NOW CLOSED blobo testers feedback thread

[NewGirlHelenMumsnet]

This thread is for the 10 MNers who have been testing blobo with their child(ren). Everyone who adds feedback on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get a £100 M&S voucher.

Below are some questions to get you started. Please feel free to add your own comments as well. Please add in the age and gender of your child(ren) with your response.

1. Overall, how did you and/or your partner (if applicable) find the blobo to use? What did you like best about it? What didn't you like, and why? How did you find installing the blobo software on your PC/Mac? Did everything run smoothly or did you have any difficulties?
   

1. Was it easy or difficult to connect the blobo to your PC/Mac and charge it up?
   

1. How did you find setting up an avatar and creating other characters? Did you have any difficulties or was it all ok? Was there anything that you didn't manage to set up?
   

1. With all of the technical set up etc mentioned above, did you/your partner do most of it or did your child(ren)? At what sort of age do you think child(ren) would be able to do this for themselves?
   

1. How did you find the games to play? Was the controller sensitive enough to your movements?
   

1. What did your child(ren) think of blobo? What did they like and dislike about it? Which game did they like the most? Was there anything they thought could be improved?
   

1. How did your child(ren) find the challenges? Did they have a go at both? If so, which one did they prefer and why?
   

1. Do you think blobo is good value for money (currently on offer for £39.99)? If so, why? If not, why not?
   

1. If it came up in conversation, do you think you would recommend blobo to your friends with children? If so, why? If not, why not?
   

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw,
MNHQ

[ledodgy]

1. I found it easy to use it was a nice smooth way to control the avatar which I found better than the wii. the installation to the PC via the disk was fine. the installation to the lap top by downloading the software was a Spain mainly because it takes so long to come through. For a family with children who have no disc drive on their computer I can see this being an issue and a big warning needs to be in place so that parents know to do this early for Birthdays and Christmas. We also plugged the laptop into the tv and this was fab.
   

1. Very easy to charge up, took a while though.
   

1. Easy to set up, could be more choice of stuff for avatar to wear etc though.
   

1. My daughter did it and she is 8, I think younger children could probably manage it too though maybe six years if you are talking about creating avatars etc.
   

1. yes control was very good. There needs to be more choice in games and frankly the calorie burning stats are rubbish I put in all my statistics and it was saying I was burning a ridiculous amount of calories in a short time. I workout regularly and know there's no way I was burning the calories it said I was. This needs to be improved.
   

1. They liked the running and the long jump the best. Karate was a bit tedious. My eight year old liked basket ball but the five and three year old weren't fussed mainly because they needed to catch and they can't catch as well as eight year old. Archery was also popular with the eight and six year old. They would like more choice of games.
   

1. They enjoyed the challenges, they preferred the tournament one rather than the personal fitness one.
   

1. Yes I think it is good value for money, if ere was more choice of games it would be an excellent rival to the wii fit especially for younger children.
   

1. Yes i'd say it was fun, easy to control, gets children moving and good value for money.

[ouryve]

I tested this with DS1, who is 7. DH has had a play with it, too, on the sly!

1. Overall, how did you and/or your partner (if applicable) find the blobo to use? What did you like best about it? What didn't you like, and why? How did you find installing the blobo software on your PC/Mac? Did everything run smoothly or did you have any difficulties?
   

I found it easy to install the software. The ball was a lot smaller than I expected. Some of the controls were a little fiddly, though and I was disappointed that they didn't respond to my touch screen monitor, so I ended up having to bend over and pick up the mouse to move between options because I couldn't do that with the ball (if it was possible, I didn't have the coordination to achieve it). It's quite good fun though and a good way of getting the kids up off their backsides on a wet afternoon (DS1 joined in, DS2 charged around the room!)

1. Was it easy or difficult to connect the blobo to your PC/Mac and charge it up?
   

Easy, though I have to make sure the bluetooth dongle is already in place and has been detected before I run up the software, or else I have to shut down the software and start again.

1. How did you find setting up an avatar and creating other characters? Did you have any difficulties or was it all ok? Was there anything that you didn't manage to set up?
   

DS1 did this. The only problem he had was resisting the urge to select the question mark, which randomised his character again. Once he'd got the hang of that, he had no problems at all, though my character really should have gone to specsavers.

1. With all of the technical set up etc mentioned above, did you/your partner do most of it or did your child(ren)? At what sort of age do you think child(ren) would be able to do this for themselves?
   

