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This new Arlo video doorbell is battery powered for easier installs
Arlo has launched a new video doorbell, and this time it’s going completely wire-free for those who don’t want to run cabling to their front door. The Arlo Essential Wire-Free Video Doorbell keeps the 180-degree lens and HD resolution camera of its wired counterpart, but pairs it with a battery for much easier – or even temporary – installation.
It’s the latest in Arlo’s Essential series of products, which cut down on some of the frustrations of previous installations. The Arlo Essential Spotlight Camera launchd in June, for example, had the wireless, battery-powered connectivity of its siblings, but did away with the need for a dedicated bridge.
The Arlo Essential Wire-Free Video Doorbell doesn’t need the Arlo bridge either, connecting directly to your router via WiFi. The rechargeable battery is rated to last for three to six months, depending on use; or, if you’d rather, you can hard-wire it to power. For that, you’ll need new or existing powered doorbell wiring between 8-24V AC.
The housing is weather resistant, and there’s an angle mount so that you can line up the camera for the best angle. The picture itself is 1:1 aspect ratio, which Arlo says makes it easier to see not only parcels on the front step but the faces of taller or closer visitors. There’s also night vision, and HDR to help balance lighter and darker areas of the frame.
Two-way audio is supported, and the camera calls your phone directly with a video call to avoid latency or delays in connecting after someone has pressed the button. You can also respond with a prerecorded message, or visitors can leave voice messages – like voicemail, but for your front door – if you’re not able to answer.
Arlo’s software supports motion alerts, while Arlo Smart – the company’s subscription-based cloud package – adds in the ability to get different notifications based on whether it’s a person, vehicle, animal, or package in the frame. It also adds 30 day rolling cloud recordings of the video itself.
The doorbell can be switched to silent mode, disabling all notifications when you simply can’t be distracted from a Netflix marathon, and there’s an integrated siren which can be triggered automatically or manually. Come Q1 2023, Arlo says, it’ll have a new Arlo Chime; that will connect directly to WiFi, and link with the Essential Wire-Free Video Doorbell to offer a range of different tones and melodies in the house, for those who don’t have a phone with the app installed and logged in.
Arlo’s new video doorbell goes up for preorder today, priced at $199.99. The company says it’ll be shipping in time for the holidays, complete with a three month trial of Arlo Smart. After that, the optional cloud subscription is priced from $2.99/mo for a single camera, or from $9.99/mo for up to five cameras.
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Arlo Essential Wireless Doorbell Review: A Gateway Drug To Home Automation
This smart doorbell does it all. It can be wired-in or set-up to work wirelessly, it’ll see in the dark and will work wells in most spots thanks to its fisheye lens that gives it a 180-degree field of view.
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The sharp, square resolution (1,536 x 1,536) combined with a wide field of view produces a great picture. It’s good enough to help you spot packages left on the ground and identify who’s at the door. Plus, there’s a 12x digital zoom if you really need to see the whites of their eyes. The two-way sound is surprisingly clear and bright for such a diminutive device.
The Arlo’s design is smart, and set-up and installation is a breeze. Ideally you should position it to the side of your door but it’s slim enough to stick to your doorframe if needs be. Wiring it in might be a tricky job, however, as the doorbell’s narrow footprint might make it fiddly to get the wires to where you need them.
There are some powerful features to play with. The Arlo will record any movement it picks up on its motion-detection system even if whoever it is that’s doing the moving hasn’t rung the doorbell (hello, postie). It’ll also spot if someone’s left a package without ringing and send you a notification, but these features are locked behind a £3.49-a-month subscription.
All in all, it’s a great bit of tech that will leave you unlikely to ever go back to a “dumb” doorbell again.
Setup & designOut of the box the Arlo doorbell has a minimal, glossy design that made my front door look decidedly old-fashioned. If you decide to go wireless with it, it’ll take about 20 minutes to set up – you just need good Wi-Fi that reaches your front door, a drill and a Philips screwdriver.
As ever, there’s a bit of faff getting set up with an account on the app, but it’s simple enough and it’s easy to add other people’s phones to the system.
Fully charged, the battery is said to last six months. When you need to recharge it, the whole device detaches from its mount with the help of a release pin, though a safety pin would do the trick. This makes it super simple to remove the bell from the door, take out the battery and remount it when the bell’s recharged. There’s no special key required (that you’ll need to store safely and not lose for the six months between recharges).
