Petcube - Remote Interactive Pet Toy

Product Description

Does your pet give you a forlorn look of abandonment that stirs an overwhelming sense of guilt in your heart and makes you feel like a complete a-hole every time you leave the house? More importantly does this typical... [Read more]

Features

• View live video in HD with a wide angle lens
• Exercise and play with a built-in laser toy
• Customize access for friends and family
• Capture and share photos and videos

Top Reviews

Has some flaws but I enjoy it a lot nonetheless
by Hsw (4 out of 5 stars)
March 5, 2015

Let me preface this review with the fact that I backed this project on kickstarter for $99 and am an iphone user, so I have been able to use the application successfully from the get-go. With that being said, this product has some large flaws but I enjoy it immensely nonetheless.

The camera is sleek and well designed and is an attractive part of my living room-think the sleekness of an apple product. It is easy to set up in theory but I had difficulty in practice: I couldn't get the petcube to connect to my wifi network. After changing some settings and disabling my network password, I got the camera to connect easily. I do not yet know if the password was giving it the problem, or if it started working based on the settings I changed. In either case, once the petcube saw the internet connection, setup was a breeze.

I have three cats and two of them are pretty active, so I got this camera both to check in on them when I am at work/on vacation, and to provide them with some extra stimulation during the day. The camera and laser pointer do just that. I am able to see my cats and interact with them, and this has given me an incredible peace of mind, especially when I've been on vacation. The camera's wide lens (138 degrees) lets me view a large portion of my room and the camera quality, while not perfect (video is 720p streaming), is satisfactory and does its job.

You interact with your pet by moving your finger around on the screen in the application, which moves a laser. Unlike other people have reported, I can see the laser on my iphone screen (see the attached pictures). The new version of the app also allows you to calibrate the laser so it is actually aimed at where your finger is. You can also enable audio, so you can talk to your pet and hear them. My cats think this is really weird and aren't huge fans.

The sharing modes are also nice-my family and friends can interact with my pets even when I'm unavailable. Sometimes when I'm cooking and my cats are being annoying, I'll set the camera to public sharing and allow strangers to amuse them and get them out of my hair! One negative feature was you used to be unable to turn off sound for public sharing, so I would hear strangers' voices in my living room. Luckily the new version of the application lets you disable sound while sharing.

Now some downsides:
1) No night vision, so I can't play with my cats when the house is dark. I have included two images in this review: one in bright daylight and one in very dim light. When it is completely dark, I can only see a laser moving around but not my cats.
2) It would be nice if there was a beep or other sound to alert the cats that the petcube has been turned on.
3) You can take pictures of your pets while you interact with them, but there is no video feature.
4) It would be nice if there were movement detection so I would know when my cats were being active and ready to play
5) Some similar products dispense treats. Not that my cats need more to eat...
6) Customer support is lacking-when I had problems connecting my petcube to wifi (see above), they were unhelpful. Granted, it was right when all the kickstarter petcubes went out, so I'm guessing they were swamped. I still expected more.

Given the above flaws, I might hold out on buying at the $200 price point until some features are added: they've been very good about updating the app to add new features like laser calibration, ability to turn off sound, etc. All of this being said, I have really enjoyed being able to interact with and play with my cats while I'm away from them, particularly when I'm on trips. Beyond that, it has given me peace of mind when I'm away since I tend to worry about them!
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What an awesome idea!
by Jeff & Laura (5 out of 5 stars)
January 5, 2016

We are thoroughly loving the Petcube! We have a cat, dogs, and a potbelly pig that we get to see and interact with even when we're not at home. What an awesome idea!! Thank you!!
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More of a hassle than it's worth.
by Jenny Crusie Smith (1 out of 5 stars)
December 16, 2016

Got this, followed the directions exactly (not hard, plug in power source, plug into outlet, download app, register) and I get a glowing green bar on the screen which is supposed to be blinking. It's not blinking. So fine, I've done something wrong. Check the documentation, nope. Check the Petcube site which tells me to go look at the explanation for what the different LED lights mean without giving me a link to the page. I end up googling for that page. Find it, but no non-blinking green light listed. So maybe I need to wait a while for whatever it is to kick in. Half an hour later, light is still green, still not blinking. I have turned the cube on and off. I have unplugged it and plugged it in again. I have checked all the connections. I am now annoyed.

Look, I'm sure this is a user error, but if they don't give me any way to FIX the user error, then it's their error, too. If I can't even get the freaking thing set up, imagine the hassle it's going to be once I'm using it. So it's going back.
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My dog loves this thing! A MUST buy for any pet lover!
by Dmeech (5 out of 5 stars)
December 23, 2015

I got the PetCube primarily to check on my dog and be able to talk to him via cell phone without having to signup for any recording/streaming contracts other camera manufacturers require. I'll go through a brief review of the Petcube itself and my experience with the product.