I did most of the installation. DS1 is very computer savvy (budding hacker!) and could probably do it now, with guidance, but we don't actually trust him enough to allow him to install his own software!

1. How did you find the games to play? Was the controller sensitive enough to your movements?
   

The controller was very sensitive, but the running game really did require deep pockets, since we got wildly different results with what appeared to be the same effort. I got faster times if i put the balls in the right pocket, rather than the left, for instance. The basketball game was really fiddly for DS1 because he can't catch a ball and we had a go at the long jump and i found the sequence of movements a bit odd - having to stop running and wait before jumping just didn't flow right.

1. What did your child(ren) think of blobo? What did they like and dislike about it? Which game did they like the most? Was there anything they thought could be improved?
   

DS1 really enjoyed it. He says he didn't like the running, because all you had to do was nothing and he liked the archery best because it was like a tug of war. He loved the karate and we spent a lot of a wet Friday afternoon chopping things up (my arm still aches!)

1. How did your child(ren) find the challenges? Did they have a go at both? If so, which one did they prefer and why?
   

He did both challenges and preferred the archery, even though with ASD and ADHD, standing still really does not come easy to him (he's constantly jittery, even when he's trying really hard!) I Just asked him why he preferred the archer, and he replied "I don't have anymore whys!!!" We only had a brief go at the basketball, by the way, because I had visions of the ball ending up going through the computer or TV screen!

1. Do you think blobo is good value for money (currently on offer for £39.99)? If so, why? If not, why not?
   

I think it is a little pricey for what it does. It's quite limited in scope and some of the games are just plain fiddly (the bowling for example - I could barely work that out!)

1. If it came up in conversation, do you think you would recommend blobo to your friends with children? If so, why? If not, why not?
   

Not at that price, unless said friend had a bottomless pit of money to spend.

[CroissantNeuf]

Helen -when would you like feedback by?

Its just that I've broken my ankle (not blobo induced you'll be pleased to hear ) so its been a bit of a chaotic week - will endeavour to complete it asap though.

[NewGirlHelenMumsnet]

Croissant - sorry to hear that, hope you're on the mend! If you could do later on this week or over the weekend that would be great but don't worry if it's later than that - the thread will be up for a while.

[CroissantNeuf]

OK -by the weekend is not a problem (although I won't be doing any of the running games!)

Doing OK thanks, just trying to adjust to life with crutches and a cast -everything takes 100 times longer to do and some things are nigh on impossible.

[Ingles2]

Just letting you know I'm here
So far we've only managed to play once, it wasn't easy to set up, as our disc drive didn't like the cd (machine getting old I think) and getting the download took forever.
It was such an effort, it took the excitement out of the game unfortunately.
Anyway, to give it a fair trial I'm planning on playing more with the boys so I'll post over the weekend if that's ok.

[NewGirlHelenMumsnet]

That's fine, thanks Ingles, sorry you've had technical challenges!

[NewGirlHelenMumsnet]

blobo wanted to pass on their thanks for your feedback so far and they also had some comments on the downloading process and calorie counting:

"Downloading the software - The normal process for supplying blobo is via the internet and at this time any additional software can be ordered, including a free of charge copy of the standard software. This can be downloaded at the time of the order so that the software is ready for downloading before the blobo is delivered. The testers received the products for review directly from us and so did not go via the internet, hence the short delay in them being able to receive the free software. The reason for the delay is that when software is ordered free of charge and no blobo is ordered, the order needs to be approved to stop spam, we recently had someone request 2582 versions of the free of charge software, which is clearly incorrect! We have modified the information on the website just to make sure that it is best to order the software if you need a download copy.

Calorie counting - blobo accurately counts the force applied to it and it also knows the appropriate action being used in each game so it can calculate the calories the user is using if they are doing the correct action, hence the reason for low calorie scores used during a karate chop, where only an arm movement is used. blobo is being tested by physiotherapists in terms of its accuracy and our own results do show a very close match to real calorie usage, however we would only recommend the calorie figures as a relative guide, ie how much you used today compared to yesterday, rather than an actual calorie count as this is extremely hard to determine accurately without laboratory equipment. We would be very interested to see the calorie scores achieved and the user settings used in cases of high calorie usage, just to make sure everything is correct."

[Sam100]

1. Overall, how did you and/or your partner (if applicable) find the blobo to use? What did you like best about it? What didn't you like, and why? How did you find installing the blobo software on your PC/Mac? Did everything run smoothly or did you have any difficulties?
   

