As a gadget nut, I ordered this the day it became available on Amazon and had it shipped next day (ok, so an impatient gadget nut). The concept is awesome capture and share those expected or unexpected moments in life as I see them, how I see them. The videos you see on youtube were promising and I was in need of a new bluetooth headset, so I bought it.First thing that I noticed was how nicely everything was packaged. I took the Looxcie out of the box and set it to charge via the wall outlet adapter Don't want to run out of batteries on my day out! I love the design of this thing, looks so slick! After it was fully charged, pairing to my Android phone is a breeze. With the Looxcie software downloaded, it was time to put this thing on my ear and see what it can do!
...And that's where things started going downhill! First of all, the Looxcie does NOT fit on my ear correctly. I tried all 3 sizes of ear buds and on both ears (in case I had a deformity in one ear of which I wasn't aware) and with my glasses on and off. I read the instructions and my Looxcie did look bent as shown in their images anfter several attempts. Perhaps its the weight of the camera boom, but the Looxcie just droops down such that the camera is not eye level (aiming more at my jaw line). I would have to walk around with my head tilted up in order for the camera boom to be level with the ground. I had my wife try it as well, maybe its the size and shape of my head and she experienced the same issues, no matter how we shaped the flexible ear-piece.
After much fiddling to the point where my outer-ear was a bit sore, I managed to get the Looxcie on at an acceptable viewing angle. Any quick head jolts and I risk having the camera boom shift slightly downward again. Now comes the other fitment issue Being that the Looxcie was on my right ear, anything that was happening to my left would not be picked up. If I held my hand out in front of me, the camera eye would not see it until my hand was about to cross my nose. They really should have included some sort of curvature to the camera boom to contour to the face because as of now when it is at eye level, it points to the right (on my right ear).
I love the fact that I can use my phone's screen as a viewfinder! Going into it, I knew the Looxcie's recording specs and frame rate so my expectations were low but the resulting videos I took were even worse than expected. I tried several activities from driving, to walking to just standing and panning my head back and forth. The video I get from the Looxcie is very choppy, I would say even worse than the 15fps they claim. I was walking through the mall in one video clip. I turned to look at a dog that was there and turned my head back (more than a 1 second look) and in the captured video, I don't even see the dog because of the choppiness of the video (although I can clearly hear myself talking about it).
The other thing is battery life the Looxcie is rated for 4 hours but after a full charge and playing with the unit, I would say its more like 2-3 hours of video use tops. This should definitely be improved.
I do have to say that I like the ability of reviewing and editing video clips on my phone, then e-mailing or posting to Youtube, Facebook, etc without having to be at a PC. That is a key feature of this device!
I would have to say my expectations have not been met with the Looxcie. The concept and idea is there, but due to the lacking design, ergonomics and quality of video I am fairly disappointed. The price-point is good if they can deliver a quality product that will actually fit, stay on my ear(aimed properly) and take video where I don't miss any of the action (true 30 fps PLEASE!). I honestly wouldn't mind the low-resolution of the video if the frame rate was there and I could record for an actual 4-5 hours as claimed.
Once these issues are resolved, perhaps they can look into adding features such as retaining the last 10-30 seconds of video before the record or instant-clip button was pressed. :D
Likes:
-Concept of sharing the every-day
-Visually pleasing design
-Mobile editing/emailing of video thru an Android phone
Dislikes
-Device Fitment/Aiming of camera boom
-Recorded video quality lower than expected
-Battery life
Ok, so I was extremely excited to get this product and ordered it as soon as it became available. Since I've had it I've probably recorded about 2 hours of video with it at various places with varying noise levels. So here's my impression.
For the price it is a really nice piece of hardware, I've had no trouble with the build quality, it's comfortable and very light when wearing and adjusts to fit virtually any way you want it. The video quality is exactly what I expected it to be. Nothing great but not horrible considering the size of the device. I love the Android app that this device utilizes, you can use your phone as a "viewfinder" and Looxcie is very easy to pair with your phone (Nexus 2.2 in my case). You can save notable clips on the device by pushing the clip button making 30-second clips or make custom length clips through the app. Once you make the clips you can hook Looxcie to the computer and do what you want with them there, or upload them to the place of your choosing through the Looxcie App. Playback in the app is a little choppy but much more smooth on the computer. Using the device as a bluetooth headset has been great for me. I usually run into problems where the volume is never high enough but my Looxcie is so loud it hurts (luckily you can turn it down). Call quality is good and I have no problems hearing anyone or with them hearing me when talking through it. It's very useful to be able to use this as a "dual-purpose" device.
My gripes:
-As of now the clips you "save" are saved to Looxcie and not your phone's SD card. So viewing clips while away from your Looxcie are impossible unless you've uploaded them somewhere through the app. Now this can be fixed through an App update but just something to be aware of.
-Audio: While playing back my clips on the computer what I've noticed is that (since both microphones are on the bottom of Looxcie) I can hear myself talking fine, but whenever someone else in front of me is talking I find it difficult to make out what they're saying. I CAN hear them but if you're anywhere but in a quiet room with a couple people it can get difficult to hear anyone other than yourself. This is the only real problem I have with Looxcie.
My likes:
-Easy to use App interface, easy to pair
-Portable, wearable camcorder, letting me have my hands back. Great for when I go fishing/snowboarding or anything else.
-Look/Build quality of the device is wonderful!
-Battery life is very good considering the size of it.
-So many adjustment options makes it very comfortable and adjustable for any size/shaped head.
-Recording length (5HRs)
-First of its kind/cheap for what you get.
