
Mother - rkrkrk21
https://sen.se/store/mother/?utm_expid=78993385-1.X-oIkUsIR8aRPG13DPrvIg.0
======
michaelwww
First I've heard of it, but I had the same reaction as Cringley. Maybe it's an
age thing.

 _" Imagine v1 of Big Brother's -- or NSA director Keith Alexander's -- most
inflamed fever dream: a sensorbot shaped like a Russian nesting doll wearing a
Hindi-cow smile. Then terrifyingly name it "Mother" and build it specifically
to monitor as many facets of your personal life as it can. Are you schvitzing
yet?"_

[http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/sense-mother-may-i-
the-m...](http://www.infoworld.com/t/cringely/sense-mother-may-i-the-most-
disturbing-tech-of-ces-233998?page=0,1)

~~~
rosser
I can't dispute the age thing, given that I'm in the oldest 5 or 10% of the
community according to the various age polls we've had over the years, but my
reaction (not having read Cringley's review) was, "Can this thing get any
creepier? Oh, look; it can."

~~~
michaelwww
I'm in the older age group and afaik so is Cringley since he's been around
forever (if it's still him writing under that name.) I thought, well, maybe
the kids will like it.

~~~
SiVal
The writer is not Mark Stephens, the PBS Cringely whose name is the first
Google hit, but a current InfoWorld staff writer. I suspect they would share
this opinion, though.

------
nostromo
Wait, is this real? It seems like commentary on the current zeitgeist, not a
real product.

> _Mother. Mother knows everything._

> She's like a mom, _only better._

> Sense: _the meaning of life®_

edit: I see they are based in France, so perhaps the branding didn't translate
well.

~~~
mortenjorck
Even allowing for a language barrier, this has to be the most overtly Huxleyan
branding I've seen on a consumer product. It's unnerving.

~~~
allochthon
_this has to be the most overtly Huxleyan branding I 've seen on a consumer
product_

Which isn't necessarily a bad thing for the product they're selling, which is
both cool and odd in a 1984 kind of way.

~~~
mmanfrin
1984 was Orwell. Huxley was Brave New World.

~~~
sneak
Also, it seemed to me that the dichotomy set up in BNW is that "natural is
good and right, artificial or new is bad" \- one that has soured me on Huxley
basically since when I first read it.

~~~
romaniv
The author commented on that in his foreword of later editions of the book. He
said something along the lines that if he was writing the novel later in his
life, the dichotomy wouldn't be as pointed.

------
devindotcom
I played with this at CES. The "mother" bot is basically just a router. The
little things only sense motion, and when I asked the lady said they had no
plans to add any other types of sensitivity - temperature, moisture, light,
current, etc. Compared with the other 'internet of things' kits out there
battling for visibility, this one doesn't seem original or more useful, only
visually striking. The tags are also pretty big for what they do. A useful
thing for $50 maybe to buy once, but really doesn't seem like a worthwhile
'ecosystem' to buy into in any big way.

Also, I was unhappy to learn upon close inspection that the face is a sticker.

~~~
jfoutz
weird. the webpage says the motion sensors also sense temperature.

~~~
devindotcom
Really? I asked specifically about temperature and the lady said nope. Maybe
she wasn't aware. Well at any rate I take that bit back. But I still think
these things are multiplying and buying into this one would be extremely
premature.

~~~
giarc
I'm sure they debated adding light sensors, but perhaps they figure that
adopters of this may have also adopted wifi connected lights which could be
built into the software.

------
vertex-four
As a young person who wants to remember to take her pills, to cut down on her
soda consumption, to track how much she exercises (and maybe turn it into a
game of walking further every week), and no doubt some more that I can't think
of right now, this product sounds like it'd be amazing.

The video is a brilliant marketing asset. It showed me some very real problems
of mine, and how it could help me solve them (by tracking things that I want
to, and gamifying them).

The only issue is cost. As a young, single person, £166 is prohibitively
expensive. It's likely not worth it for me. Is it worth it for people with
families and kids? If they had £166 to spend, could they find something more
pressing to spend it on?