It was surprisingly easy to set up and use - I expected it to be more complicated. So it was a pleasant surprise to be able to plug and play - even I was able to work it out and the kids only needed to be shown once and were away with it after that.

1. Was it easy or difficult to connect the blobo to your PC/Mac and charge it up?
   

Easy to connect to pc - I charged up using the plug. It took a long time to charge.

1. How did you find setting up an avatar and creating other characters? Did you have any difficulties or was it all ok? Was there anything that you didn't manage to set up?
   

Avatars were easy to set up - didn't even have to explain to the kids they worked it out themselves.

1. With all of the technical set up etc mentioned above, did you/your partner do most of it or did your child(ren)? At what sort of age do you think child(ren) would be able to do this for themselves?
   

I installed and kids created their own avatars (they are 9,8 and 5 - think 9 year old did it for the 5 year old with his input).

To be quite honest I think 9 year old could have followed the instructions for the initial set up.

1. How did you find the games to play? Was the controller sensitive enough to your movements?
   

Games were good and the kids really enjoyed them. Controller was sensitive - it took them a while to be able to work out how to do the archery game and took me even longer - kept shooting my arrows into the woods which they all found hilarious. Should give age assistance to the over 40s not the kids!!!

1. What did your child(ren) think of blobo? What did they like and dislike about it? Which game did they like the most? Was there anything they thought could be improved?
   

They liked the games although I could see them getting bored after the initial newness of the game - did not seem to be a progression in challenges or maybe they have just not played enough yet. DD1 (9) liked the archery and basketball games, DD2 (8) liked the archery too and the running, DS1 (5) struggled with the basketball as could not get that you had to catch the ball again and kept chucking it across the room. He liked the long jump best!

1. How did your child(ren) find the challenges? Did they have a go at both? If so, which one did they prefer and why?
   

They have challenged each other but not done a challenge? May have to go back in and check if there are 2 challenges as I don't think they have done that yet!

1. Do you think blobo is good value for money (currently on offer for £39.99)? If so, why? If not, why not?
   

I think it is possibly a bit over-priced and needs to be more around the £30 mark to be more in line with other games like wii games.

1. If it came up in conversation, do you think you would recommend blobo to your friends with children? If so, why? If not, why not?
   

Yes-ish - it is quite fun and the kids really enjoyed but I would say it has limited use as has to be played in front of the pc - which in our house is in a small study so not much playing area. I think the games that are viewable on the TV are better and more interactive for the kids - they had to keep sending the other kids out of the study while one played and then swapping over so constantly calling for one to come back and take their go - which was a bit annoying! I know initial blurb said they could take outside and play but don't really see how this is possible unless you put on a laptop and took the laptop outside.


Will get them all playing again and see if we can find these challenges you speak of!

[NewGirlHelenMumsnet]

Thanks for the feedback Sam - I emailed you the challenges a while ago - here they are:

a. Designing blobo characters & ?age assist?:

Get your child to create a character using their age, weight and height. Then get them create a second avatar for an adult who they can challenge to compete against them in the running game. We'll be asking you who won and how many calories they used so please make a note of this!

b. Self-control

Not all blobo games are about tearing around burning calories ? others such as basketball are designed to improve hand-eye coordination and archery is all about self control ? by remaining as still as possible. Get your child to try both and let us know about the clever ways they come up with to ensure they stay as still as possible in the archery game.

[CroissantNeuf]

1. Overall, how did you and/or your partner (if applicable) find the blobo to use? What did you like best about it? What didn't you like, and why? How did you find installing the blobo software on your PC/Mac? Did everything run smoothly or did you have any difficulties?
   

Installing it was quick and simple once I'd found out how to switch BlueTooth on on the laptop. Once I'd installed it and had a go myself I gave the laptop to the DC (11 and 7) and they managed to suss out how to access it and use it without any problems.
I loved the feel of the ball -very tactile but of course that meant that I kept squeezing it/turning it round etc when I shouldn't have.
One thing we were annoyed by was the fact you had to 'unclick' activities (eg. archery, basketball) otherwise they kept starting with that activity again.

1. Was it easy or difficult to connect the blobo to your PC/Mac and charge it up?
   

Very easy (and I'm not that technically aware). Although DP did look at the charger and ball with a and expression on his face for a moment or two. As I said before, the only thing I stalled on was working out how to switch on BlueTooth on the laptop.

