() I tested this Meep tablet myself before handing it off to any kids to try, so this review is from an adult's point of view.
***EDIT 10/12/12: To readers with a Meep!: If you're having any kind of bugs or issues, please upgrade to the latest version of the OTA software (Version 1.2 on Oct 12, 2012), which fixed nearly all of the bugs and issues I have experienced with the Meep. To upgrade, tap on the lower right hand corner of the Meep where it says the time. Clicking on the time will pop up a little window, and there should be a tiny status update symbol that says something like "OTA update ready to download". Make sure your battery has a mostly-full charge, as it takes some time and juice to upgrade, then click on that and confirm you want it to download the upgrade. Once it seems to have finished everything, click the time again to see if any more upgrades are available, and repeat the process till you appear to be up to date (this entire process may take many days). You can check the version of your software by clicking the "Help" icon from the home screen.***
***EDIT 12/26/12: It appears that many people are experiencing problems with the new Meep! OTA software. I have not experienced these issues personally but if you are considering buying, you should absolutely read all of the comments on this review to see what many parents are having to deal with. It sounds like many of the latest updates have made things worse, not better, and have proven a mess for parents trying to get things set up.***
*Things I like about the Meep!:
Runs Android 4.
SD card slot for expansion.
VERY easy to get online initially. Came fully charged, thank goodness, and I was browsing the internet on my wifi connection in about three minutes, most of which was spent looking for my wifi password.
The orange part seen in the photo is just a silicone sleeve that is easy to remove or put back on. So if your kid's not a fan of orange, just take the sleeve off. Their site shows other colors of sleeve available for purchase, like pink and blue.
The voice control for typing is fantastic, just like my smart phone.
Liked that a lot of the games included are ones like Angry Birds that anyone can enjoy.
Cord to charge in an outlet is long and easy to use.
Can view the screen from any angle.
Integration with YouTube is now fully functional with Version 1.2 software, and I had a total blast watching Maru and other silly cat videos online.
I have not personally tested this, but it appears to have the capability of doing video chat. If you are a parent who travels, this could be a fun way of staying in touch with your kid and getting to see them on the nights you aren't home. Of course, you could always use Skype on the family computer, but this could be a way of getting in touch easily with your child without having to pre-arrange a time with your spouse.
*Things I don't like:
Lots of lag time between when you select an action and when it finishes loading. It can take a minute or more to start up, and 15-30 seconds to load the games screen or apps, or whatever.
The device feels overly heavy and I don't enjoy holding it up in one hand. I wanted to set it on my chest or on a table to use because of the weight. This may make it more durable, so it's possible this is a plus overall, but I disliked that.
The screen sits low, 1/4 inch under the front of the device. This is a benefit if your kids intend to drop and smash it a lot, as it protects the screen. However, it also makes it hard to push some of the controls. For example, when browsing the internet, I kept wanting to press a button right in the upper corner and it was tough to make the push register.
Speakers are on the back of the device, so they're directed at other people rather than the user.
The camera lens is on the front only, so it's hard to take pics/ video of something besides yourself. There's no screen on the back, so if you do turn the Meep around to take a photo or video, you also have to reach around to the front to snap the pic or start/ stop the video.
Video and photo quality is poor in comparison to smart phones and other tablets. (I've uploaded a video as an example, and you can see my photos at top to view quality.)
The orange sleeve makes it difficult to turn the device on or off, as it's a very thick sleeve and the button's set close against the device.
Cord to connect to computer is about eight inches long, which makes it tough to control while plugged into the computer.
Recommended for ages six and up, yet some of the apps on it are clearly for tiny kids. There's a "toddler songs" app which is clearly meant for, duh, toddlers and not the six and up crowd. The ebook "Muddypaws" is another thing that's meant for the littlies. When my niece was six she was reading books with lots of words, not storybooks with a sentence on each page.
In addition, clicking on the "Safety" section brings up horribly condescending safety instructions like "Be polite and kind to others" and "Do not make threats". Seriously? If someone is old enough to understand what making a threat is, does anyone think they'd be swayed by a little orange splat of a cartoon character telling them not to? They should have eliminated the "Safety" section as it's condescending and unhelpful.
