Away? Relax. Your Nest security webcam just got smarter.
Poor webcams. Now that cameras come built into聽most laptops and phones, there鈥檚 little need to聽buy a dedicated Internet-connected video camera. Technological dinosaurs that they are, many聽webcams have died off, but some evolved into聽leaner, smarter beasts.
One of the best remaining webcams, the 狈别蝉迟听颁补尘, took on the traits of an inexpensive security聽camera. The slim camera captures high-definition聽video that聽owners may view from their smart phones.
After a big update in June, Nest鈥檚 mobile app聽can now tap into live recordings from each camera connected to an account. This makes it easy聽to switch from a view of the garage, to the living聽room, and over to a small business or vacation聽home. Nest Cam sends alerts to the phone app if it聽captures an unexpected motion or a loud sound. And聽people can talk through their phones to a speaker聽attached to the camera, such as to scold the family聽dog for sleeping on the couch while the humans are away.
The $200 Nest Cam builds on the successful聽model set up by DropCam, which Google鈥檚 Nest聽Labs bought last year. While watching live video聽comes free of charge, subscribers can pay $100聽a year to rewind the video up to 10 days into the聽past or $300 a year for Nest to retain 30 days of聽footage. Frequent users may also see their Internet bill go up, since streaming HD video can take聽a bite out of a family鈥檚 monthly data cap.
Another thriving survivor in these post-webcam days is the Withings Smart Baby Monitor.聽Research in the journal Developmental Psychology suggests that parents should not rush to their聽baby鈥檚 side every time it cries. With Withings鈥櫬�$250 camera, parents can peek in on the child聽from their phone or computer to see if those tears聽need to be attended to right now or if the baby is聽about to drift back to sleep.
Both cameras are built for indoor use only and聽lack many of the features of a full-fledged security聽package. But Nest and Withings designed these cameras to be easily set up in just a few minutes.
