August's smart doorbells now include 24 hours of video recording

Video doorbells are great for spotting visitors, but their live footage only goes so far. What if you don't pay extra for cloud storage and miss an important guest, or (perish the thought) a burglar? With August, at least, that shouldn't be an issue -- it's giving 24 hours of free cloud video to Doorbell Cam and Doorbell Cam Pro owners. This won't help much if you go on a vacation or need to keep footage for evidence's sake, but it could help you catch a lazy courier or give police a snapshot to work with.

Naturally, August is hoping you'll pay for a Premium Video Recording subscription ($5 per month or $50 per year) if you want more than a day's worth of archival clips.

There's no question that this is a competitive move. Amazon just acquired Ring, whose smart doorbells require $3 per month if you want to save any video in the cloud (albeit for a longer 60-day window). August is betting that it can fight its newly strengthened rival by giving you a freebie that might lead to a subscription down the road. Not that there's too much reason to complain -- this gives you at least some kind of buffer even if you can't justify a recurring fee.