Announcing Dropcam Echo

Keep an Eye, and now an Ear, on What's Most Important from Anywhere on the Web, Even from Your iPhone!

     
Click here to download:
announcing-dropcam-echo-xesFtrpvmJHadsxBxGIJ.zip (75 KB)

Today, we're announcing the launch of the all-new Dropcam Echo, the Dropcam home security camera that adds audio to the mix.  If you're new to us, Dropcams are easy to set up, small, and affordable wireless home monitoring systems.  The Dropcam.com service allows you to watch your homes, businesses, valuables, children, and even pets from wherever you are, whenever you want, all from the Dropcam website or with our Dropcam iPhone app. Users can also easily share a secure live video stream with friends and family.

Home and business monitoring has never been easier:

  • Dropcam connects with your home wireless network in a few easy steps. Just connect to power, connect to your home router, and Dropcam does all the work. Within minutes, your Dropcam will be streaming live - it's like a webcam, but with no computer or special software needed!

Dropcam is the first camera that reaches out to you with activity alerts:

  • Dropcam users never have to worry about missing an event.  You automatically receive immediate alerts via email (or push notification on your iPhone) when motion is detected by your Dropcam. Each alert includes a still image of the event along with an instantly playable clip of the recorded activity.

Home security & social video with easy feed sharing for friends and family:

  • Dropcam is an amazingly easy way to share your precious moments of the children (or pets) with family and loved ones, through secure sharing and simple one-click Web-based access (no downloads necessary).  It also makes a great home security camera you can watch while traveling - or have your friends help watch it for you!

Built-in DVR with 24/7 digital recordings:

  • The Dropcam.com service includes a DVR feature - it automatically records up to one month of activity from each camera, backed up online ("in the cloud"), fully accessible through the Dropcam website or on your iPhone for later viewing.  (Note - some of our features like the Dropcam DVR require a paid subscription - Worth every penny.)

Monitor one or multiple cameras from anywhere, even on your iPhone (or your iPad!):

  • The Dropcam.com web interface lets users watch a live stream of as many cameras as they want via the web or on the Dropcam iPhone app, and even provides an easy to use timeline of recent activity to let them go back and watch what they may have missed while away.

All of this is just the beginning. In the coming months, we'll be rolling out new features and apps to make the Dropcam even better. We'll announce our first set of upgraded features within the month, and we really want to get the Dropcam community involved in helping with the future! We'd love to hear your feedback. If you have a great idea for Dropcam leave a comment below.

To view some live Dropcams in action click here!

To learn more about Dropcam, or to pick one up for yourself go here!

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Watching a parking lot with Dropcam

Jeremy's back with another time lapse video, this time of a parking
lot. This is one of those crazy San Francisco lots where the security
guys manage to park a ton of cars in just the right way so they don't
have to move a ton of cars in and out when someone comes to pick up a
car.

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Face detection isn't just for humans

Because Dropcam records so much security camera video, our number one request is for motion detection identifiers in the player timeline.  We've also been thinking about other ways to intelligently evaluate the video and give users information about what is going on, so this new feature in Fuji's FinePix camera line is something we'll have to seriously consider.

Yes, we're thinking about face detection to help you see if a person is in your home security video, but Fuji has definitely raised the bar by detecting pets.  Now if only they could get dogs and cats to stand still...

Fuji's list of recommended pets, though, is a little presumptuous.

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Dropcam Now on iPhone and iPod Touch!

You can now watch on the go!  Check in on your baby, home, business, or anything else you care about by using the new Dropcam app from the iTunes Store.  It's free and works automatically with your Dropcam - you don't need to do anything extra!

All of your Dropcams are accessible from the app, as well as a few sample video feeds from public cameras around San Francisco.  The video is in full resolution with smooth video playback and will work on all iPhones and iPod Touches over Wi-Fi and 3G.

Go download the app today, and thanks for being a Dropcam user!

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Introducing the New Dropcam Video Player

Dropcam is happy to introduce our new video player! We listened to your feedback and improved the player so you can more easily watch your recordings and scan hours of video footage.

If you have a Dropcam, you're ready to go! If not, you can now access some publicly accessible Dropcams set up around San Francisco and try the new Dropcam player.

Easy Recording Navigation

image of navigation barThe viewer now shows you the current time as well as how much video is recorded. Just click on the navigation timeline to view video from the past, or click Jump to Date/Time if you know exactly when you wish to review.

Quick Video Scanning

image of snapshotYou have lots of video, and Dropcam knows you don't have time to sit and watch hours of recordings. With the new navigation timeline, just hover over the timeline to view a snapshot. You can even Zoom Out and go through days of video in minutes using your mouse.

Sharper Video Quality

Over the next week your Dropcam will automatically upgrade to a higher video quality. We've been working to make the video sharper and quicker to load on the Dropcam website, and we think you'll love the change!

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Cameras Everywhere

Joe Gregorio over at Bitworking writes about CCDs becoming ubiquitous (along with digital imaging technology in general) and used for lots of things, from 2D barcodes to gaming.  When he starts talking about putting lots of cameras everywhere to track the things you care about, though, he's describing a future we see as well.

The opportunities to help businesses learn more about themselves and become efficient are clearly there with inventory tracking, general security, and employee and customer metrics.  More uncertain are the personal, private things you could watch, measure, and do with ubiquitous video devices like Dropcam.  Joe mentions controlling your lights or measuring your food intake.  One thing I'm looking forward to is a mosaic of the folks who have come over to my apartment.  That's my pet project.

What would you track?

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Dropcam's First Time Lapse

Jeremy Roy, one of our beta users, decided to create time-lapse
footage of his video using some of the new functionality we're
introducing to Dropcam. Check it out!

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About

Dropcam makes easy-to-use internet cameras you use to watch the things you care about. Just plug one in, and it connects to the Internet so you can watch it from anywhere using a browser. Use Dropcam as a baby monitor, a video peephole for your front door, or easy surveillance for your small business.

To learn more, please visit http://www.dropcam.com.