FEEDBACK THREAD for Joggler testers

[GeraldineMumsnet]

Hi, hope your Jogglers have arrived safely. Once you've had the chance to get them set up and had a play, please can you post your feedback to these questions from O2:

1. Did you find it easy to set up?

1. What worked best for you?

1. Would you recommend it to a friend?

1. Do you think it's good value for money

1. Would you like to see any additions?

1. How would you use it to organise your family life?

1. Anything else you'd like to add?

And the latest on the webchats is that they'll now take place between 1-2pm (not 7pm) on Weds 10 June and Weds 1 July on www.mum-e.co.uk, but as usual if you can't make it on the day you can leave your questions/feedback in advance and the Joggler team will answer them/respond between 1-2pm.

We'll post the urls of the chats as soon as we have them.

Happy Joggling,

MNHQ

I'm a day behind you all.

I'm trying to set up the calendar and it won't let me, it says that I must be an O2 broadband customer. Anyone else had this problem? The helpline isn't open at the moment.

It feels like things aren't finished on it- as if it was a big rush to come out with this innovative product. The ideas are all brilliant but when you look at the price of an ipod touch Vs a joggler and all that the joggler offers thats diff is the calender ... except that i cud access the calender off my ipod touch ...(well, if i had one that is)

Having said all that, i do keep pressing it and thinking of daft things to add to the calender. I do want more games though

I've got it working!

1. Did you find it easy to set up?

the joggler was very easy to set up.

1. What worked best for you? traffis and weather are good. I don't download music and haven't got a usb stick either - I'd consider getting one though

1. Would you recommend it to a friend?

Too early to tell

1. Do you think it's good value for money?

It's too early to tell

1. Would you like to see any additions?

I know others have suggested fortnightly repetition, my DH is on a 28day shift rotation so I'd like to be able to specify the frequency myself.

I'll come back to you on the rest

1. How would you use it to organise your family life?

Childcare and working round shifts

1. Anything else you'd like to add?

I'm finding the sudoku hard to complete

I still haven't answered all the questions bar number 1 as am reserving judgement just yet. But DS1 (10) managed to put all his favourite music on there with no bother at all. Not sure this is an advantage as will now be listening to McFly and Sham 69 all evening.

Yeah, also bit miffed that the only game is Sudoku. Was hoping for something a bit more, um, exciting. But presumably we can download games at a steep cost?

The more I am thinking about it, the more I am convinced about what someone else said down the thread, and I started to formulate: it HAS to interact with something similar on a handheld device and not just send text reminders. The only real advantage of this for us will be a. having a nice multipurpose gadget in the kitchen and b. (the crucial bit) being able to centralise ALL our work and home and kids appointments. If it can't do the handheld thing, it probably won't be a longterm option.

The other things I am beginning to wonder about are also mentioned by someone else: what happens when it hangs? All the data is held where? I need to have some kind of secure backup if I'm going to rely on it for everything. My Palm backs up to desktop and laptop so I know if I lose one, the others can restore it.

Despite this, I am still liking the basic concept, but wonder if it needs tweaking.

And some mothers do actually travel (for whoever said why would we need traffic?!) although isn't that what a radio map satnav is for?

I think one of the critical things about the Joggler is where it will be situated. For us, because it will replace our (very efficient) family calendar, this means it is in the hall by the phone. Therefore, any of the additional features like music/video is irrelevant to us.

In that respect, I think its big failing is that it doesn't hang on the wall like a calendar. I actually have no idea where I'm going to put it (when I get it connected).

I agreee it feels unfinished, all the 'this will be coming soon' statements are a bit disappointing. If you buy something you want it to work now! I assume it is no cheaper now than it will be when you can use all the features?

Good point about backing things up. If you ditch your paper calendar and this thing stops working you could be really stuck!

Ok, I am going to stick something out there, I would just like other peoples thoughts but it is starting to niggle me...

If we can get the O2 calender online, for free.
And we can access the online calender from anywhere with an internet pc.
And the online calender sends text alerts etc to your O2 mobile just like the Joggler...

Would you really pay £150 for the pretty box and the other bits and pieces on the Joggler?

I don't want to sound ungrateful or anything but the only thing it really has going for it is the calender - which is available free. The music quality is rubbish, it has one game, the memo function can't be set to remind you a memo is there or tied to an event on the calender, the traffic information is lousy, the news available is very limited.

It seems, to me, that the other stuff is just there to sound good in the advertising so it doesn't occur to people that they can get the best bit of the Joggler for free.

Is that a bit harsh?

Not harsh at all. I put that in my first post too, it makes no sense to me. But then the calendar online is of little use to me either as I dont have an O2 mobile. The calendar on my phone however is easy to use, goes everywhere with me and has an alarm I can set.

I am still in Italy but am hoping mine will be waiting at the post office for me on my return. Still haven't been able to sign up for o2 calendar due to error messages and crap online 'help'

Sorry giggling, I will look back and re-read!

TBH, it is pretty and all that but I am not convinced it actually has anything to make it worth buying. I do like the digital photo frame but I could buy one of those if I really wanted, for less money!

