Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Novint Falcon in online play

One of the most common questions we get from hardcore gamers is "Is the Falcon competitive in online play?". The answer is 'absolutely'. I've created a video to demonstrate the concept, with picture-in-picture to see how the Falcon is used in those games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa9H1P-K89s

thx, tomnovint

Novint's games from a 12 year old's perspective

I just posted a thread about our games from a 12 year old's perspective. I think this is a great demographic for us.

http://home.novint.com/community/phorum/read.php?43,15503

thanks, tomnovint

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Novint Falcon to control military robots

We put out a nice press release yesterday about how the Novint Falcon can be used to control military robots in a joint project with iRobot

http://home.novint.com/news/press_releases_detail.php?id=386

thx, tomnovint

Friday, October 9, 2009

Keeping in Touch with Novint

Hello Everyone,

I'm writing to summarize Novint's new efforts to keep everyone up to date on all that is happening in the company. There have been a lot of happenings recently, and Novint is growing into new areas, and expanding in others.

One of the challenges for a company like Novint is keeping people up to date on all that we are doing. With how busy everyone is at Novint, it's often hard to find good ways to communicate. Often it is hard to find the time to summarize in a way that is useful, practical, and professional. However, we've begun experimenting on some new methods of communicating that we have been finding effective.


TWITTER
The newest method of communication we're using, that is quickly becoming a primary communication channel for us, is Twitter. One of the challenges in giving updates is finding time to both prepare information and disseminate it. I have been finding that Twitter is a good way to communicate information without a lot of overhead. Each tweet is limited to 140 characters, which keeps it short and simple and forces an natural informality that is nice for many smaller updates. It is a simple thing to pop up a twitter window and post a quick note, and I'm getting into the habit of taking daily events and progress and posting them. I think it is a good way to get out lots of information, realistically, given they are so simple to post. I think it will be a great way for people who are interested in all that is going on at Novint (and also people who want some insight as to what it is like running Novint, which I think is a fun concept) to get that information. For example, when we have our weekly management update phone meeting, I'll continue to tweet the major events of the week as I get updates from Novint's staff. I also tweet on Falcon and game events, message board posts that I find interesting (a great way to keep up on what customers think about Novint without sifting through all the boards yourself), game progress (many customers want to see this info), and anything else of interest to anyone who wants to know about Novint.

To encourage more people to learn about and follow our Tweets, we are going to be giving away a Falcon in which only our twitter followers (i.e. a listed follower in Twitter) are eligible ;)
you can follow us on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tomnovint

to follow us on Twitter, get a Twitter account, and add us to your following list. It's simple.
We also came across a nice tool for keeping up to date on our tweets and blog postings - very simple to use.
http://www.feedmyinbox.com/
go to the site, and list your email and any sites you want to keep track of (such as our blog, or our twitter page), and you'll be sent daily emails when there are new postings.


MESSAGE BOARDS
Our message boards are very active, and are growing daily. I personally read and answer all message board posts, which is a very big undertaking, but which also fits with the spirit of how we are developing a very strong community, and the importance I see in it. Right now, every Falcon user can have direct access to the CEO - I hope to be able to keep this up for a long time to come (even if we eventually have to set more rules on when/how you can post, but for now it's unrestricted). I see our community as a key area to our growth in the future, which is why we put so much effort into it. If you have a question about Novint and our products, post it and you'll get an answer. I think you will find that we are particularly strong at directly sharing information with people who want to know about it. It's a valuable resource to customers and anyone interested in Novint, and the level at which we do it is very unique even in today's high tech, fast paced world.
http://home.novint.com/community/message_boards.php


NOVINT'S BLOG
In addition to our Message Boards, we have a Blog (obviously :) ). If you only want to know the bigger events for Novint, and you're not as interested in the Play by Play from our Tweets and our message boards, the Blog is a good information channel for you.


EMAILS
Sign up for our email list at
http://home.novint.com/novint/stay_in_touch.php
We don't send many emails out, so it is for important events or messages regarding Novint, without clogging your inbox with spam.

NOVINT FALCON REFERRAL PROGRAM
Want to make money selling Falcons? Want to earn a free Falcon? Want to try a Falcon in your local area before you buy it? Learn more here:
http://home.novint.com/novint/referral.php


SALES INFORMATION
If you're thinking about buying a Falcon, or if you generally want to learn more about the Falcon, our grips, or our games, you can email our new sales email to get more information: falconsales[at]novint[dot]com


CUSTOMER SUPPORT
Customer support is a cornerstone building block we will build the company on. Novint treats people the way we all want to be treated! If you need help with your Falcon or Falcon games, please contact us at customersupport[at]novint[dot]com


Thank you for your continued support and interest in Novint. Post a message board post, if you have any comments/questions ;)

thx, tomnovint