Customer Reviews

Oregon Scientific Talking Smart Globe

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is the most AMAZING educational toy ever created. honestly, my entire family couldnt keep their hands off of it! It has everything, including that US pull out map, which by the way is much better/cooler than the picture leads you to believe. It gives you history, locations, capitols, everything and i mean everything you would want to know about anywhere in the world!!! I went to go see both this globe and the other one made by leapfrog, i think it is the odyssey 3 globe, anyway, the leapfrog one only turns east west direction, not like a normal school globe that is fully (turnable?) haha sorry bad terms here, but you get my point? also the leapfrog's pointer/pen does not work at all as well as this one. If you are going to spend this much money on a glode this is definitly the one to get. it really is a great purchase. every family should have one. my kids are now walking around saying hello in about 15 different lang so far. and we have only had it one day!

Got this product for my nephew for Xmas. The SmartGlobe teaches children (or even adults) about geography, culture, leaders, national anthem etc... of many countries in the world. There is also a competition mode, which allows up to 4 players to compete. The little guy is now excited to learn with the SmartGlobe because he wants to beat me at the competition mode!!!

You could have loads of fun even without updating the content. We registered the SmartGlobe (started updating it) and we noticed that the world news are being updated every week.

It is overall a great product. I like the idea of having all of the info handy at your pentip!

SmartGlobe is the next generation learning aid for our youths. Combining geography with easy to use tools makes this the undisputed interactive learning aid in the market. The sound effects are very cool and really grabs the youth's attention. Additionally, you get to have fun learning national anthems, timelines, history, leaders and more for virtually any location around the world. Our favorite learning is the world news which updates weekly. Furthermore, the SmartGlobe is suitable for different age groups so we share the fun with friends and neighbors. The vocabulary is unique and insightful. This is definitely a valuable item to own because learning has never been so much fun. I strongly recommend this for all families!!!

This is a good globe, the kids found it pretty fun. Not earth shatteringly cool, just fun. I wouldn't pay the prices most places are selling this for, thankfully I found it for [...]at a Membership warehouse. Its worth that, but not worth anything more!

The software, support, and website for this product are nothing short of USELESS. Updates are buggy and almost always crash or error out. Don't expect a response from the company, I tried 6 emails and all were ignored. Don't try calling them, their number is either busy, or they won't call you back.

Overall, I am deducting 2 stars for the price and horrible company behind the product.

First let me say that this is a pretty good product. The games are fun to play with the kids, and the feature that lets you update the globe each week is great. It stays current on world news and is fairly unbiased as far as I can tell. It just gives the facts and not opinion. That lets us talk with the kids about the news and form our own opinions. The fact that the globe can be personalized to the age of your child is a great feature. My problem is that I had a hard time getting my computer to recognize my pen so that I could receive the updates from Oregon Scientific's website. I spent about 5 hours over several weeks trying on my own, mixed in with calls to their customer support (I never talked to anyone in three calls. I put a limit of waiting 30 minutes on hold and then just hung up.) They boast on their website that if you email them about your problem, they will have someone call/email you back with help withing 48 hours. I've sent two emails and never heard from anyone. I finally accidentally got the pen working with my computer. What makes this product worth the price is that you can get weekly updates for the globe. Without that, it is no better than some of the other ellectronic globes on the market. Just be aware that if you have problems, you may be on your own.

I purchased the SmartGlobe for my kids for Christmas after using the one my sister has. It worked fine the first few days but as soon as I registered the pen and tried to download new data it reformatted the pen and erased all data the pen had. Now every time I try to download info into the pen the system locks up. Customer service is non-existent. Phone calls & email requests have gone unanswered. Now I just have a globe with a pen that does nothing with noone to assist me.

When it works, it does work well, however, DO NOT TRY TO UPDATE NEW INFORMATION INTO YOUR PEN because if you have a problem then you basically have an over priced globe.

We have had the globe for 2 months and have not been able to download new information. I installed the pen on 2 computers and emailed/called. A few weeks later I got a email responsed back that they were updated their website and that was why I was getting error messages. I waited a week and when it still didn't work I emailed them back. No response. So for this reason I only give it 3 stars.

We use this for homeschooling to enhance our geography and history lessons - my 8 year old daughter runs to the globe after learning about a particular country or city, grabs the interactive pen and spins the globe to locate the location corresponding to our studies. She then listens to the countries language, capital city, National anthem, current population, current ruler and currancy etc. and enthusiastically enjoys the process! We keep it updated and current by connecting the pen via USB cable to the internet which allows the pen to upload the current statistics.

We are not sorry we bought it and we have not encountered any problems or difficulties using it.

Ok, first off, the globe is really cool and there is a lot of information on it. My kid loves it but the data does get repetitive. My big beef is that the USB "SmartPen" has major issues with drivers. I've tried installing the pen on 5 compters (4XP, 1 2003 Server) and they all fail to recognize the SmartPen. This wouldn't be too much of an issue if OrSci pacaged the drivers on the CD but they don't, you have to download a installation package that doesn't tell you where the files are. Customer Service is pretty much useless, the one time I did get a response from them they said it was an issue with my computer (all 5 of them apparently). If they could fix the issue with their SmartPen, I'd give it 5 stars. Software and support seems to be a new field for OrSci.

I bought this globe for my son when he was 6 years old. He LOVES it. It has so much information! And you can download current information via the internet. I thought that was a major plus! My son has learned so much about geography, leaders, distance, language and more.

The downside is the sound system. I returned my smart globe 3 times due to problems with the sound. The last one we got is working but is very sensitive to movement. I found a place in my home where we have designated it the Smart Globe spot. That way we don't move it and most times the sound is ok, not great but ok.