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Saturday 20 August 2016

Nest Cam is here alongside second gen Nest Protect and a redesigned app

Nest Cam is here alongside second gen Nest Protect and a redesigned app

Nest announces its first smart security camera as well as refreshed devices
Nest has announced its first smart security camera, the Nest Cam. It's very similar to the Dropcam Pro, a device made by the startup which was bought by Nest. The Nest Cam shoots 1080p footage over the Dropcam's 720p resolution, has a 8x digital zoom and improved night vision via a set of eight built-in IR LEDs that Nest says has no blind spots. Talk and Listen is Nest's name for the Nest Cam's speaker functionality for instance, for chatting to pets back at home. Nest Aware is the subscription service for Nest Cam customers - it offers video history (seven, ten or thirty days), advanced motion sensors, people detection algorithms and the ability to set up activity zones i.e. doors. There is a 30 day free trial available and costs $10 a month for 10 hours of history, $30 for 30 days. Home Wi-Fi camera rivals such as Netatmo's recent Welcome camera offer the ability to livestream and download video clips with no subscription fee as well as face recognition for your family and friends. So Nest is far from alone in pushing smart home security cameras. Maxime Veron, head of Hardware Product Marketing, said the most striking difference between the Nest Cam and Dropcam is how it looks. It has a zinc alloy stand to make it sturdy, there's a magnet in the base to stick the camera on fridges and there's also a tripod. The Nest Cam costs $199 and will be available to buy in early July in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland.

Second gen Nest Protect

Nest has also refreshed its entire line. The second gen Nest Protect has a new spilt-spectrum smoke sensor to detect both fast and slow fires - Nest points out that whole rooms can be consumed within five minutes now due to our use of new materials. Another new feature called app silence allows you to silence the smoke alarm from your smartphone when you burn toast, say. Amazing. New algorithms also help the new smoke alarm to tell the difference between steam, from the shower for instance, and actual smoke. The new Protect has a mic that turns on once a month to test the horn and the speaker in a sound check. It's also possible to do a manual check within the app. It also lasts ten years, has a faster, brighter pathlight, is easier to mount on walls or ceiling and is 11% smaller than the first gen alarm. It costs $99 for both the battery powered and wired versions and will be available tomorrow.

Nest Learning Thermostat

The Nest Learning Thermostat now works together with the Nest Protect smart smoke alarm in terms of specific safety measures in the US. For instance, if the Nest Protect detects smoke in your home it will tell your Nest thermostat (and any connected fans) to turn off. The thermostat will also send an alert to your phone that there is an unsafe temperature in one of the rooms. The OTA update will be free for first and second gen customers.

Nest app

Nest has redesigned its app, for iOS and Android. It looks prettier with a full bleed weather background on the homescreen. You get an overview with a home icon ring of green, yellow or red for emergencies as well as a snapshot of all Nest devices - Cam, Protect and Learning Thermostat. In the menu, you can access messages from devices, alarms and settings as well as switching between homes if you own more than one property. The Thermostat screen has been redesigned to look more like the device itself. To adjust temperature, you can now tap, hold and slide onscreen. In the Protect screen, the green halo screen is mimicked in the app with reassuring text - everything is OK. There is also green lights for each room to offer glanceable checks. You can see battery, Wi-Fi status and the time each Protect was last checked as well as a ten day history and a manual test feature. If you already have a Dropcam, it will show up in Nest's app too as will the Nest Cam of course. In the camera screen, Enhance allows you to zoom in on particular areas as well as the aforementioned Talk and Listen feature. A neat touch is that if you own Protect and Nest Cam and get an emergency alert saying the alarm has gone off, you can click the camera icon to see what's going on. If everything is fine, you can then silence it in the app. Tony Fadell's CEO took to the stage to say that Nest is now available in France, the Netherlands, Ireland and Belgium with partnerships including one with npower in the UK to make Nest Learning Thermostat free with an an energy contract. Nest also announced that one out of every eight of its customers use Works With Nest partnerships with over 9000 third party devices.

Nest Safety Rewards

Looking to a future where our wearables and smart home devices can help us save money for good behaviour, Nest has launched its Safety Rewards scheme in the US. This means Nest users can choose to share smart home info from the Learning Thermostat and Protect devices with home insurance partners. They could save up to 5% and some are even giving away free Nest Protects. This rewards scheme mimics Nest's existing partnerships with energy companies in the UK and the US and it's a really interesting use of smart home data.


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