Roughly a year ago, popular accessory company Withings introduced its Home security camera and air quality monitor, giving users an easy way to keep tabs on their homes with video streaming, push alerts for activity, and cloud storage of footage. Withings has continued to improve the Home with software updates since the launch, and several recent additions such as an app for the new Apple TV and a Baby Monitor mode have made the user experience even better.
Priced at $200, the Withings Home is a 5-megapixel HD camera with a 135-degree field of view, night vision, sensors for motion, sound, and air quality, and more. A companion iOS app [Direct Link] makes it easy to control the camera, receive alerts, and monitor video, audio, and other data from the Home.
The Home is a fairly attractive looking camera about the size of a coffee mug, with a wood grain shell that can be rotated to physically cover the device’s camera to eliminate any potential concerns about accidental activation of the camera at unwanted times. The lower portion of the main body can glow in a variety of colors to indicate device status or act as a nightlight.
The Home sits on a magnetic saucer-like base that makes it easy to adjust the angle of the camera to suit its position within the room. Other features of the Home include a large speaker on the top, two microphones for picking up sounds from the environment and noise cancelation, an Ethernet port for wired connectivity as an alternative to Wi-Fi, a micro-USB port for power, and a regular USB 2.0 port that can be used to provide passthrough power to other devices. Finally, an ambient light sensor and an infrared LED near the camera itself work together to support a night vision mode.
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