI Community Forums

ROCKI app for Android • Re: Whats the mood like right now?

2014-07-18T00:54:39+00:00

At long last I finally got a response from Rocki Support (the explanation I received as to why it took so long to get a response is that the ticket was resolved by accident). In the course of our conversation, the only recommendation that they gave me was to rebuild my entire wireless network from scratch, with a new SSID and security scheme. That's like troubleshooting a printer not printing by asking for the person to reinstall Windows.

During the same conversation, the support tech claimed that both the hidden SSID issue, and the WEP key length had been resolved... but couldn't tell me where either of these fixes were announced.

The one bright note is that I may be able to return the device and get my money back...

And Simon... you still out there, or have you gone the way of Rhiney?

Statistics: Posted by MFischlin — Fri Jul 18, 2014 12:54 am

ROCKI app for Android • Re: Whats the mood like right now?

2014-07-17T10:50:37+00:00

daglesj wrote:
I think this is a classic example of a tech company purely staffed with techies.

In order to get stuff done you have to have some normal people with higher levels of attention span, customer focus, common sense and an understanding that there has to be a end goal to deliver.

There is more to a project than "Shiny new! Shiny new!"

I wouldn't say techies... I would say unprofessional techies. I'm a techie myself, I do it for a living, and I would never have signed off on shipping the Rockis in the state they're in. The testing and documentation parts aren't exciting, but they are necessary if you want a project to succeed. You also need to live up to your promises, which Rocki is also failing at. They could still have had a community of supporters, if only they had communicated issues, set backs, problems, and solutions instead of the only communications being focused on how amazing the product was and how they were going to all the trade shows to show it off.

Rocki: In the present state, your hardware and software are failures. Your company is showing itself as devoid of any project or technical management skills.

Statistics: Posted by MFischlin — Thu Jul 17, 2014 10:50 am

ROCKI app for Android • Re: Whats the mood like right now?

2014-07-17T08:59:36+00:00

I think this is a classic example of a tech company purely staffed with techies.

In order to get stuff done you have to have some normal people with higher levels of attention span, customer focus, common sense and an understanding that there has to be a end goal to deliver.

There is more to a project than "Shiny new! Shiny new!"

Statistics: Posted by daglesj — Thu Jul 17, 2014 8:59 am

ROCKI app for Android • Re: Whats the mood like right now?

2014-07-17T02:53:37+00:00

And I see the promised weekly updates lasted a single week... Rocki as a company really needs to learn how to live up to the promises it makes.

Statistics: Posted by MFischlin — Thu Jul 17, 2014 2:53 am

ROCKI app for Android • Re: 4 Strikes - No longer a Rocki Fan or Customer

2014-07-16T12:59:51+00:00

daglesj wrote:
I think the issue is one that affects a lot of IT projects and IT products out there.

The problem is that a lot of people in IT have very short attention spans. Stuff has to be new, fun and exciting ALL THE TIME. I remember working with tech types on projects. There would be a blizzard of excitement and effort for the first two weeks then.....well the project wasn't so new. The fun wore off and day to day project drudgery would creep in (as on all projects) and you could see the tech folks looking over the other side of the office as to what was going on new there.

After that trying to get them to focus and deliver anything was really difficult. They all wanted to play with the new smartphones or wi-fi gizmo the other team had got that week to check out.

I worked with people that had worked in tech projects for years but never actually delivered a single working usable end product or service. Somehow they always managed to jump ship before the **** hit the fan.

I can see the same happening here. I've made a note of the ROCKI management's names so I can watch out for them in future.

As for an alternative for SONOS, well I can see the ROCKI just uses off the shelf parts so I can't imagine someone will take too long to provide a proper constructed and developed product in the $80-$150 range. Needs Google or similar...

@daglesj - I agree. I have a team of creative and capable engineers myself and keeping them focused is challenging when our company is constantly innovating and conceptualizing new products. We still manage to release several products a year, which is notable.

Yes, I have investigated alternative hardware options including Airport devices, diy Raspberry Pi solutions, etc. The issue becomes having a unified cross-platform app that is polished enough to not require tweaking and something that the less tech-savvy users (wife and children) not only can use but WANT to use. Sonos is the only one that has done that (while incorporating multi-room sync). Logitech was on the verge of having a viable product with their Logitech Media Server and Squeezebox lineup when they killed the product.

Statistics: Posted by smit0691 — Wed Jul 16, 2014 12:59 pm

ROCKI app for Android • Re: ROCKI now on Amazon

2014-07-15T22:39:29+00:00

Keep the reviews coming folks. Let the world know what the Rocki experience is like.

Statistics: Posted by daglesj — Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:39 pm

ROCKI app for Android • Re: 4 Strikes - No longer a Rocki Fan or Customer

2014-07-15T22:34:15+00:00

I think the issue is one that affects a lot of IT projects and IT products out there.

