Canary Backer & Pre-Order Update – May 5

Canary HQ is buzzing with all the units we have in the office, and thanks to our trip to China last week, we have even more on the way. Here’s a quick update on the trip and the product. Our three co-founders, Adam (CEO), Chris (CTO), and Jon (Design Director), returned last week from a great trip to China where they met with our manufacturer and reviewed the new hardware design (mentioned in our last update).

We saw some major improvements and are happy with the progress they’ve made. We’re finalizing the layout now, and the factory is getting ready to produce our updated hardware design en masse. That starts with 200 units for the beginning of next month. Those extra 200 units will allow us to begin testing Canary devices in more places which will pave the way for an expanded beta program. The factory visit went smoothly last week, and we’re currently on track to ship near the end of the summer. As we get closer, we’ll keep you updated with more info. Thanks for your continued support, and we’ll keep you updated as things progress.

Speaking of progress, the team brought back some photos of the evolutions made on the outside of the device. As a design-led company, we want to make every element of our product the best it can be — both aesthetically and functionally. Our designers have meticulously iterated the design of the bottom of the device (including the LED light ring, audio speaker, and venting holes) to improve Canary’s performance and appearance. The photo below shows a number of different versions of the underside of Canary. The device in the lower-right corner was one of our older prototypes, while the one in the upper left is the final version.

And here’s a closeup of the final version:

The same care and attention to detail that we took to perfect something as seemingly minor as the bottom of the device is how we’re approaching the testing and evaluation of all the most recent hardware improvements. We are confident that the work we’re doing is going to make Canary all the more amazing. Thank you for your continued support. We will send out another status update by the end of this month. Until then…back to work!

— The Canary Team