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Speaker 1: The Amazon glow is not like any gadget you’ve seen before it mixes a screen, a speaker, a camera and projector. It’s part video chat machine, and part game system. It’s all for elementary age kids to connect remotely with their relatives to play around and read books.
Speaker 2: Hi, I’m Olivia and bye.
Speaker 1: And I’m Bridget. I’m her mom. I’ve done a lot of gadget reviews at seen it, but this time I want her to do the review because this is the Amazon glow and it is [00:00:30] designed for kids like her to have fun and connect with family.
Speaker 2: I already know that let’s turn it on to explain, okay, well,
Speaker 1: Let’s turn it on over here.
Speaker 1: The glow is pretty big. Kids are not carrying this around. It is staying on a table. It weighs four pounds. It’s 14 inches tall. You have to keep it plugged in a wall and it needs an internet connection. The aging screen in the center is there [00:01:00] just to show the person on the video call and a projector on top is beaming down all the fun stuff that kids can interact with by touching, when you unbox the glow and get it set up, it comes with a bunch of these tiles for a puzzle game, and there’s a rolled up soft white rubber mat to make it easy to see the project. Now it only works on a hard surface. So parents, you better have a big table and then there’s a camera. Yeah. And you can also [00:01:30] close the camera. Cuz some people like privacy. This gadget test became quite the family project. My daughter connected over a few days with her parents in Florida with both my dad and my mother-in-law who live more than 1000 miles away.
Speaker 2: Hello Bella, can you play a game with me
Speaker 1: Now? Not everyone needs a glow. Only the kid uses the glow. The [00:02:00] other family members join in and connect from eight tablet app. They see a video image of the kid in the corner, along with what’s going on in the projected area. So they both can play and interact with the screen together. But family does not always see a view of what they are looking like during a chat. So tablets, they’re kind of hard to always center yourself in the camera when you’re playing and reading books horizontally. And that means family may not know that their face is not always showing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like this. [00:02:30] Hi. Oh your your, your face is covered.
Speaker 1: Amazon says a tablet works best because of the larger screen for the activities, but it could be an iPad or an Android tablet. It, the grandparents, they didn’t have tablets. So Amazon sent us some loaners to test it out. I pre-set up the family accounts, which appear on the glow screen with their names and a little circle with their face. So my daughter could just tap and call them or they can call us [00:03:00] parents. You gotta prepare to play the role of tech support because you gotta get everyone set up with Amazon accounts. What are some of the things you’ve done with your
Speaker 2: Grandparents? They could, some books they could read to you.
Speaker 3: Only an act of true love and save me good. Oh aah. Sneered. If only someone loved you. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: So you’re kind of practicing your reading with the [00:03:30] grandparents
Speaker 2: And when there’s this little circley thing that goes, please have patience because that is when it’s loading and when it loads it’s boring.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Sometimes we noticed there were some loading snags. Um, there could be a frustration or two because the projected area uses infrared to detect touch. And that means there are times it can seem a little wonky, but overall [00:04:00] I’d say those moments were not a deal breaker. What were some of your favorite things to do on here?
Speaker 2: Oh, my favorite thing was this one.
Speaker 1: Oh, the tangrams game. It uses these pieces, right?
Speaker 2: Yeah. So you picked a shape and then you have to match the shapes that are in there. And then it says, is waiting for your child to put in there and get ready for their pieces.
Speaker 1: Right. It’s a game you can play along with somebody. Right? [00:04:30] So yeah, you have pieces, they have pieces and together you have to figure out how all your triangles, squares and different shapes come together to make the certain animal shapes it came with about 12 or so little games on here. Like the card game go fish.
Speaker 2: You twos
Speaker 3: Go fish.
Speaker 1: And there was memory, oh, you
Speaker 3: Go first. Olivia goes first.
Speaker 1: There’s [00:05:00] also a bunch of bay, six stuff like checkers and chess and jigsaw puzzles. And many of it is tied to characters from Disney, Nickelodeon, Sesame street and Mattel. You’re also gonna find a bunch of drawing activities. It’s kind of like one big digital coloring activity book. And because this is Amazon, there are lots of books to read. They
Speaker 2: Story is called D D w the picky eater. Mm. And [00:05:30] she hates spin more than anything. That’s so gross. I love spinach. It’s the favorite thing. And, and chocolate lollipops do, but she hate, it’s what I love. That’s crazy.
