Oregon Scientific 3 Smart Globe Starry Day and Night Globe

A brilliant idea, so I bought it for my 6 year old nephew (who has been good with technology, particularly mobile phones since age 3). I downloaded the app before the Globe arrived, and reckoned that as long as it was "cast" /"mirrored" to the TV, it would all work out well. When the Globe arrived I tested it, put in batteries and micro USB cable (so it could be plugged in) and experimented with the app... Everything seemed great....But when trying to show the grandparents and my sister (casting the app to the TV) so that we all knew how it worked and what to do before my nephew's birthday...1) over a half hour period only got the augmented reality to work twice (Unbelievably disappointing when it had worked first time for me previously). As I could not work out what we were doing wrong, despite trying everything we could think of, nothing seemed to provide a definitive way of ensuring the augmentation registered to the Globe (it doesn't work without this). **It was for this reason I returned it, for a hassle free refund.2) the app looks like it can do things... that don't actually work... whether by design or omission isn't clear.3) the choices of augmentation seemed better than I'd expected (but because of (1) never actually saw most of them.4) the quiz set at both beginner and advanced was good and appropriately challenging..5) information displayed on screen alongside the augmented animal or whatever was surprisingly brief... and seemed to beg for sound effects - animal roar, or"hello" in the language of whatever country's flag you were on etc.6) the Globe itself is colourful clear and easy to read.Overall I don't regret buying it, and although I think the app could be improved, the potential is brilliant... I considered keeping for his next birthday... but am hoping that there is a more customer ready version by then.

This globe is great value and decent quality. Nice bright colours and shiny finish. Just big enough to be able to read the names (capital cities as well as countries which is nice), while still a handy size for my 8 year old to handle. The constellations visible in the dark look very pretty when lit and show the stars laid out on images of the corresponding star signs etc. The app was easy to find and install but takes a bit of practice to get the scanning right. Once the images pop out though it’s really fascinating and will surely stimulate interest for further research. We intend to use it as the starting point for topic work for geography, but even just for browsing the earth and sky, this is brilliant. I couldn’t decide whether to get a larger more ‘grown up’ basic globe, but very glad I went for this one which is far more interesting for today’s children. Can be connected to the usb to light it with my Samsung phone lead. But nice to have battery option too when moving it around.

This globe is absolutely brilliant. Bought as a last minute Black Friday Christmas gift for one of my younger daughters who loves all things space, I’m totally glad I did. Without the power it shows the world as you expect and using the app you can scan all different places after selecting a category to see where animals are or were - such as dinosaurs, historical things, buildings, all sorts. I’m so impressed with the app at how well it works, many of these kind of things that have accompanying apps, usually fall short, this doesn’t. When switched on, it shows all the constellations and gives a nice dull light in the room, perfect night light. As a family who home educate this will be a brill addition to all the children’s learning. Fab!

Bought for my daughter for her birthday, she was excited at first but, unfortunately it didn't last...For the AR to work it appears you need a fairly high quality and resolution camera on your smart device which, for a child's device, you probably don't. I had to install the app on my android phone and it was still hit and miss.Another issue I experienced would be the glossy finish to the globe, as you need to have the thing well lit for the app to work in AR mode, but you end up with reflections from any light sources actually impeding the performance.This being the case, I cannot recommend the globe as it makes it a very expensive unit with limited functionality.

Very poor quality app doesnt scan most of the stuff easily, cannot be used for the countries at the bottom of the globe. It feels like it was created 5 years ago and not updated. Information is primitive and not interesting for children at all, feels like quick copy paste from wikipedia without any thought gone into it. Accents are also very strange. Waste of money, nothing to say positive about it. Given as gift so missed the return deadline. Feel like we were cheated and tricked into purchasing this with fake reviews on amazon.

Couldn't download the AR Android App to work with my HTC phone with Android 4.4 and our Samsung tablet with Android 7. So really the Globe was just acting as a lamp. App from Oregon Scientific website was not recognised as a safe app.

Does not work with my daughter's Android tablet. She has to borrow my phone to use it. Has same OS and version so likely just needs a release to support higher resolution. Disappointing birthday present as a result

Lovely product. Can be used by various abilities. Fascinating to young with adult help and adults as well.