[NTLK] Back from vacation, NewtCom Dongle news

[Matthias Melcher]

Hi Newton fans,

sorry for not replying, I was on vacation in beautiful Austria for a week. No I have to go on a diet for eating too much Kaiserschmarrn.

Coming home, I did get some discouraging news in respect to the dongle. With the executive order 14324 that went into effect yesterday, the De Minimis Treatmet no longer exists. This means that sending goods into the U.S. is no longer tax free if the value is under $800. Instead, I have to pay forward a minimal import tariff of $80 per device for you, or declare each devices through a third party that is recognized by U.S. customs - and pay their fees plus the minimum $80 U.S. tariff, which I then have to add to your bill. 

So, the dongles have just become about $100 more expensive for every address in the U.S. - if I were able to send them. However, all European postal services have suspending shipping goods to the U.S. for the time being.

Sorry guys. No more dongles unless you can give me an address outside of the U.S. . And only if I get at least 25 orders in. Having less boards made would increase the cost per dongle quite a bit.

So, sorry again for being the bearer of bad news. Or as we say in German: tja! (we *do* have a word for everything).

One last hint: everything that goes into the dongle is Open Source and can easily be found via the links that I have posted many times. Assembly instructions are pretty much complete. There are jigs for manufacturing the plugs and soldering the boards. Everyone who can solder a bit can build and program their own. 

 - Matthias

https://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-import-export/e-commerce/faqs