The Petcube itself:

The Cube itself feels very substantial when compared to other pet cameras. The cube is wrapped in silver sand blasted aluminum which gives a premium feel and stability to avoid knockdowns. It has a rubber pad on the bottom to avoid slipping on slick surfaces and a tripod mount for placement closer to my dog's play area. I happened to have a cheap camera tripod which the cube screwed right into, but chose to place it on the counter to avoid running a cable across the room.

The camera itself is slightly tilted down which allowed me to placement the cube on a table without having to tilt the entire camera down - nice! The laser pointer is remote controlled and has a wide range of motion.

Setup and Use:

The Cube is controlled via downloadable Petcube app - free in the Appstore. I'm the type of person who throws the instruction manual into the garbage as these days everything is pretty self-explanatory. The setup ended-up being a little tricky, but I was able to figure it out within a couple of minutes. I had to pair the cube (via the App) with my account and home wifi -> this is done via the "Me" tab and clicking "Add a Petcube Camera". Once the pairing process was complete I was up and running.

Once I had the feed streaming, I moved the laser pointer around my dog who promptly tried to catch it! I also was able to get him to sit/lie down and get in his bed via the built in speaker. It was fairly entertaining to say the least, he looked pretty dumbfounded as I wasn't in the room, but hey, when owner says "sit" you sit.

One of the AWESOME features the App has is the ability to broadcast your feed (and control of sound/laser!) to friends/family or publicly. You can let other people in the cloud control your petcube and play with your pet when you are away. Usually there is a bunch of other people broadcasting; I spent a good 30 minutes playing with cats from around the world!

I definitely recommend this to any pet lover. It is a neat concept and the ability to remote control the laser pointer blows other pet cams out of the water.
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Great concept. Needs a bit more refinement.
by Travis E. Statham (4 out of 5 stars)
July 29, 2016

Received the PetCube last night. My thoughts:

PetCube currently only supports iOS and Android - this is great for 96% of the market. Sadly, I have a Windows Phone. No app. You'd think there would be a desktop web app right? Nope. These have to be added sooner than later. I used my girlfriend's old iPhone 5 to get the app and try out the Petcube. It works. Had no router issues. Setup is easy.

There is a bit of lag while using the camera / laser pointer. It's not too terrible, and it might be mostly because iPhone5 is kind of old now. I've had some connectivity issues too. It should pause the video during these moments - instead it forces you to reopen the connection entirely. We've shared the PetCube link around and had a couple of friends join our session and see our cats. That's really fun. It gives friends watching the cats about a minute or 90 seconds to play with them and then someone else gets to take a turn. That's a cool feature. I have to get my parents on board.

The microphone feedback can be...annoying. You speak into your phone, and then it plays it on the speakers but immediately records the speakers in the microphone.

Suggestions:
* Make a web app.
* Make a Windows 10 UWP app.
* Make an auto laser program, or a program your own laser path. Your finger can get tired of moving the laser around. It's basically work. Fun work, especially with two cats hopping around, but still work. Should be a way to press AutoLaser and obey our new Robot Overlords.
* Fix audio feedback
* Fix connectivity problems - maybe add an Ethernet port or at least a USB port that can have an ethernet adaptor. Ethernet is still out there and kicking - could add a lot of speed and reliability.
* Add a Facebook Live like video feed. I could post a link to Facebook with a video feed of me entertaining my cats, and people could join it and comment. Maybe I could give up control to someone. Again - it's in a browser - easy to share - doesn't require any app process. If moving the laser is hard, use keyboard commands -> ARROWS.
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Was hoping for a great experience
by Amazon Customer (1 out of 5 stars)
June 26, 2016

I bought this despite all the negative feedback, especially the feedback in regards to how difficult it is to set up. I should've just went with my gut and not bought it. Trust me, I really wanted this to work out but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Once you get frustrated with the pet cube not recognizing your Wi-Fi, you'll finally break down and call their support team. That's when you find out you need to disable your firewall, disable MAC address filtering, make sure you're only using 2.4 GhZ because it doesn't work with 5 GhZ, and make sure you don't have a WPA/WPA2 gateway enabled. So basically in order for this to work, you need to strip down your Wi-Fi security and change its settings, now making other wireless devices in your home incompatible. Not worth it to me. Then the Android app would crash repeatedly. The device needs an entire overhaul. Was really hoping for a great experience to interact with my dog, unfortunately the Pet Cube falls short in doing so.
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Very disappointing, horrible customer service
by S. Palmer (2 out of 5 stars)
January 19, 2017

Thought this would be a great way to see how my dogs are handling themselves while I'm not home (neighbors complain of barking). I'm fairly tech-savvy, but had trouble setting up the wireless connection -- the Petcube didn't show the lights as outlined in the directions. Got it to work once when I was in the same room as the Petcube, but then couldn't get it to work again. Called customer service. They basically walked me through the online directions, which did get it working again. When I told him I wanted him to wait a minute to see if I could disconnect and get it working again, he just told me to call back if I needed help, and hung up. NOT good customer service! Sure enough, the next time I tried it, it wouldn't work -- had to set up the internet connection all over again. I've now had it set up 2-3 weeks, and it only works sporadically. When I try to access it away from the house to see how the pups are doing, it usually tells me it's offline, even though it's supposedly set up. The few times it has worked are when I'm at home (testing it) and don't need it. Very frustrating! Thank goodness Amazon is allowing me to return it. Not worth the money for something that rarely works!

