Comments on: ProvoCraft Unleashes Viral Marketing Campaign For Cricut Gypsy

By: jswabb

jswabb — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 05:55:04 +0000

it does not erase carts
isn’t the internet grand, all the info in the world, it’s just that about 50% of it, is wrong

By: Tonia Carr

Tonia Carr — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:57:28 +0000

It is good news that the Gypsy will not erase the cartridge. Even before the Gypsy was mentioned, though, I have wondered if Provo Craft is so proprietary that it hurts its business. I mean even a big gun like Apple allows others to write ancillary programs or make accessories for the iphone and such. I know SCAL could have certainly been a big money maker for them if they had chosen to partner with them. Obviously, a company has to survive, but I think there is a fine line between giving a customer what they want and putting a ridiculously tight rein on them. I am constrained enough during my everyday life. When I have time to craft, I don’t want restrictions on my materials I am working with. I don’t want to wonder if the used cartridge I’m buying has been uploaded or not. The gypsy is not for me, but I am wondering if anyone has thought this same thing about PC?

By: V

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:22:52 +0000

Just wanted to help clarify some mis-information regarding Cart usage with Gypsy! I have it from a pretty reliable source (pretty high at provocraft) that no- the carts will not be erased. So if you own a cart and download it to your Gypsy – your friend can’t take the same cart and upload it to her’s. The carts can only be downloaded to the original users.
So with that said- I can not wait to get my grubby hands around one!

By: Shelly

Shelly — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:32:22 +0000

If it erases my cartridges there is no way, absolutely no way, that I would purchase it. I have spent way to much building my cartridge library just to have it wiped away in seconds by a malfunctioning or failed hard drive. I love my cricut and I never scrap without it and would never take that kind of chance. I understand their concern for sharing, but I am sure borrowing of cartridges goes on all the time. Why would we risk our investment? I was excited about the gypsy but I am afraid after reading the negatives of having your library wiped out it will be a no go for me. After I bought their Expression bag, which was like $30, I received the worst customer service you could imagine. I am still waiting for my prepaid shipping label to return it and its been 6 months I think. Even though they promised it was being mailed the same day as my phone call I have never received one follow up call or email, much less the shipping label. If that is how they act over $30 can you imagine dealing with them about something that could be valued at over a $1,000. No way would I do it. Find a better way to make sure people can’t download cartridges they don’t own… they can always borrow.

By: Leo

Leo — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:50:28 +0000

It sounds like “erasing” the cartridge would be a simple security precaution so that you can’t share cartridges. If they didn’t do this, they would be opening themselves up to a bunch of piracy between Cricut users.

Also, I doubt that the cartridge is erased. Just like any device that stores data, the header in each sector of data would be marked as blank instead of actually wiping all of the data. When you delete something on your computer, it is still there and can be recovered. The only thing that happens on a delete is a header gets marked “available” so it appears that the data is gone.

I still don’t understand what the real benefit of this is other then working remotely on designs or not having to have a laptop.

One can only speculate.