Mike Wuerthele
After fulfilling a $1 million crowd-funding campaign for a debut security camera, shipping a second, and announcing a third Blink has been bought by Amazon for undisclosed terms, likely dashing any hopes for HomeKit integration.
Following a 2014 crowdfunding round for a debut product, Blink has since released two completely wireless security cameras. The newly announced $99 Blink Video Doorbell the company claims will function for two years with ten five-second video events per day on a pair of lithium-ion batteries.
"If you own one of our systems, nothing changes for now. We'll continue to operate under the Amazon umbrella selling and supporting the same great products you know and love," write Blink in a post on its homepage. "It's Day 1 for us at Amazon, and we're looking forward to seeing what we can deliver to our customers together."
Blink products already support Alexa, but aren't more integrated with other services that Amazon offers. It also offers IFTTT support.
Blink hardware can be purchased for a minimum of $99 for either the eponymous Blink interior camera, or the coming soon Blink Video Doorbell. The exterior Blink XT with IR night vision is $129.
Users monitoring the feeds by themselves over wi-fi is free, but 4G cellular compatibility costs $9.99 per month, with another $10 added on to that for third-party professional monitoring.
William Gallagher
Malcolm Owen
Charles Martin
8 Comments
I'm interested in everyone's thoughts on this path for Apple to increase their services revenue (Getting monthly subscription fees for certain home connected devices).
This is why I stay away from crowdfunding projects. You never know when they're going to sell out once they hit it big.
. . .
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Speaking of security cameras:
https://www.wired.com/story/snowden-haven-app-turns-phone-into-home-security-system/
Interesting!
A few weeks ago I asked Blink customer support whether there were any plans for HomeKit support since I’m automating my home using it and my existing 3 Blink cameras were an island onto themselves. The answer was “none”. Now I know why :-(
I wouldn’t have minded HomKit incompatibility so much - especially when they announced the $99 door bell - but I don’t want my house monitored by cameras owned by companies who make money off knowing more about me. I can just see it: in some future “Terms of Service” update, there’ll be some fine print about Amazon being now allowed to “parse” my video clips stored on their servers to better “serve” me. Next thing you know i’ll start seeing Miele vacuum cleaner ads because they recognized my vacuum model in one of those clips :-(