Overall the Looxcie is definitely worth the price and I would recommend it to anyone who is tired of always "holding the camcorder" and missing out on the action. Very useful, easy to use, and fun device even though placing one of the microphones in front would've been a wise decision. (And no I don't work for Looxcie in case you're wondering)
Buy Looxcie Wearable Bluetooth Camcorder System, Android Compatible (Black) Now
Yep jumped right in the day it was available. Not a bad price for bleeding edge though I'm sure it'll drop soon enough. Conceptually great! I love the potential! Paired immediately and Android app installed and works though the images have a pixelated quality along edges. Very cool app though! Only had for about 2 hours now. First thing was to rotate for left ear. Manual doesn't make clear what exactly rotates. Figured out it was just the earbud itself (makes sense) however when rotating it gently and smoothly the top half of the earbud clam-shell fell off. It was glued so technically its broken but a few drops of plastic adhesive fixed it. I'm not ready to return it without playing. Maybe later if anything else happens. Going to play with the actual video functionality now and write more later.Day two. Played more with the video. Other than the previously mentioned edgyness everything seems as described. This product DOES NOT stream to or thru the handset. The real issue today is the audio quality. In a word it's atrocious! I have many many Bluetooth headsets including some real bargains and this is by far the absolute worst incoming quality I've ever experienced (that's why the stars dropped). I think there must be a defect with my unit but I'm not ready to return it yet. Again audio quality is lower than anything I've ever used. I am still so enamored with the potential of the device I will keep playing until I must decide about returning/exchanging it.
Third and forth day. Looxcie has GREAT customer service! One of the engineers was reading the reviews here and jumped right on it and contacted their customer service (on Sunday) and made arrangements for a replacement.
Before the replacement arrived today. I was able to spend a lot more time with the video functionality. Again the Android app is great! I clipped the 'my girlfriend almost hit 2 baby dear' clip that of course no one ever gets. Looxcie is gonna be great for accidents, and once in a lifetime stuff! I agree with Nathan's comments on the microphone placement and clips being pushed to the app as soon as possible but of course that could use more power when you're not necessarily close to power like you probably would be when intentionally sitting down to review clips (maybe a check box option). It's certainly ok the way it is now. And also that the video quality is more than I expected from a device this small and cool. Really haven't seen anything better at this resolution.
Replacement unit: audio is far more normal on this unit and though it still sounds a little hot it is absolutely fine. Nathan is also correct that the volume can go way up. Even to the point of distortion which was at least some of the problem with the audio experience of the original unit.
Something I didn't quite get at first but makes sense now. Looxcie is called an always on camcorder with the ability to clip the last thirty seconds. What that means though is its always on once you turn it on with the app or the capture button. Not a problem once you realize it. So battery life has multiple modes. Standby (un-connected to phone), headset mode (connected not in use w/wo capture on) and active (in a call w/wo capture). No un-met battery expectations so far.
A useful thing on the site would be audio clips for each signal tone. I hear some but not sure what it's telling me because there are some I haven't heard to know the difference (for instance there are 5 different 2 tone signals). Not too hard to force them so I've learned the difference now.
Stars go to 5+ and I love my Looxcie! Can't wait for all those clips I wished I had an always on camcorder for and of course upgrades to the device and app for even more features! I'm geeked!
And thank you to Rob and Michael.
Read Best Reviews of Looxcie Wearable Bluetooth Camcorder System, Android Compatible (Black) Here
The Android app for Looxcie (without which you can't really use the device) is infuriatingly unpolished:(1) it does not use Android Intents for sending email or uploading videos to Youtube (ie rather than using the Android-provided facilities for this they implemented their own; for example they require your Gmail password; the only way around that is to create a separate Gmail account just for the Looxcie app)
(2) the UI for browsing the circular video buffer has many issues: it is sluggish, the position slider is too inaccurate to easily select a scene within the 4 hours of recorded video, when you click "create new clip" the position jumps so if you had carefully navigated to the beginning of an interesting scene you have to start over again)
(3) when uploading the video fails, retrying means that the app downloads the clip yet again over Bluetooth
(4) when you create a new clip and give it a title, the title is not reflected in the file name on the flash disk presented to a connected computer
This would all be tolerable if the app were open source or at least the Bluetooth protocol documented -as it stands, Looxcie officially says that they have no intention of opening up the product but instead intend to keep it a completely closed system.
Regarding the hardware: there is no motion stabilization and no wind protection for the microphone. This means when you take a movie while bicycling, you can all but forget about the sound and watching the video clip is bound to make you seasick. It also appears that the Looxcie has a hard time keeping up with rapid changes of the pictures -you'll see the image shearing.
Want Looxcie Wearable Bluetooth Camcorder System, Android Compatible (Black) Discount?
Ugh If you have 5 hours to waste and disappointment galore this is the product for you This is the iPhone version1st A firmware upgrade
2nd press button 1,2,3 no no press 3,2,1 no no no press 2,1,3
3rd Plug it into a wall socket, no plug it into the laptop
No first press 3 buttons then it will reset then plug it into
the wall socket
After five hours four calls to the support hot line and three emails
I returned it disappointed upset and aggravated
The product is not yet mature
In my case the device could not hold a charge
I tried literally everything and even their support people could not get it to work
Was it just a bad unit My sense is "No"
Why
On the phone they relayed to me that I had to do a firmware upgrade
then I had to do a complete system reset back to the default mfg settings
My sense is that they have not worked out all the kinks for the iphone yet
Oh and by the way (a little untold fact) the transfer rate between the
device memory storage and your iphone is 300kbs that means if you recorded
20 minutes of video (which equated to a 500 mg file) It will take you
4 hours (yes 4 hours) to transfer that file using blue tooth Now that's what I call real time
No comments:
Post a Comment