Netgear (Arlo parent company) is primarily focused on Thread, isn’t it?
Netgear is a traditional, established tech company, with a well-known and respected (albeit pricey) product. It has no motivation to hook up with SmartThings.
Blink is brand sparkly new, and eager and hungry. I have to think that will make the company more interested in busting into an already established market.
But D-Link has integration with SmartThings, as does Samsung Smartcam (thanks to JDRoberts for pointing this out). It’s a start.
I really want the Blink cameras to succeed. For the first time, a camera that hits all the sweet spots.
The current requirements to integrate with our video solution on Hub V2 are RTSP support and always-on streaming to our hub. We expect to mature these requirements in the future to include cameras that only record short clips or photo bursts.
Creator Blink about 22 hours ago @Roger - Correct, as you will see in an update we plan to post this week we have completed FCC certification and are currently working on gaining CE certification!
From their most recent update after all the time that has passed and getting pushed back for months and months it looks like we are almost there.
From Blinks most recent update, "We have great news! Our production line in China is up and running and the first batch of production systems are officially en route to our fulfillment facility - this means that we will start shipping production systems to our backers starting mid- next week! "
Blink has actually gone about how I expected it too… most tech products that I’ve backed has been approx. this late, so I’m not shocked. Not thrilled, mind you, but not shocked.
I have Blink’s coming, but not here yet. My understanding is that they are shipping first to US iOS users as the Android app isn’t ready yet.
I’m not sure if non-US iOS users are next, or if US Android users are next, but either way I don’t expect mine until January at the soonest. I just hope I get 'em before the Chinese new year as that always throws everything into a huge delay.
Anyway, I strongly suspect they will NOT be very compatible with STs initially. I know a number of other backers have requested ST integration, but I figure it’ll be a while until it happens.
The first level of integration will probably be from the IFTTT path… the ability to arm, disarm via IFTTT recipes will hopefully come pretty quickly as this would at least get me to the point of being able to auto arm/disarm with my normal ST routines.
Actual control of the camera and/or pictures in the ST app is probably a number of months or a year away.
I pre ordered, but don’t expect to see them till March. They have not hit a single deadline on time. They have over 6k backers to fill orders for. The promised Jan for pre-orders, but i Highly doubt that will happen.
Not a-typical for a Kickstarter Campaign unfortunately. It’s one of the reasons I’ve stopped supporting tech projects via KS. Even SmartThings was late in delivering.
That said, Blink is starting to get really, really late. Plus, as most tech projects go, I suspect it’ll be less than fully functional when first delivered.
I really hope you are wrong @chrisb. I need to get rid of my other IP cams and Blink is my best option for a unified low cost system with no monthly fees or cost for cloud storage.
I hope I’m wrong too. And even if it doesn’t come with all the features initially, it’s likely that most, if not all, will be there eventually via software updates.
I don’t mean to sound all doom and gloom… I do think the product will ship. I do think it will work, to some level. And I do think it will improve over time.
The questions are just when, how well, and how much?
Here is a camera called spot on kickstarter that is started bt the people at IsmartAlarm that works as a stand along or with there SmartAlarm system. Look interesting.
Everything looks interesting in the pre release video. Until you can order it for two day delivery from Amazon, it’s all just marketing.
(By the way, spot has already backed off on one feature. In the videos it looks like it can rotate, but in fact as delivered it can only be manually rotated. Undoubtedly this is one of the reasons for the very low cost. We’ll see what they actually come up with when they’re finally ready to ship. )
mdawson
(Different Computers. So happy with Indigo.)
58
I asked on the kickstarter page and while they answered as nicely as possible, they explained that these cameras DO NOT stream to a URL that is accessible via anything besides their phone apps, so there’s no SmartTiles integration at the very least.
The last part there is the important part. Paraphrasing @JDRoberts from above… until you can integrate it, it’s all just marketing.
I’m not trying to be a debbie downer here… but in just the handful of tech products I’ve backed I’ve quickly learned that until it’s there, it’s just talk. As I mentioned above (I think), but products I’ve backed have become good solid items that have mainly lived up to their hype… though often many, many months later.