1. How did you find setting up an avatar and creating other characters? Did you have any difficulties or was it all ok? Was there anything that you didn't manage to set up?
   

I managed to set up an avatar without any problems. The DC worked it out for themselves without any guidance or input from me.

1. With all of the technical set up etc mentioned above, did you/your partner do most of it or did your child(ren)? At what sort of age do you think child(ren) would be able to do this for themselves?
   

I set it up but TBH I think my 11 yr old DD could have installed it quite happily. Both managed to set up avatars and play it quite happily without assistance.

1. How did you find the games to play? Was the controller sensitive enough to your movements?
   

The controller did seem very sensitive and took a bit of getting used to for me, especially the Parkour game but the DC seemed to master it after a few attempts. It took me a while to understand the diagrams that explained how to move the controller to get the avatar to respond but, again, the children seemed to grasp it OK.

1. What did your child(ren) think of blobo? What did they like and dislike about it? Which game did they like the most? Was there anything they thought could be improved?
   

They enjoyed trying it out. Once they'd tried the archery and basketball a few times they did get a bit bored of it as it seemed a bit limited. However the Parkour seemed more popular as they had the challenge of reaching different levels -it was more 'gaming' IYSWIM. 7yr old DS particularly liked this one. They agreed with me that it was annoying that you had to 'unclick' activities like archery etc. The calories bit was totally ignored by them, in fact I didn't hear them mention it at all so I'm not sure they even registered that it was 'active' thing like the wii. They did however say that they didn't think it was as good as the wii (sorry!) but this may be because we had limited games/activities to try out.

1. How did your child(ren) find the challenges? Did they have a go at both? If so, which one did they prefer and why?
   

a. Designing blobo characters & ?age assist?: both children created the avatars without a problem but I'm afraid we didn't do the running challenge due to the logistics (plaster + crutches = a mere shuffle )

b. Self-control - DS was less into the activities that relied on being still but thats him all over!! For the archery DD developed a way of steadying her hand by holding the controller against the side of her nose. Initially she'd tried using like you use the wii controller (you bring it back as if using a bow) but soon realised that it needed to be held steady.

1. Do you think blobo is good value for money (currently on offer for £39.99)? If so, why? If not, why not?
   

Personally its not something that I would buy at that price. Maybe if it included 2 controllers (so the children could play together and against each other) and a few more games then I would consider it. However we have a wii and, not being particularly into gaming and consoles, it would seem too similar to something that we already have IYSWIM.

1. If it came up in conversation, do you think you would recommend blobo to your friends with children? If so, why? If not, why not?
   

I might recommend it for families where something like a wii is too expensive. Its positives are that it encourages children to get up, move about and practice hand-eye coordination and its easy to use.



Thanks for giving us the opportunity to try it out. I would liked to have tried it outside a bit more and tried it myself a bit more but the broken ankle put paid to that I'm afraid!

[Sam100]

Doh! I forgot about that bit though now do recall getting that email! We did do the first challenge and they challenged me and each other to numerous running games but I forgot to write down the info!!! My fault - will get onto it asap!

Will also ask them to think about ways they have learnt to keep still while doing basketball and archery - they are all much better than me at it! As I said think I need the age assist not them as they paste me in every game!

[Ingles2]

Hi New Girl Helen...

We're back.... I don't know what to say really... I'm not particularly enamoured with this thing. Actually it drove me insane today...
So, following the delays with the download...we went to play again today. We took the laptop outside to try the running games etc. we couldn't move more than 8 metres away from the laptop without losing connection. It was constant disconnection messages...no running down my 1/2 acre garden...not a hope..
more a jogging on the spot in front of the screen.
Am I missing something here?
How far should I be able to go?

[ouryve]

We just jogged on the spot. (Carefully, so as to avoid shaking the computer by jogging on the wobbly floorboard that goes under the desk!)

[Ingles2]

did you Ouryve?
That can't be right though can it?
My ds1 said earlier... this isn't right mum...on the ad they run for miles..
Now I'm not expecting that, but enough range for an actual running race, otherwise it's just a poor relation to the wii surely?

[ouryve]

If we tried the long jump by actually running properly, it would be impossible to see the instructions on the screen!

[Ingles2]

ok, so here's our feedback

1. Overall, how did you and/or your partner (if applicable) find the blobo to use? What did you like best about it? What didn't you like, and why? How did you find installing the blobo software on your PC/Mac? Did everything run smoothly or did you have any difficulties?
   