~~~
woofyman
I'll save you money. I'll be Dad. Stop drinking soda and walk more.

~~~
bluejellybean
This comment is fantastic! The trend in pointless analytics is annoying and
isn't solving any real problems. All the ‘problems’ Mother solves are not
really problems and it doesn’t seem to serve any truly useful purpose.

Wakeup times - Already solved by the alarm on your clock. Managing drink
consumption - Drink more or less than you currently do. Staying fit/active -
Go workout/exercise once a day. Step tracking - One of the more silly trends
lately. Does it honestly matter how many steps you took today? No, not really.
Pill taking - A weekly pill container solves this already for a few dollars
and is old person friendly. Check-ins - Have your kid text/call you when they
arrive home. Can’t use a phone? Don’t leave them alone. Brushing teeth - Does
anyone here not brush their teeth? Anyone at all? Guess that problem doesn’t
really exist. Temperature - Look at your thermostat. If you really care, go
buy some nest products, they got you covered.

This product tries to make you feel like you have no idea what is going on in
your everyday life (but don’t worry, they can help!). You have your own daily
pattern and I guarantee you know what happens in it already. Don’t get me
wrong, this thing has potential in other specialized areas but for its
intended purpose and what most people will end up using it for, it’ just more
gadget bloat.

~~~
amirmc
To summarise your comment: "Bah, Humbug."

More seriously, I think you're being way too dismissive. The same train of
logic could apply to any tech advances we've had. Email? Use letters.
Smartphones? Use a proper computer. Social networks? Use a paper address book.
Do you feel the same about those?

Compliance is a big problem for medicine. Motivating people (nay, yourself) to
be active is a problem. Keeping track of shopping/groceries is a problem in a
busy or shared house. Whether they are _enough_ of a problem to build a
business around is another question.

~~~
bluejellybean
I disagree that the same train of logic could be applied to other big tech
advances. The pieces of tech you stated are better than the alternative by
leaps and bounds. They all reduce the time (and money) it takes to communicate
by huge margins.

For medication, I can only speak from personal experience and I could be
completely off base. As far as motivation, my active friends don't use/care
about fitness apps and my inactive friends can't be bothered to use the bloody
things anyway. Obviously this all comes back to personal experience and I
would love to be proved wrong (always interesting seeing a product/service you
think is crap get huge) but until it takes off I am skeptical of its actual
value

~~~
mattmanser
It's for your inactive friends who want to become active.

One of the things that you'll notice if you go to /r/loseit is how obsessively
weight losers will measure _everything_. It's a way to keep themselves focused
and accountable.

I can see the uses for this, just, as many people are saying, very creepy
branding.

------
pcurve
We all may be suffering from a case of Fortune 100 CEO syndrome. That is, we
all wish our lives are so busy and important that we need personal assistants
managing our lives.

So we buy these products that make us feel more important. It documents what
we do, and it tells back our story through a dashboard, in an autobiographical
way, as if we're some kind of celebrities.

But are we that important?

~~~
krz
It's all about measurable goals and improvements, not about importance.

~~~
nilkn
I think his point is that this doesn't provide much in the way of meaningful
measurements or analytics. It's not actually a better way to, say, track soda
consumption--it's just more self-aggrandizing.

~~~
Houshalter
I don't know if that's actually true, I would like a tool to keep track of
this stuff for me but I don't at all feel some "desire to be a celebrity with
assistants." Yes I suppose I could carry a notebook everywhere. I have failed
doing that in the past though and I don't know anyone that keeps such detailed
statistics. Especially on things like the exact time they wake up, come home,
get coffee, etc. I imagine it would be a hassle to manually keep track of it
all.

~~~
vidarh
I try, and for periods have succeeded, in tracking my diet and weight in
detail, partly to support my exercise and partly because I'm prone to over-
eating... The biggest challenge is that it needs to be _extremely_ simple. A
notebook sort-of works - it's easy to jot something down -, but with the
caveat that taking the time to transfer notes and add up calories etc. to
actually get any use of it is slow.

Smartphone works for me, but only with an app that is tailored to my workflow.
Sensors that could capture lots of it semi-automatically would make a great
deal of difference.

