Moderately Useful - Give it Some Time – Parrot Flower Power Review

So far I have been using the device/app for only several weeks, but yet to see much usefulness. However I’m going to give it some time to see if anything changes. I am in an apartment and using the device with a potted plant that has been a bit picky. Perhaps this device is better suited to someone with a larger garden with multiple plants to monitor. Have experienced several issues so far: •Every so often I will get a cloud analysis error message, that the server cannot be reached for data analysis. Seems to be fairly sporadic. •I have yet to see any actual notifications from the app. It was my understanding that analysis would be performed in the background at certain intervals with the iOS device in range of the sensor, and notifications would be pushed to the iOS device. I only seem to receive new To-Do’s when I have the app open and am poking around. Additional observations/recommendations: • Ever since I have started using the device/app I have a constant To-Do to relocate the plant to an area with better sunlight. The plant is located by large west facing windows; this is the brightest spot within my apartment. Perhaps there should be a way to factor into the analysis the current season and location if not already. Obviously depending on location available light is going to be limited during certain seasons. • There is no explanation of the number values for the Y axis on both fertilizer and sunlight graphs. Would love to know what the unit of measurement is for both of these, as water uses a percentage and temperature uses Fahrenheit or Celsius measurements. • The cloud synchronization animation (showing the data being collected by the Flower Power and uploaded to the “cloud” for analysis) could be slightly confusing for people… as the cylinder shape is easily recognized by people that understand IT/Systems but not the general public. Perhaps it could be beneficial to change the cylinder to a cloud shape and follow that paradigm. • Would be great if the users account & information could also be accessed via a web app besides the iOS app.
Review by rberd on Parrot Flower Power.