Spy Net: Secret Mission Video Watch

The media could not be loaded.  I bought this watch for my daughter's birthday and my son is totally jealous. I think he might go out and buy one for himself.OUT OF THE BOXThe biggest downside is lack of instructions. That was the first thing I looked for as I unboxed it and it just wasn't there. They are downloadable from the manufacturer's website.Programming the time was intuitive. I didn't need instructions for that. Playing with the rest of the watch took a little more muddling around, but it's not extremely difficult. Young children might have problems with it, because it requires reading the menu and selecting appropriate options.The watch comes with a battery pack that must be disposed of. The watch is partially charged, so the kids can try it out for a little while, but it really should be charged up before use.Charging requires the use of a USB port. This can be inconvenient if one is not readily accessible.WATCHThe watch can display time in 12 or 24 hour mode (military time). Once the time for your child's time zone is set, he or she can see the time in any other time zone. Wow, I could totally use that feature for myself.The alarm function has several sound effects to choose from -- sonar ping, beep, klaxon, and a female voice saying "warning" -- very cool.There is a stopwatch and timer included (which has the same sound effects as the alarm).The only problem with the watch is that it goes to sleep after a few seconds of disuse. We have to wake it up whenever we want to see the time.VIDEO MODEThe video can either be done stealthily (only time displayed), or the child may choose to use the watch face as a viewfinder to film the action.I like the quality of the videos. For a toy, it does very well. I've captured some video in different lighting conditions to show you the quality. What you see in the video is its highest quality setting. It can also record in medium and low quality modes.The outdoor scene is under sunny conditions in the shade.The indoor scene is excellent, considering the poor lighting conditions. That was done in a dark room, all the shutters closed, except the one near the cat.PHOTO MODEThere is a time laps mode, which it only does in spy mode (only time displayed on the screen).There is also a non-stealth mode just like in video mode, where the image is shown on the watch face.I've taken some photos for you to judge the quality. They were done at the same time as the videos under the same conditions. Again, for a toy, I think quality is terrific.AUDIO MODEThis watch can record audio in normal mode (shows sound waves), or in spy mode (watch face displays time).GAME MODEThere are two games available on the watch. One is SpyNet Defense and the other SpyNet Combat. They are very simple games. The defense game involves a little rocket firing at objects falling down on it reminiscent of old time arcade games. The combat game is two fighters duking it out. The object is to block the opponent's punches and kicks.The games are not high tech by today's standards. In fact, those who are used to Nintendo DS will tire of these games quickly.LIE DETECTORI didn't think this part would work, but the lie detector seems to be more accurate than not. This is the coolest part of the toy. The kids get a kick out of trying to trick the watch.BUG DETECTORThis thing detects microphones and it works! I tried it without other microphones on and it doesn't detect anything. The minute I turn on a microphone, it finds it. Amazing.VOICE CHANGERIn order to use voice changer, go to audio first and record the audio. Then, go to voice changer and it will slow it down and make it sound deeper, or speed it up to make it sound like a chipmunk.3D CARDDon't throw away that cardboard card (like I almost did). It's not essential for game play, but it's neat for kids to see. Go to the SpyNet website, click on the 3D link and hold the card up the webcam. A 3D image of the product appears.It's supposed to be a 3D image of just what we bought, but it seems to just scroll through everything. When it stopped on my product, I held my fingers over the "info" box on the card and it stopped the images from scrolling and I could look more closely at the image of our watch.According to instructions, some 3D cards come with codes we could see by aiming the watch's camera at it. I didn't see anything on the card we got, but I got some codes from the internet and they unlock more games. One of them involves shooting the bad guy. If you are a parent upset about violent games, this might not be for you. I'm not sure how to remove the games after they've been unlocked.MISSIONSMissions can be watched online or downloaded to the watch. The kids don't need to have the missions to play with the watch. In fact, I prefer not to have to download missions. It encourages kids to take photos and videos of this and that and then upload them. They are innocuous things, but still. . . .PROS:+ watch, video camera, camera, lie detector, video games all rolled up in one+ good quality video and photo for a toy+ watch has all time zones, timer, alarm, stopwatchCONS:- no instructions included- requires USB port for charging- watch goes to sleep in 30 seconds, must wake it up to read the time- missions encourage uploading of videos and photos- games are low tech by today's standards- young kids may not be able to read the menusSUMMARYThis is a lot of watch in a tiny package. I am impressed with technology today that something like this could be a toy. My only suggestion to the manufacturer is to add a memory card slot so the kids can take more videos and photos. Other than that, it's a terrific toy.

My 13 year-old son has had this watch for over a year. So far he likes it and still uses it. It has had no problems yet. He also uses the snake-cam attachment.A while back I was trying to run a cat5e cable in the wall and couldn't locate the dangling cable. He brought this watch with snake cam to the room and we were able to see the cable hanging (with the aid of a flashlight). That was pretty cool, and impressed me.He doesn't use it every day, but I see he has it handy, plugged into a charger and ready to go, and I do see him use it occasionally, even a year later. He can download the videos to a PC for editing, etc.He does take good care of his toys, hardly any toys ever break with him, and this watch seems to be as good quality as any of his other hi-tech gadgetry. I would buy it again.

This has been a great toy for the kids. The video watch performs exatly as the manufacturer claims it will. It will record video, time lapse or still photos, audio, etc. The playback looks good and we have had fun pretending to be junior secret agents.You can upload your evidence on the SpyNet website for access later. The website itself has been diffucult to access just after the holiday; I think they are having problems with the sheer volume of traffic on the site. The look and feel of the website (spy headquarters) is very well done. There is also entertaining humor in the mission presentations.As far as educational value, this toy and the various missions are prompting my kids to translate time zones and solve other basic problems in logic. It also makes us use our imagination and we generally make up new missions as we go along. The lie detector app is really very fun. I'm not sure about longevity, but the toy seems pretty durable at this point.All in all I would highly recommend this toy for all grade school boys and girls.

My two daughters, 8 and 10, asked for these for Christmas. They were so excited to get them and have been playing with them ever since. The video quality is much better than I thought it would be and the watches have lots of neat features. They are easy to figure out but my daughters had trouble downloading the missions from the website. They love the voice manipulation feature where they record something and then play it back in high speed mode (sounds like Alvin and the chipmunks) or slow mode. Unfortunately, just last night the sound on the one stopped working. Not sure if it can be fixed. Until the sound went out, I would give these 4 or 5 stars but now I'm thinking maybe only 3 or 4.

Purchased this watch for Christmas present for my son(13 years old). He enjoys getting missions from the internet, also purchased the spy glasses which allows him to see what is going on behind him and the snake camera (cool concept but he does not use it much). Later found out that the entire kit composing of these toys together with an additional gadgets was a better price break, but hard to find. Watch is charge by linking to PC using USB port, this was unexpected but works fine as long as you do not lose the 1.5 inch adapter. Was more than I expected the toy to be. Week after Christmas and he is still playing with it...