After installation, it struck me that it’d be easy to rip the Arlo off the doorframe if you really wanted to, but that’s probably true of any smart doorbell you don’t wire in.
Does it doorbell?Yes! For such a simple device there are lots of ways a smart doorbell can go wrong. Blurry picture quality, slow response time and speakers that make you sound like a demonic leprechaun are all pitfalls of earlier models.
Mercifully, the Arlo Essential Wireless Doorbell spares you from all of these. It’s got a great lens and camera that captures most of what’s in front of your door clearly. Plus, it’s field of view is forgiving enough that, if you can’t follow the guidelines for positioning to the letter, it shouldn’t matter. Someone presses the big clear button and within a couple of seconds I get a call on my phone and… well, you can guess the rest from there.
Its night vision capability is spooky but useful for those long winter nights. And I particularly like the fish-eye lens paired with a square resolution – it means you get everything in shot, particularly packages that are left on the ground.
The sound quality is strikingly impressive. In some recordings I can hear the starlings singing outside and when someone actually rings the doorbell, we can have a pretty natural conversation. There’s some delay, which means you can find you and your visitor speaking over each other at times, but this is the fastest responding device I’ve tested.
FeaturesWithout a subscription, the doorbell essentially works as a way to call your phone from your door. Plus, you’ll also get notifications if there’s movement near your doorbell and if you see the notification in time, you can access a live view from the camera to see who’s there.
As with most smart doorbells, extra smart features are accessed via subscription (that you get a free three-month trial for), which costs £3.49 a month.
The most tempting reason to subscribe is the recording feature. When the doorbell’s motion detector sees someone near your door, it’ll record footage of them until they leave its field of view. If you’re buying the doorbell for a touch of added security, this feature is essential, so it’s a bit of a shame it’s paywalled.
So far, it’s mostly recorded me coming and going, but you can set up its camera to arm and disarm when you come and go. This feature works by geofencing your property and detecting when your phone is in or out of proximity in order to switch this feature on and off.
Equally, if you don’t want a notification every time someone innocently comes up to your door – such as your postie – you can customise what the security camera messages you about. This might be useful for those who live on busy streets, close to the road. You can, for example, set it up so that that it only notifies you if someone leaves a parcel in its view – pretty smart.
All these recordings are sent to Arlo’s cloud, which does make you wonder whether there could have been a basic recording setting that could be stored locally on the device or your phone.
Also, there’s an answer phone-type message if you don’t respond when the doorbell is rung: “to leave a message, please press the doorbell again”, which is handy if your couriers have a habit of slinging packages over your fence (like the ones who deliver to me do).
There’s plenty of automation features at hand too. You can potentially pair the Arlo with a speaker in the home (if you absolutely love a good door chime) or twin it with a porch light.
The interface is clean, intuitive and simple. Answering the doorbell is just like answering a phone call.
If someone’s at your door but hasn’t pressed the bell, you’ll get a notification. Press it and you’ll be quickly shown to the app where you can watch the doorbell’s live stream. If you’re a subscriber you’ll be shown some recorded footage of what’s going on, which will be stored and sorted on to a calendar in case you need to go Sherlock on someone’s ass.
Extra smart features could do with a bit more hand-holding: I had to visit Arlo’s site to make sense of the geofencing feature and why I’d want it.
The doorbell works with Google and Alexa if you’ve got smart home systems already set up, but you’ll need the Arlo SmartHub to get it to play nice with Apple’s homekit system.
All things considered this is a very user-friendly experience for anyone fearful of overcomplicated tech.
Fingers-on-buzzers, what’s it like to use?Two things happen when you set up the Arlo. First, it bombards you with video footage of you setting up the camera. This isn’t a problem, but it will make you wonder if there’s a more flattering camera out there. By the time you realise this is a stupid thought to entertain, someone else will have actually arrived to use your doorbell and the cam is so clear and crisp, it’s initially a little creepy. You almost feel like you’re spying on someone.
Aside from those two early hurdles, the Arlo has been brilliant. It’s never more complicated than someone pressing the bell, my phone ringing and then me telling whoever’s at the door that I’ll be there in a minute. Sure, you can say this about most smart doorbells but not all of them manage it as quickly and as hassle-free. For me, this has been huge, as getting rid of the door chime means that the dog stays calm and I can get her out of the way, if needed.
