
Say Hello to Nest Cam - rbritton
https://nest.com/blog/2015/06/17/say-hello-to-nest-cam/
======
teh
My gut reaction is that I'll be paying money to install my telescreen?

I have this slightly panicky feeling that my perception of what's acceptable
sharing of private data is so disconnected from current popular sentiment that
I'm becoming a bitter outsider.

I'm sure it's technically well executed as expected from Google management but
I do hope it bombs as a product for (to me) obvious reasons.

~~~
disillusioned
It's (functionally) a Dropcam. Dropcam's been around for several years now.
They're owned by Nest/Google now, so this is the first branded product from
them under Nest. You can believe that they're actually encrypting the video as
they say they are, or not, I suppose, but there are plenty of non-cloud-based
options available. For me, this was the easiest way to get cameras up where I
needed them, with a really nice mobile app and a really great
recording/playback interface.

~~~
roghummal
>You can believe that they're actually encrypting the video as they say they
are, or not, I suppose,

I believe they encrypt the video (and audio) between the camera and their
servers but they deal with the unencrypted 'goods' when they stream it back to
you in real time or as a DVR.

You trust them. You can do that.

------
amelius
> Nest Cam has a beautiful, completely redesigned stand.

I guess that depends on who you ask. I guess most non-technies would just find
it ugly. Especially the cord that comes out of it.

------
cromwellian
Continuous household video surveillance trips my creep meter. For my
door/yard/exterior, yeah, but internally?

(The issue of cloud uploads is of concern, but even non-Cloud WebCams have
been owned or had backdoors in the past, and your home server could be
hijacked -- there are hundreds of YouTube videos of people whose laptop
webcams got hacked)

I could see it being useful as a baby monitor inside.

------
progdis
You can get two Ubiquiti UniFi micro cameras for that price:
[https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-video/unifi-video-camera-
micro/](https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-video/unifi-video-camera-micro/)

~~~
joshu
What do they record to?

~~~
progdis
There's UniFi NVR for Linux and Windows [1] or you can buy preinstalled pc
[2]. Cameras have an SD card slot, but with current firmware it's not used.
Might be supported in future [3].

[1] [https://www.ubnt.com/download/?group=unifi-
nvr](https://www.ubnt.com/download/?group=unifi-nvr) [2]
[https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-video/unifi-nvr/](https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-
video/unifi-nvr/) [3] [https://community.ubnt.com/t5/UniFi-Video/UVC-camera-
sd-card...](https://community.ubnt.com/t5/UniFi-Video/UVC-camera-sd-
card/td-p/1131616)

------
StavrosK
This is definitely a product there's a need for, but the creepy component is
there for sure. Fortunately, there are cameras that run their own servers,
without a cloud component. Plus, it's easy to firewall everything going in/out
of their IP and put them behind a reverse proxy.

I mean easy for me, not the general public.

~~~
k-mcgrady
What is the need? I can only think of reasons it might be 'nice to have' if
someone was giving me it for free - and even then I would think twice. What
are the real broad needs it's solving for a lot of people? (serious question)

~~~
StavrosK
I like to monitor my house and yard when I'm not there, so I can see what's
going on, if the dog is fine, if someone's in, etc.

~~~
k-mcgrady
Interesting but in all the years you haven't been able to monitor it has it
been a problem not knowing who is home? Has your dog ever not been fine? It
sounds like this product gives you information you want but don't actually
need. Kind of one of those things you keep around in case of an emergency
situation that never happens (or if it does the product doesn't really make
any difference in the outcome).

~~~
StavrosK
No, but I've never needed to use my backups either.

------
MarkCole
I'm not sure how useful this would be with regards to break-ins (one of their
selling points it seems). Uploading/Streaming 1080p video on a slow to
moderate connection? Plenty of time for the thief to unplug and take that nice
shiny PC with the video stored, and the nest cam with it.

~~~
roghummal
>Plenty of time for the thief to unplug and take that nice shiny PC with the
video stored, and the nest cam with it.

That's the awesome part! You don't even need a local PC to store the video. It
all gets sent to a remote Secure Server where it gets stored (and is
accessible, if you purchase that add-on) and streamed!

