Add a Follower count!
I’m a TikToker and I would love to be able to have the feature of seeing a live follower count on my screen. until then I’m giving a review of 4 stars.
Super good 👍 but…
This is really cool I like having on while gaming, the Minecraft stuff is cool too but you can’t put grey or black (even tho you can’t see it), the worse thing I hate is that for the music thing I was excited but you only have limited songs☹️are they are the most random ones, 🫤 would be five if they had more color and songs, over all good 👍.
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Could be so cool but...
Starting with the positives: The pixel matrix device that this app works with is well-built and looks fantastic. It has a nice case and bright screen with a grid between the LEDs and the outer part of the screen’s surface that makes each LED look like a square pixel. On the hardware level, I have no complaints, but instead, I am impressed with the quality.
What’s a shame, though, is the problematic user interface, the fact that the images/gifs (after you take forever programming them into a playlist) only show on the screen for a few seconds (and so you hardly get to see them at all!), the limited, energy consuming, and unattractive clock options, and a buzzer that either plays for every new image you program to show or none of them (no time of day based settings options).
The whole reason I got this screen is so I could have a rotating collection of images and gifs to play at specific windows of times in the day - to remind me that it’s time to do things I sometimes get too busy to remember (take my meds/vitamins, drink water, exercise, etc.) I also thought it would be cool to have it show gifs at certain times of the day (that I don't forget), like a burger and fries for lunch, etc.
I assumed I could use this app to program the screen to have the screen rotate between the built-in clock and these images in blocks of time, but the photos only show for 5 seconds, tops, at the start of each event, and they go away! For real, if you blink or have your head turned oh well, all you see is the ugly clock you always see.
Who stares at their matrix waiting for the exact 5 seconds that an event starts so they can see the cute pic or gif they programmed to remind them of a task?
The logic is all wrong in this app. The user should be going about their day and then notice that the screen is repeatedly showing that cute reminder image and the persistance of that image should remind the user of the task they need to do, lol.
Because of these things and because the clock options are all pretty ugly, let's be honest, except for the Christmas one (which is super cute... but no one wants to use it all year round), I got bored and disappointed in my purchase of this app and clock, very fast.
Also, because there is no escaping the ugly clocks - the system plays the clock 24/7 whether you want it to or not (which, by the way, are so overly colorful that they burn a lot of power, even in low power mode ), this clock sits on my shelf unplugged until I can find a way to hack into the panel and put other firmware in it or just put a whole new led panel + chip in the case and run something like WLED iPhone App or, better WLED via Home Assistant in it.
Or yes, if the makers give us a good software update, that would be great!
So the pixel matrix’s physical case and gridded screen, at this point, are the most valuable things about this product, but, thus far, modifying the firmware and or finding a replacement LED board and installing my driver chip is nearly impossible because the spacing of the leds is minimal / nonstandard …. which is a further shame. After all, again, the led matrix is super high quality, but you can’t do much with it because the software is so limiting.
The BEST solution would be for the makers to release more clock options via NEW firmware or software updates or at least give us more clock color options (more clocks that are minimal with mostly black backgrounds for energy efficiency) … but I’ve had this clock a year now, and nothing has changed (I will change my review if this happens).
Next would be for them to make the images stay up longer; this is probably the most frustrating FAIL of this clock. The images need to be visible for programable windows of time and not just for seconds! —We should have, for example, the ability to program our “medications” reminder image to stay up for the length of time we want, like 15 etc. minutes. The display could rotate between the clock /date and the reminder gif from, say, 12:00 to 12:15; this way, we get to see actually see the event/image.
Unless you use the buzzer or are staring at your clock 24/7, you’ll never see all those cute pixel art moments you bought the clock for. So frustrating.
The next improvement would be for the buzzer to be programable for each notification. It is frustrating that it is either ON for ALL of the images/events or NONE. If you used the buzzer for day events, you hear the buzzer at night, too, so guess what? You don’t program the images into the event list.
Lastly, for the makers to make the programming user interface of the playlists/ event lists much more accessible to edit … it is hard to make changes.
For example, say you finally make a full-day playlist of events/images but then realize that you forgot one even at the beginning of the day. You either have to delete something you already have listed to enter the event you forgot, or you have to reprogram all the events you already entered (everything) after the event you forgot to add.
So, say you have 30 events/pictures/gifs scheduled (you have to do this cause you’ll never see any of the 5 second images otherwise). You forgot to add breakfast images for the morning; well, you are screwed because you can not just insert a new event (insert facepalm emoji).
The user interface for other things such as the make your own animation feature need a ton of work too (it’s super difficult to save frames in the right order and then save out files and I can’t figure out if the gifs can be exported to our phones). But that’s all less pressing, in my view.
I’m giving this app/product 2 stars because the screen is well-built. I’m tempted to give it 1 star because mind is collecting dust. After all, the app/firmware is almost pointless.band users cannot update, upgrade, or modify the firmware.
If this product is given to child, you may get more use from it.
Lots of missed potential here.
What’s a shame, though, is the problematic user interface, the fact that the images/gifs (after you take forever programming them into a playlist) only show on the screen for a few seconds (and so you hardly get to see them at all!), the limited, energy consuming, and unattractive clock options, and a buzzer that either plays for every new image you program to show or none of them (no time of day based settings options).
The whole reason I got this screen is so I could have a rotating collection of images and gifs to play at specific windows of times in the day - to remind me that it’s time to do things I sometimes get too busy to remember (take my meds/vitamins, drink water, exercise, etc.) I also thought it would be cool to have it show gifs at certain times of the day (that I don't forget), like a burger and fries for lunch, etc.