The only problem I’ve had so far is that one particularly trigger-happy courier double pressed the doorbell, which fired off two calls. I answered the first but then quickly had to get the second. It took me a hot minute to figure out what was going on, by which time the courier had slung the box at the door and moved on.
VerdictThe Arlo doorbell has everything. The only downside is that to get everything you need to pay a little more.
I love the picture and sound quality it offers, and the simple no-nonsense way the software works. If you just need a doorbell that rings your phone, then this is one of the best out there. If you want to use it to provide your home with a little extra security, then just bear in mind you’ll be factoring an extra £3.49 a month, which, as far subscriptions go for this kind of tech, is middle of the road.
If you do subscribe, the smart features are industry-leading, and will marry up well with Arlo’s other security cam products and any other smart home tech you might want to link up.
Overall, the Arlo doorbell is smart home tech at its best: it makes life easier, not more complicated. It’s the perfect gateway-drug to home automation. So, if you want a better way to deal with couriers and posties, while adding a little extra security to your home, look no further.
Additional Arlo devices Arlo Go 2 outdoor cameraIf you want to stick to being wireless and would like to add some more security to your home then Arlo’s outdoor security cam might be an option. You’ll need to get a data plan and a SIM card to go with it, but it’s a useful option if you need a little versatility. This is the sort of camera that would be useful for watching a garage full of expensive bikes, or a side alley that accesses your home. It has all of Arlo’s smart features mentioned above plus a spotlight, in case you need to get a clearer picture at night.
Arlo Add-on Smart Hub
If you get the smart home bug then you’ll need to pick up a Smart Hub to create a true security system. It’ll provide local storage for your footage, and hook your cameras up to each other to create your own security perimeter.
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This Video Is Not Available? Use These 8 Simple Fixes
This Video is Not Available? Use These 8 Simple Fixes Use an effective VPN to resolve issues with YouTube
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Goal Zero Sherpa 100Ac Battery Pack Review: This Portable Battery Pack Does It All
Pros
Informative display
Airline approved
Numerous ports
Cons
Pricey
Slow wireless charging
Best Prices Today: Sherpa 100AC Portable Power BankRetailer
Price
Global Zero
199.95
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$299.95
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The Goal Zero Sherpa 100AC is a combination of all modern and past technologies used to charge our devices. For the current generation of devices, there are two USB-C ports and a Qi wireless charging pad. For older devices, there are two standard USB ports. For even older devices, there’s a standard US 110V outlet—like the one your phone’s wall adapter plugs into.
There’s also a charging port, that can fill up the 94.7Wh battery pack in just a couple of hours. You’ll need to purchase that dedicated charger separately. However, our testing showed that a USB-C wall adapter with Power Delivery charged the Sherpa in just over two hours.
Note: This review is part of our roundup of portable power banks. Go there for details on competing products and our testing methods.
Nestled among the Sherpa’s array of ports is a small status display.
The Sherpa 100AC is pricey. It’s currently listed at $299.95, which is a lot for a battery pack. But the Sherpa isn’t your typical battery pack.
The front of the pack is where you’ll find all of its ports, along with a small display. The screen will show you the battery’s charge percentage, the amount of time until it will die based on the current usage, and a breakdown of each port’s current output.
There are four buttons, two on each side of the screen, for controlling various functions. A power button turns the pack on and off, as well as adjusts the display brightness with multiple presses. The check-mark button is used to change settings. The button with a triangle on it breaks down port usage, or if you press it for about 5 seconds, it takes you to the settings menu, where you can view historical input and output of the pack, change the behavior of the USB-C ports (auto, input, output), and view other system stats. Finally, the Wi-Fi like symbol is used to toggle the wireless charging pad on and off.
The pad is located on top of the pack, directly in the middle. On either side of the pack there’s a slot where you can stash one of the included cables. Included in the box are four cables: Lightning, USB-C, and USB-C to USB-C. Each is just a few inches long, making them portable.
The two USB-C ports are capable of Power Delivery speeds, meaning they can fast-charge the likes of the Pixel 3 XL, or charge a Nintendo Switch thanks to the 60W capability. You can also use the USB-C ports to charge the Sherpa, which I used to test charge speed via the Huawei Matebook X Pro charger. The 65W wall adapter and USB-C cable charged the Sherpa 100AC in 2 hours and 15 minutes. Using the Samsung wall adapter and a USB-C cable, charge time was over 12 hours. The standard USB ports are the typical 5V/2.4A output, so the same as the stock iPhone wall adapter.
