I wasn’t going to comment anymore about Kompakt at this time, but as someone who supported Mudita from the Pure, I feel like I should close this topic permanently with a few personal words. I will refrain from further replies or comments from now on.
I don’t need to repeat the Pure discussion over and over. I returned mine after a couple of days, and it is more than closed.
Mudita Bell and Harmony
The Bell, I had to return it because it didn’t work. I received a replacement that didn’t work properly either, and I gave up on it. The Harmony was initially advertised with a temperature sensor, and that was the main reason I bought it. The feature never came, and it was removed without any information.
I had several initial problems. It froze, and I was late a couple of times as a result. The time was also advancing too much (around a minute a day). One of the related posts:
Other occasional problems were fixed, although the basic function of giving time and a working alarm was not reliable when we received it.
For the Harmony 2, a member found that the blue light emitted was still significant, even though it’s advertised as low blue-light:
Kompakt
I already gave a brief description here:
It’s becoming a bit too much always to use the excuse of a small team and Apple limitations.
About Apple limitations: I’m sorry, but that doesn’t really hold. We know Apple has its restrictions, but not being able to transfer photos from Kompakt to a Mac is not Apple. That’s a limitation in the Mudita Center. The Bluetooth problem mentioned in the post below was also blamed on Apple, but it seems other devices are having Bluetooth problems too, and Michal later appeared to acknowledge that:
Regarding the small team: A member of this forum has created a fully functional MP3 player, adapted for e-ink, with basic features that the standard app doesn’t even include. And that was done in a few days.
Even something as basic as a keyboard without lag needs to be sideloaded. The alarm also appears not to be working correctly, which could have been a valuable lesson learned from Harmony.
I’m not going to debate minimalism. People understand it in different ways. For some, it’s acceptable to use a phone without features that even regular “dumb phones” have. Others are okay spending part of their day working around limitations or waiting for updates. And that last group, I believe, is doing it because they trust Mudita, and that’s precisely my point here.
When it comes to updates and reported issues, there is a lack of clear communication. Some people here still haven’t received their phones, while others were removed from the forum in the past during the Kompakt Kickstarter due to a meltdown. Now, some of these same members act like moderators, criticizing anyone who reports problems. And those comments sometimes get likes from the Mudita team. That, in my view, contradicts the idea of being neutral, mainly when the feedback is directed at the company itself. I’ve also noticed that some of the responses seem heavily reliant on AI or follow automatic formatting, which detracts from the human aspect that people here are seeking.
It’s understandable that people are reporting issues or are not happy that features they expected aren’t working, especially with a 14-day return window. No one should be harassed for pointing out what’s not working, or made to feel like they’re causing trouble just for not leaving a positive comment. Just because it’s almost becoming a norm in tech to launch unfinished products, that doesn’t mean people should accept it.
And this raises the question: what should we expect from the Kompakt? As evidenced by the examples I provided above, some lessons from the past appear not to have been learned. For example:
GPS: We were first told the team was working on the option to turn it on:
Then Michal said the opposite and added a big “maybe”:
Now it remains an uncertainty:
North American users will soon start receiving the Kompakt, and we’ll see what comes next.
To finish
I’m sharing this as someone who has supported Mudita’s philosophy from the beginning. However, I also believe it’s important to acknowledge what has been happening and what it’s evolving into.
For now, I’m putting Mudita on standby. Even the interest I had in the future lamp is no longer there, because of everything I’ve documented. There’s more, but it’s challenging to keep up with everything happening in the forum.
I genuinely wish the best for everyone here, and I hope some of these words are taken not as criticism, but as part of a commitment to do better, for the sake of everyone who believed in this idea from the start.
Feel free to close this thread, as I won’t engage further.
P.S.: According to the post service, the two Kompakts to be refunded arrived at Mudita last Wednesday. I still don’t have any feedback. Please, try to solve this last pending situation I have with you. Thank you.