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760 Review
29 Karma

Review on πŸ”Ž Rare Find: Discontinued Circle with Disney - Limited Stock Available! by Demarco Vonk

Revainrating 3 out of 5

I wanted to wait before writing my review until I had given it a good chance and had time to see if it would do it or not.

We've had this machine for about two months now. I wanted to wait to write my review until I've done well and see if it's good for our family. In theory this is an amazing device, just what I was looking for. Although some of the functions are really useful, in practice the device has a number of shortcomings or limitations that make it almost useless for our family. First, good. I found the device fairly easy to set up and the profiles relatively easy. The only downside here is that it's difficult to analyze and find each of the devices in your house by their MAC addresses. You'll be surprised how many devices you have in your home with a MAC address, so be prepared to spend some time identifying them. For us, that included our Revain Echos and Dots, our printer, router, cell phone booster, cable TVs, Roku streaming device, phones, computers, iPad, Kindle Fire, and (you get the idea. ) . This isn't Disney Circle's fault though, so it didn't affect my review of the device. Once I finally identified my kids' devices and set up our profiles, we were good to go. I noticed a slowdown in our device and network. Where we live we already have terrible coverage, so I figured we'd see a drop in performance. While that's noticeable, it's not enough to ban use of the Circle. I like that the device shows the usage of each profile we set up and breaks it down into categories and specific apps. I love that I can choose a general filter like "Teens" and then also filter out specific sites and apps that we don't allow. I like that I can track which pages have been visited. BUT. That's what I don't like or what really upsets me. Kids can easily look around before bed if they want to get online and check something by quickly turning off Wi-Fi and using their cellular network, then turning Wi-Fi back on when they're done. In the History section, Circle will list and track the many websites and apps that have been shared throughout the night. This caused some controversy in our family at first, until we realized that Circle was catching things like auto-update apps at night! I found this out by testing my own device at night. I called Circle's support and they admitted that the app (at the moment) can't differentiate or enumerate when it's just the app doing the update itself and communicating with Wi-Fi. In my opinion, this makes the history section almost useless as I can't tell if my kids are on Snapchat at night or if it's just the app itself. Here's another very specific disappointment. My children are not allowed to use Facebook. I set it as "not allowed" in their profile filters. However, every day (and night) a lot of Facebook time is listed in the "History" and "Usage" sections. I've verified (using mommy superpowers - I can't reveal my secrets!) that my kids DO NOT have FB accounts, and yet FB is still listed in the Usage section. Most likely Circle only captures the connection between Instagram and FB as they are related in so many ways. It seems to be the case with me too. If I'm not on FB during the day but log in to Instagram, FB shows up in my stories section. I believe these limitations in Circle make it almost useless for us. If I can't reliably tell what my kids are using and what's not, and I have to guess if it's just an app update or if my kids are actually using it, how can that be helpful? For now, I'd personally recommend holding off on this device until Disney fixes some of these limitations.

Pros
  • Content Filter
Cons
  • Something Else