Roger Fingas
Netatmo's indoor security camera, the Welcome, will be getting HomeKit support later in the first quarter, the company announced on Monday.
HomeKit compatibility should allow control via Siri, as well as the iOS and watchOS Home apps. Siri commands will include the likes of "turn on the camera" or "show me the Kitchen camera." The Welcome's motion detection will let it operate as a trigger for HomeKit scenes, for example turning on smartbulbs if motion is detected at night.
The camera sports 1080p resolution, night vision, and a 130-degree field of view, as well as the option to save video on a microSD card or automatically upload to Dropbox or an FTP server.
Unlike some other Wi-Fi cameras, the Welcome includes free face and pet detection. It can alternately be set to disable recordings and notifications for familiar animals and people, and in fact will only record when something happens, generating photos, videos, and notifications in Netatmo's iPhone and iPad app.
The company's outdoor camera, the Presence, is about halfway through a HomeKit rollout that began on Dec. 29.
Security cameras have been conspicuously absent from the roster of HomeKit products, the only other options being D-Link's Omna 180 Cam HD and the Logitech Circle 2 Wired. Apple has so far blocked HomeKit from appearing on fully wireless cameras with internal batteries, presumably because of power consumption.
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1 Comment
Perfect timing since I grabbed a couple last week when Home Depot Canada cleared them out for $45 CAD.