Smart speaker for the whole family with NFC: high price, complex settings

The smart home system continues to evolve. Now many different devices are being produced that can be used by all family members or all cohabitants.

So, for example, the wireless speaker also works.Babbit, recently introduced to the North American market. The column is designed for family access, that is, it can be controlled by children who do not need to use the phone. The only problem for them may be that there is no access to paid music libraries or it is banal that the smallest ones cannot read.

At its core, Babbit can work both throughBluetooth or via USB. And the column itself can be controlled using a mobile device or using the NFC system (which is just added for children). It works with the help of a sticker card system.

True, there are problems with the settings of the startingparameters. For example, in order for the device to finally work, write foreign users, you need to sweat thoroughly. In particular, you must first download the application, connect the device to your home Wi-Fi, and then connect to it from your smartphone or tablet. That is, almost the same as connecting, for example, a humidifier to a smart home system.

Moreover, with some configurations of home network settings, you will also have to use administrator rights or a device that will give permission to the column to connect.

In addition, the main thing will be not to miss such a setting as allowing the speaker to be detected through the application at any time, so that everyone at home can use it at any time.

At the same time, the content that will be played oncolumn is loaded into it by default and can only be deleted manually. The only time the device does not save the library is when using a USB drive (and this can also be difficult).

At the same time, the content can be uploaded to a specialAn NFC card, which is just right for children who do not have contact with other devices. It can be either a sticker in some part of the house, or ordinary cards purchased with the column. As a rule, these are cardboard boxes with chips inside.

With their settings, it will also take a littleget confused. In particular, the first time you place a card on the Babbit hotspot, you must manually assign content to it. That is, you first need to attach a card to the active area, then select music from an online drive or from a library on a smartphone, and then click the “Assign” button in the application. After that, the card will work permanently.

The buttons on the column itself are also functional. They allow you to move through the playlist, and the “circle” (aka “pen”) allows you to play or pause content playback.

The company itself also produces playlists forchildren who are chosen by some “Latvian professionals”. However, judging by the reviews, the playlists are really good - there is no feeling of “Barbariki”, but the music is really for children, or rather, for the whole family.

At the same time, there are significant shortcomings.In particular, despite all its bells and whistles, the speaker does not understand when advertising is playing and does not muffle the sound. But this is usually solved by the fact that the user just needs to pay for a subscription in a music application. In addition, the problem with USB detection and music playback is also quite significant.

There is also a problem with disconnecting the column from the network - in such cases, the settings are not saved, and you have to reconfigure it in the second round.

Among the shortcomings, of course, there is the price.The speaker itself costs a whopping $730, and if you want NFC cards as well, you have to pay up to $26 more. If the cards are immediately with music, then for the whole set you will have to pay as much as 790 dollars, which is very, very much even by the standards of the USA and Canada.