is this product as dead as the thread was?

Hmm. They got kicked off kickstarter for having no working prototype but still managed to raise half a million on indiegogo. Two years later it seems they still haven't provided evidence of an actual viable product. If they had initially been asking for funding for the research and development that they say they're still undertaking that would be one thing, but people were led to believe they were effectively pre-ordering something that was ready to go into production. I can't blame backers for being pissed.