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SwannEye HD ADS-460 Wi-Fi Security Camera: OK camera, awful software
We've tested a number of webcams and security cameras here at TUAW, but out of those we've tested, none have been designed to work both inside and outside of your home or business. The Swann ADS-460 SwannEye HD Wi-Fi Security Camera (US$179.99) comes in a stout weather-resistant casing and is also billed one of the few security cameras that specifically caters to Mac and iOS users. While the specifications and build quality of the ADS-460 appeared to be quite impressive, the Mac app used to set up the device was so bad that I cannot recommend this device to our readers. Specifications Weight: 1.48 pounds (670 grams) Resolution: 720p (1280 x 720) Frame Rate: up to 30 frames per second Night Vision: Uses infrared lamps for up to 32 feet (10 m) illumination Microphone: Users can listen to what's happening near the camera Weatherproofing: IP66 rating Micro SD slot for onboard recording OS X Requirement: 10.6.8 or later Design Highlights Many of the webcams and security cams that have been tested by TUAW are rather simple devices made of plastic that are obviously meant to be sequestered inside a home. Not so with the SwannEye HD. It looks like one of the security cameras you might find near a bank or government building, with a sturdy mount and a metal sun/rain-shade that fits over the top. Surrounding the "iris" of the camera is an array of infrared LEDs that provide illumination when it's dark. During daylight hours, you'll see a full color image; at nighttime, the image appears in grayscale. Since the camera is designed to be mounted outdoors if you wish, Swann provides a spool of power cable that makes it easy to plug the camera's AC adapter inside the home, then fish the cable through a small hole in an exterior wall to just about any location. Like most webcams and security cams, the SwannEye HD communicates over Wi-Fi. If you have a WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) compatible Wi-Fi router, setup is automatic. If not, you'll need to plug the camera into an Ethernet port on your router temporarily for setup. Functionality Highlights Even Apple's latest Airport Extreme Base Station doesn't support WPS setup, so I had to go through the "long process" to set up the SwannEye HD. This involves plugging in the camera, installing the software onto your Mac, then using it to create a user account and configuring the camera. If you don't have an external optical drive, don't worry! The SwannEye HD Pro software is in the Mac App Store, making it a cinch to download in seconds. Unfortunately, I found the app buggy, inconsistent, and in general a pain the butt to use. The app seems as if it were written by non-native English speakers and translated to English, as some of the splash screens that appear during the first startup have very odd wording. During setup, you must create an account with Swann, which takes just a minute. Once that's done, you can sign in, and you'll see that your camera is offline. This was the start of a real bout of frustration. Compared to other webcams like the Nest Dropcam ($199) that can be plugged in and almost immediately be up and running, this was like being waterboarded. I plugged the camera into an Ethernet port on my router, powered it up, and was able to log in to the SwannEye HD Pro app. The app differentiates between WAN and LAN connections, and I was able to view the video over the WAN connection, but had to log in separately to see the LAN image and set the device to run over my Wi-Fi network. However, regardless of what I tried to do over the course of the next two hours, I could not log into that LAN account. Finally, out of sheer frustration I looked in the troubleshooting section of the instruction manual and noticed a "default admin name and password". Although I had apparently set up a totally different account, all the camera would actually accept from me was that default name and password. I could seriously go on for about another thousand words on every wrong thing that happened during the setup process, but I won't -- let it just suffice to say that I wouldn't buy one of these cameras. When I was finally online and had the camera set up, I was able to bump the resolution up to 720p and was reasonably impressed with the image. The living room I was pointing the camera to is quite dark, and yet there was still good detail and I was actually able to differentiate my two black kittens. On the bad side, the camera has a limited field of view. One thing that I absolutely love about the Nest Dropcam HD is that it can pretty much cover an entire room with its ultra-wide field of view. Not possible here. For some reason, the OS X SwannEye HD Pro app kept dropping the LAN connection, although I could still view the live image from the WAN window of the app -- which means that it obviously it did a Wi-Fi connection. After about two hours of online use, the app let me know that there was a firmware update available. Why it didn't do that earlier is totally beyond my comprehension. I tried the iOS app (also called SwannEye HD) and found it to be fine for viewing the live images from the camera. There are buttons for toggling between HD and SD views (SD being less bandwidth-intensive for viewing over cellular data), taking images of what the camera is viewing, starting video capture, toggling an intercom feature that's not available with the ADS-460, toggling a listen feature that didn't work on either the Mac or iOS software), and controls for panning -- which is ridiculous because this camera doesn't have that capability. Sure, I can understand having one app to control all of the cameras in your product line, but couldn't you have the app just recognize that a camera doesn't have certain features and eliminate the useless buttons from view? Determined to find something good about the camera, I decided I'd test how it did looking out a window at a sunlit view and also how it did in complete darkness. The sunlit view really showed off the resolution of the camera; I could see the texture on individual leaves in a tree that it was pointing at, and I could see the leaves moving in a breeze -- at least on the iPhone app. The updates on the Mac version of SwannEye HD seemed to stop after a short while the iOS version worked just fine. In a dark room, the infrared LEDs glowed red to illuminate the scene. As expected, the image was monochrome and the camera did an "OK' job of picking up the illuminated scene (a bathroom wall). However, considering how dim the image was from just four feet away, I'm not sure that those IR LEDs would illuminate up to 10 meters away as advertised. Conclusion Software-controlled web and security cams are only as good as the software that is used to setup, configure, and view the camera's image. While the SwannEye HD ADS-460 seems to be a fine camera, the Mac version of the SwannEye HD Pro application really kills what could be a good experience. Unless the company decides to either completely redesign the Mac application and actually test it, or makes it possible to set up the ADS-460 from an iPhone or iPad, I definitely cannot recommend this security cam. Rating: 1 star out of 4 stars possible
Logitech announces $200 Broadcaster WiFi webcam for iPhone, iPad and Mac (video)
After trying (and failing) to surreptitiously shepherd it through the FCC, then seeing it leak out anyway, Logitech has formally outed the HD WiFi Broadcaster webcam. The 720P shooter (not 1080p as we hoped) allows wireless transmission from 50 feet away to any Mac computer, iPhone or iPad, instant broadcasting on Ustream and the ability to toggle between your device or computer's built in camera with a button push. The hard plastic carrying case with a magnetic lid doubles as a stand to elevate the cam, which Logitech says will "play nicely" with apps like iMovie, Final Cut Pro and FaceTime. Broadcaster is already up for preorder for $200 in the US and €180 in Europe, so if you want to show that you're doubly beautiful with a multi-cam Skype call, the PR and video are after the break.
