Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me preface this review with the fact that I backed this project on kickstarter for $99 and am an iphone user, so I have been able to use the application successfully from the get-go. With that being said, this product has some large flaws but I enjoy it immensely nonetheless. The camera is sleek and well designed and is an attractive part of my living room—think the sleekness of an apple product. It is easy to set up in theory but I had difficulty in practice: I couldn’t get the petcube to connect to my wifi network. After changing some settings and disabling my network password, I got the camera to connect easily. I do not yet know if the password was giving it the problem, or if it started working based on the settings I changed. In either case, once the petcube saw the internet connection, setup was a breeze. I have three cats and two of them are pretty active, so I got this camera both to check in on them when I am at work/on vacation, and to provide them with some extra stimulation during the day. The camera and laser pointer do just that. I am able to see my cats and interact with them, and this has given me an incredible peace of mind, especially when I’ve been on vacation. The camera's wide lens (138 degrees) lets me view a large portion of my room and the camera quality, while not perfect (video is 720p streaming), is satisfactory and does its job. You interact with your pet by moving your finger around on the screen in the application, which moves a laser. Unlike other people have reported, I can see the laser on my iphone screen (see the attached pictures). The new version of the app also allows you to calibrate the laser so it is actually aimed at where your finger is. You can also enable audio, so you can talk to your pet and hear them. My cats think this is really weird and aren’t huge fans. The sharing modes are also nice—my family and friends can interact with my pets even when I’m unavailable. Sometimes when I’m cooking and my cats are being annoying, I’ll set the camera to public sharing and allow strangers to amuse them and get them out of my hair! One negative feature was you used to be unable to turn off sound for public sharing, so I would hear strangers’ voices in my living room. Luckily the new version of the application lets you disable sound while sharing. Now some downsides: 1) No night vision, so I can’t play with my cats when the house is dark. I have included two images in this review: one in bright daylight and one in very dim light. When it is completely dark, I can only see a laser moving around but not my cats. 2) It would be nice if there was a beep or other sound to alert the cats that the petcube has been turned on. 3) You can take pictures of your pets while you interact with them, but there is no video feature. 4) It would be nice if there were movement detection so I would know when my cats were being active and ready to play 5) Some similar products dispense treats. Not that my cats need more to eat… 6) Customer support is lacking—when I had problems connecting my petcube to wifi (see above), they were unhelpful. Granted, it was right when all the kickstarter petcubes went out, so I’m guessing they were swamped. I still expected more. Given the above flaws, I might hold out on buying at the $200 price point until some features are added: they’ve been very good about updating the app to add new features like laser calibration, ability to turn off sound, etc. All of this being said, I have really enjoyed being able to interact with and play with my cats while I’m away from them, particularly when I’m on trips. Beyond that, it has given me peace of mind when I’m away since I tend to worry about them!