We have reached a significant milestone in the development of Communicator. This week marks the start of the penultimate step in the pathway to production.

At this stage, we're testing the manufacturing process to ensure that product can be built repeatedly and reliability at increased volumes. Units built here are using final tooling, molds and manufacturing processes on our actual production lines.

In the photos and video from the production line this week you'll notice a few key details. These Communicator units have the updated keyboard graphics on the bottom row, final metal side keys (Prompt Key, power button, Kill Switch, and volume keys). We'll show these up close in new photos and videos once we get these units into the studio.

Clicks Communicator Production Assembly Clicks Communicator Production Assembly Clicks Communicator Production Assembly Clicks Communicator Production Assembly
Source: Clicks

Moving over to software, today also marks the start of the release candidate (RC) stage of the schedule – the final step before our hard code freeze. In RC, features are frozen and the focus shifts to addressing any blocking issues (bugs) found in RC testing.

There's still plenty of work to complete before we ramp production and ship Communicator, but we're excited to share this update with you.

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