------
cromwellian
The way the thing is filmed with the smiley face and lighting up eyes, I could
easily imagine a sci-fi horror film being based around it. :)

More seriously, the idea of using cheap motion trackers to track usage of
things in the home is very interesting.

When Google acquires this, it'll make the Nest complaints pale in comparison.
:)

~~~
crbnw00ts
> The way the thing is filmed with the smiley face and lighting up eyes, I
> could easily imagine a sci-fi horror film being based around it. :)

Like this?

[http://i.imgur.com/W1s9crO.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/W1s9crO.jpg)

In all seriousness, I feel it is only a matter of time before someone dies as
a result of their home automation being hacked.

~~~
angersock
my god this is an accurate depiction of chef

------
CodeMage
That was a _really_ poor choice of a name. It took me less than 10 seconds to
start hearing Pink Floyd's "Mother" [1] in my head. Once that started
happening, I just couldn't stay objective while looking at the pitch.

[1]:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0HrrR9QDQU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0HrrR9QDQU)

~~~
rosser
Better Pink Floyd's "Mother" than Danzig's, which is where my poor brain went.

~~~
Whitespace
It's been 3 hours and I'm still singing Danzig.

------
MartinCron
Just yesterday I posted a quasi-luddite rant about how these smart devices and
services are infantalizing.

And now they're naming one _Mother_? I can't tell if I should feel vindicated
or offended.

~~~
michaelwww
"All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace"

[http://allpoetry.com/poem/8508991-All-Watched-Over-By-
Machin...](http://allpoetry.com/poem/8508991-All-Watched-Over-By-Machines-Of-
Loving-Grace-by-Richard-Brautigan)

~~~
voyou
Which poem (as you may well know) provided the title for Adam Curtis's
interesting documentary about what happened when this cybernetic pastoral
utopianism began to interact with politics and industry:
[http://vimeo.com/38724174](http://vimeo.com/38724174)

~~~
michaelwww
I'd love to see the series updated. This would be a good opportunity for a
young filmmaker because the technology has advanced so much and the issues are
more relevant now than ever.

------
Jun8
Same French company that created the successful Nabaztag rabbit and then
couldn't cope with the traffic. I had my wife buy me one of those for
Valentines Day (stupid, I know) and after trying to do something useful with
it and getting frustrated I tossed it somewhere in my cube where it remains to
this date.

Apart from the super bad naming and Branding, this is another reason for me to
stay away from this mother rabbit.

~~~
hartator
I have one too and Mother definitely make me remember that. Shitty product
that looks good but neither useful or worked properly. In the end, they filled
bankruptcy throwing away their servers and I can't even turn it on to make it
work again. Funny part, my mother bought it to me!

[edit] and yeah it's obviously creepier than the rabbit

------
cracell
Cool product but very creepy branding. Might be ok to keep the name Mother but
shouldn't be emphasizing it as a "mother" on the site at all.

~~~
RexRollman
I think the product is creepy too. Maybe Google or Facebook will buy them.

------
ameswarb
Their tagline "Mother knows everything" is terrifying.

~~~
woofyman
Like the computer named "Mother" in Alien.

------
gjm11
This is the single creepiest thing I have seen in the last month.

------
fab13n
I haven't been so creeped out by an ad for quite some time.

This looks like a solution desperately looking for a problem; that is, unless
your problem is "I want to spy every single step of everyone in my family".

And seriously, "mother"? Do they even ever had one, to be that much off-mark?
The very first quality of anything motherly is to be human; this is a wireless
log collection system. Call it a "warden", or at best "coach", if you really
need an anthropomorphic comparison.

~~~
MartinCron
I could totally get behind calling something like this "coach".

------
atmosx
Apart from the privacy issues, which the community already raised here,
there's another fact that bothers me: _Applications do can not discipline
yourself for you_.

I have tried many applications which should _increase_ by productivity, sleep
quality, or you-name-name-it. I don't recall a single one that managed to do
so in the long run (most not even in the short run...).

So either one is open to change and that has little to do with technology
or... You're toasted anyway. But even when you _decide to change for yourself_
and not because a notification tells you to do so, these technologies become
time consuming and troublesome to use. Of course they look nice on TV and ads,
but in real life, most of them are frivolous IMHO.

------
dictum
Mothers watch their sons out of love and genuine care for their wellbeing.
Mine did a bad a job and that's why my next sentence will be bitter:

If a company wants to make me use a telescreen, they might as well make it a
suppository.

------
dmazin
God, the future is so fucking weird.

