The long-promised Playdate Stereo Dock is formally lifeless, no less than for now. After many months with the desktop accent caught in improvement limbo, Panic has up to date the product web page so it not says it is “coming quickly,” however as a substitute that it’s been placed on pause indefinitely as a consequence of points with the Bluetooth expertise, the manufacturing facility that dealt with it and the rising prices of resolving all of it. The Stereo Dock, first introduced in 2021, was meant to be a charging dock that doubles as a Bluetooth speaker (and pen holder), together with being a cute approach to show your Playdate when it’s not in use. However, issues didn’t fairly work out as deliberate.
The Playdate crew mentioned it hit some sudden hurdles in making an attempt to deliver the thought to life, and located that “making the Stereo Dock was nearly tougher than making the Playdate itself.” The assertion explains:
What occurred? Nicely, our first remorse was assuming that our manufacturing facility at the moment — a manufacturing facility that made a lot of Bluetooth audio system — may simply design the electronics for us, saving us a lot of money and time. That went fairly nicely at first. However they, in flip, outsourced the Bluetooth software program and chipset to a different firm in a foreign country.
Because of this, the Stereo Dock would crash usually — quickly adjusting the amount would do it. The Bluetooth pairing/unpairing expertise was tough. And once we performed music, it simply didn’t sound excellent. The back-and-forth between three firms making an attempt to repair bugs turned an enormous problem. And worst of all: the price of the Stereo Dock stored getting greater and better.
It goes on to say that the crew labored to enhance the expertise, even shopping for the Bluetooth chipset supply code in hopes to repair the problems, to no avail. Whereas there are “various stunning completed prototypes,” Panic says “they weren’t excellent to make use of.” The official replace was foreshadowed in a social media change shared on Reddit earlier this month wherein Panic’s Cabel Sasser, replying to a query concerning the Stereo Dock’s standing, mentioned it “turned out to be extremely exhausting for plenty of extremely dumb causes” and was placed on pause.
The crew says it’s now turning its focus wholly again to the persevering with manufacturing of the Playdate. There should be an opportunity that we see the Stereo Dock sooner or later down the road, however don’t maintain your breath. “Will it arrive sometime? We nonetheless hope so,” Panic mentioned. “Will it arrive anytime quickly? Unlikely.”