Speaker 1: Kids can explore the books by themselves or have someone read along to them. And a few titles have these animations. They’re interactive with scenes that come to life on the page, depending on what you tap. And sometimes the animations are even on the glow video chat screen. [00:06:00] Now all of this content, it’s part of a subscription. Oh yeah. Get ready. Parents. The glow comes with one free year of Amazon kids plus after which it is $3 a month. And if you don’t pay up, you lose out on the fun. The Amazon kids plus library is not to just the glow device. You can load this up on an app and put it on a kid’s tablet, but still it is another subscription every month. Yeah. Do you know how much it costs?
Speaker 2: I don’t know.
Speaker 1: [00:06:30] As of this review, the glow is listed for $250 and it’s being sold by invitation only. So you have to request it and then wait and see if Amazon let you be an early buyer. Amazon says when it is more widely available, it’s gonna raise the price to $300. I have to return this review sample back to Amazon. But on my personal account, I’ve been on a waiting list to buy the glow for over a month. Now, should I [00:07:00] buy one for us to keep, uh,
Speaker 2: Why? Because it’s great. You should have it. And then we could have another one and then it could keep that one. It’s so fun. And nowadays I know I would use it so much that I don’t need any help anymore. And I’m like, wow, this is a good machine. I think I’m going to pay $3 for every month and I’m gonna keep this
Speaker 1: Keep in [00:07:30] mind. This is for ages three and up. So the sheer size and price of this thing may be skeptical of giving it to little kids. But the big tower of tech was not messed with, since all the touching is on a mat. I just have to keep an eye on things. When my two year old son is around. Because as you can imagine, he wants to jump in and he brings a little bit of chaos to the experience.
Speaker 3: Oh, you got it.
Speaker 4: The experience was really for, [00:08:00] I really had a lot of fun. Believe me. I was expecting to be like a simple child playing, but no, I was having fun. I was having fun. Believe me, grandpa.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what’s the news.
Speaker 4: I got my flu shot.
Speaker 3: Wow. That’s fantastic. Well, I, I really am surprised and like the product because of the fact that I’m able [00:08:30] to sit down with my granddaughter and actually read a book with her and it feels like she’s in the room with me. And, uh, and she’s a thousand miles a way. And that’s the part I really love about this downsize only downside to me was it took me a non-tech savvy person a little bit too long to get everything set up. But once we got it set up and once, uh, we understood how it [00:09:00] works. It’s great.
Speaker 1: I really liked how independent you are when I give you an iPhone to chat with the grandparents. Sometimes you’re kind of running around and I don’t know what you’re doing with the phone. You’re gonna go crazy here, here, you were really engaged. It made me feel pretty good to see you interact with the grandparents cuz I know we miss them and it was just a really sweet moment to have you play together. And that I didn’t have to worry about what was [00:09:30] going on. You were just in it, you were having fun and you understood it. Oh my
Speaker 2: Thanks, mama.
Speaker 1: I’m proud of you. I’m proud of you. Amazon invented something special here. It goes beyond what other tech companies are doing to connect us virtually. And it feels wholesome and more meaningful to see my daughter and my parents with this kind of bonding time when we can’t see each other in person as often. So yes I am a fan Bravo [00:10:00] for Amazon for making a kid’s gadget that doesn’t have me worrying too much about their screen time. I wanted to thank you for helping me test this product. Did you have fun?
Speaker 2: Oh, deep. I did. How about this? We did not know. I did. How did you not know if I
Speaker 1: Did? Oh, you looked like you had fun. I just wanted to ask if you liked it, say, say goodbye and thanks for
Speaker 2: Watching. Thanks for watching. And if you don’t mind, can [00:10:30] I play this while you’re gone? Yes please.
Speaker 1: Yes, you can keep playing it. The video review is over. You can, you can play it. Oh,
Speaker 2: Thanks. Bye.
