Customer Reviews

WowWee Rovio Wi-Fi Enabled Robotic WebCam

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(52)

 

 

As a previous reviewer said, I really, really want to love my Rovio. It has great potential, but these first units are awful. WowWee should not have succumbed to pressure to release it before it's ready. I can't recommend anybody buy one at this time, for the following reasons:

1. The robot won't play back paths with any accuracy. I've given mine clear paths with no obstacles, and it still manages to run into chairs and the TV. And that's with the NAV signal showing strong. Maybe if you had your own empty gym, it'd work great, but if you live in a real house with furniture, the robot won't navigate reliably.

2. The robot usually runs out of battery power before it manages to dock, so the self-recharging feature is a bust.

3. Audio doesn't work (in or out) on any browser but Internet Explorer.

4. The camera positioning options are poor (low, a little lower, and let's-stare-at-the-ceiling are your only choices).

5. The battery life is poor too. Maybe an hour if you're lucky, and since it won't make it back to the recharger, Rovio will die and be useless from remote.

6. The headlight is absolutely laughable. The camera can't be used at all in low-light conditions.

7. While there's almost no forward illumination, Rovio will annoy you with the pulsating blue LEDs on top.

8. My dock died after less than two weeks of ownership.

I'm sure I could think of more reasons to wait for a new version before buying, but those are just the ones that I immediately recall as unacceptable. This product simply doesn't work.

Bye bye, Rovio. You're going back to Amazon.

I want to like Rovio.. I really do... But I still haven't decided if I'm keeping mine...

I've got docking issues with mine - not sure if it's just this unit, but it keeps trying to dock too far to the left (sometimes it succeeds - every other time it doesn't.. and when it does work, it takes forever to dock.)

The webcam on this is ok for well lit rooms, but is *really* poor for dark rooms - and the headlight is a joke - it's really dim. For being what it is, Wowwee should have concentrated on a better webcam/better light.

The navigation works ok, as long as it doesn't move it while trying to dock to it (which it always does - despite being against the wall..)

As a toy, it gets a solid 5 stars from me (althogh I think it's overpriced - they should have priced it ~$200 or so..)

But as a remote controlled webcam sentry robot (in my case, to be used in spying on our pets), it gets 3 stars...

-mark
(PS - it has problems with the 1/2" ledge between our kitchen and living room..)

It is true that it is a mobile webcam. Web interface is really good. I checked with IPhone but the browser crashed 2 out of three time on IPhone. I have not checked the two way Audio yet so I can not comment on it.
For this high price the webcam pic quality is really bad and way too dark. The only way you can see the picture clearly if the area or room has very good lighting like 2-3 tube lights in a very small room otherwise you are out of luck to see anything in larger room with 1-2 lights in it.
Front LED which suppose to help to see in poorly lighted area is useless, it shows the tiny part of object if it is very close (like few cm)to that object.
I saw one hack to install more LED in it to increase the visibility but it is not for everyone you need to have very good knowldge of electronics which I dont.
In this price you can buy three entry level Axis IP cameras and get very good pic quality in very low light ( I have two of them and I am surprised by the quality of those cameras)
I dont recommend buying this for such high price unless they reduce price around $150.
The other review here, is very misleading most probably written by their own people.
Very disappointed with the product.

I was excited about this toy because of the cool factor and its uniqueness at the time. I was able to use the product for just a short time before the battery failed to hold a charge. I contacted WowWee and after a few emails and providing the necessary documentation, was told I would receive a new battery in a few weeks. After 30 days past and I did not receive the battery, I contacted WowWee again and was assured via a confirmed email that the battery had just recently been shipped and I would receive it in 3 weeks. After another 30 days had past I contacted WowWee yet again and was told that they would ship a new battery out right away and that it could take 3 weeks to arrive. Needless to say I was quote upset at this point and communicated the string of emails that had gone back and forth between myself and them and was told a supervisor would contact me. About 2 weeks later I received a new ac adapter from WowWee. I contacted them yet again asking why I received an ac adapter in lieu of a new battery and again asked for a supervisor to contact me. They said that the ac adapter should solve the problem and that they would communicate my problem up the ladder. I tried the new ac adapter 3 times different times with no improvement and asked for again for a new battery. I've been dealing with this issue for months and have not received a simple apology for the delay or a call from anyone. I'm usually a pretty patient guy but this poor customer service experience has tested my patience.

