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Mother

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Re: Mother

#191

Post by peteretep »

pcurve wrote: post #93

We all may be suffering from a case of Fortune 100 CEO syndrome. That is, we all wish our lives are so busy and important that we need personal assistants managing our lives. So we buy these products that make us feel more important. It documents what we do, and it tells back our story through a dashboard, in an autobiographical way, as if we're some kind of celebrities. But are we that important?

    > We all may be suffering from a case of Fortune 100 CEO 
    > syndrome. That is, we all wish our lives are so busy and
    > important that we need personal assistants managing our
    > lives.
How important or busy do I need to be to decide that £160 is too much to spend freeing up some of my time? How about to decide to take a minicab home if it frees up 30m of my time vs public transport?

I think the bar to "busy and important enough" is much lower than you think.

Re: Mother

#193

Post by owenversteeg »

I personally think that I don't need to spend $222 on something that seems to be minimally useful. I don't need to monitor how often I brush my teeth, how often I drink coffee, how often I water the plants, and how often I take medication.

For the things on the list that are somewhat useful (like sleep logs + a pedometer + temperature) I have a 1975 pedometer/calculator combo that's worked fine since the day I got it, a notepad, and an infrared thermometer that is a thousand times cooler.

I think the only people that will buy this are people that want Google Analytics for their life.

Re: Mother

#194

Post by PavlovsCat »

PavlovsCat wrote: post #149
CodeMage wrote: post #20

That was a really poor choice of a name. It took me less than 10 seconds to start hearing Pink Floyd's "Mother" [1] in my head. Once that started happening, I just couldn't stay objective while looking at the pitch. [1]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0HrrR9QDQU

I skipped right past even trying to be objective and thought of this Body Count song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3CYTwpLhVY

Pfff.

Re: Mother

#196

Post by gala8y »

nostromo wrote: post #30

Wait, is this real? It seems like commentary on the current zeitgeist, not a real product. > Mother. Mother knows everything. > She's like a mom, only better. > Sense: the meaning of life® edit: I see they are based in France, so perhaps the branding didn't translate well.

It gets better. On PACK page you get this on hover over picture of 'a monther':

"A white Mother \ with everything you need to connect her."

Whole branding seems wrong here.

Edit: Found also "No need to pay a subscription fee to live with your Mother." on INSTALLATION page.

Re: Mother

#197

Post by prawn »

r00fus wrote: post #130
bluejellybean wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The encouragement aspect seems to be the most promising I won't deny that. I hated brushing as a kid, and tricked my parents into thinking I did. Kids are smart, if they don't want to brush and know all they have to do is shake the thing to make it look like they are brushing, they will. Comes down to playing a more active role in their life instead of just tracking their activities.

I think it will track how long it's been shaken, right? After tricking you for a week by shaking the brush for 1-2min, perhaps it'll form enough of a habit that going to actual brushing won't be as hard (we tend to be attached to the things we hold more often). Kids think they're fooling you but the joke's on them...

Exactly, if you could fool it by picking it up and putting it back, that'd be one thing. But otherwise if you're forced the stand there shaking it for a couple of minutes, you might as well be brushing your teeth.

Re: Mother

#198

Post by Ecio78 »

devindotcom wrote: post #28

I played with this at CES. The "mother" bot is basically just a router. The little things only sense motion, and when I asked the lady said they had no plans to add any other types of sensitivity - temperature, moisture, light, current, etc. Compared with the other 'internet of things' kits out there battling for visibility, this one doesn't seem original or more useful, only visually striking. The tags are also pret…

You can see a temperature sensor in the linked 90sec video.

Re: Mother

#199

Post by tripzilch »

bluejellybean wrote: post #59
woofyman wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll save you money. I'll be Dad. Stop drinking soda and walk more.

This comment is fantastic! The trend in pointless analytics is annoying and isn't solving any real problems. All the ‘problems’ Mother solves are not really problems and it doesn’t seem to serve any truly useful purpose. Wakeup times - Already solved by the alarm on your clock. Managing drink consumption - Drink more or less than you currently do. Staying fit/active - Go workout/exercise once a day. Step tracking - O…

> A weekly pill container solves this already for a few dollars and is old person friendly.

Disagree. Old people still forget such things. Or to refill them.

I think the marketing is ultra creepy, but with a tiny bit of rebranding, I think it would be perfect to help the elderly.

Maybe add a little red cross on it and rename it "Nurse", or something.

Re: Mother

#200

Post by tripzilch »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #122
jlgaddis wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All the ‘problems’ Mother solves are not really problems and it doesn’t seem to serve any truly useful purpose. Having just returned home from visiting my grandmother a few moments before I looked at this, the first thing that jumped out at me was "Did you take your pills?" Fortunately, she is in good health but, like most elderly folks, I imagine, has a number of medications that she takes. Some are taken once a d…

when I needed to take some pills the combination of a smartphone reminder prompt to take pills, making part of my morning routine and pillbox divided by day (which mostly helped me remember if I'd already taken them) worked for me. My grandmother who, like many older people takes many different pills, gets an advanced version of the pillbox direct from the pharmacy, with all her various pills combined into a giant bl…

Oh yeah, I've seen those blister packs! Big roll of sealed compartments, one for every day. Whoever came up with that idea is a friggin' genius.
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