Gadgetory

webcams are pretty much everywhere now you just don't buy them anymore they come built into your laptop lid in the front of your phone but cameras designed solely to stream video are still here and they're adding features you normally find in home security systems for about $200 you can get one that can record a day or even a week of footage it doesn't do everything home security system can't but it's getting close the best one out there right now is the Dropcam pro it's a small camera with a built-in stand that connects over Wi-Fi for $200 plus about $100 a year it will record and store a full week of footage in the cloud you can watch it on your phone or computer and even turn into a live webcam if you want to transform your living room or just your fish tank into a reality show but more importantly Dropcam does the best job at telling you what it's seeing and the most ways to customize your alerts you can set up zones around your house for it to keep an eye on things like your front door or windows you can set up alerts to go off only when it sees something in those zones while ignoring everything else Dropcam can also use your location so it only starts recording when you leave your house if there are any drawbacks is that Dropcam 720p video stream takes its toll on your monthly internet use another thing to consider is the price of the service using one of these cameras is about half the price of the hardware every year now if you want to save 50 bucks up front and potentially more on the price of storing recordings in the cloud you should check out arc softs a hundred and fifty dollars simply camp it does close to everything the Dropcam does plus facial detection so beyond telling you if something moved it can look for eyes nose and a mouth what I like best about this implica is that you can do everything on the app that you can do on the website there's no difference that means creating saving and sharing clips the other great thing is that there's a one-day plan it cost $49 a year unless you're going on vacation and end up having your house broken into that's a great amount of space it isn't as sharp as the Dropcam pro and it's not as wide you're missing out on programmable zones to track and monitor activity and things like Bluetooth which Dropcam uses to make setting up easier on your smart phone isn't there if these things matter to you you should spend a little extra on the Dropcam now if you don't want to spend anything on the service there's belkin's $130 NetCam HD plus like the Dropcam pro it got an all-glass lens that captures sharp video the big difference is that you're not going to pay for the recording service at least for now the downside the interface is a little crummy and the notifications aren't as useful as what you get on these other cameras one last thing if you're looking for something a little closer to an actual security system there's Piper for $199 you get a 180 degree fisheye lens an actual motion detector and a siren for scaring thieves away it can also control the lights in your house run for two to three hours on batteries and leave and keep an eye of a temperature this all sounds great but I found the mobile software fussy and right now the only way to check things out is on the app and not on a website none of these things are as good as keeping an eye on your home as a human or a robot someday but until then this is about as good as you're going to get without buying a full fledged alarm system Dropcam does a lot of the same stuff but cheaper right now there are million options out there the drop came to the best