~~~
zeeed
most people I know would find the idea of their living room being streamed to
a remote server "creepy" rather than "awesome".

~~~
roghummal
Me too.

------
igravious
Having bootstrapped Google seems unwilling to switch to a business model not
predicated on storing personal/private user data. What's up with that?

This business model _in the long run_ strikes me as untenable. Initially I
thought that connecting search terms to ads was a viable model. Bootstrap with
that, and sell software and hardware. I hate to say it but I think Apple's
model is best. You get software tailored to your platform. Android and
ChromeOS should cost a bit of money the same way Windows does. It was better
when Apple charged 20/25 dollars or euros because it at least acknowledges
that the software costs _something_. Microsoft has started making hardware.

Or we should be paying for support. Basically, we should be paying somewhere
in the software chain. You know? As software developers we should be
encouraging people to not see bits when encoded as information (be they
source, binary data (songs, movies), binary code) as free.

What we need is an open-source Apple. I've been saying it for a while. You buy
a nice piece of hardware (phone, laptop, desktop, server) and you get an open
OS with it that works with the hardware out of the box. Crucially it comes
with email software (and accounts) that are secure and private and lets you
use your own domain. Social media and audio/video/messaging software needs to
become federated ASAP. I know we have XMPP, how do we _force_ all
comms/messaging platforms to support a minimum XMPP level?

------
seivan
I'd buy this for my parents. Been looking for a software company that will do
something like this instead of all the other crap that's out there. You won't
believe the low quality crap my dad has been asking me to take a look at for
their house.

If people got alternatives (decent software startups/companies), please post
them :)

~~~
akent
Check out Homeboy - [https://www.homeboy.com](https://www.homeboy.com)

\- completely cordless (battery powered, rechargeable, lasts up to 3 months on
a charge)

\- not continuously recording video but clip based, armed like a security
alarm, video recordings are triggered by infrared motion sensor

\- intelligent automatic arm/disarm based on smartphone geofences

\- request a clip capture any time for peace of mind

Disclaimer: I work at Homeboy :) We've just made our second batch of cameras
so they're ready for shipping very soon!

~~~
rbritton
Is it indoor-only?

~~~
akent
For now yes it is indoor-only but we are working on plans for a weather-proof
outdoor version.

------
aluhut
And there is
[https://github.com/ccrisan/motionPie](https://github.com/ccrisan/motionPie)

Easy to install

Cheap because the hardware you need for that is a RasPi

...and you are in control of your data.

I'll stay with that. Even if the picture is not fullHD. I don't need that for
the purposes described in the video.

------
weavie
So I guess Nests servers will become a very interesting hacker target.

~~~
hueving
I think Google's severs already are an interesting target.

------
klkvsk
$199? Wow. Xiaomi's IP cam costs around $30 and does all the same, except it's
720p.

------
liedra
This is creepy as hell. Video saved to the cloud, owned/processed by Google?
Yeah nope.

------
yitchelle
Do you really need 1080p for detecting that a breakin is in progress?

By the way, as a geek, I am more interested in hearing more about the back end
detection algorithm. I guess that the linked page is a marketing blub...

~~~
userbinator
No, but the higher resolution is useful for seeing the details of the person
doing it, like possibly the face.

~~~
kukkukb
Enhance!

------
jonheller
Did they fix the issue I heard of where it uploaded those massive files to the
cloud with no bandwidth limiting, effectively killing connections with a
slower upstream?

------
dharma1
[http://www.mi.com/xiaoyi/param/](http://www.mi.com/xiaoyi/param/)

$24 for the night vision edition

------
santiagobasulto
I remember seeing a really similar project a couple of weeks ago and I can't
remember the name. Any help?

------
junto
Does it have a local, i.e. 'save to NAS' option?

Are there ongoing costs like the Logitech Alert system?

~~~
soylentcola
No and yes.

Plenty of "buy once" IP cameras out there in prices ranging from $100 up to
$500+ for the fancier Axis cameras and the like. They save to local storage
like a NAS or an old PC in the closet running iSpy (and saving to Drive or
Dropbox if you want online backups). And most importantly for me: they have no
recurring costs other than electricity.

I don't want online storage to be the only option because network connectivity
drops sometimes. Not too often but more often than I lose power. And I
certainly don't want yet another monthly bill. I understand that there are
plenty of customers who would rather pay $10-15/mo for something they can just
plug in rather than spending $300+ on a NAS or low powered PC. I'm just not
one of them.

------
iLoch
I was half expecting to see a stream of a guy stuck in a cave.

------
borplk
Say hello to NSA

~~~
roghummal
But the burglars!!!! And bad nannies!!!! And bad housekeepers!!!! And I have
nothing to hide!!!!

