NOTTI Smart Mood Light review
The NOTTI Smart Mood Light is a good gift idea for those overwhelmed with notifications, whose ears have become fatigued by the constant beeps and roadrunner sounds their phone chirps out at them in order to notify them that something has happened somewhere in the world.
It’s also great for those with a baby about to fall asleep that are on call and need to know when a message or a phone call is incoming without letting the phone actually make any noise or vibrate due to the probability that it will awaken a sleeping baby beast.
The NOTTI has the distinct honor in my life of being the first thing I’ve ever had to read the manual in order to figure out where the power button was (hint, it’s the “W” logo on the front of the device,) but after that the setup was pretty simple to use.
Preface to the next section
I’m going to point out that I really do enjoy this product. What I’ve run into was from playing with it in as many scenarios as I could imagine before 11am on a Monday where I’m allergy ridden.
NOTTI Smart Mood Light rescue peeves
I see four lights
I have a lot of apps. I get a lot of notifications. The NOTTI only allows for up to four third party notifications along with some system standard things (SMS/iMessage, incoming or missed call, mail, calendar.)
Considering I use Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Skype, Google Plus, Hangouts, Snapchat, and Gmail which are found on the third party apps list it becomes something of the Hunger Games to narrow down what I want the light to actually notify me of.
Considering the NOTTI can display a bajillion colors (ok, I’m colorblind, I know there’re at least 20 that it can display, it looks like more,) it would be extremely nice to not have this randomly imposed four app notification limit.
The limit is in the app, not in the NOTTI, so hopefully they’ll remove this. Overall you have about nine different notifications.
Killer Japanese Seizure Robots
When you receive multiple notifications there’s just something not right about how it displays them. It cycles through like you’re in a rave or some bad club scene from whatever the latest “missed it by seven years” movie is out at the time.
What I’d like to see is a slow transition from green to red or whatever notifications are up. What I get is something that makes me think I need Are You Ready For This off of Jock Jams. I don’t see anywhere in the app where you can set what the time between notifications is. There’s nothing in the documentation.
Blink on (color1) shut off blink on (color2) shut off, repeat. I got it to three notifications at one point but bleh.
NOTTI nuff device support
Not really a peeve, however I thought it worth mentioning that the NOTTI is a Bluetooth 4.0/BLE device meaning unless your device supports Bluetooth Low Energy it’s not going to work. This is a pretty important thing you need to know as not a terribly lot of older devices actually work with this.
You should check before buying one of these whether or not your device actually supports it or not. If you’ve got a newer phone, probably you’re set. If your device supports a watch of some sort, chances are great.
NOTTI by nature
I’m not sure what’s more annoying in life. A constantly bleeping and vibrating phone, or a rave light placed off to the side.
What I’d like to see in this device is the ability to not blink constantly, and that’s what I was hoping for when I got it. It would be nice to walk into a room and see a blue light on the shelf. I’d know that I got a tweet and could respond to it. Once we get into the multicolored blinking lightshow it becomes on a lot of notifications it becomes painful to watch.
In a darkened room it becomes the flashing neon sign.
NOTTI nuff notifications
This one’s been a little hard to test but it is a rescue peeve of mine. Let’s say I got three notifications – Facebook, email, Skype. Then one of these notifications should happen to clear. All the notifications listed appear to stop on the NOTTI until a new notification arises.
Not that that’s a common issue I imagine, just I happened to keep having it happen as I was working on the computer and notifications kept getting cleared.
NOTTI nuff light coverage
You can probably see in the video, or maybe the pictures but there’s a decent amount of the NOTTI that does not light up. I’d guess about a sixth of the base is dark or dimmer than the rest.
While I don’t think the thing has to be a golden glowing beacon of hope in an otherwise troubled world, it would be nice if it just had a solid base as opposed to sections that look like they’re the results of light leaks.
What I’d love to see
I’d love to see the NOTTI fade from notification to notification, or at least an option to do this while the phone is in range.
I’d also love to see some better documentation. The NOTTI has a battery in it that’s recharged by a MicroUSB cable, but I have no idea how long it lasts. Their website claims five hours continuous or 720+ hours of normal use.
Things I did not cover
The NOTTI can be paired (up to four devices) as a group to your phone, also an blink/change color intensity with music. You can choose from 16 million colors according to the Amazon page, “million color,” according to the manufacturer page, and about 30 according to my colorblind eyes.
Overall
I like the idea of the device, but the odd limitation of four third-party notification options, the kind of sickening way it displays multiple notifications, and how it handles when one notification are dismissed, has me hoping there will be an app or firmware update to make it better.
It’s a neat idea, and off-phone notification devices (like the Ditto I use every day now,) are great things to get you to stop looking at your phone constantly. They really are.
But the current price point and the software sort of have me saying hold off until either the price is lower or the limitations are fixed.
You can grab the NOTTI at Amazon or at the manufacturer’s website.