For some reason the macbook I was using was having problems reading the disc, so we went online to get a download which was quite difficult and took a long time to get. I gather this isn't normal though.

1. Was it easy or difficult to connect the blobo to your PC/Mac and charge it up? Easy enough...it took a very long time to charge the blobo though, not an hour.
   

1. How did you find setting up an avatar and creating other characters? Did you have any difficulties or was it all ok? Was there anything that you didn't manage to set up? My 11 yr old did all that with no problems
   

1. With all of the technical set up etc mentioned above, did you/your partner do most of it or did your child(ren)? At what sort of age do you think child(ren) would be able to do this for themselves? see above... probably from about 7/8
   

1. How did you find the games to play? Was the controller sensitive enough to your movements? well it was ok,... but as I said we couldn't actually get any range to play any of these games properly. Spending an hour clicking the mouse because the blobo has disconnected isn't actually much fun.It's not much use having a running game if you can't actually run anywhere. We quite liked the static /in front of the computer games, basketball etc. I couldn't work out the bowling at all, but the boys had no problems. we liked the archery best.
   

1. What did your child(ren) think of blobo? What did they like and dislike about it? Which game did they like the most? Was there anything they thought could be improved? They thought it was ok,...the problems put them off and to be honest at 10/11 they are a bit old for this. It's not as advanced or exciting as some of the wii/x box games. ds1 was interested by the calorie counting, he thought it funny that some of the games used just 4 calories
   

1. How did your child(ren) find the challenges? Did they have a go at both? If so, which one did they prefer and why? Gave up on challenge 1...in the archery they tried resting their arm on legs/table and propping it with the other arm.
   

1. Do you think blobo is good value for money (currently on offer for £39.99)? If so, why? If not, why not?
   

Well it's the cost of a wii game so it's not terrible, but it seems very expensive to me as it didn't work with sufficient range and the boys are no longer interested in it. Nothing worse than buying something that is discarded within a week! I agree with croissantneuf though, it would seem better if there were 2 controllers included..as this seems suited for younger children, waiting and turn taking is a recipe for arguments, you want them to play together/against each other.

1. If it came up in conversation, do you think you would recommend blobo to your friends with children? If so, why? If not, why not?
   

No,it's only for primary age children so has a very short lifespan.

This hasn't really been a hit in this house I'm afraid.... but I'm more than happy to send it to MNHQ so you can pass it on to someone else to try?
It seems a terrible waste to leave it here, so let me know .

[Fillybuster]

Sorry for the delay in posting...the return to school (and my impending return to work from maternity leave :( ) got in the way of MN time....

1. Overall, how did you and/or your partner (if applicable) find the blobo to use? What did you like best about it? What didn't you like, and why? How did you find installing the blobo software on your PC/Mac? Did everything run smoothly or did you have any difficulties?
   

Installing was fine, although it tool a while, and we weren't expecting the delay to get the software, which resulted in slightly grumpy waiting children!

1. Was it easy or difficult to connect the blobo to your PC/Mac and charge it up?
   

Charging it was easy :) but took a while. Getting bluetooth to work on my laptop, and getting it to recognise the ball was slightly more challenging. Again, cue grumpy children...

1. How did you find setting up an avatar and creating other characters? Did you have any difficulties or was it all ok? Was there anything that you didn't manage to set up?
   

We had fun setting up and naming the avatars, although it would have been nice to have more choice of styles etc

1. With all of the technical set up etc mentioned above, did you/your partner do most of it or did your child(ren)? At what sort of age do you think child(ren) would be able to do this for themselves?
   

My partner and I did all the set up. My children are (just) 6, 3.5 and 1 and there is no way they could have done any of this themselves.

1. How did you find the games to play? Was the controller sensitive enough to your movements?
   

Perhaps my dcs were a bit young, but none of them could really cope with any of the games properly. They enjoyed messing around with it but couldn't get to grips with anything enough to really play with it.

1. What did your child(ren) think of blobo? What did they like and dislike about it? Which game did they like the most? Was there anything they thought could be improved?
   

Overall, they got bored quite quickly as they couldn't really control the ball properly. Anything that required movement was constrained by having to stay within viewing distance of the laptop screen, so they didn't acually get to run properly, just jiggle about in front of the computer which they thought was a bit pointless.

