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
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