
Blink has been acquired by Amazon - uptown
https://blinkforhome.com/blogs/blink-home-security-blog/breaking-news-blink-has-been-acquired-by-amazon
======
erohead
Looks like they had to delete support for Smarthings integration as a
condition for the deal going through:
[https://community.smartthings.com/t/blink-support-
discontinu...](https://community.smartthings.com/t/blink-support-
discontinued/111047/180)

~~~
cmsimike
Reading articles like that make me very happy I'm in the self-hosted Home
Assistant ecosystem. I couldn't imagine _someone else_ deciding two things
that used to work together no longer do for me.

~~~
jcims
Is there a good watering hole for self-hosted home assistant development? I
was at a Micro Center this evening and saw a AIY Google Voice Kit (not sure if
it phones home) and a Matrix Creator (very interesting) plus a lot of other
doodads that one could use to build same.

I just don't want to spend a year trying to cobble together my own software.

~~~
ReverseCold
How to use home assistant: 1\. buy any compatible smart thing listed as
compatible on the home assistant website 2\. Buy a raspberry pi and any
necessary RF adapters. 3\. Install home assistant on the raspberry pi and edit
the config.yaml file to work with your devices.

It was much easier than I expected, and works with more DIY things as well
(like 315/433Mhz RF Sockets).

~~~
jcims
Very cool, thank you. I had no idea there was a project named that.

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neekb
Amazon has their own delivery service, bought wholefoods, and now bought
blink. Blink has a doorbell offering plus the camera's that you already know
of. It's not a stretch to have groceries delivered all the way to your fridge
and put blink cameras all over the house to make sure the delivery guy walks
back out when he's done.

~~~
c_r_w
Amazon is definitely pushing the boundaries of what amount of privacy people
are willing to exchange for convenience. I was shocked that so many people I
knew bought Echos... wiring your entire house for video doesn't seem that much
crazier.

~~~
Mister_Snuggles
Wiring your house for video is not crazy at all. Wiring it for video where you
have to rely on the security of cloud provider (especially a free one) is
what's crazy.

~~~
veidr
Absolutely! Wiring your house for video is awesome, for a huge array of
potential reasons.

I bought a cloud-connected Nest camera to use as a baby monitor. Quickly
realized how awesome it would be to have cameras in (almost) all rooms in my
house, so I threw the Nest in the trash (terrible product) and got a few
Amcrest cameras and hooked them up to a good, well-maintained Mac IP camera
app called SecuritySpy[1].

It's great, and completely private, as it (obviously!) should be.

It's also way faster (obviously!) and lower latency when using it on the local
network, than viewing video feeds routed through some advertising company's
servers in the cloud, even on gigabit fiber.

I love it! Oh and the cameras were only $75 each.

[1]:
[http://www.bensoftware.com/securityspy/](http://www.bensoftware.com/securityspy/)

~~~
sharpercoder
> how awesome it would be to have cameras in (almost) all rooms in my house

Why?

~~~
Mister_Snuggles
My original use-case for my cameras was to see what my cats are up to when I'm
not home. I've since found many other uses for these cameras:

\- Monitoring how much food and which food each cat consumes.

\- Seeing who's at the front door when the doorbell rings.

\- Peace of mind when I'm on vacation.

------
mikestew
If you own an electric car and are wondering WTF Amazon is doing getting into
the car charging business, well, it isn’t this Blink:
[http://www.blinkcharging.com](http://www.blinkcharging.com), it’s some video
camera company.

~~~
jondubois
So Amazon wants to monitor people in and around their own homes for some
reason. Creepy.

