Is the Homeboy, interesting product name, a DropCam replacement. Here’s an excerpt from PCWorld’s take on this potential competitor to DropCam.[SL]

If you’re looking for an IP camera for home security, you’ll want to know about Homeboy. It remedies almost every drawback I’ve seen in security cameras. It doesn’t cost a fortune. And you’ll be able to buy one soon—without having to participate in a crowd-funding campaign.

If Homeboy looks familiar, it’s because it built on the intellectual property developed for the Hive camera that garnered a lot of attention about two years ago, but that was ultimately never brought to market.

I spent some hands-on time last week with a production-level Homeboy and a beta version of the iPhone app that goes with it (which is why this isn’t a formal review).

Homeboy runs on a rechargeable battery, so you can put it virtually anywhere indoors (it’s not weatherized against the elements). It eliminates the expense associated with a monitoring service that can contact an emergency dispatcher, but it delivers some of the most important benefits a paid monitoring service provides. It can function as a stand-alone device, or you can integrate it into your home-control system to trigger other devices, such as a light switch.

It sends video clips (with optional audio) to your smartphone. It can be armed and disarmed using geo-fencing, so you don’t need to remember to activate it every time you leave your house. It’s outfitted with basic night vision, so it can operate in the dark. It has a motion sensor, a mic, and a built-in siren to let intruders know they’ve been detected. And you can deploy an almost unlimited number of Homeboys at a single location without worrying that you’ll overwhelm your Wi-Fi router.

You can read the rest of the article at the Source link below.