Those who follow me on Twitter know how much I dig my Arlo webcams. In fact, the 4-pack was one of my top 2015 gadget purchases. Beyond the original, compelling selling points of being entirely wireless (from both network and power) and providing a generous free tier of network capabilities (vs Nestcam), the service has seen quite a few updates that further improve and refine the experience. However, none are bigger than the two features introduced last month.
Arlo’s biggest ding has been that the Netgear-produced network cameras have existed in something of a silo. Well, they just broke free via geofencing, in beta form, and IFTTT integration. The geofencing ties your phone’s position to your home motion detection rules while IFTTT, the virtual home automation hub, allows you to interoperate with tons of other gadgetry and online services. For example, my first recipe has the WeMo lightbulb on my deck turn on whenever the Arlo deck camera detects motion (followed by a rule that turns the light off after 10 minutes).
View Comments
How is the battery life? I would like to use these outside on the eves of my house, but I don't want change batteries every month.
These do look good. Do you need a subscription to use the modes and scheduling? I read that in an early review, but can't find anything newer to verify it. The only differences I see are in the level of support and number of cameras. What do the support levels mean?
Love the geofencing though so far it's very obvious that it's in beta as I've found it to be inconsistent. Still, looking forward to improvements on this feature.
@Rick - they do have subscription tiers but it's only for additional storage and cameras per hub. The free tier let's you keep a rolling 7 days of recordings (up to 1 GB) and up to five cameras on a single hub. If you need more storage or more cameras, you'll need a subscription. The scheduling and all the other features are standard.