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NOW CLOSED blobo testers feedback thread

6 replies

NewGirlHelenMumsnet · 30/08/2011 10:32

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

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MNHQ

NewGirlHelenMumsnet · 30/08/2011 15:09

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.

MNHQ

NewGirlHelenMumsnet · 31/08/2011 09:45

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

MNHQ

NewGirlHelenMumsnet · 31/08/2011 14:08

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."

MNHQ

NewGirlHelenMumsnet · 01/09/2011 09:30

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.

MNHQ

NewGirlHelenMumsnet · 06/09/2011 12:23

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."
MNHQ

NewGirlHelenMumsnet · 16/09/2011 11:16

Thanks to everyone who added their feedback - we've done the prize draw and the winner of the £100 M&S voucher is arfur - congratulations!

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