~~~
benched
And this is only the very, very beginning.

~~~
shalalala
Does anyone, anywhere really want everything connected to everything all the
time?

------
anonu
I think this is really cool and definitely brings us closer to the Internet of
Things. I don't think I would have anthropomorphized the system by calling it
"Mother" and putting an eerie LED smiley face on the base station.

I can't seem to find any technical info on the "cookies". Are they similar to
the technology in the Fitbit Flex, ie Bluetooth Smart coupled with some sort
of accelerometer. If that's the case, do the cookies need to be charged every
week. This remains the single massive downside to widespread adoption of such
devices.

~~~
orillian
Apparently they capture movement and temperature, and they can detect when
they are near their mother or not, they can store up to ten days worth of
data, and they have a one year battery life, using cell batteries. Not
rechargeable from what I gather.

~~~
marianov
What kind of processor and transmitter do they use to get such a long battery
life without sleeping device?

------
sheraz
More technology where none is needed. How about just being responsible and
accountable for our own actions?

    
    
      Want to improve ___ about yourself? 
      Just do it(tm). 
      Get it done(tm). 
      Do what it takes. 
    

I don't need devices and a dashboard to tell me I'm winning at life.

Fuck this arrogant and stupid product.

------
EdZachary4
They need the companion "Father - Common sense" to tell you not to waste your
money on nonsense like this.

------
hrktb
They would have called this little sister, they would avoid so much of
tastelessness surrounding their current branding...that put apart, what it's
doing is already 50% doable by current smartphones + an arm band eventually
(alarm , podometry, sleep control), and the other things it's trying to solve
doesn't seem to be solved in a reliable enough fashion.

You'll have to update your coffee capsule count every time you buy them.
Buying new packs when the opening the last set of capsule is ny far the
easiest way to manage I think.

You'll have to put the sensor on every bottle you drink.

If you care that much about toothbrushing, buy an electric toothbrush. A timer
will be integrated telling you when you pass the 2 pr 3 min mark.

Central temperature management would need a programmable device anyway, you'll
basically need a Nest I guess.

At the end, It doesn't seem so easy to use in practice, it will forward every
life information to an external server, and half of what it does is better
solved an other way.

~~~
mscarborough
No kidding.

Sorry Nest, but programmable based-on-your-schedule thermostats have been
around for a long time. Can't do it with your smartphone, but it's really not
hard to use the settings.

Coffee? Buy beans when you're running low, what about any of these things are
complicated?

------
woofyman
It may be an age thing, but it find it creepy and useless. I haven't needed a
Mom since I left home at 18.

------
carls
This seems to be a herald to the situation described in the poem All Watched
Over By Machines Of Loving Grace (1967) by Richard Brautigan.

    
    
      I like to think (and 
      the sooner the better!) 
      of a cybernetic meadow
      where mammals and computers
      live together in mutually
      programming harmony
      like pure water
      touching clear sky.
    
      I like to think
      (right now, please!)
      of a cybernetic forest
      filled with pines and electronics
      where deer stroll peacefully
      past computers
      as if they were flowers
      with spinning blossoms.
    
      I like to think
      (it has to be!)
      of a cybernetic ecology
      where we are free of our labors
      and joined back to nature,
      returned to our mammal
      brothers and sisters,
      and all watched over
      by machines of loving grace.
    