I took the Sherpa 100AC on a trip with me recently, toting it around in my backpack. It’s bigger and heavier than most battery packs I carry, but not so much so that I could tell a difference.
The wireless charging pad has a max output of 5W, which is on the low end of the current Qi specs. And I think the emphasis here is on max. In testing the iPhone XS on the pad, it charged the phone’s battery to 28 percent in an hour. That’s the slowest wireless charger I’ve tested yet.
As for overall capacity, I put the Sherpa 100AC through our normal efficiency testing and it output 78.78 percent of its total capacity, putting it in the middle of the pack when compared to other battery packs.
The Sherpa 100AC isn’t for everyone. Its price alone excludes a lot of potential buyers. Instead, it’s built for someone who’s frequently away from outlets, but needs a reliable and fast battery pack, without having to worry about what kind of connections he or she needs. And in that regard, the Sherpa 100AC excels.
Bottom line: If you need a versatile battery pack that you can take in your carry-on bag, and can charge practically any device you own, then the Sherpa 100AC is it.
This Is Gm’S Fix For Ev Charging Headaches
This is GM’s fix for EV charging headaches
GM is building a simpler way to charge its electric cars, cutting through the confusion of multiple charging networks. What the automaker isn’t going to do is echo Tesla or Volkswagen-owned Electrify America and build a charger network of its own. Instead, GM plans to integrate its vehicles and its services more tightly with existing third-party charging infrastructure.
There’s some form there already. Back in April, GM inked a deal with EVgo for a dedicated DC fast charge network for the Chevrolet Bolt EV. However, that was for use by drivers on GM’s Maven car-sharing platform, not for regular EV owners.
Now, though, it’s those individuals who are getting some attention, and Chevrolet is looking further afield than just one charging network. A deal with not only EVgo but ChargePoint and Greenlots will see charger data and access brought together into a single platform for Bolt EV drivers.
For example, the myChevrolet app for iOS and Android will be able to show the real-time status of individual charging stations, so that users will be able to see whether the location they’re headed to is in use, out of action, and compatible with their car. Rather than requiring Bolt EV drivers to have to register three times, individually with each charger network, Chevrolet plans to create a single interface in its app that deals with all of them.
Once that’s in place, the charging process could get even easier. One possibility Chevrolet says it might developer is starting the charging through the app, rather than needing to swipe a membership card as is currently required. Of course, what we’re really hoping to see is a Plug&Charge technology such as that which Electrify America said earlier this week that it would implement. That way, simply plugging the charger into the socket on the car is enough to authenticate the account, authorize the session, and get the EV charging.
While the functionality is focused on the Bolt EV for the moment, that’s probably because it’s the only model in General Motors’ overall lineup that would really benefit from it. Where things get interesting is when the automaker’s next EVs come down the pipe. That will see GM’s other brands get involved.
This morning, GM confirmed that it would be Cadillac that debuted the automaker’s new, all-electric architecture. Flexible enough to power front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, or all-wheel drive vehicles, it’ll also be able to cater to different battery pack sizes for varying range. GM chairman and CEO Mary Barra, though, did describe 300 miles as the range sweet-spot.
Addressing the charging headache is a big deal for any company with realistic ambitions in the EV space. Tesla’s strategy of building out its own Supercharger network is one route; Volkswagen’s approach, with Electrify America, is another. Given the latter operates as a standalone entity, there’s nothing to say that GM couldn’t add that network to its list of supported charging systems in the future, too.
If all goes to plan, GM says it expects to have the deals with EVgo, ChargePoint, and Greenlots finalized by the end of Q1 2023.
Arlo Essential Indoor Camera Review: Privacy
Best Prices Today: Arlo Essential Indoor Camera
Retailer
Price
$59.99
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The Arlo Essential Indoor camera is the latest smart security camera in the Arlo family, offering a budget-focused approach to smart home security with the signature Arlo flair. It’s unquestionably a well-built smart security camera in a portable form factor and a handy privacy shield, but with key features locked behind an additional paywall and an expensive price tag compared to similarly specced competition, it’s a bit of a hard sell.
Is the Arlo Essential Indoor camera worth $99/£119? Carry on reading to find out.
Design and buildThe Arlo Essential follows the same design language as other cameras in the Arlo collection, sporting a similar rounded shape and a classic glossy white plastic body.
