For example, a grandparent can read books, play games, and draw on the Glow app on a tablet; the Glow projects that screen onto a large white mat; the projection is also motion-sensitive, so that both the grandchild and grandparent can draw together or flip pages of the same book. All the while, a small display on the Glow itself lets the child see the grandparent’s face and talk with them, as you would any video chat. Ed. Note: This review was originally published in December 2021, and updated in March 2022 when the Glow became more widely available. The Glow is an all-black monolithic-like device that stands about inches tall, and is 5.5 inches wide. When looking at the Glow from the side, it has a sort of S shape: There’s a protrusion at the top which houses its projector, and the bottom of the device juts backwards to provide a sort of foot. In the center of the front is an 8-inch touchscreen display with a camera just above; below the screen is a speaker, and on the right side is a power button as well as two volume controls. Further up is a physical slider that covers the camera; the shutter is white, which lets you see at a glance whether or not the camera is covered. The Glow comes with a white rubber mat that measures 18 x 12 inches; the top of the mat is smooth, but the bottom has a grippy texture that helps keep it in place on a coffee table or hard surface. My three-year-old daughter picked up the concept of how to use the Glow pretty fast — it’s pretty scary how quickly toddlers become adept at using consumer electronics — but there were still some issues we ran into that you don’t get on tablets. The screen supports multitouch gestures, so you can draw with more than one finger at a time. However, there were instances where my daughter, in the middle of drawing, would rest her arm on the side of the mat; this would cause the Glow to send up an error message and not respond to her taps. Also, I occasionally found that the Glow was a hair less responsive to touch than a traditional tablet, so there was a very slight delay. While I’m accustomed to waiting, my daughter isn’t, and would jab repeatedly at an icon, which itself would cause issues. I had hoped to enlist her help with testing the Glow’s other features, but after a few minutes, she got it in her head that the Glow looked too much like a robot, and thus was scary. She then refused to interact with it any more, and tried to turn it off, then cover it with the included mat. To finish testing the Glow, I enlisted the help of my wife, who chatted with me via the Glow app on an Android tablet. Either of us could select something we wanted to read or play with, and the Glow reacted very quickly to both of us drawing on the same surface. The video feed was also clear, with no lag in audio - to be fair, we were on the same Wi-Fi network. The home screen (that is, the projected image) is bright and colorful, and divided into sections: there’s Featured, Games, Art, and Recommended Books, as well as some branded areas: Disney, Mattel, Nickelodeon, and Sesame Street. Unfortunately, there’s no way to edit the screen to personalize it with favorite books or games, and you’re stuck with branded content, whether you like it or not. However, you can search for particular titles. The Sesame Street category was pretty limited, too: just four selections. You would think there would be more options for a three-year-old. Draw Together is a fun little sketchpad that lets you draw with someone. You can select different brush styles, colors, and add stickers. A neat feature lets you “scan” objects placed in front of it. It essentially takes a picture of whatever you place on the mat, and then lets you manipulate that picture by resizing and moving it around the screen; you can also create virtual jigsaw puzzles out of whatever you scan. It’s a lot of fun, but the scanning animation is a bit misleading. After you select the scan button, some purple laser-like lines pan over the object you want to scan. The display then goes white, making you think that the process is complete. However, you have to wait an extra second or two for the object to be scanned. The first few times I tried this with my hand, I pulled it off too soon, so nothing or only part of my hand would be scanned. Another inventive game is Glow Bits, small triangular pieces of plastic with little magnets in each corner. A child can snap them together on the Glow’s mat, and then the Glow can scan it and create a virtual model, which a parent can then manipulate on their tablet. There’s a decent selection of Recommended Books, though it seems to aggregate picks from a lot of the branded content areas. Pete The Cat and Goodnight Moon sat alongside The Incredibles and Luca. Books fall into two types: Standard ones where you can only flip pages, and animated storybooks, which have interactive elements on each page. For example, a Toy Story book lets you move Woody around on one page, and activate Buzz Lightyear’s alarm on another page.