If you have spotty internet service like I do, you may find that apps from Google Play don't fully install the first time same with the OTA upgrades, and this can be frustrating because the Meep doesn't deal with that gracefully. There are a few apps I have had to install a couple times before they'd work, and the OTA upgrades can take days because they seem to stop updating when there's a blip in internet service, yet the meep sits there acting like it's doing something (which it isn't). This isn't an issue I have with other devices, and it's frustrating.
Can't stream videos from my Amazon Unbox account because Amazon Unbox needs Flash, which apparently no Android device supports. This isn't the Meep's fault, but is something you should know before buying a tablet for a kid (My extensive Olivia collection in Unbox is apparently only good on my desktop!).
The online instructions and FAQ read like someone from another country created them, with numerous spelling and grammatical errors. When I think of a company like "Oregon Scientific", I like to hope that even if they do farm out the work overseas, that they'd at least take the time to EDIT the work that's done!
I don't like that they make you give a credit card number to sign up for the parental portal. This felt invasive. They charge the card $1 and give you 100 coins for that, which is enough to purchase an app in the Meep Store. There are a number of apps for 100 coins ($1), but many, such as the Spiderman app, are $3.
EDIT: 9/13/12 I called support (1-800-853-8883) for help with some of the issues I was having with the Meep, and it was a mess. The person on the other end did not speak English well, and did not have any idea how to do things as basic as check for the version number of the software or install the software (she had to put me on hold to look that up, and actually got it wrong before she got it right). She advised me that my early issues with the parental control portal were due to me using the wrong browser (I use Chrome), so I dutifully opened up a Firefox browser as advised, only for the Meep site itself to tell me to switch to Chrome! And of course, every time I asked a question, I got put on hold for two minutes while she figured out the answer. Then at the end, she told me she'd just signed me up for the Meep email newsletter. She didn't ask, she just told me she'd done it, and then acted snippy when I asked her to please UN-sign me up. Calling support took some time and was extremely frustrating.
Overall:
I like the concept of a children's tablet and see a lot of great potential here. I am relieved that most of the bugs I initially experienced with the Meep have been fixed with operating system upgrades that I've downloaded to the Meep, and in the two days I've been able to play with the Meep since then, I've been having a much better time using the Meep. I do feel their attitude towards offering support needs a major overhaul (read above). But the Meep seems exceptionally sturdy and with the latest updates to the software, it's a serious, if imperfect, addition to the tablet scene.
If your intention is to give it as a gift, I'd open it a week early and download all the upgrades (it took my Meep a number of days to fully upgrade) plus get the parental portal set up, so the gift will be fun and not frustrating.
I was SO excited to get this tablet for my son for Christmas! The only thing he is asking Santa for is a Tablet. He does not have a preference of which one, so when I found this product I thought it would be perfect for his age level and it was the perfect price! UNFORTUNATELY, it was nothing but a piece of trash in a pretty box. First of all, if you are spending $150 on a kids toy, I fully expect that it should be up and running the second I take it out of the box. Not with the Meep! I had to spend HOURS trying to figure out how to install the system upgrades that are SUPPOSED to fix all of the original glitches. After 3 failed attempts and 2 resets back to factory settings I was finally able to install the upgrades successfully. I thought the rest of the road would be smooth sailing....NOPE! Even after the system upgrades, I was never able to figure out the Meep Store! I set up the accounts, but it would not let me purchase anything! It took FOREVER and a day to load anything...just kept THINKING, and THINKING, and THINKING. I could just envision my excited 5 year old opening this on Christmas morning and quickly becoming disappointed because everything took so long or froze up or didn't work...etc. Also, it only comes with 3 books preloaded and only 1 of those are "read to you" format. The games that it comes with are pretty silly. The only cool one being Angry Birds. I was under the impression that it came with more preloaded stuff. My advice? Save yourself HOURS of frustration and LOTS of sleep. (Since I had to work on this at night while the kids were sleeping...stayed up till well past 1 am 2 nights in a row trying to MAKE IT WORK!) Buy something that you KNOW will work. Personally, I decided to go with the Nook Color with a really cool Angry Birds case that I just KNOW my son will love! B & N just dropped the price of the Nook color to $139...with the case it will only cost about $20 more to go this route. Plus, since I already have a Nook of my own with lots of kids apps/books I will not have to rebuy anything. I almost went with the Naby 2, but decided to avoid ANY kids tablets only because this was such a disastrous experience. I want to have peace of mind that the product I choose will work well.