On the front you’ll find the camera sensor, capable of recording 1080p footage with a 130-degree field of view, an indicator LED and a mic, while the rear houses the micro-USB socket required for power and a speaker for two-way talk.
One of the main talking points of the Arlo Essential Indoor Camera is the inclusion of a privacy shutter, which covers the camera when not in use, as well as deactivating motion control and audio capture too. The contrasting white cover on the black front plate makes it easy to tell if it’s covered at a glance, and it’s easily activated via the Arlo app – but more on that later.
The dinky-looking Arlo Essential is one of the more compact indoor cameras on the market, measuring in at 52 x 49 x 113mm, but it can’t quite beat the Ring Indoor Cam and its dinky dimensions. Still, if you’re on the lookout for a small camera that’ll blend into your home, the Arlo Essential Indoor Camera should do the job.
Like the Ring Indoor Cam and other smart cameras, the Arlo Essential utilises a ball and socket joint on a stand connected to a circular base plate. The joint allows you to angle the camera with ease, while the circular base plate can be used to stand the camera on a shelf.
There is a mounting kit in the box if you want to secure the camera higher up, but with the relatively short 2m cable required to power the unit, you don’t get the same freedom that you would from a battery-powered camera.
Features and performanceSetup is a fairly simple process, requiring no more than downloading the Arlo app from the App Store or Google Play and following the on-screen instructions to connect the camera to your Wi-Fi network. While some smart cameras are quite complex (and at times frustrating) to connect, the Arlo Essential Indoor was connected and streaming video within a few minutes of being taken out of the box.
Once the camera has been set up, you can simply leave it to do its thing; it’ll automatically start monitoring for motion, and you’ll get an alert on your smartphone once movement is detected.
With that in mind, you’ll be greeted by a home menu listing all currently installed cameras complete with a thumbnail previewing the last captured option event. Tapping on the camera provides direct access to the live feed with the ability to communicate with those nearby using two-way talk, along with access to motion events and a Settings menu to tweak camera preferences.
There’s also a Library tab that’ll let you view footage from multiple cameras in chronological order, and there’s also a Mode tab that’ll let you customise how and when the system operates.
Captured events offer a great snapshot, thanks to the 1080p capture and 130-degree field of view, though it’s not quite as expansive as competing cameras that can offer up to 160 degrees.
Generally speaking, the quality of video captured (and streamed in real-time from the app) is great both during the day and night, even retaining some of that quality when digitally zooming, though it’s worth noting that night vision is limited to black and white capture. It can’t compete with more expensive options in the Arlo family, with the Arlo Pro 3 shooting in 2K and the Arlo Ultra going all the way up to 4K, but it should suffice for simple home monitoring.
While it’s frustrating that some features are locked behind a paywall, rather than simply offering cloud storage, but the £2.49/$2.49 a month subscription is more palatable than most, and you get a three-month free trial too.
What about when you don’t want the Arlo Essential Indoor to capture motion? That’s where the privacy shield comes into play. It’s activated via the Arlo app whenever you ‘disarm’ the system, and it’ll retract once the system is armed. There’s also a geofencing feature that’ll automatically arm and disarm the system based on your location which should make things feel more seamless.
There is a catch though; if you’ve got multiple Arlo products on the app, you’ll have to disarm everything to enable the privacy shield. With this in mind, a physical switch on the camera itself would’ve been helpful, allowing you to quickly disable the indoor camera without, for example, disarming an outdoor camera monitoring your garden.
You can set custom scenes via the Modes menu that’ll allow you to disable the indoor cam while keeping other products active, but it is a bit of a headache for existing Arlo users.
PriceTake the Ring Indoor Cam for example; it costs half the price at £49.99/$49.99, it offers a wider 140-degree FOV and colour night vision, plus none of the smart features (aside from cloud storage) are locked behind a monthly subscription.
If the privacy shield is enough to tempt you, you can buy the Arlo Essential Indoor from retailers including Arlo and Amazon in the UK and Amazon in the US.
VerdictThere’s also a privacy shield that’ll disable monitoring as well as audio capture when you’re at home, giving you peace of mind, though enabling it will disable any other Arlo products by default.
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Specs Arlo Essential Indoor Camera: Specs
2Mp sensor
1080p@30fps video recording with 130-degree FOV
Night vision (B&W)
Motion detection with optional AI object recognition
Wired w/ 2m microUSB cable
Single microphone
Speaker
1x LED light
12x digital zoom
Wall/ceiling mount included
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