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Play Impossible Begins Selling Smart 'Gameball' Through Apple After Inking Exclusive Retail Deal
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Hilarious how user assumes everybody's kid is overweight, shows again how brilliant Apple's marketing is. First create such army of overweight kids cell phone zombies, then release app for fitness? lol incredible world we live in.
Not sure why all the hate
As far as I can tell they didn't confiscate all the other balls, deflate them and bury them in a landfill
You should be able to get a regular ball and forego this option if you choose
As far as I can tell they didn't confiscate all the other balls, deflate them and bury them in a landfill
You should be able to get a regular ball and forego this option if you choose
I’ll agree that kids HAVE been playing forever - just not with a $1 ball (football, basketball, baseball, soccer); maybe a fuseball though.
Yet my challenge to have a look at how many kids outside of school are actually playing has diminished significantly since the dawn of the smartphone, iPad tablet and the major change in their social structure with social media.
Let’s have a look at obesity in children statistics per country globally in comparison of iOS devices sold for each country per year.
Yeah, it's pretty sad. There's a lot of heartwarming marketing of smartphone apps for kids and things like that, but then I remember there's never a real reason for a kid to have a smartphone. Seems like a no-brainer that parents should just not buy them smartphones.
Would've prevented a lot of easily foreseeable problems like this. I saw this crap coming once three of my friends in middle school suddenly had the iPhone 3G. Portable Nintendo consoles weren't good either, but they didn't have the same broad appeal, so it wasn't a big deal.
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I am so sick of these 'Smart' products that tell you obvious things. I dont need a cup to tell me when to drink water, I have this urge called "thirst" that tells me. I dont need a phone to tell me if I had a good night sleep, becasue Ill be cranky in the morning. I dont need a toilet roll dispenser to tell me when I have run out of toilet paper, that will be pretty obvious. I dont need an app to tell me to water a plant, when I can see it is green and a reminder will do just nicely.
And I certianly dont need a ball to tell me how many times I have hit it, I can count.
And I certianly dont need a ball to tell me how many times I have hit it, I can count.
Hold on, let me fetch you a medal.
I don’t disagree entirely, but sometimes a smart product can be helpful. It’s not like they’re all devoid of any worth. Side note - I feel like you have no idea how to water some plants.
I think the word just seemed needlessly embiggened in the headline.
[doublepost=1530116066][/doublepost]So I've got seriously mixed feelings about this, mostly negative. I wholeheartedly agree with the "just give your kid a regular ball and tell them to go outside" contingent. I also agree that "going outside to play" doesn't seem to happen as much as it used to. My garage has a bin full of rubber balls that my (now teenage) kids never used. So on the one hand, tying technology to something so simple like playing with a ball may be the enticement needed to get some kids off the couch. But that being said:
- how many of these will end up stuck on the roof?
- How many phones will be dropped and broken whilst attempting to reach max heights with the ball?
- How many balls will be used for a week then lost in the bin full of rubber balls in the garage?
- How many kids will get frustrated and toss the ball away when it doesn't properly pair with the app?
- Why couldn't they make a BB-8 add-on?
Hooray! More disposable consumer crap we don't need! Long live the planet! At least Lego and wood toys have lifetimes measured in generations...
I hope all these dumb companies go broke and that human talents can be used on solving more useful problems.
I hope all these dumb companies go broke and that human talents can be used on solving more useful problems.
As a librarian and teacher, I think this is cool, especially because I predict that user feedback will result in the app becoming more open and versatile. Sure, now I can have "water balloon" tosses indoors on rainy days and there are a host of games that might be more appealing with a smart ball than they are with a $1 ball I get at Walmart. That's neat.
But the real application I see is in physics-based games. Just imagine the ways kids can come to better understand the world using this ball. For example, we can now have kids know how high they're throwing a ball and how much force is being applied when they try different throwing techniques. Or we'll be able to hold it while dancing to see how different hip velocity compares for, say, twerking versus disco versus ballet. Or maybe we can we put it in a rocket payload and measure the velocity and acceleration of ascent versus parachuted descent.
You might say that all of this could be done already with basic engineering and $15 worth of stuff from the hobby store, but anything I could build wouldn't be as durable as a ball designed to be kicked around and it definitely wouldn't be as appealing--to say nothing of how much easier it is to walk into an apple store instead of breaking out my soldering iron.
But the real application I see is in physics-based games. Just imagine the ways kids can come to better understand the world using this ball. For example, we can now have kids know how high they're throwing a ball and how much force is being applied when they try different throwing techniques. Or we'll be able to hold it while dancing to see how different hip velocity compares for, say, twerking versus disco versus ballet. Or maybe we can we put it in a rocket payload and measure the velocity and acceleration of ascent versus parachuted descent.
You might say that all of this could be done already with basic engineering and $15 worth of stuff from the hobby store, but anything I could build wouldn't be as durable as a ball designed to be kicked around and it definitely wouldn't be as appealing--to say nothing of how much easier it is to walk into an apple store instead of breaking out my soldering iron.
I have one. Absolute blast.
Fun at a party or just hanging out drinking some beer.
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Lots of run. The only thing that sucks is it takes AA in the handle to charge it.
$100 for a rubber ball. At that price kids will be forced by their parents to run out in the road after it. WTF is going on with Apple lately?
Let's be honest. People have been getting very fat for a long time, and LONG before smartphones "created" them.
I need an app to have sex
I need an app to have friends
I need an app to eat
I need an app to talk to my mom
I need an app to sleep
I need an app to drive
We had all that and better before internet and "smartphones".
I need an app to have friends
I need an app to eat
I need an app to talk to my mom
I need an app to sleep
I need an app to drive
We had all that and better before internet and "smartphones".
Maybe when you were a kid and needed to rub wood sticks together to create fire, that was more applicable (lol, just teasing
). Children these days are more interested in technology than socializing. A $1 ball cannot engage most children in societies where ADD / ADHD and isolation is the norm, they require more intellectual pursuits. Granted, most of the world doesn't have that issue, so a $1 ball suffices. Just saying, I don't think it's as simple as it may appear.Ultimately, Apple sees a market for it, so they sought exclusive rights.
Is that really the only two options these days? If these are your only two options then you've failed as a parent.
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Agreed on that sentiment. 100% yet these times are VERY different than 12yrs ago.
In Ontario some 8yrs algo government clawed back on spending for schools in terms of recreation: pools closed, yard space reduced, gyms not maintained or even used. This is K1-12 affected for public schools.
Remember while mom and dad works full time making ends meet to clothes, feed, provide a home paying rent/mortgage ... parents now provide a phone bill and computer so their kids can get every lead ahead.
Me I provided a computer, gaming system, yet I went bike riding with my son since he was 7, played baseball, football, Jiu-Jitsu, until he took up basketball and now we weight train. He’s 20 very healthy now and less body fat percentage than I have at over double his age and I’m by no means fat. He’s very educated and composes music (on PC though I failed with MacOS lol). I know I did very well!!
Not all kids have parents, grandparents, uncles aunts and great grandparents who’ve been physically fit and great genetics to help them. Many kids are clumsy or spurring growth through early puberty and heavily uncoordinated. Embarrassed to play traditional sports with their peers. But a new game with digital connections maybe the answer. That’s the point I’m making against those that are knocking this product before it’s had a chance.
I should’ve been more clear about my point of view.
This product has been out for a year, and still nobody has ever seen a child using one or even heard of it. Fail. Looking forward to the article announcing when this product is pulled from what is already limited shelf space.