I agree that I think it will end up sat on the fireplace (my kitchen is too small!) and not being used as much as it should.
It has been quite useful to get the kids to tell what the time is as they like looking at the numbers!
I like the digital photoframe part too again would be an expensive one though.
I do also like the weather feature as it will be easy to check what is predicted for the next few days I am lucky though an live in a city so it should work quite well for me.
I'm not sure I'd use the news or sports to look things up (I doubt dh will either)
Am disappointed there is only one game too although it would be another thing to get sucked into!! Haven't downloaded any music to it yet so haven't listened to the music quality yet but once the radio feature was ready I may think about having it up as a bedside thing so that I could use it as a clock radio type thing!

Right have had a proper think and this is what it needs to do

• have a rechargeable battery so it doesn't HAVE to be plugged in
• have a hinged stand, a magnet and a wall mount bracket so you can have it angled however you like or wall mount or put on the fridge (although i am guessing that will interfere with the wireless aspect)
• memo's need to be able to be linked to events eg my DH flies home on Wed, it would be nice to attach the memo with his flight details to the event
• the music player needs a rejig - i want to be able to play by artist and/or album not just alphabetically or shuffled
• There needs to be more than one game or some way of downloading more
• I want to be able to set my own news page. I don't like sky news and want the option to set it to one of my choice eg BBC
• the traffic section needs some kind of key, i know you can look in the manual but the rest is intuitive or there are instructions on the screen.

I do like the way it can be used as a digital photo frame and that i can add things to it via usb very easily. I like the weather option.

I would like to be able to add my own "things" to it so it really does become comparable to an ipod touch (Sorry but i can't help making the comparison and i don't even have one!!)

I must say they are VERY brave letting us lot loose on them

I fully understand what you are saying about you can do it all from the PC. The beauty for me is that my older children (aged 12 & nearly 14) can add their things on the calendar from a pc anywhere(instead of telling me the evening before the lesson.) So DD for example can put in all her cookery lessons at school from school or from another PC. If she is at a friends she can add things that are arranged when she is away, she does usual check these things with me but it is often a quick phone call and I cant always write it down.

Also DH is rubbish at writing things down on the calendar but loves playing on the PC so he will pop things on the calendar whilst surfing (I hope)

All my children hate wearing coats so all ask what the weather will be like I usually guess but they can now check themselves.

I like the idea that I can pop some calming, motivational robbie williams music on in the morning without any fuss. It will be great with the radio there too for snowy days when we are praying for school closures.

Yes I could do all this from the PC but if I put the TV or PC on before school we would never get out on time. It would be too distracting and with 4 of my own children plus mindees I really dont need any more distractions. I also mind one child on an occassional basis and have taken to writing when I need to collect on the back of my hand, my Joggler will now send me a text to remind me. (I have an absolutely terrible memory since having children ) Also it can remind me a day in advance to ensure I have the correct snack in for him (due to allergies).

Also would like to thank O2 who must have been reading this thread (of course, who wouldnt ) as I can now set the time for events on my Joggler. Previously whenever I input an event I selected no to all day but no times came up to set the time well this morning I have hours. (agree it would be quicker if we could just type in the time instead of scrolling, also not everyone likes the 24 hour clock!)

I think my main dissapointment is that there are so many ways in which this could be better, as MOM says the music options are vastly limited, the calender is not actually very good when you compare it to other calenders available, I can't make notes about an event, the text reminders are limited, they could send a note with it so instead of "dc1 Party" it could say "Dc1 party at XXXX, get Barbie type gift". There is masses of technology out there that does the same job much better. If the whistles and bells on this machine were up to muster I would be really impressed but they just seem very basic and ill thought out.

Mrs Weasley you can type in the time rather than scrolling through as I tried it, dd's rainbows starts at 5.45 and that option wasn't available when I scrolled and it worked

Is it really evil to hope that Lurkers from
Palm and Microsoft are skulking on the thread to develop their own thingy? Maybe they have already, there's a thought

I do think the idea is good in principle: a gadget that the whole family can use, which provides reminders and which has a centralised calendar function is a REALLY good idea. But I suspect the programming is a bit behind those big players? It can't be a technical/physical barrier to better useability, can it?

DH love the fact it has sports news on it and I've used the alarm bit to get the dds to tidy up.

o2 calendar - I'd like events to have a duration option

I can't seem to use the Connect and play option, and I can't see a help section dedicated to this.

Mine is getting very warm That's OK right?

Need to be able to scroll by year as well as day, week and month. Or have I said that already?

Concur also on the need for menus or playlists for music (and indeed pictures/videos but haven't tried that yet).

It is going to be a right pain scrolling through 250 tracks or however many it stores to find the one you want...

Is there a way of going straight to the Online calendar rather than either creating a shortcut or going through the website? Because there is no 'direct' link to it from the sign in page, as far as I can tell?

That's gonna pee me off too TBH when I am trying to use it remotely. But again, perhaps I am just being dim. Quite likely.

oooh, yes, seems to be no way of blocking out duration of events in the calendar...

well im still loving it, gave DH a tour yesterday of the news/sports/travel bits and he was very impressed. Dh new phone will be here tomorrow so i can sort out him with alerts etc. also pplan to show him the calendar tomorrow so he can add his work hours etc!!!

also i like the fact you can plug speakers into the back.....currently have my laptop speakers plugged in and it sounds quite good!