I have siblings with kids (and iPads) so this looks like a perfect timeline for a Christmas present...but it's never a good sign when you try to give someone money and they won't take your CC because they're doing validation wrong.
-_-
Osmo
101–110 of 111 posts
Re: Osmo
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a safe bet that this product is not for you. Constructive comments are one thing, but anger over the fact that the value prop of a kid's game doesn't resonate with you is...awkward.
I"m not angry, although I am confused and mildly irritated that stuff keeps making it to the front page of HN where the page just doesn't tell you what it is. As for the product not being for me, kids don't buy this stuff themselves. Their parents buy it. As the electronics-happy parent of a small child, I'm pretty sure I'd be right smack in the middle of the target demographic for this product if I had some clue of…
That "confusion and mild irritation" is what I'm talking about. If you don't think their marketing page is up to your standards maybe constructive commentary based on your apparent demographic suitability would be a bit more helpful?
Re: Osmo
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish Osmo all the best, and hope it breaks the mold. But I have to agree about schools and tech, and generally about tech and education. Spend more time with your kids, and don't expect an iPad to teach your kids anything, and you'll be in a better place. I say this being a huge lover of technology, having developed ipad apps and video games professionally. The school my kids are in is continually blowing large sum…
Often school districts have rules on how money can be spent, e.g.: they wont use donations to pay for salaried employees as it creates a liability if they have a shortfall one year and have to pay to lay people off. So that's why a lot of the donation money goes on interactive whiteboards and iPads, as well as hourly aides/TAs/etc (who might be subject to a limit on their hours...).
Instead of feeding it through immediately to salaries, couldn't they create an endowment for themselves, and use it like a conservative retiree would use their retirement savings? (4%/year withdrawal rate). That way, they could use the money for what people really want it to be used for (more, and better teachers), and there wouldn't be very much risk of a shortfall.
Re: Osmo
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Often school districts have rules on how money can be spent, e.g.: they wont use donations to pay for salaried employees as it creates a liability if they have a shortfall one year and have to pay to lay people off. So that's why a lot of the donation money goes on interactive whiteboards and iPads, as well as hourly aides/TAs/etc (who might be subject to a limit on their hours...).
Instead of feeding it through immediately to salaries, couldn't they create an endowment for themselves, and use it like a conservative retiree would use their retirement savings? (4%/year withdrawal rate). That way, they could use the money for what people really want it to be used for (more, and better teachers), and there wouldn't be very much risk of a shortfall.
I wouldn't support that myself. Where teachers get pensions they already make over $100K/yr all things considered. It's an important service but that's plenty for what they do.
Re: Osmo
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
I"m not angry, although I am confused and mildly irritated that stuff keeps making it to the front page of HN where the page just doesn't tell you what it is. As for the product not being for me, kids don't buy this stuff themselves. Their parents buy it. As the electronics-happy parent of a small child, I'm pretty sure I'd be right smack in the middle of the target demographic for this product if I had some clue of…
That "confusion and mild irritation" is what I'm talking about. If you don't think their marketing page is up to your standards maybe constructive commentary based on your apparent demographic suitability would be a bit more helpful?
Reminding people that they need to remember to put in a couple of sentences describing the basic function of their product is constructive.
I didn't state it in a very friendly way, but that's a different issue.
Re: Osmo
#106The hate here, I believe, is because the ad is very artificial and the the children are clearly acting. Too obvious.
Re: Osmo
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm with you. People citing their absence of research and their certainty that this will be discarded in a day is amusing. What those academic papers lack is an actual product and customers deciding to buy and use that product of their own free will. When someone releases an app to "connect people" or make some day-to-day taks easier, nobody seems to want academic papers to back their claims. I also feel like it goes…
> When someone releases an app to "connect people" or make some day-to-day taks easier, nobody seems to want academic papers to back their claims. Most people are qualified to evaluate whether an app is allowing them to connect with others. On the other hand, they are not qualified to evaluate whether a product is educating their child. Education claims are widespread and difficult to disprove, but rarely come with a…
No it's not. No one is saying buy this and don't play with your kids as well. This is one tool among many.
Re: Osmo
#108What's with the weird space between "Pre" and "Order Osmo" in the header? Also, the percentage doesn't add up. Or is it supposed to be with shipping? By the way, the price is ridiculous. Even the discounted one. That puzzle sells for about 4$ (that's with profit), let's be generous and say that the app itself is worth $10 (which it isn't) and we are left with $85 for a mirror embedded in plastic? Shipping not include…
Constructive criticism (first two questions) and explanation why the price is insane downvoted without single response. Awesome job.
Re: Osmo
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's probably also many people that won't bother reading much about the product, and are reached much easier through a video. In truth, their blurb There's digital gaming. There's real world fun. And then there's Osmo, a magical experience that merges the real and virtual worlds to defy the boundaries of play. is the few sentences you were looking for. It just appears to be useless marketing speech because their p…
I'm skeptical that any product can be hard to explain in a useful way with just text. What exactly do you do with it? What's an example use case? What's the mirror for? All of these things can be answered in text. However, given that I don't understand what it does, perhaps I'm not qualified to say that here.
You didn't ask for just text, you asked for one or two sentences. I don't think this product can't be explained through text, just that it's a case where a very small amount of text will not do it justice, and may do more to confuse people than help.
Re: Osmo
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree, on the tangram aspect. Most games have an almost auto snap feature that if you drag the piece close enough it just snaps into place. I like the fact that it takes more of hand eye coordination and understanding of physical space for the physical objects to create the shapes on screen.
And rotating a tangram on the iPad takes two touchpoints, where the physical one can be rotated with a single finger.
Auto-snap, and most importantly inability to rotate, allowed my 1.5yo kid to solve puzzles when he wasn't yet able to solve wooden puzzles well.
After an intense period of solving those non-stop (I believe it's first time he strongly experienced the positive reinforcement of winning a game), he also easily does the wooden puzzles.
I don't have any data on whether that's indeed a win developement-wise, but I'm excited that easy software tweaks (which would be impractical in physical product — how do you stop one from rotating pieces?) can dramatically affect kid's ability to engage them.