Buy MEEP! Android 4.0 Kids Tablet Now
Just discovered this product and bought one for my 9 year old son; great price! I thought he may be a little old, but he loves it. Has a bigger screen than his Itouch so it is better for games and movies. He has a lot of fun downloading the apps and games. Would recommend Meep to anyone with kids who does not want to spend a lot on an Ipad, and wants to have a say over what their child can access.Read Best Reviews of MEEP! Android 4.0 Kids Tablet Here
()This sounded like a great idea for kids who wanted a tablet but you as a parent wanted to limit them from going to places or seeing things they shouldnt.The tablet starts fine and works ok but it freezes quite often and you have to restart the whole tablet.Also the battery life is not the greatest as it works anywhere from 6 to 8 hours.
Also as of right now you cant access the parent account or the MEEp store.It was supposed to go online Sept 1st then that moved to Sept 4th. It is still not open as of Sept 5th.So you are limited to the games that are preloaded such as Angry Birds, Uno, and about 10-15 others that are just demo versions.So right now you cant download anything new but hopefully they have everything up and running shortly.It sounds like you will be limited to downloading from the MEEP store and some game from GOOGLE PLay store.Was hoping you could use the amazon app store so I wouldnt have to repurchase games.
Last the price seems a little high to me. At around $150 I would just get a KIndle fire or another lowend tablet.Plus you have the possibility of a new kindle coming out or a new lower priced Ipad.
Overall It is a little fun and the Parental Controls are a great feature but for the price and the bugs I would look elsewhere.
Want MEEP! Android 4.0 Kids Tablet Discount?
I had read all the bad reviews and some the few good ones.It seemed like to me it was a little tricky to setup and I was thinking that maybe they weren't as computer literate as me???I decided to go ahead and order 2 of them for my boys I got a GREAT deal on them from Kohls with 30% off, Kohls Cash and received $40 Kohls Cash for buying them.So I thought it was worth the gamble to see if I liked them...Kohls takes anything back(Just checked...Kohls no longer has it available.)IN THE END...I DID FEEL IT WAS WORTH IT but may have wanted to throw it out the window during the set up.The setup process was HORRIBLE!I signed up for an account which I had to wait for a reply email to verify my email address.This took 5 HOURS for the reply email to come.You are unable to access internet and all the settings are extremely High security, until you log into the Meep site and pay $1 to verify your over 18??!??
While I was waiting I went ahead and changed the time, time zone, etc...DO NOT DO THIS!!You have to leave the settings as is until you to the OTA Download (Over the Air)
So finally 5 hours after I first tried to log in I got the email, The only web browsers you can use are Google Chrome and one other one.It will not allow you to pull the the Meep site with Explorer or Firefox.This was a pain.You will also have to enter in the Serial Number, which is on a sticker on the back of it.This is crazy too I think it had to be in all caps and it was hard to find out if it was a 0 or O, I or l, etc...Then once you get it entered correctly...it will tell you that there is an ERROR HOWEVER this is apparently what you want!lol Then when you receive the error message you will then be able to go on and log in...FINALLY.
Do not ignore the OTA setup video when you login.This is very important.Once you figure out how to do the Upgrade you will then be able to change the settings so the Meep is able to get online, watch You Tube Videos, etc...There are several pre-loaded games, angry birds, etc...
I AM SO HAPPY THAT THE SETUP IS FINALLY COMPLETE.I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW HORRIBLE IT WAS AT FIRST...I HOPE THAT MY REVIEW WILL HELP YOU SET YOURS UP.I'm a little jealous that my boys have one and I don't, lol.I think this is an excellent tablet for the price I paid and overall I am very happy I ordered it.So post setup I love the MEEP!!
I'm also very glad I didn't toss them out the window during the setup process.
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