The problem is that a lot of people in IT have very short attention spans. Stuff has to be new, fun and exciting ALL THE TIME. I remember working with tech types on projects. There would be a blizzard of excitement and effort for the first two weeks then.....well the project wasn't so new. The fun wore off and day to day project drudgery would creep in (as on all projects) and you could see the tech folks looking over the other side of the office as to what was going on new there.

After that trying to get them to focus and deliver anything was really difficult. They all wanted to play with the new smartphones or wi-fi gizmo the other team had got that week to check out.

I worked with people that had worked in tech projects for years but never actually delivered a single working usable end product or service. Somehow they always managed to jump ship before the **** hit the fan.

I can see the same happening here. I've made a note of the ROCKI management's names so I can watch out for them in future.

As for an alternative for SONOS, well I can see the ROCKI just uses off the shelf parts so I can't imagine someone will take too long to provide a proper constructed and developed product in the $80-$150 range. Needs Google or similar...

Statistics: Posted by daglesj — Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:34 pm

ROCKI app for Android • 4 Strikes - No longer a Rocki Fan or Customer

2014-07-15T15:40:14+00:00

Dear folks at Rocki - with exceeding your funding goal by 450% over 19 months ago, you have had the opportunity to use that money and time to deliver a polished, capable killer app that could have severely disrupted the overpriced Sonos business model. Instead, your focus and spend on tradeshows, marketing and social media has seen that opportunity fade away, as has my interest in your offering. In fairness, I am willing to spend some time and effort detailing the 'why' below if you are interested in reading on.

I am a fan of startups and I generally give companies a lot of leeway when I look at how they conduct their business because they usually need some time to understand customer needs and build some maturity into their business. My initial excitement with Rocki began when I heard about their Kickstarter campaign - the $222k raised beyond the $50k goal was evidence that I was not alone. I ordered one, with full intent on purchasing a device for nearly every room in my home if they could deliver on their claims. They did not.

Strike 1 - Shipping delays. My Rocki was ordered in mid-January and I received it mid-May. Payment was processed at the time of order, not at time of shipment. That's simply not good business. If you are new to product launches, you know that challenges pop up and it is always best to build goodwill with your customers willing to take a risk by not holding onto their money while you figure things out. I understand that there were some unexpected delays associated with Chinese new year, but having worked with overseas suppliers for many years in my professional career, I know that the amount of capital raised and proper manufacturer oversight could have significantly reduced the launch timeline.

Strike 2 - Lack of communication. During those 4 months, there was virtually no communication from Rocki and when the communications finally came, they were emails from what appeared to be a Chinese manufacturing affiliate with misinformation about expected shipping dates and AC plug types. Kickstarter backers waited even longer from what I could tell. Rocki could have easily put together a solid communication plan and avoided the many of the direct-from-China challenges by allocating a small amount of that $222k raised on KS in the right places.

Strike 3 - Android app shortcomings. SETUP: Out of the box, my Rocki had problems with setup - eventually I discovered that it was because my Samsung (comprising over 65% of the Android market) running a newer version of Android has issues with the wireless signal strength protocols. Digging up an older non-Samsung device allowed me to set the device up after some significant effort and research. USAGE: From what I read on the forums, iOS users are able to leverage the Airplay compatibility to avoid using the Rocki app. Android users have no streaming options (Last.fm can barely be called a streaming service), and the recommended Google Play integration involved downloading another third party app called 'Cast to UPnP', which I had to pay for. Unfortunately, with the latest Google Play update, the app no longer works and Rocki have since changed their recommendation to another app called 'Bubble UPnP'. Now I have to buy another app just to keep that functionality. Ridiculous.

Strike 4 - Features claimed but not delivered. It would be hard to disagree that streaming options and multi-room sync were two (claimed) features that really sold users on the product. After 19 months, neither has made it to market or even Beta for that matter. Between $222k from Kickstarter and profit from product sales, this shouldn't be more than a month of development at best.

I no longer have the patience or tolerance for the amount of tinkering required to stay with this solution. At this point, it is very likely that Sonos is going to get my money. I get a polished solution now, and my wife and kids can use it right out of the box. IMHO, not quite worth the asking price but there aren't any comparable options on the market.

Statistics: Posted by smit0691 — Tue Jul 15, 2014 3:40 pm

ROCKI app for Android • Re: Feature Request: Use my phone's Playlists

2014-07-15T01:08:49+00:00

Good news! We will be integrating the feature! It will take some time as we first have to make sure the playlists within the ROCKI app work perfectly but we have it on our to do list!

Thank you for your suggestions! Keep 'em coming!

