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STEM Innovation IZON room monitor goes 2.0, now easier to set up
Last year I had the pleasure of testing a STEM Innovation IZON Remote Room Monitor, a small WiFi webcam that at the time had the honor of being the easiest webcam I'd ever set up. STEM has just come out with the second-generation device, the US$129.95 IZON 2.0 WiFi Video Monitor, and the company has outdone itself on making the little room monitor even easier to set up. Design The external design of the IZON is pretty much identical to last year's model, except the company has fortunately dropped the lower-case "i" on the name in favor of all caps. It's still a diminutive cylinder about 1.25 inches in diameter and about 3.25 inches tall, resting on a magnetic swivel base. It has a tiny cylindrical AC adapter that provides power through a standard USB-to-mini-USB cable. The company also supplies mounting screws should you decide to slap the camera on a wall or ceiling. It's interesting -- last year's marketing seemed more targeted at parents of newborns, while this year the product appears more oriented towards people who want to keep an eye on their homes. There are even two green "Monitored by IZON" stickers supplied that can be stuck on a door or window to scare away potential thieves. Functionality The big difference doesn't seem to be with the device, but with the accompanying iOS app. The name has changed -- it used to be called "Stem: Connect" and is now known simply as the IZON app. The app is free, but really has no functionality unless you have one or more IZON cameras. There are some other changes in the app. Previously, it was possible to automatically upload video to a YouTube account. Due to a change in YouTube's terms and conditions, the company now provides its own video hosting to which you can upload up to 25 videos -- either manually recorded or set off by motion or sound detection -- per day. Those videos can be viewed through the app up to seven days later. If you need to save a video of your new puppy ruining a $2,000 Turkish carpet, no worries -- IZON lets you save up to 100 video bits indefinitely. %Gallery-168977% As mentioned earlier, the setup process is simpler than before, befitting of a product from a company run by an Apple industry veteran. Now you plug in the IZON, log into the IZON app on your iOS device, tap a large button showing the flashing light pattern that's on your device, enter your WiFi network's password and then hold an app-generated QR code in front of the camera. Within a few seconds, the IZON is registered with the network and you're ready to roll. Like the previous version, the IZON app can be used to set up noise and motion alerts. For example, you can aim the camera at a particular area and be alerted whenever something in that area moves. There are also audio alerts, helpful for those situations where you might want notification if something noisy (like a window being broken) happens. Alerts usually showed up right away in the app, although iOS push notifications were sometimes delayed by several minutes. Apparently, the 30-second video clips that can be captured are supposed to show up under the alerts tab of the app, but twice I had to kill and restart the app before I saw any listing of videos or alerts on that tab. It may take a while to get the sensitivity set so that you're not getting alerts for every little movement of leaves outside a window or for every meow from your cat, but it is nice to get the notifications. One of my few complaints about the earlier version of the IZON is still valid -- there are no infrared lighting capabilities built in for viewing night scenes. Once the lights are out, you're going to see nothing but black on your iPhone or iPad screen. On the other hand, the IZON gives you much better color matching for brightly lit scenes, while the infrared-capable cameras usually do a deplorable job of making colors look realistic. STEM says that the equivalent of a 7.5W night light will do an adequate job of making a room visible. Finally, there's one other feature -- the ability to listen in on what's happening near the camera. The audio is adequate, with a bit of hiss, but definitely useful when you're trying to see and hear what's going on back at the house or office when you're away. Conclusion All in all, the combination of the updated camera hardware and the new IZON app makes a worthwhile product even more useful. This is a webcam you could give to your parents, and they'd be able to set it up in minutes -- and if they run into any problems, there's a support hotline they can call instead of haranguing you. Pros Same compact and clever design Excellent color matching Even more easy to set up than the previous incarnation Noise and motion alerts work with iOS push notification Can store up to 100 video clips on STEM's secure server Cons Price tag is high compared to other less expensive models that provide tilt/pan capabilities App has a few bugs, particularly in the area of alerts and video clips Who is it for? Anyone who wants an iOS-based home monitoring camera that's incredibly simple to set up and use right out of the box.