I had wanted to buy a Rovio for a while but the bad reviews and high price kept me from doing so. I had been keeping an eye on the firmware updates being released for the device, and right after hearing that the beta firmware now supports WPA Wifi security, I happen to walk into a BJ's wholesale club on Christmas Eve and saw the Rovio on sale, so I decided to pick one up. Taking the risky move of uploading the beta firmware, and dealing with some initial battery charging weirdness, my gamble paid off. My kids and I are having a blast with the Rovio. All of us are amazed at the engineering behind the device, especially the way it moves. You do need good lighting in rooms, but after tweaking settings of the device a bit we got great video quality. This type of toy really helps open kids eyes as to the wonder of science and engineering. It wasn't entirely just plug and play for us, you do have to take some time to set it up right, but the payoff for us has been great. As of this writing, the beta firmware was causing jerky movement using the Safari web browser, but FireFox works great. Also if you have an iPhone, check out the free app on the iTunes app store which lets you move your Rovio by simply tiling the iPhone in the direction you want to travel in. They probaly should have waited a little longer before releasing the product, but it seems they are starting to work out many of the issues with firmware updates. Hopefully, the firmware will continue to improve and the price will come down a little and more people will have a positive experience like we have (so far anyway.....)

I was a little scared about getting Rovio after reading so many bad reviews. But I'm glad I did. It does what it promises to do and it works. This web-cam was a great help for me when I went on vacation and left my cat home alone. I could check on her food and water, and talk to her. I was able to operate it from Hawaii by using my Blackberry as a modem to get internet connection to Laptop.
My review is for the used Rovio unit I bought here and then upgraded to firmeware v5.0.
So let me address some negative things about Rovio that were mentioned here by other reviewers.
1. WiFi WORKS fine! It's not a rocket science to set this up, and with latest firmware Rovio supports WPA encryption. It took me about 10 minutes to get it running after I updated firmware.
2. Some people report docking issues. I really don't know what they are talking about, maybe it's the older firmware version, but docking JUST ALWAYS WORKS. You do have to be in the same room, within signal reach and Rovio must have clear view of the ceiling where IR beam is projected. My Rovio will loose docking signal when it got to the other end of the living room or into the kitchen. I didn't expect miracles here, all you have to do is drive it until it get's the signal. Then it drives itself. It gets closer to the docking station and from there on it uses it's GPS beacon system. Never missed the cradle.
3. Light sensitivity. Yes this is a MAJOR issue with Rovio. My room is in the shade during daylight and it appears as pitch black to Rovio. Built in light doesn't help much. But as long as I move it closer the window or away from the furniture that blocks the light, I can operate it normally. Once you get enough light, image quality is very good. I've read some people attached battery powered motion activated LED arrays to the Rovio to drive it in the dark.
4. Battery life. It's not super long (about 1.5 hours), but I think it's sufficient to check on things.
5. Audio only works with IE. Yes this is true, you will need to use ActiveX controls, so with Firefox and other browsers you won't be able to talk and listen. It doesn't bother me much as I'm a Windows user. Video also appears brighter than using IE.
6. Connecting from internet. Setting up access from outside is no different from forwarding ports to other applications like FTP or WebServer. So if you know what you are doing you can easily setup your router to access Rovio from the internet. There's a small catch tho. IE uses different port for Video. Took me some time to figure out why video wasn't working from IE while it was just fine on Firefox. So if your Rovio is on port 88, you need to open next port as well (89).
7. Crashes. I don't know if anyone mentioned it but my Rovio did crashed a few times in the begining. Every time it happened when I was changing some internal settings (like ports) and once when I rebooted my wireless router. But if I don't touch anything, it works :)

Other good/bad things that I observed during using Rovio for about a month:

1. It drives pretty well on almost any surface. I've driven it on the hardwood floors, over high carpet, and it had no problem going over thresholds from one room to another. It just never got stuck.
2. Video quality is very good if you have plenty of light.
3. There's some latency when operating over internet, but if it gets unresponsive lower video quality in the settings.
4. Audio quality is not very good, it's mike picks up it's own speaker (you hear yourself) so you get lots of feedback. You need to play with mic/speaker sliders to get rid of it.
5. Highest head position is virtually useless as it looks directly up.
6. I could not get e-mail feature to work. Not sure why, SMTP settings are correct.
7. Decorating LED lights on the body, are useless and annoying in the dark. There are hacks to turn them off, but I had no luck with it so far.
8. Rovio is pretty strong, it can move empty boxes that are on the way.
9. Things appear closer than they are on video.
10. Rovio has laser obstacle detection which disabled by default. It works pretty well, especially when Rovio needs to park itself. It just dances around furniture almost never touching it! Be sure to enable it, doesn't look like it affects battery life at all...

Overall I'm very happy and impressed by Rovio. There's great room for improvement. Camera needs get better light sensitivity. Head height adjustment needs to have intermediate position between being up and looking at the ceiling. But let's face it, there's nothing else (especially in this price range) out there that's better than Rovio.

This is a tech toy, not the Mars rover - so take the negative reviews with a block of salt. This is a great product and a lot of fun. A breeze to set up if you have the slightest idea of what you're doing and if you read the instructions. Yes, battery life isn't stellar but that's what happens when you're sending/receiving live video and audio over wireless on an electric motor-driven rover. Control responsiveness if surprisingly good, but there is about a 5 second lag for sound send & receive. It's crystal clear though, on both ends. Controlling it from the internet is also an easy setup, but you need to know how to forward an IP address in your wireless router and you need to know your external IP. NOT hard, plug that last sentence into Google and you'll have it done in no time.

