live from sublurbia

So I’m enjoying playing with our Wii Fit (early morning run to a big box score netted us one on opening day). A few minutes here and there while dinner cooks or the kids dress themselves (though that slows them down as they watch me play).

One of the kid’s favorite games is a sliding game, involving catching fish. The youngest will insist on having a turn on the board (a few dummy ones we made up don’t thrill her at all) and that’s about the only game I’ve unlocked we can “play” together.

She’s not quite got the hang of the game, so I usually sit behind her and tap the board to score her enough points to “win” the game. She doesn’t always notice my help, but enjoys it either way. However, she wants to “help” me when it’s my turn, doing the same move of tapping the board to “help”.

Playing these games with her has helped me discover a way to really mess with your friends’ sense of balance (and scores, all in fun) in the game …. Continue Reading »

2 Comments »

_{The one problem with pre-blogging a few posts to go up while you’re busy with invading guests is that the posts run out before the guests do, sometimes … sorry for the quiet!}

So the hub sent me a link to information about the Roku player. Wonderful! Except … it’s 1.0. I’m already ready for something a little more advanced.

If I got one of these to augment our NetFlix subscription, I’d want more kid things available (this they can do without changing the hardware). I’d put it up next to the kid’s TV (that doesn’t get a lot of use) and give them a simple menu system they could navigate, like TIVO but with pictures. Additionally, I’d like parental tools to customize our own play list of kid’s stuff.

Speaking of TIVO, we need playlists for that, too. Unlocked for kid’s stuff, locked for higher-age stuff (separate from the V-Chip), and hidden for folks who want to pretend to their kids or guests that they aren’t a fan of horror movies (or Lifetime romance movies, YMMV). Additionally, they need show-chaining. What if you want to spin up a series of little 5 min shows to watch for the kids? Or you’re setting up your parents to babysit the kids and they want to watch a couple of shows or movies in a row? Or you want to queue up a party mix?

I’m glad to see these 1.0 devices on the market (I love everything about the iPhone except the phone and camera part …) but we also need to be able to design these for the way users want to use them.

What would you like to see in a player/device that’s not quite there yet?

No Comments »