Maybe it's so that they can detect whether or not people are at home - To aid
with their drone delivery system?

~~~
mikestew
_So Amazon wants to monitor people in and around their own homes for some
reason._

Before I read TFA, it was the only business reason that made sense to buy a
car charger company. It wouldn’t be perfect information (maybe I took the
motorcycle that day), but long term you’d get a pretty good idea of our
comings and goings. When the car’s at the house, it’s usually plugged in, the
charger knows it’s plugged in, and the charger has an internet connection
(hell, the charger has a _web server_ running). Unplugged: I’m leaving.
Plugged in: I obvious just got home. I suppose that might have some utility
for scheduling deliveries, dunno.

The reason for this tangent is the purchase is either to aid in delivery
scheduling, of which I’m skeptical, or it’s just another piece of the puzzle
to go along Alexa and the like. Now, I’ll agree that the puzzle might end up
being super creepy, but it’ll be interesting to see what they up,doing with
it.

------
AaronFriel
Was bewildered for a moment as I thought the Google Chrome rendering engine
had been spun off as a company and suddenly acquired.

Stranger things have happened this year.

------
yellow_postit
Looking forward to the privacy policy update.

~~~
reaperducer
Just don't try to print it out. It'll collapse under its own weight and form a
black hole.

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aviv
This transaction was too expensive for Ooma so they picked up Butterfleye a
few days ago instead.

~~~
sah2ed
Hard to attribute Ooma's choice to go with Butterfleye as solely due to price,
I think a number of factors could have contributed to the decision to choose
one over the other.

If Amazon started courting Blink first, they'd have added a provision to make
it expensive for Blink to walk away if they get propositioned by another
company. This is Amazon's tactic whenever they court smaller companies like
when Diapers.com got a counteroffer from Walmart after Amazon started
negotiations [0]. Diapers.com eventually sold to Amazon.

Then there's the aspect of product complexity -- Butterfleye offers a slightly
more complex product (learning camera to reduce false alarms, higher quality
recording, longer recording times even 24/7, encrypted uploads, on-device
storage options, rechargeable batteries & wired power, complementary
installation, SMB focus etc) than Blink which is why they are in different
price segments ($199 vs $99 per camera unit).

[0]
[http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/10/10/amazon_bo...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/10/10/amazon_book_how_jeff_bezos_went_thermonuclear_on_diapers_com.html)

------
jhonovich
IPVM Analysis on the deal [https://ipvm.com/reports/amazon-
blink](https://ipvm.com/reports/amazon-blink) based on our testing of multiple
Blink and Amazon camera models

------
pgrote
I've had mixed results using the Blink system I bought. Spotty wifi
connectivity and disappointing camera performance really soured me on it.

Did anyone have a really great experience using 4 blink cameras or more?

I transitioned over to wansview cameras and haven't experienced any issues,
though I miss the battery availability.

------
johnvega
I've been using dlink wifi cams outdoor for about 5 years. Based on a few
minutes info from their website, looks like blink has a great usability
design. I'd put this on top of my list for my next security cam purchase.
Amazon reviews are mostly favorable.

------
benmorris
I've had a 5 camera system for the last few months. It works well and didn't
need any wires ran. The app needs some improvement, but overall a pretty neat
product.

~~~
mkoryak
I find it crazy that it claims to run for 20 hours on 2 double A batteries. Is
battery life a problem for these things?

Also it records in 5 second clips. I imagine that being somewhat painful to
review.

~~~
benmorris
Like I said they are neat tech for what you get. I've had mine for over 2
months now and some of them record 10-20 clips a day. When they are not
recording they basically are using next to no power.

The clip duration and re trigger interval can be set to up to 60 seconds. You
can also set the re trigger to be immediate effectively making it record
constantly. These settings among others are configured per camera in the app.

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toephu2
Are there any better home security cameras that record short clips on motion
detection that don't have a monthly cloud-storage fee? Or should I just stick
with Blink?

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quizbiz
I love my Blink. Wonder if they will buy Tile next.

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usaphp
That sign up popup is so damn annoying lately on almost all product websites.

------
DuckConference
Now to wait for the entry on
[https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com](https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com)

~~~
taoistextremist
Man, that site makes me really happy Snapchat resisted buyouts. Despite the
rough patches it's been through (and still going through, I guess) it should
be looked at as an example of how new companies can grow and compete without
just selling off to a large conglomerate.

------
sithadmin
Ugh. Guess I'm going back to BlueIris.

~~~
notyourwork
Why?

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lerie82
I don't see people saying many good things about Blink, why would they do
that? However, Amazon is hiring like crazy for video and audio web people, so
maybe a trick up their sleeve they have.