And yes, incredibly creepy.

~~~
Fasebook
Also a British documentary from 2011, very good, imho:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Watched_Over_by_Machines_of...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Watched_Over_by_Machines_of_Loving_Grace_%28TV_series%29)

[http://vimeo.com/38724174](http://vimeo.com/38724174)

------
state
I like how open-ended this thing is. I wonder if the market is actually ready
to move beyond domain-specific sensor hardware and in to something broader.
The aesthetic isn't quite my taste, but I'm very curious to see how their
users react.

------
aray
I'm surprised it doesn't have wireless. Places I've lived always have the
router tucked away in some inaccessible closet.

------
avighnay
This thread is a good example why name matters. If the same product was given
any other name, perhaps it would not have been noticed that much. A set of
motion sensors with a central comm hub.

The makers perhaps thought that the name 'Mother' would evoke care and love in
the minds of their users. To their agony, it is revealing in the thread that
though most people love their mom, they really do not want to be a 'watched
over' kid.

I guess it gives all of us that creepy feeling of guilt as kids when we stole
from the cookie jar and kept turning our heads with fear of being caught by
mom :-)

Note to self: keep relationship names away from product names, too much
friction ;-)

~~~
brazzy
Actually, branding and marketing something like this without invoking fears of
total surveillance seems almost impossible, especially right now.

~~~
mbrock
Well, you could maybe do something open for tinkering, and that doesn't
broadcast your whole life to a central server -- but is there any money in
that?

------
nilkn
> we reinvented mothers

> Mother knows everything (in red text at that)

> She's like a mom, only better

The branding of this is either creepy or crazy. Maybe it's a bit of both. But
I'm certainly not going to forget it, and the idea itself seems pretty
interesting.

~~~
Schwolop
If this gets popular, I wouldn't be in the slightest bit surprised if Coca
Cola sues them. That logo is a very similar red, and a similar "dynamic ribbon
device".

~~~
croisillon
Going through the website, I kept seeing "coca-cola" in the corner of my eye.
Probably too far from the original for suing though?

------
Yetanfou
Apart from all the other emotions which this plastic big sister evokes, I
wonder what it is that makes so many of these startups reach back to the crib
when it comes to branding their products. From this bastardized matryoshka
doll through Snapchat's Miffy-like ghost to Twitter's tweety to just about
half the iconography on tablets and smartphones, they all have one thing in
common: the more infantile the logo and/or branding, the better it is. Is this
idiocracy at work or are they all following some celebrity psychomarketeer's
edict about successful marketing to the attention-span deficient generation?

------
tomphoolery
This is fucking creepy. But like most creepy things, the idea is also kinda
neat. :)

------
notlisted
I like the concept. Surprised so many here are bugged by the marketing and/or
the technology. Maybe you don't have kids (yet)?

Above all, I like the neat interface of the apps (mockups?) and simplicity of
the cookie sensors. No charging nonsense, because they measure and buffer
stuff but don't transmit. 1yr battery life. 10 day memory.

Sure, I'd love to see additional, more advanced cookies that would require
charging, e.g. with built-in LED or vibration (reminding me when I enter or
leave, though my phone could serve that purpose), Data, GPS (though my phone
could serve this purpose, need an app that intercepts an SMS after presence is
detected to auto-upload GPS data), multi-mother stuff (one at work, one at
home), integration with home automation systems (someone below mentioned
frequencies indicate zigbee), Zapier/IFTT support and above all some sort of
data input/output API so I can import my own data points.

By the way, $222 for a mother and 4 sensors seems quite affordable to me.

The only thing that prevents me from pre-ordering a set is that the NaBazTag
history doesn't exactly instill much confidence in the makers' ability to
support this thing in the long run; I also wonder where the data is stored and
if it's remotely future-proof (data import/export/backup).

------
forgotprevpass
Does anyone know how the signals are being sent from the cookie to Mother? The
company mentioned in a CES video that they werent using the traditional
bluetooth, wifi, etc.

