Introducing Hooke Verse Wireless Headphones; Capture Binaural 3D Audio on your iOS device

@DevinPrater: Right now you can pre order Hooke via our website www.hookeaudio.com for $139! They'll jump up to $189 once we launch later this year. Right now our beta tester list is SUPER long but I'll add your name to it and let ya know if anything frees up. Thanks!

@Falco, yes we are working to make voice-over function alongside Hooke. This feature may not be in our first app release, but it is something we are working to accomplish!

@PeterHoldstock: that problem should be fixed now! We changed the way the pre order screen pops up. Try now and let me know? We have had some issues with Australian cc in the past. Just an FYI

@Lorna808 I'll add ya to the list!

@KE7ZUM thanks for noticing :-) We have a really cool "How to Use Hooke" Instructional video coming out in the next few weeks which I think will be super helpful.

Thanks all!
Anthony

Hey All! Thought I'd share, Justin and I were recently featured in an incredible article by the New York Observer on Hooke and it's benefits to the blind community.

http://observer.com/2015/08/hooke-audio-verse-camcorder-for-the-blind/

Hey All!

Thanks for keeping on this. Things have been really crazy over the holidays and I finally have some time to catch up!

The headsets are complete, they're packaged and ready to ship. Unfortunately Apple is getting in the way of our mission to bring this revolutionary product to market. We are currently going through MFI (made for iPhone) certification right now which is taking longer than expected. As you might have heard, Apple is planning to remove the headphone jack in their new iPhone. Because of this they have been auditing all headphone factories around the world making sure they are “apple certified”. You can read all about it here:
http://blog.hookeaudio.com/hooke-blog1/2015/12/16/think-different-the-trojan-horse-that-lets-apple-reign

Because of this delay and Chinese New Year, we are now expecting to ship in April of this year. Trust me when I say there is no one more frustrated by this process than me right now. The headsets are ready, but Apple is to blame. What we are doing is very very hard, it's a pretty groundbreaking technology that has required a lot of new innovation. With any great innovation you experience delays you could have never anticipated. Know that I am working around the clock to have these completed and there is no one that wants these more than me! I really appreciate your patience as we work to bring this groundbreaking technology to market! Please let me know if you have any questions at any time.

Best,
Anthony

@djmacradio Yes, Hooke Verse will work with your 5s. There are a lot of others who have ordered before you, should you choose to pre order now. I would expect a summer delivery if you were to pre order now (that is the schedule we are working on currently). The headphones will not record to other voice recording smartphone apps at the moment, that would require Android and iOS to incorporate our custom bluetooth firmware natively. We feel it can happen, will just take time.

@Ken Downey yep, still accepting pre orders! You can pre order at www.hookeaudio.com - pre order price is $139.99. Smartphone app for recording is free :-)

@KE7ZUM Thanks for helping out :-)

@Mitchell, Hooke Verse is a bluetooth headphone, no cable for wired listening. Thanks!!

Great news! Factory passed the audit and I had an incredibly productive meeting with the head of Apple MFi last week. We outlined all the technical features our Hooke Verse needs to have in order to pass MFi, so we're well on our way towards submitting the application to Apple at the end of this month. It's pretty insane how many guidelines apple makes you follow in order to properly cooperate. Even more insane to see how many they've added just in the last year. But all things are looking good right now. Also, we took this time during waiting on the certifications to make the PCB board stronger, faster and more efficient. Plus, now the headset is capable of wired recordings from the micro USB jack. I'll update you all once I hear back from MFi (still may be a couple of months) but we're still on track for a Summer '16 delivery. Thanks all!

Hey All!

Anthony here, founder of Hooke Audio. I appreciate you reaching out and I'm sorry it's taking a bit longer than expected to deliver Hooke Verses.

We’ve experienced some delays in manufacturing due to Apple. We’re moving along! Just a bit slower than anticipated. They are forcing us to receive an MFi certification (made for iPhone) in order to have our app in the app store. This is taking us longer than anticipated because of all the hoops we’re jumping through. It started when they forced us to implement a 3 button array (you know, like the one on the iPhone headphones, volume up/down power on/off) which is totally ludicrous. We specifically designed all volume controls to be accessed via the phone just like a field recorder. But they were forcing it on us. Last month I submitted an official “exception request” asking Apple to allow us to deviate from the spec in order to have our accessory approved. The world has never seen a product like this so it has been a lot for them to comprehend. Just this week I received word that the exception WOULD be approved IF we removed “hands free calling” functionality from the headset. So I am currently working on that.
We know it feels frustrating, we are just as frustrated. Know we are doing everything we can and it will be worth the wait!

The wait on certifications has allowed us to add some serious features to the Hooke Verse though!

New PCB & Wired Recordings
During these past few months of waiting on Apple, I decided to put it to good use. Before the end of last year I felt there could be some minor changes to the PCB. I was also curious to find a new way of making wired recordings on the Hooke Verse possible. You'll be very happy to hear that we have entirely overhauled the PCB in these off months and will now be shipping Hooke Verse with a brand new PCB that will improve antennae performance, playback quality, battery life AND make wired recordings. It's very hard to ensure the best PCB design for a revolutionary product like this until you actually have it in your hands to test with. These months have allowed us the time to adjust (for better or for worse) and deliver a product that is even better than before.

Hooke Verse Cable
The cable will be included free of charge with your shipment. To make wired recordings on the Hooke Verse possible, we had to completely custom design a cable. The Hooke Verse has one micro USB jack that is used for charging the headset. Now with this custom cable you can plug it in to that same micro USB jack and put the headset into audio output mode. But seriously, it gets better. On the other end of that cable is a 10 pin mini USB jack for recording straight to GoPro cameras and a stereo 3.5mm jack for recording to pretty much anything else. An analog to digital converter lives inside the cable retractor making this cable lightweight, portable and incredibly easy to use. Now Hooke Verse is capable of recording binaural 3d audio on truly any device you throw at it.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your patience and support as we bring this revolutionary product to market. We would never take your money and not deliver! I am here should you have any questions along the way.

Thank you for supporting Hooke Audio,
Anthony Mattana

@KE7ZUM No apology necessary. We are as excited as you are to release this groundbreaking technology! To answer your question, yes we continue to work with our blind beta testers to make Hooke Verse completely 100% accessible when operating on iOS and Android. One feature we have added recently is the ability to stop and start a recording by simply pressing the button on the Hooke Verse.

@djmacradio I haven't tested on IQ 5 specifically. But if the microphone is set up to override the built in mic upon plugging in and you can use it with native iOS apps like voice memos and camera, then yes the app should be able to work with it. If you have an Android device, you could test on our Android app which is currently available (tho still in BETA mode): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=hooke.audio.app&hl=en We are working on a vibrating feature for audio clipping, more to come.