Logitech's $180 WiFi webcam gets outed, targeted for the Mac
That mysterious Logitech WiFi webcam we spotted on the FCC in July might have finally been outed, thanks to a tip sent to Zatz Not Funny. This Logitech Wireless Webcam for the Mac listed on B&H certainly fits the bill, as it touts both wireless capabilities and apparently a rechargeable battery. There also looks to be an interesting status indicator on the top. Seeing as most Macs already come with a pretty decent front-facing camera, we're assuming the Logitech offers higher quality video (1080p perhaps?) and greater flexibility for broadcasting or recording to the cloud. The B&H Photo listing doesn't exactly provide many details, but it does reveal a $180 price tag. We'll be sure to keep an eye on this when it gets official.
Mystery WiFi Logitech webcam diagram appears, lacks role-reversing hardware photos
Logitech's collection of subtle HD webcams launched a few months ago, but an unannounced WiFi-connected camera has appeared at the FCC. Labelled up as the Logitech Broadcaster, a little bit of investigation reveals that the camera may be able to function unencumbered by cabling, similar to Livestream's identically-named Broadcaster add-on or the ill-fated FlipLive cams. Connected through WiFi -- thus explaining its appearance at the FCC -- we still don't know specifics on how it'll be powered, whether it's through a self-contained battery or otherwise. Until then, emissions and wavelength obsessives can direct themselves to the source for the science.
Robovie-mR2's puppy dog eyes make it the perfect spy
This Robovie isn't a dexterous grabber, a powerful computer or a walking tank like its Vstone counterparts. No, at first blush, the Robovie-mr2 is just your average designer Japanese cutebot, albeit one with an iPod Touch for a heart, but that's exactly why this one foot tall bot makes the perfect spycam. No one would suspect it hides 18 servo motors, a miniature CCD camera, speakers and microphone inside its demure, puppy dog exterior (hear it speak Japanese after the break), much less that you can directly control every movement over WiFi. And even should they catch your Robovie eavesdropping, they'd be hard pressed to execute a being with such powerful charm. Hit up the gallery if you don't believe us -- this robot knows just how to beg for its life. %Gallery-88939%
Chinese manufacturer sticks IP webcam on robot vacuum, calls it a day
WiFi-controlled sentry robots have been our playthings for a few years now, but sure as Sunday morning, they don't help us get much work done. Why would you, when you can discreetly spy on your house, kids and neighbors from the convenience of a web browser? That's what we thought. But now, there's a robot to assuade your guilty conscience: the G182, a complete VoIP webcam system built on top of a pseudo-Roomba. Sure, a Roomba-cam isn't really anything new, but while you wait for the real deal to shake off its economic funk (if it ever does), this yellow disc is the next best thing. For the low, low price of $500, you can once again feel like you're accomplishing something -- vacuuming floors and yelling at the kids to do chores -- while dodging the daily grind. Full specs and loads more pics at the source link.
D-Link gets official with mydlink-enabled network cameras
D-Link wasn't exactly dishing out a ton of details when it showed off its DCS-1100- and DCS-1130 network cameras back at CES, but it's now finally gotten fully official with 'em, and the new mydlink website that they're tied to. As you can see above, one of the cameras, the DCS-1130, packs some built-in WiFi (802.11n, no less), while the other keeps things wired to save a few bucks and please those still wary of wireless security. Otherwise, each are seemingly identical, and pack a 16x digital zoom, motion detection, a built-in microphone, support for 3GPP mobile surveillance (provided you have appropriate router) and, of course, support for remote monitoring from D-Link's new mydlink.com website, which apparently thinks it's 1999 and only supports Internet Explorer. If that's not too big a drawback, you can pick up the wired version now for $180, or grab the WiFi model for $230 at the end of the month.
Bandai's NetTansor: the WiFi webcam on wheels
We loves us a good robot 'round here especially when dubbed the "net tongue sir," the hotly anticipated followup to the "net tongue vogue." Ok, ok, it's just the machine translation acting up again, but from the looks of it, Bandai is set to literally rollout the NetTansor WiFi webcam on wheels starting December 16th for ¥50,000 (about $421). This 802.11b/g bot features bidirectional voice communication and a triptych of forward facing sensors with image recognition to avoid smashing into things for up to 2.5-hours of voyeuristic mayhem. However, at 290-mm/11.4-inches high and 980-grams/2.2-pounds in chub, he's not the sneakiest bot in the world. Now please, as always, keep this and all robots away from your man-parts. [Via Impress]