1. How did your child(ren) find the challenges? Did they have a go at both? If so, which one did they prefer and why?
   

They did enjoy trying to create an avatar for me! :) Overall, I think they preferred the games that required some stillness, as that was easier to achieve in front of the screen, but only DS (6) understood the challenges sufficiently to provide feedback.

1. Do you think blobo is good value for money (currently on offer for £39.99)? If so, why? If not, why not?
   

Not really. I'm sorry, I know I sound terribly ungrateful, and we were so excited to be selected for the trial (and Blobo were so good about delivering to Devon!). I think the problem was in setting expectations...blobo is basically a fairly expensive app/gizmo that provides a few hours' diversion on a wet afternoon (like Angry Birds, in a good way) but it doesn't deliver the playing capability or enjoyment of something like a Wii or XBox 360. As my dcs haven't been allowed either of the latter, but have loved playing with them at friends houses, I think they were hoping that the Bowling (for example) would live up to their XBox experiences. So I guess we were heading for disappointment from the outset...

1. If it came up in conversation, do you think you would recommend blobo to your friends with children? If so, why? If not, why not?
   

No. I don't feel it delivers on the 'getting to play a computer game whilst running around freely' USP, as you need to stay in view of the screen at all times. We tried to use the blobo in the garden but it kept disconnecting.

In fact, our experience of playing with the Wii and Xbox at friends' houses is that they enabled a lot more movement than the blobo....At that point, it doesn't provide anything you can't already get (and in many cases control better) with a mouse, and also fails to deliver the full gaming experience of a console.

I'm not sure where it can be positioned, but I don't think it delivers on the current marketing blurb. I know other reviewers have suggested that it might be more appropriate for primary school children, but my pre-school and primary dcs have lost interest in it after 2 afternoons of use....I would definitely be disappointed if I had paid for this, as I can think of a lot of other things we could do with £40 that would keep my children interested for a lot longer.

Again, I'm sorry. I really wanted to like this product, especially as my partner and I have stood firm against all gaming consoles etc and this would have given my ds something a bit 'different' from his school friends that they could play with when they come to visit. He was particularly excited about it coming, and enormously disapppointed with the reality of the experience.

In fact, this has helped dh and I finally agree that we will probably buy a gaming console for the whole family as a shared xmas present in a few months time. As dh said "If you're going to let your kids do the whole gaming thing, you might as well do it properly"

[Ingles2]

Filly has said everything I wanted to, but better....

[NewGirlHelenMumsnet]

Thanks for all the feedback so far - blobo has the following response to your comments:

"1. Regarding comments about the limited number of games that come with blobo as standard, please note that more games are available from the website and all the individual games are £2.99 or less.

1. The cost of blobo and its 6 games is being compared in price to a Wii game. A direct comparison should be between a Wii itself and its games (typically £100+ and £10+ respectively) and blobo and its games (£39.99 and £2.99 respectively).

1. Game play - you can chose to progress further with each game depending on what you are playing, such as further away from the basket in basket ball. Also platform games such as Parkour provide over 64 levels of game play. Also comments have been made about the users seeing some degree of difficulty in working out how to play the games. This is because blobo requires you to do real world actions such as a correct karate chop instead of (as in the case with the Wii) just waving a controller up and down in the air. The same applies to running where you really have to lift your legs and run properly instead of micro running on the spot. The packs come with a game play guide (which is also available on the website) and this explains how to play the games.

1. Playing on a PC - the best place to play with blobo is on a laptop or netbook so the users have complete freedom to play where they want to!

1. Range - the range over which blobo can perform is defined by the performance of the Bluetooth connection. If the built in Bluetooth connection is used, the range can be limited to being between 5 and 15 meters (which is fine for most games) as typically the built in technology is designed for use with headsets etc. The Bluetooth dongle supplied with blobo (in the UK) can reach as far as 100m although we only claim 25m+ just to be on the safe side. In the production of the TV advert, live units and a live connection were used so the images are real not created. So for best range performance it is best to use the supplied Bluetooth dongle instead of the built in Bluetooth if there is an option. If a high powered Bluetooth dongle is purchased separately the range can be increased further still. Finally, when used as a step counter, blobo stores the information internally so the range is only limited by the battery life, which can be as high as 7 days of constant running!

