As promised, Leap Motion has started shipping their long awaited Leap motion gesture add-on devices for Windows and Mac PCs to their customers. However, there appears to be a slight hitch. While the devices may be arriving in the hands of those many pre-order customers, they can"t actually use them out of the box.
Neowin reader streetw0lf posted a comment on our Leap story earlier today, saying he had received his Leap device. However he added:
You need to download some setup files on the Leap site (https://www.leapmotion.com/setup) but it won"t be active until 7/22. I spoke to Tech Support and they told me that they are still tweaking the software and something called Airspace (cloud thing?) The Tech said he will look into possibly allowing me to get what I need to get this things working but I probably will have to wait until 7/22. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment.
We contacted streetw0lf for more information and he told us that he did manage to download the older developer software for the Leap device so he could start using it. However, he added, "It is beta software and quite frankly was janky. That is probably why they are polishing it."
Later he received the following email from Leap:
Happy to hear you received your device. By getting the shipping process going this week, it is our aim to deliver as many controllers as possible so that you can all dive *directly* into Airspace as *soon* as it launches on July 22. We want to get you in there and exploring; we are all very excited to hear your thoughts.
We understand your desire to get started early with the SDK build, however, it will be most optimum for you to hold out for the version that we will launch with on July 22. We want you to have the best first experience with Leap that you possibly can.
We emailed Leap Motion for comment and received this statement from their spokesperson:
We"ve begun shipping this week to our pre-order customers in an effort to get as many delivered on launch day - July 22 - as possible. We continue to process cards and will be sending out confirmation emails to our pre-order customers as we ship the first wave through next week. Very few devices should arrive before July 22, but your reader is one of a few people we"ve heard from that have experienced early mail delivery. We"re glad he received his Leap Motion Controller. Our setup page and Airspace will not go live until July 22 to make sure everything is ready for our official launch day.
In related news, The New York Times has announced it will have its own dedicated news app that"s been developed specifically for the Leap add-on. The app will be free to download and users can access all New York Times content from the site for free, at least for its launch.
Image via Leap Motion