surveillance-camera
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Dropcam adds splitscreen support to iPad app
Dropcam is known for its simple-to-setup and easy-to-use WiFi video monitoring cameras. The Dropcam HD camera sends out an impressive 720P HD video feed and is reasonably priced. The security camera ships with a companion iOS app that was recently updated with support for the iPad and multiple Dropcam HD cameras. With this latest Dropcam update, you can essentially turn your Apple tablet into a mobile surveillance station. You can install Dropcam cameras throughout your house or office and use your iPad to view video from all the locations at the same time. You can view up to four surveillance feeds at once on a single page and swipe to the next page to see more. Besides monitoring, the app also lets you grab snapshots from the video feed and even record live video, both of which are saved to your iPad photo gallery. If you subscribe to the DVR option, you can watch your recordings on your iPad. The new app lets you scroll through the video and glance at thumbnails that mark when motion and audio were detected. The Dropcam app is available for free, and the Dropcam HD cameras cost $149 each. [Via Tech Crunch]
Logitech Alert 750n adds wide-angle night vision for improved indoor snooping, we go hands-on
Unable to sleep soundly because of the lingering fear that someone's rummaging around your living room? Logitech's newest surveillance gizmo, the 750n Indoor Master System, should ease your worries, since it adds 130-degree night vision and illuminates whatever's lurking in the darkness at a distance of up to 50 feet. Like Logitech's older products, such as the Alert Master, the 750n records video at 960 x 720p, and it uses the same HomePlug adapter for installation. If you're already feeding your paranoia with a Logitech Alert Master, you can upgrade to the night-vision capabilities with the 700n Indoor Add-On Camera. The products cost $300 and $230, respectively, and will be available before the end of the month, but you can join us after the break for our impressions.
Mushroom Networks ThirdEye makes surveillance mobile, peeping on perps goes wireless
Wires are messy -- especially, if you're running lines for (homeland) security. But for those sectors specifically concerned with keeping tabs on potential miscreants, Mushroom Networks' ThirdEye is poised to get the job done while dispensing with all of that unnecessary, tethered clutter. The currently available device, pictured above, utilizes the company's Broadband Bonding tech to mesh bandwidth across several cellular data cards into one high-speed connection for PTZ cameras (pan-tilt-zoom), letting corporate or government users patrol their perimeters remotely in real-time. The cost of this surveillance freedom won't come cheap for Uncle Sam and friends either, with prices starting at $3,190. Unless you're the Howard Hughes homebound-type, you won't be needing this level of protection. No, that's what the Slomin Shield is for. Official PR after the break.
WiFi Baby 3G review, or: How we learned to stop worrying and love a surveillance camera
Obsolescence. Its avoidance is the biggest problem facing any gadget nerd. This affliction, this curse that disables so many would-be tablet and smartphone buyers, only intensifies for those of us who somehow manage to procreate. See, newbie reproducers, temporarily insane from an overblown sense of paternal concern, will pay just about anything for products promising to make their new baby healthier or happier, regardless of the product's potential lifespan. Come on, parents, admit it. Just look at that $100 bottle sterilizer you've already replaced with a more convenient pot of boiled tap water. Or how about that $380 hands-free breast pump that went idle after 6 months of occasional use or that $1,000 euro-exotic stroller that turned out to be too bulky to regularly transport by car? Your well-meaning, but irrational ways made you an easy target for the baby-care industry that places your ilk on the sucker-side of the consumer savviness scale. Just look at the extortionary prices of the typical babycam. You can easily spend between $200 and $300 for a so-called "top-of-the line" monitor that's plagued by radio interference, poor range, and shabby video quality. To make matters worse, these single-purpose cameras lose their usefulness once baby is grown. So what's a rational, resourceful parent to do? Easy, use an IP-based surveillance camera as a baby monitor instead. Not only do you get a superior wireless camera for about the same price (or less), you have the option of repurposing it for inclusion in your home automation or security system after baby is grown. That's what we've been doing for several weeks now thanks to WiFi Baby. And you know what? We'll never go back to traditional baby monitors again. Click through to find out why.