Birdi - Previously Canary Detector smoke alarm up for preorder

Birdi detector (previously Canary detector) was a concept for a “smart smoke detector” that would not only detect smoke and CO - but also measure air quality and aggregate that data in the cloud, so you could see overall air quality in a given region. I thought it was a very cool idea and was excited to see what they’d release. They’re now taking preorders on indigogo for their connected device.

Official site: http://canarydetector.com/
Indigogo: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/birdi

My impressions are not as positive as I had hoped. They appear to not rely on a hardwired interconnect cable (just like the Nest Protect) - which means you’re likely legally obligated to transition 100% of your smoke detectors to this one. It uses wifi instead of some other communication means, which I’d expect either A) drains battery or B) connects too infrequently. And, finally, it does not appear to have a hardwired option.

Wifi isn’t a deal breaker for me, but the other two are. Thought I’d post this here since it’s brand new and I know a lot of people are looking at the Nest. This could be a good (slightly cheaper) alternative.