1. Charging - the initial full charge can take a few hours, but this will give over 8 hours of constant game play, so just 30mins of charging will enable over 2 hours of game play. If any users wants to use blobo quickly a chick 30 min charge is more than enough. As we demonstrated at the Gadget Show Live event, the blobos used ran for over 8 hours on only a 45 minute daily top up charge. Ideally we would ship blobo pre-charged, but we are not allowed to do this by law so some degree of initial charging is always required. When connecting up a blobo, a blue bar graph will show just how full each blobo is and when playing with blobo in a game a warning sign will come up when battery levels are low."

[ouryve]

This is because blobo requires you to do real world actions

But in the real world, doing the long jump doesn't entail running, then stopping still before jumping - it's all one continuous action. If I don't stand still long enough before jumping with the blobo, I get a foul.

[Fillybuster]

Blobo seem quite defensive in their feedback

1. "The cost of blobo and its 6 games is being compared in price to a Wii game. A direct comparison should be between a Wii itself and its games (typically £100+ and £10+ respectively) and blobo and its games (£39.99 and £2.99 respectively)."
   

True, but I would expect to get more than a few hours of play value out of the Wii investment....

Overall, I don't think Blobo are doing the product any favours by comparing it to a Wii; the longer term ROI (return on investment) on a Wii seems pretty compelling when feel that Blobo represents a poor return on a £43 spend.

1. Laptops v Desktops / Blue tooth limitations.
   

I agree that a laptop would theoretically provide more flexibility than a desktop. However a) most laptops do not have sufficient range on their bluetooth chips to provide a genuinely flexible experience b) mine does (hell, I work in telecoms, of course it does!), but kept on dropping out when we used it outside...and, c) it is very hard (especially for children) to focus on a laptop screen whilst moving around...plus, I don't have an anti-glare protector, so it was very hard to see the screen outside.

[ouryve]

Fillybuster - there's also the issue with a laptop outside that if the weather's good enough to have it outside, then there's no reason why kids can't be out there playing some of these games for real (really, who needs a little ball in their pocket to have a running race?). I also wouldn't let kids take one outside to use the blobo unless we had a large and secure garden - which we don't!

I'm just not buying this aspect of the marketing.

[Ingles2]

I agree with both of you... and also that their feedback seems defensive.
On the price point, you have to bear in mind that you to have a family playing simultaneously, you would need 4 blobos..a cost of 160 quid, ...but I do appreciate you can play with one...
and finally, can I just say, there was no game play guide in my box, infact no instructions at all. We just tried to work it out as we went along... Which is probably why the whole thing just seemed like too much effort, for too little. Sorry.
MNHQ...Send me an email with your address and I'll send it back. Ta x

[lisad123]

1. Overall, how did you and/or your partner (if applicable) find the blobo to use? What did you like best about it? What didn't you like, and why? How did you find installing the blobo software on your PC/Mac? Did everything run smoothly or did you have any difficulties?
   

My husband is a IT man so he found it easy to work but I didnt know it would have to go on the Laptop and then onto the TV, I wouldnt have been able to do it on my own. I like the ball, its great.

1. Was it easy or difficult to connect the blobo to your PC/Mac and charge it up?
   

Charging up was not a problem but getting it on the laptop and then onto the TV was differicult.

1. How did you find setting up an avatar and creating other characters? Did you have any difficulties or was it all ok? Was there anything that you didn't manage to set up?
   

The kids couldnt have done it alone.

1. With all of the technical set up etc mentioned above, did you/your partner do most of it or did your child(ren)? At what sort of age do you think child(ren) would be able to do this for themselves? I think 12 or above.
   

1. How did you find the games to play? Was the controller sensitive enough to your movements?
   

The games were fun but our youngest (nearly 4) had real trouble with the ball, because you have to squeese it in a certain way which her hands were a little small for.

1. What did your child(ren) think of blobo? What did they like and dislike about it? Which game did they like the most? Was there anything they thought could be improved?
   

They liked the basketball, the running was difficult because they didnt have pockets at the time. The little one struggled to squeese the ball right and having to wait was an issue, they would have liked to run, play at the same time.

1. How did your child(ren) find the challenges? Did they have a go at both? If so, which one did they prefer and why?
   

They tried and like creating funny charaters for us all!!

1. Do you think blobo is good value for money (currently on offer for £39.99)? If so, why? If not, why not?
   

No really, the games are limited without paying, the ball was hard to use for children with small hands and they cant play together.

1. If it came up in conversation, do you think you would recommend blobo to your friends with children? If so, why? If not, why not?
   

no, its likely to be a thing that comes out every now and then but smething they lose intrest in quickly.