~~~
rawicki
The webpage mentions 915 MHz (America) / 868 MHz (Europe) radio. This is a
part of ISM band and the most popular radio for low power internet of things.
There are some microcontrollers with those radios integrated, for example TI
CC430. As far as I recall, there is no standardised protocol stack on top of
that.

~~~
zb
It's almost certainly ZigBee then:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZigBee#Radio_hardware](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZigBee#Radio_hardware)

------
dennisz
If you scroll down far enough, you get to the 'technical details', where the
device is described as 'a white mother'. I just found that funny, haha.

------
RutZap
I want everything Mother knows/finds out, to be stored locally (i.e. on my pc,
not in the cloud), to be kept secure, private and I want to access it at any
time from anywhere.... can Mother do that? I don't think so.

Still pretty good but as long as there isn't a privacy promise that would
satisfy the basic security principles (Confidentiality, Integrity,
Availability) I don't see it as a successful device.

------
jds375
Seems like a pretty cool product. They have an amazing design and a
beautifully done website too. Only thing I am a bit concerned about is the
price. It costs 222 USD for a base unit and 4 cookies (sensors). Here's a
video from CES2014 about it
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=024OPHSgOqo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=024OPHSgOqo)

~~~
usablebytes
I could find almost nothing on this thread to agree with. None of the other
comments here make sense. I have high respect for HN community but this page
make me doubt it. Why should we discuss the name? Apple, Windows - aren't they
funny product names? How does it matter? What matters is a new product is
launching - our community's criticism should help the product owner. If there
are things that we believe won't work - give reasons. Appreciate what's good
about it. Name, too, can be criticized but don't make fun out of it. Somebody
has worked so hard on making that product a reality; respect that hardwork.

What I like about the product is the very idea. And also the way they have
explained it on the website, the graphics, text everything. Really
appreciable.

------
buro9
The sync module reminds me of the Nabaztag (
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabaztag](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabaztag)
) and I wondered whether Mother was going to have signals and indicators so
that you didn't _have_ to use a mobile device for insight.

~~~
Timothee
That's the first thing I thought about and when I saw above that Sense was a
French company, I thought it might actually be related. Well, it is:
[https://sen.se/about/who/](https://sen.se/about/who/)

------
rglover
Will it send me a notification that says "don't disappoint mother" if I forget
to do something?

------
themoonbus
I was hoping for news about an Earthbound sequel, and instead I got this weird
little smiling pod.

------
zxcvvcxz
As I saw it popping up, I thought "wow that looks like a sex toy." Freudian
slip, whoops.

"Sense Mother is at the head of a family of small connected sensors that blend
into your daily life to make it serene, healthy and __pleasurable __. "

You never know.

------
nathan_f77
This is horrible marketing. Seriously, who came up with this creepy design and
name.

------
owenversteeg
I personally think that I don't need to spend $222 on something that seems to
be minimally useful. I don't need to monitor how often I brush my teeth, how
often I drink coffee, how often I water the plants, and how often I take
medication.

For the things on the list that are somewhat useful (like sleep logs + a
pedometer + temperature) I have a 1975 pedometer/calculator combo that's
worked fine since the day I got it, a notepad, and an infrared thermometer
that is a thousand times cooler.

I think the only people that will buy this are people that want Google
Analytics for their life.

------
Geee
What's going on in here? I don't get the negativity. I think the branding is
great, and I realized the function of the product immediately. Also I think
they presented it in a funny way (programmable mother). It's obvious that it
doesn't 'know everything', that was a joke. It has simple sensors and you can
collect data from those, there's nothing scary about that. The product is
interesting, but however not useful at least for me.

~~~
brazzy
I don't get not getting the negativity. This is straight out of the first part
of a dystopian horror movie.

~~~
r00fus
Sorry, which one? I'm not getting it. Mixed feelings on the branding, but my
mind didn't go to dystopia until I read comments here.

------
meandyounowhere
Concept is stupid as F __K. Why you need sensors just to know some basic stuff
such as taking pills, tracking health etc. You can use app also. All they are
doing is using sensor( motion sensors in particular) and send message to your
phone. So why would I spend $222 for something where I could just it with $10
reminder app ?

~~~
woofyman
Exactly correct.

------
Roelven
Happy to see the guys behind Violet are not giving up. I believe they're on to
something but the branding / language choosing is indeed poor. Whatever they
launch with now will surely be extended, I'm hopeful that they've learned a
great deal with the Nabaztag (which I've owned one back in the days).

------
Houshalter
I can't wait to have an AI virtual assistant that can keep track of and manage
all these mundane statistics for me.

