Nest's new $299 home camera brings facial recognition and lossless zoom to your home security...

[midian182]

Nest hasn’t been in the news very much recently. The biggest headlines the Google-owned company made came last year when CEO Tony Fadell stepped down and it unveiled the follow-up to the Nest Cam: The Nest Cam Outdoor. But now it is introducing another camera – the Nest Cam IQ – which is as expensive as it is advanced.

The $299 (or $498 for a pair) “intelligent” indoor camera comes with an 8MP 4K HDR image sensor with a 130-degree field of view, but it only records in 1080p to save on storage and wireless data; all that advanced display tech is used for its 12x digital zoom feature. When it detects someone, it zooms in on them without losing image quality, recording both the 1080p close-up and the main feed, which sits in the corner.

Featuring a six-core Qualcomm processor, the Nest Cam IQ can detect what’s moving in front of it. If the object is identified as a person rather than a pet or shadow, it will zoom and track them.

The camera may be pretty expensive, but expect to pay even more if you want to get the most out of it. There’s no local recording - you can view pictures from the last three hours and you’ll still get alerts - but to see your recorded video requires a subscription to Nest Aware. $10 per month/$100 per year will get you ten days history, while $30 pm/$300 py lets you view the last 30 days of recorded video.

The paid-for service also brings facial recognition tech to the Cam IQ that differentiates between friends/family and strangers, sending out alerts when it identifies the latter.

The camera also boasts three speakers for picking up sounds like people talking (at which point it alerts users), a speaker that’s seven times more powerful than the one from the original Nest Cam, 940nm infrared LEDs for improved night vision, and end-to-end encryption.

The Nest Cam IQ supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE – no ethernet connectivity – and is powered using a USB Type-C port on the back and the power brick.

The camera is certainly pricey, especially when you take into account the optional subscription, but the cutting-edge tech could make it worth the money in many people’s eyes.

The Nest Cam IQ is available to pre-order now.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/69519-nest-new-299-home-camera-brings-facial-recognition.html

 

[Kibaruk]

Another $300 they can steal from you lol. Talking seriously, I don't like it relying on wifi to work and if you are planning on opting for the subscription, even less to rely on an internet connection.

I mean, wireless is much more convenient and less clutter, less mess with the installation, but I've bought routers that even while they are expensive they are certainly not fail-proof. Now also take into consideration that it needs to go to the internet to store whatever your subscription enables you to, ISPs modems are even less reliable, unless you are a security/network nut and you set up something redundant that will use a secondary connection, 3g modem or what not.

 

[amstech]

^ My lady's old man bought us a Vimtag VT-361 a few years ago for Christmas and that thing has been pretty decent. The Vimtag App is sweet and with the latest update the voice/MIC clarity is much cleaner (PC App works awesome too). Only holds a 32GB MicroSD but I never record in 720p, 480p is fine. I can go on and on about its features, taking pictures, auto night vision, zoom and motion settings but I am replying to answer your question about Wi-Fi reliability.
It's been damn good! Since we switched to Spectrum I am getting 60-80 Mbps down now and it works even better, hardly any lag when I am remoted in looking around my house for my Chocolate Lab, deaf cat or imposter looking to steal my brownies. Once its configured for Wi-Fi it remembers it so whatever happens (storm makes us lose power, or I relocate it) soon as it powers back up it grabs the Wi-Fi and starts up. I rarely record with it though, just for peace of mind mostly and spooking my old lady in her jammies.

 

[SantistaUSA]

Neat feature but too expensive! I've just got the the ismartalarm bundle (1 spot camera, a Hub, 3 door sensors and a motion sensor) for just $169.99 plus tax and I am impressed with how it performs, sure I need internet connection to use it but so far it has been working like a charm. When the alarm goes off I get a phone call, a text message and an email, free cloud storage to up to 30 12 sec videos and there is no monthly fees what's so ever. The only thing that I would like to have that they do no offer is an outdoor camera but maybe one day.

 

[Uncle Al]

Then are a bunch of systems out there that do this AND MORE, plus half of them will allow you to save the files on your computer as well as remote servers for $0 so this one must be for all those Appler's that have more money than sense ..... or simply can't figure out to set them up!