iZON Remote Room Monitor sleek, easy to set up, iOS-friendly
Stem Innovation just announced the stylish new iZON Remote Room Monitor on Monday, so it was a big surprise to find one in a package at my office on Tuesday. The new US$129.95 iZON (pronounced "eyes-on") is a Wi-Fi webcam that is definitely designed with Apple users in mind, as it is simple to set up and comes ready to send video to your iOS devices. In this review I'll provide a geek's-eye view of the specs, setup, and use of the iZON Remote Room Monitor. Design As you'd expect for a product that is targeted for Apple users, the iZON has a very eye-catching and unique design. The camera is going to be sold through the Apple Store, which means that it had to pass muster with the retail powers-that-be at Apple. The camera itself is a slim white cylinder measuring about 1.2 inches in diameter and 3.25 inches tall. One end of the cylinder has a spherical dish in it -- this sits atop a magnetic hemispherical base. The base comes with mounting screws, helpful if you decide to attach the camera to a wall or ceiling. The strong magnets in the base firmly hold the camera in place in any position you leave it in. Since the weight of the camera is less than an ounce (.74 oz. to be precise), you could even stick it to the side of a refrigerator! Power is provided by a small cylindrical AC adapter or by a powered USB 2.0 port. A cable runs to the camera and plugs into a mini-USB port on the back. Unlike many webcams, the AC adapter barely covers one plug and is so lightweight that it wouldn't be out of place while traveling. When plugged in, the camera starts by flashing an amber LED, which then turns to a flashing green and orange. The camera uses the same free Stem:Connect app that is also used with the TimeCommand clock / dock. Stem's idea is that you'll use the same app with any of the app-enabled accessories that they'll produce now or in in the future. %Gallery-132422% The resolution of the camera appears to be fairly low -- my guess (I can't find any specs that show the resolution) is that it is 320 x 240. While this may seem really inadequate considering that many of us own HD webcams, think about what this is being used for. When you're streaming video constantly to a 3G-connected iPhone or iPad, the lower bandwidth requirements are perfect. Functionality Setup of the iZON is incredibly easy; when you load the Stem:Connect app on your iOS device and request to set up a new device, the app leads you step by step through the process (check out the gallery for screenshots). To use the iZON, you need to set up a free Stem account, which creates a secure connection for access your video and audio. The setup requires just an email address and a password. Next, you plug the device in and position it somewhere. The device sets up its own "iZON" network that you connect to for identification of the unit. Once it appears on your iPhone or iPad, you tap the device button on the iOS device, and then it has you select your home network and enter its password. Seconds later, you're seeing video on the screen. The image that you view in the Stem:Connect app is time and date stamped, and there's a volume slider at the bottom. That's right - a volume slider, since the device also sends sound in real time. If you want to start a recording of what you're seeing and hearing, there's a tiny record button next to the volume slider that you can tap. The app is customizable so that you can set up various alarms. There are motion alarms, which "watch" for changes in a particular area. The motion alarms can be set to watch a door, stairs, or any other location, and you can set the sensitivity for the alarm. I found this to be rather tricky, since if I set the device to be insensitive, it wouldn't set off an alarm unless I was doing something obvious right in front of it, but if I sent it to be really sensitive it started sending alarms whenever a cloud passed by and blocked the sun. The next type of alarm is a sound alarm, which "listens" for sounds in the area of the camera. Once again, setting the sensitivity can take a bit of time, but it's fascinating to see how this works. Both the motion and audio alarms can be set to send video to a private YouTube account. This is very interesting -- the Stem server apparently captures a real time stream of video all the time, and when an alarm occurs, it "backs up" a bit so you can see a few seconds of video leading up to the alarm event. For example, I set up the iZON to watch a set of stairs in my house. When I go up or down the stairs, I get an alert message a few seconds later. Watching the YouTube video that is captured, it starts before the event and shows me walking by the camera to head down stairs. Alarms can also be set up as push notifications on your iOS device. There's some latency in the video, which makes sense since the stream is going out to a server and then sent back to your device for viewing. I found that the latency ranged anywhere from a 10-second low to about 18 seconds on the high side. The iZON is meant to be used in well-lit areas and does not include infrared lighting for nighttime viewing. If you want a camera that can watch a baby in a darkened room or check for raccoons walking around your garden at night, you're going to need something else -- or you'll need to leave a light on. My only complaint with the iZON is that I can't check the video stream from my Mac unless I'm looking at an alarm video on the private YouTube account. Being able to link to the camera from a Mac would be nice. Conclusion Sure, you can find less expensive room monitor webcams. You can find higher resolution webcams. There are webcams with motorized bases that you can control remotely. But I don't think you're ever going to find a webcam that's as easy to set up or as iOS-friendly as the iZON Remote Room Monitor. All I have to do is think back on my nightmare weekend of setting up two cheap IP webcams to realize that the 10-minute-maximum process for setting up the iZON makes the product worth the extra cost. As a way of keeping an eye (and ear) on a child, an elderly parent, a pet, or just your home, the iZON Remote Room Monitor is perfect for anyone who uses an iOS device. The design and ease of use makes the iZON like something that Apple would create, and as far as I'm concerned, that's the highest praise I can give any third-party product.
Stem's iZON Remote Room Monitor lets you spy on the babysitter from your iOS device
Stem has just come out with a new, wireless camera that could help put parents' minds at rest, while striking fear into the heart of virtually every teenager. Known as the iZON, this room monitor allows concerned and / or paranoid users to remotely watch and listen in on sensitive spaces, from the comfort of their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. All you have to do is download the free Stem:Connect App from iTunes and configure the device to alert you whenever it detects any motion or sound in within its vicinity. All content can be streamed across Edge, 3G, or wireless connections and will be safely encrypted, though if you feel like sharing your flatmate's daytime antics with the rest of the world, you could easily record video of him directly to YouTube. Check out the gallery below and the video after the break. %Gallery-131926%