One other note: when it does work and you're trying to watch your pets on your phone, the unit emits a loud bell sound when you connect. This startled one dog, and she would go look out the dog door. So basically, I wanted to know how they behave when I'm not home, but the alert would startle her out of her normal behavior. Overall, a very disappointing product.
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It works fine BUT sometimes it takes too long to give me ...
by Alejandra V. (3 out of 5 stars)
October 27, 2016

With my petcube camera I have been able to watch my dog while I'm not at home. It works fine BUT sometimes it takes too long to give me the image. It keeps loading. Sometimes I have to re-start it a lot of times. The problem is when I'm not at home or when I don't have the time to wait for it to work properly. Like today, I turn the camera on like 3 hours ago and the only thing I can see is the black screen with the blue loading circle. Also, I wrote to Petcube support 6 days ago and I haven't heard from them yet. I only get the authomatic response saying "someone will contact you in the next 24 hours". Hope to find how to fix this soon.
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Not reliable enough for $200.
by Jessica (2 out of 5 stars)
December 7, 2015

I absolutely love the /idea/ of this product. I tried to use it for weeks, thinking I could work the bugs out and it would be everything I wanted it to be. However, unfortunately, I don't think the product is "there" yet. The PetCube is slow to respond, and sometimes get frozen as if someone is using it, even though no one is. The wifi in my home is not the best, and the receiver in the petcube isn't that great, so sometimes I don't get any picture or it is very slow to load. Since there is no option to plug it directly into the modem, this is something we are just stuck with. The laser also seems slow to respond and is often not in the correct place, even when I calibrate it.

Finally, sometimes the PetCube app in general just doesn't work on my phone. It will take forever to load, or never load, or crash randomly. I don't think this has anything to do with wifi or data.

I am pretty sad to write this review, because I really want it to work. I have a few more weeks before I have to return it, so I will keep troubleshooting- otherwise I think I will return it. The product isn't ready to spend $200 on it.

UPDATE:

After trying this product for 2.5 months, we have decided to return it. It is just too buggy. For $200, I would need this to work 100% of the time- but it just doesn't. I will turn it on in the morning, ensure that my app shows that it is connected to the PetCube, go to work, and check again just to see that it has become disconnected. The Wifi seems to work just fine on our WiiU, which sits right next to the PetCube. And my phone is always connected either through WiFi or 4G network, so it should work- but half the time it doesn't. So it leaves me wondering how my dog is doing all day long, since the only way to fix this issue is to unplug it and plug it back in.

We decided to buy a two-way audio security camera instead. Even though it doesn't have a laser, most indoor security cameras have the option to plug directly into the modem using an ethernet cable. Plus they can move back and forth, have LED lights, and some even have night vision. Between this and a dog walker, I think we can solve the issue of leaving our dog home alone. Sorry PetCube, you are a brilliant idea and I want to love you- maybe I will check back in 5 years when there is a 2.0 version and all the bugs are fixed.
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This product is not worth the hassle.
by ET (3 out of 5 stars)
December 3, 2016

My camera went offline shortly after installing it. I attempted to reach out to customer service by calling the number listed on their website. A man named Valentine answered and told me that there was no one available to help me, I would have to leave a message. He told me that he could not help me with anything, he could only take a message. It sounded like an answering service, however he could not confirm if he worked for an answering service or not.

I had to wait for someone from customer service to email me back and go back and forth with emails to get any type of help. I tried calling the customer service line a second time and it went to a voicemail.

The camera itself was of much lower quality than I expected. The speakers distorted voices so much that it just scared my dogs. The laser pointer was not easily controlled via the app. Even after calibrating it twice, it did not improve.

Only one person can view the camera at a time. You can only view the camera with your smartphone, you are not able to view it on a computer.

I am returning the Petcube. There are better camera options that have actual customer service associates that are available through a phone call.

This product is not worth the hassle.

Update - January 6,2017. I returned my original petcube to amazon for a full refund. Petcube sent me a new unit at no cost to keep and try. When it arrived it also did not connect via cellular signal. After speaking with support, I was told that the issue was well known and would be fixed after the holidays, it was. As far as customer service, I have been in contact with two people who have been great, however, I have not had to rely on calling or emailing the regular customer service. The laser pointer works much better on this unit. It does need to be calibrated frequently. I am not able to use the two way speaker due to the echo it creates by not having a PTT button.

Some things that would improve the value of this product - adding a ptt feature to cut down on feedback, being able to access this camera from a desktop, allowing more than one viewer at a time.

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