title: “Amazon Glow Review Pandemic Playtime” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-16” author: “Gloria Wing”
For example, a grandparent can read books, play games, and draw on the Glow app on a tablet; the Glow projects that screen onto a large white mat; the projection is also motion-sensitive, so that both the grandchild and grandparent can draw together or flip pages of the same book. All the while, a small display on the Glow itself lets the child see the grandparent’s face and talk with them, as you would any video chat. Ed. Note: This review was originally published in December 2021, and updated in March 2022 when the Glow became more widely available. The Glow is an all-black monolithic-like device that stands about inches tall, and is 5.5 inches wide. When looking at the Glow from the side, it has a sort of S shape: There’s a protrusion at the top which houses its projector, and the bottom of the device juts backwards to provide a sort of foot. In the center of the front is an 8-inch touchscreen display with a camera just above; below the screen is a speaker, and on the right side is a power button as well as two volume controls. Further up is a physical slider that covers the camera; the shutter is white, which lets you see at a glance whether or not the camera is covered. The Glow comes with a white rubber mat that measures 18 x 12 inches; the top of the mat is smooth, but the bottom has a grippy texture that helps keep it in place on a coffee table or hard surface. My three-year-old daughter picked up the concept of how to use the Glow pretty fast — it’s pretty scary how quickly toddlers become adept at using consumer electronics — but there were still some issues we ran into that you don’t get on tablets. The screen supports multitouch gestures, so you can draw with more than one finger at a time. However, there were instances where my daughter, in the middle of drawing, would rest her arm on the side of the mat; this would cause the Glow to send up an error message and not respond to her taps. Also, I occasionally found that the Glow was a hair less responsive to touch than a traditional tablet, so there was a very slight delay. While I’m accustomed to waiting, my daughter isn’t, and would jab repeatedly at an icon, which itself would cause issues. I had hoped to enlist her help with testing the Glow’s other features, but after a few minutes, she got it in her head that the Glow looked too much like a robot, and thus was scary. She then refused to interact with it any more, and tried to turn it off, then cover it with the included mat. To finish testing the Glow, I enlisted the help of my wife, who chatted with me via the Glow app on an Android tablet. Either of us could select something we wanted to read or play with, and the Glow reacted very quickly to both of us drawing on the same surface. The video feed was also clear, with no lag in audio - to be fair, we were on the same Wi-Fi network. The home screen (that is, the projected image) is bright and colorful, and divided into sections: there’s Featured, Games, Art, and Recommended Books, as well as some branded areas: Disney, Mattel, Nickelodeon, and Sesame Street. Unfortunately, there’s no way to edit the screen to personalize it with favorite books or games, and you’re stuck with branded content, whether you like it or not. However, you can search for particular titles. The Sesame Street category was pretty limited, too: just four selections. You would think there would be more options for a three-year-old. Draw Together is a fun little sketchpad that lets you draw with someone. You can select different brush styles, colors, and add stickers. A neat feature lets you “scan” objects placed in front of it. It essentially takes a picture of whatever you place on the mat, and then lets you manipulate that picture by resizing and moving it around the screen; you can also create virtual jigsaw puzzles out of whatever you scan. It’s a lot of fun, but the scanning animation is a bit misleading. After you select the scan button, some purple laser-like lines pan over the object you want to scan. The display then goes white, making you think that the process is complete. However, you have to wait an extra second or two for the object to be scanned. The first few times I tried this with my hand, I pulled it off too soon, so nothing or only part of my hand would be scanned. Another inventive game is Glow Bits, small triangular pieces of plastic with little magnets in each corner. A child can snap them together on the Glow’s mat, and then the Glow can scan it and create a virtual model, which a parent can then manipulate on their tablet. There’s a decent selection of Recommended Books, though it seems to aggregate picks from a lot of the branded content areas. Pete The Cat and Goodnight Moon sat alongside The Incredibles and Luca. Books fall into two types: Standard ones where you can only flip pages, and animated storybooks, which have interactive elements on each page. For example, a Toy Story book lets you move Woody around on one page, and activate Buzz Lightyear’s alarm on another page.