I assumed I could use this app to program the screen to have the screen rotate between the built-in clock and these images in blocks of time, but the photos only show for 5 seconds, tops, at the start of each event, and they go away! For real, if you blink or have your head turned oh well, all you see is the ugly clock you always see.
Who stares at their matrix waiting for the exact 5 seconds that an event starts so they can see the cute pic or gif they programmed to remind them of a task?
The logic is all wrong in this app. The user should be going about their day and then notice that the screen is repeatedly showing that cute reminder image and the persistance of that image should remind the user of the task they need to do, lol.
Because of these things and because the clock options are all pretty ugly, let's be honest, except for the Christmas one (which is super cute... but no one wants to use it all year round), I got bored and disappointed in my purchase of this app and clock, very fast.
Also, because there is no escaping the ugly clocks - the system plays the clock 24/7 whether you want it to or not (which, by the way, are so overly colorful that they burn a lot of power, even in low power mode ), this clock sits on my shelf unplugged until I can find a way to hack into the panel and put other firmware in it or just put a whole new led panel + chip in the case and run something like WLED iPhone App or, better WLED via Home Assistant in it.
Or yes, if the makers give us a good software update, that would be great!
So the pixel matrix’s physical case and gridded screen, at this point, are the most valuable things about this product, but, thus far, modifying the firmware and or finding a replacement LED board and installing my driver chip is nearly impossible because the spacing of the leds is minimal / nonstandard …. which is a further shame. After all, again, the led matrix is super high quality, but you can’t do much with it because the software is so limiting.
The BEST solution would be for the makers to release more clock options via NEW firmware or software updates or at least give us more clock color options (more clocks that are minimal with mostly black backgrounds for energy efficiency) … but I’ve had this clock a year now, and nothing has changed (I will change my review if this happens).
Next would be for them to make the images stay up longer; this is probably the most frustrating FAIL of this clock. The images need to be visible for programable windows of time and not just for seconds! —We should have, for example, the ability to program our “medications” reminder image to stay up for the length of time we want, like 15 etc. minutes. The display could rotate between the clock /date and the reminder gif from, say, 12:00 to 12:15; this way, we get to see actually see the event/image.
Unless you use the buzzer or are staring at your clock 24/7, you’ll never see all those cute pixel art moments you bought the clock for. So frustrating.
The next improvement would be for the buzzer to be programable for each notification. It is frustrating that it is either ON for ALL of the images/events or NONE. If you used the buzzer for day events, you hear the buzzer at night, too, so guess what? You don’t program the images into the event list.
Lastly, for the makers to make the programming user interface of the playlists/ event lists much more accessible to edit … it is hard to make changes.
For example, say you finally make a full-day playlist of events/images but then realize that you forgot one even at the beginning of the day. You either have to delete something you already have listed to enter the event you forgot, or you have to reprogram all the events you already entered (everything) after the event you forgot to add.
So, say you have 30 events/pictures/gifs scheduled (you have to do this cause you’ll never see any of the 5 second images otherwise). You forgot to add breakfast images for the morning; well, you are screwed because you can not just insert a new event (insert facepalm emoji).
The user interface for other things such as the make your own animation feature need a ton of work too (it’s super difficult to save frames in the right order and then save out files and I can’t figure out if the gifs can be exported to our phones). But that’s all less pressing, in my view.
I’m giving this app/product 2 stars because the screen is well-built. I’m tempted to give it 1 star because mind is collecting dust. After all, the app/firmware is almost pointless.band users cannot update, upgrade, or modify the firmware.
If this product is given to child, you may get more use from it.
Lots of missed potential here.
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Almost good
The smallest font is 16 pixels, you can’t even fit one word on the screen, why not allow 4 and 8 pixel font, so you can actually type full words. Also maybe have option to make noise at end of timer.
Cool but not enough color options
This app is cool but when you’re making your own design you can’t use the colors black, brown, and gray. That’s really annoying if you want to make your pet’s face. The app would be better if you could copy and paste while making animated pictures. That would make it easier.
Fun device, but some notes
This app is for the iDotMatrix device and it works well for loading images and setting up animations, and it has a little library of fun animations and a few gizmos like a clock, calendar and scoreboard. The “Graffiti” drawing mode in this app is rudimentary - for example the colour picker only offers a full-bright hue spectrum with all the tones to white, but no dark tones. You cannot pick any dark colour! But you can load in images from your camera roll, so you can make your pixel art images in any app you like and export them to your camera roll, then transfer them to the device, show them, set up animations etc :)
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Energy saving mode not working correctly
(Edit: 8-3-2024) multiple updates since my first review and the issues I have list below with the power and brightness setting not being implemented correctly have not been addressed. I am reducing my rating to 2 stars until this basic functionality is fixed. (Original review) I own both the 32x32 and The 1+3 iDotMatrix displays. The 32x32 pixel panel will not turn completely off using the energy saving mode in the apps settings menu. When setting the display to 0% it will instead dim to about 10% brightness. This is not an issue for the 1+3 version which turns completely off when programed with the same schedule using that same app setting. The only workaround is to manually hit the off button once you’ve opened the app and connect to the device. While the app is not perfect its other features seem to work very well. However this bug is keeping me from giving it anything higher then three stars. Hopefully the devs see this review if they are not aware of the issue and fix this bug soon.
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Bad connection
Unit keeps dropping out and connecting the app to the unit again is not simple big flaw! Also why the 17+ age limit on the app? Could be much better
Amazing!
Maybe add an option to search for artwork via name
Good but could be much better
Please add a search filter. Scrolling through all the content each time is tedious and bad in 2024. Also there is no live data whatsoever only on clock mode. That is very disappointing and the it was advertise showing live stock ticker data, etc. That is misleading. Overall product works very well and app interface/content on app is good. Just pay more for a Divoom one and avoid this for now
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