I have owned it 3 days at this point. I am working in Iraq as a unmanned vehicle operator. My wife's tech computer level is average or less. She set it up and said it wasn't hard. It works OK in low light (ceiling lights) and awesome in daylight.
It did not work great out of the box. Uploaded the firmware to the most recent beta and now it works pretty good. There is a link to an external robot forum that has A LOT of useful tips/guides, and 3rd party software (though i haven't got any 3rd parties to work). You definitely want to listen to these helpful guides!!! This is not a plug it in and go toy, and definitely not a dependable security device! If you want to pull it out of the box and run around, go by a RC car at walmart.It took her about 30 mins to get it working out of the box with my help over skype and a good 30-60 of reading the forums BEFORE HAND. Also you most definitely want to charge it over night before setting it up. This will prolong its battery life. I get about 2 hours out of a full charge.
There is a lot of lag from Iraq with a satellite connection, the more lag the less control via video I have. About 200bps is the min I would say is useful but it works with less. The more BPS the better.
The pathing is iffy at first, but you learn tricks to make it work better, and it always eventually gets to where you want it. Docking has worked pretty good so far, but you definitely want to secure the base.
My house is 95% hardwood floor with one carpeted room. I sometimes have to back up and getting a running start to get over the lip and onto the carpet, but once on it, it does OK. I'm pretty sure shag carpet won't let it move.
My only real beef is the audio. The ONLY way to get audio is to use Microsoft internet explorer for it uses an active X window (which doesn't work for me currently, possibly a bandwidth issue). You will NOT get audio with Firefox (which i use) or anything else, however you can set it up as a skype web cam and in conjunction with a skype call you can have conversations.
My huge playful dogs don't know what to think of it. Over all I think for a first generation product under $3,000, (that's right $3,000 is the cheapest your going to find anything like this), it's a really great product. I will update you when and if it ever breaks. I say go for it, I'm having a lot of fun with it.

I bought this little robot because I want my family and friends abroad to be able to communicate with me in a cool way (Skype and the likes are too "static" ;-).

The browser user interface is very well designed and easy to learn and use. The idea es very good but unfortunately it lacks key features. Also I had problems with my unit. I'm sure it'll get better but for now I returned and wait for next release.

Here follows a couple of reason why I returned it:

- It can only perform video & audio if you use Internet Explorer (IE) otherwise video only. Tons of my friends and family (including me) use Firefox or other browsers. Forget people with Mac which does not or stopped supporting IE. Also if you use non-IE browsers you can only send M-JEPG video, much crappier than MPEG4 video with IE.

- Wi-Fi only supports WEP 64/128, very easy to hack. It doesn't support more robust encryption standards like WPA or WPA2. I had to "downgrade" my whole intranet to use the robot.

- The WowWee has the ability to send an e-mail with pics attached taken by the camera (very cool feature), but since the mail client doesn't support authentication (TLS I think) I couldn't set it up with GMail, my provider (Gmail requires authentication in order to send e-mails).

- When roaming the battery last only 10-15min. Also my unit wasn't working properly (even after firmware upgrading): When put in the docking station the unit fully charged itself but then began to discharge until certain threshold, then re-charged again (like a cycle). I was monitoring this charging weirdness (battery charge going up and down and up) with the provided application.

- It has 6 bright blue LEDs always lit on the top (consuming battery of course). There is no way to turn them off AND they are on (lit) even in its dock position during charging. I had the docking station in my living room by the TV set (my only outlet). I had to find another place because when the robot was charging the brightness of the LEDs really began to annoy me.

- The arm attached to the camera has only one useful positions. It's not continuous. The only way to "center" a person or face is to move back and forth the robot. Moving up & down the arm won't help (arm only has floor, middle and ceiling positions).

- It has a front light to see in dark environments but is useless. I couldn't see anything through the camera unless the robot was very very close to a target. I'll suggest to get rid off the LEDs on top and add a more powerful light.

- When battery is low (or the user commands it), the robot automatic try to dock in order to re-charge itself. 30% of the time one of the wheels got stuck in one of the side of the dock (the ramp) and that's the end of it. It gave up and the died..sigh...

Conclusion: Good idea but still needs more work.

I received the product and it was defective. I have tried to get help with technical support but they have been very unsupportive, there are delays in reponse to questions, they only give tech support by email, and have referred it up the ladder but refuse to acknowledge that the product needs to be replaced. It is not a software issue but a defective power switch and charger. I have requested a conversation with a living person by phone for one week to no avail. I requested a refund with no response. I would recommend waiting for the iRobot as that company has an excellent reputation for customer support.