Statistics: Posted by Simon — Tue Jul 15, 2014 1:08 am

ROCKI app for Android • Re: Feature Request: Use my phone's Playlists

2014-07-14T15:22:58+00:00

I agree with odinbolt. I already have a bunch of playlists on my Galaxy 4 that are in sync with my PC. Really a waste to have to create the same ones manually.

Statistics: Posted by Nick — Mon Jul 14, 2014 3:22 pm

ROCKI app for Android • Re: [Request] browse music on device by folders

2014-07-11T02:09:29+00:00

Hi @Nomado!

I've brought this request up to our developers a while ago and they are looking into a way to import folders into the ROCKI app. Keep an eye on the forums as we will be announcing it here when the function is integrated! For now i would advise you to copy some music to your music folder so you can start enjoying your ROCKI. I know it is not the best solution but it is unfortunately the only one for now.

Thanks for your support!

Statistics: Posted by Simon — Fri Jul 11, 2014 2:09 am

ROCKI app for Android • Re: [Request] browse music on device by folders

2014-07-10T14:40:58+00:00

this would be wonderful. I just received my rocki today and I can't play anything with it because I always sort everything by folders, never liked the stupid libraries that often mess with tags, manual collections and many compilations. and rocki app just doesn't see anything currently, so it's completely empty, I can't even test it...

Statistics: Posted by Nomado — Thu Jul 10, 2014 2:40 pm

ROCKI app for Android • Re: Whats the mood like right now?

2014-07-10T11:58:03+00:00

Simon wrote:
The weekly updates will not only cover what has happened that week but will also look forward in time in case we have more news to share. We want to get as much info as possible out about ROCKI and will release the latest news as we see fit.

Our support team has been running at full capacity since last week. We need a little time to catch up with the older tickets but you will receive an email about your ticket. In the meantime, please feel free to let me know if i can help you with anything.

If i am not wrong, you are having trouble to connect to your wi-fi network as the SSID is not broadcasted. As mentioned before, we are working on a fix which will allow ROCKI to connect to hidden SSIDs. Please understand this takes time but i have personally confirmed with the devs that they are working on a solution.

Another week, and still no known issues list... I'm beginning to wonder if the dev team even has a full understanding of what issues exist. Also, still no response to my support ticket, which puts it at a 5 week response time.

How much longer should I wait for a product to even fulfill basic wireless network functionality? Was there any product testing done before the Kickstarter with the prototype? Was there any product testing done during the Kickstarter, when there were promises of devices shipping in the fastest turn around of any Kickstarter? Is there a QA team doing any testing? Was there ever a test plan even written up?

Statistics: Posted by MFischlin — Thu Jul 10, 2014 11:58 am

ROCKI app for Android • Re: Whats the mood like right now?

2014-07-04T01:51:20+00:00

The weekly updates will not only cover what has happened that week but will also look forward in time in case we have more news to share. We want to get as much info as possible out about ROCKI and will release the latest news as we see fit.

Our support team has been running at full capacity since last week. We need a little time to catch up with the older tickets but you will receive an email about your ticket. In the meantime, please feel free to let me know if i can help you with anything.

If i am not wrong, you are having trouble to connect to your wi-fi network as the SSID is not broadcasted. As mentioned before, we are working on a fix which will allow ROCKI to connect to hidden SSIDs. Please understand this takes time but i have personally confirmed with the devs that they are working on a solution.

Statistics: Posted by Simon — Fri Jul 04, 2014 1:51 am

ROCKI app for Android • Re: Whats the mood like right now?

2014-07-03T13:16:46+00:00

Simon wrote:
For the support tickets topic, i am happy to announce that our support team is now fully operational and will answer all tickets within a timely manner. This will usually be within 1 day and in extreme cases can take up to 3 days max. An update mentioning this (and some very exciting news) is ready to be posted as soon as as we get the green light. As it is the 1st of July weekend in the US we need to adapt our schedule a bit to that.

The last message I received from support was on June 5th... that's a bit more then 3 days ago.

Simon wrote:
Updates on the examples of items that were over 90 days behind schedule

I wasn't looking for updates on the items I mentioned, I was using them as examples of things that were promised "soon", that came out way behind schedule. As for the shipping, my Play didn't ship until mid-March, not February.

Simon wrote:
Giving a road map of what's ahead is unfortunately not possible at the time being for several reasons. But, we are confident our weekly update will keep everyone well informed of what is happening and what is about to happen.

So you're only able to tell us we'll get a weekly update. No roadmap as to when fixes will be issued, applications updated, or firmware updated? It appears that I've been wasting my time hoping that this company would salvage something out of this project, when instead I should have written it off and requested a refund after the initial failure to connect to my wireless. After the funding was complete, there has not been a single item that has made me feel more comfortable about this company, and its management.

Statistics: Posted by MFischlin — Thu Jul 03, 2014 1:16 pm