------
samolang
Interesting concept. Simplify the sensors as much as possible and do all of
the work in the software. I'm guessing they have profiles that allow you to
determine how a sensor's data is interpreted. I wonder if they allow you to
define custom profiles or at least have access to the raw data.

------
Shtirlic
Looks like this was done before in Green Goose project in 2011
[http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/23/green-goose-sensors-
monit...](http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/23/green-goose-sensors-monitor-your-
life-you-earn-experience-point/)

------
girvo
So, Defcon last year had a talk where they hacked things (including a Bunny
ostensibly for watching your baby in another room) like this. And it was super
easy. I wouldn't out this anywhere _near_ my house or life.

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paul9290
This looks really cool, though I had no idea what this product did based on
their bloated landing/homepage.

Just a few picture examples with blurbs of text & a demo video would suffice
rather then an infographic type of website.

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pnathan
Like other people: it's an interesting idea, but the branding is dystopian.

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75lb
advertising slogan: "It's not enough to pipe every move, call, text and click
you make from your smartphone? Mother's sensors are cute, small and funky.
Collect more data for US spies today!"

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MiWDesktopHack
kill it. kill it with fire. this product collects the kind of personal data
that should not be handed to third parties. too ripe for abuse. too much
insight into your existence. a scary Orwellian nightmare.

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jawr
Did anyone notice this:

"Cookies immediately send everything they capture to the nearest Mother."

For me, that's a bit of a scary statement considering how intimate the product
is meant to be in someone's life.

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protez
This is one of the most horrendous brandings I've ever seen. Maybe, the
horrible branding is intentional, but it's damn too creepy for sane users who
dare using their product.

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webXL
Cheese.... wait for it... E!

And can I see the product without having to hunt down my country in a gigantic
freaking select box first?? Isn't it fundamentally the same in every country?

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thatthatis
What does it do?

I scrolled to the bottom of the page expecting some kind of explanation of
what it is and why I would want it or what need or want it solves. Nothing
that I could find.

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cm2012
To me, this is pretty awesome and not at all creepy (22). A friendly UI and
ease of use for life tracking? Yes please. Attach it to barbells to track
workouts.

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jnardiello
Beside the branding thing, i've lost my fitbit one in less than 2 weeks. How
long till i lose one of the cookies? Dongles are not for me.

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indigromer
I know I'm an unfortunate case but as someone with a recently deceased mother
I do not like this one bit.

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treenyc
Very nice, however unless all the hardware and software are open sourced. I
will not use it in my real life.

~~~
treenyc
FYI, check out

[http://openrtms.org](http://openrtms.org)

for more open source alternative for this. Many of these products are nothing
innovating in technology.

However, I do think the maker should be rewarded for design, packing (meaning
putting everything together).

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grumbles
I got confused for a second and thought I was still reading 'The Circle' while
reading this page.

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sifarat
I don't how I feel about this, right after watching the 'her' trailer. I am
speechless.

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mikegriff
Hmm, Ireland doesn't exist. I guess they don't want me to get one, or find out
about it.

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Houshalter
Can people please come up with better names for things, especially not common
English words?

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TeeWEE
So when I'm living in the Netherlands I cannot continue? (its not in the list)

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dlsym
> Mother. Mother knows everything.

I guess it's "Big mother is watching you" then.

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xianshou
Who knows you better than _your mom_?

From this marketing, I'd answer...Big Brother.

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jrochkind1
Are they TRYING to scare me?

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diu_9_commerce
Bad name - I hate the fact that mother knows everything.

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lcasela
The son could have easily tricked the sensor.

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nfoz
Have these people ever seen a mother before?

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pyrocat
...creepy...

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dpweb
Expected Pink Floyd link..

~~~
aeno
exactly my thought :D

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ilitirit
What does this gadget do?

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elwell
Doesn't look ready.

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michaelrhansen
makes me want to go bowling

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rambojohnson
ech, creepy.

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xname
Watching the video. First I liked it..... Then I hated it. It's too much. I
don't want that kind of life. I don't want Mother to watch at me everyday
every moment.

