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droneseco · 3 years

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Apple AirTag Review: Apple Finds Itself Ahead of the Rest

Apple AirTag

9.50 / 10

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With competitive pricing but competitor beating features, Apple's long-awaited approach to Bluetooth tracking is not one to ignore. Features to easily and accurately help you find your lost items from nearby or far away, make the AirTag the best Bluetooth tracker on the market.

Specifications

Brand: Apple

Material: Plastic and metal

Connectivity: Bluetooth LE and UWB

Battery: 1 year

Range: 100m

Water Resistance: IP67

Active Users: Around a billion

Pros

Access to the Find My network

Locate an AirTag on a map even without a Bluetooth connection

Easy pairing with Apple devices

Handy Precision Finding feature for nearby items

Long battery life

IP67 water resistance

Look sleek

Built-in safety features

Cons

You do need an extra accessory to attach an AirTag to some items

Too thick for many wallets

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You can find a number of Bluetooth trackers already available on the market, but development has stagnated since they were first released and they all suffer from a lack of users on the network. They're great for helping you find your things when they're nearby, but not so good when you get further away.

And then Apple comes along with the AirTag. Now, finding far away lost items can be done reliably and easily from your iPhone. With access to a network of all Apple devices, and Precision Finding technologies, you can find anything, anywhere.

Apple AirTag Design

Apple designed the AirTags to be sleek, as it does all its products. There's not much to the AirTags design at all.

Each AirTag is a disc roughly the same size as a bottle cap. The body is made from white plastic, and the front from a metal disc with the Apple logo and some information about the device.

Unboxing an AirTag, you'll find the device presented to you in a folded piece of card that also shows you how to set up the device. It comes with the usual extra bits of paper as well, such as the warranty. Unfortunately, no stickers come in the box.

Originally, I was planning to use the second AirTag I bought in my wallet. But, I found that it was slightly too thick to leave the wallet in a comfortable shape. This problem came up with other Bluetooth trackers in the past, so isn't too surprising.

Apple AirTag Features

As with most Bluetooth trackers, you can play a loud chime from the AirTag's built-in speaker to help you easily locate it when nearby. This works the same as when you make your iPhone ring with Find My iPhone.

One unique feature to AirTags is Precision Finding, which uses the U1 ultra-wideband chip to show the exact location of your lost item to your iPhone. Your iPhone will guide you with an arrow, distance, sounds, and haptics to precisely find an AirTag.

Lost AirTags can be located by the Find My network. Through the network, Apple can work out where your AirTag is, and display the location to you in Find My app.

Read More: Apple's Find My Network: What Is It, and Why Is It Exciting?

f you can't find your AirTag this way, you can place the device into Lost Mode. This lets anyone who finds the lost AirTag, tap it to their phone to see a contact number to get it back to you.

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AirTags have an IP67 rating, which means that they're protected against dust, sand, and up to submersion of up to 1 meter in water for 30 minutes.

Related: What Do Waterproof and Water-Resistant Mean?

AirTags also have a built-in safety feature to stop them from being misused. If your iPhone detects an unknown AirTag has been moving with you for a while, you'll get an alert.

You'll get the alert letting you know after a couple of hours or when you get to your saved home address or a Frequent Location. This only happens if the owner isn't with the AirTag, and you can also silence the alert for certain AirTags for other people in your house.

Another safety feature is that AirTag will let out a chime after three days of being separated from its connected iPhone. Also, the AirTag's Bluetooth identifiers regularly change, which stops anyone from monitoring the device.

How to Set Up an Apple AirTag

Setting up an AirTag couldn't be easier. Similar to AirPods, you just bring a new AirTag near your iPhone, and a box will appear at the bottom of your screen asking you to connect.

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Once connected, you're asked to set a name and emoji for the AirTag, register it to your Apple ID account, and ... that's it. It's super quick and easy.

How to Use an Apple AirTag

There's not much involved in the process of using an AirTag. The device is ambient, and a lot of the work happens in the background.

To see where an AirTag is, you open up the Find My app. Under the Items section on the bottom bar, you'll see all of your AirTags.

From here, tapping on an AirTag will give you the options of finding it, playing a sound, enabling Lost Mode, and removing it.

You control everything from the Find My app, and on the device itself you'll only need to change the battery when it runs out (after about a year Apple claims).

Apple AirTag Performance Tests

In order to fully test that the AirTags lived up to the features that Apple promised, I decided to put the AirTags through some performance tests. This involved me spending the afternoon playing hide-and-seek with the AirTags, a lot more fun than it sounds if you don't mind the funny looks.

Finding an AirTag Indoors

The first and most obvious test to complete was to see if my iPhone could find an AirTag indoors.

Without hiding the keys, I used my iPhone to locate them with the Precision Finding feature. The haptic vibrations and the arrow on the screen led me straight to the AirTag without any issues. I also played a sound through the AirTag, and could hear it throughout most rooms.

So far, the AirTag lives up to its promised performance.

Finding an AirTag Outside

Stepping it up a notch, it was time to see how the AirTag fared when being tested outdoors at close range.

After chucking my keys into a bush, I then got the Find My app up on my iPhone. Moving near where the AirTag was, the Precision Finding feature once again helped to find the keys easily with the haptics and arrow.

Also playing a sound through the AirTag from the bush, the chime was still perfectly audible from standing just in front of it. It seems pretty clear that the outdoors location, and any leaves or obstacles in the way, don't affect the AirTag.

Interestingly, I found the range of Precision Finding is roughly 26ft. The AirTag was still connected to my iPhone over Bluetooth, so I could see it on the map and play a sound, but Precision Finding stopped working at that distance.

When going past this distance, the Find My app just tells you that you're too far away and need to move closer. From this range, you might see the blue location dot move on the map, so you should still be covered.

Finding a Far Away AirTag

This is where things start to really test the AirTag. Leaving the AirTag in a random spot near the street, it's time to test if the Find My Network really works.

I left my keys with the AirTag attached just near the path, so people's iPhones could connect to the AirTag and ping the location. To be extra safe, I was over 100 m away and had Bluetooth turned off, so my iPhone wouldn't interfere.

Impressively, the AirTag held up strong, and managed to refresh its location on the Find My app using the network. It sounds good in theory, and it's even better to see it work just as it's supposed to.

Testing Water and Dust Resistance on an AirTag

To test Apple's promise of an IP67 water and dust resistance, I took the AirTag on my keys to the beach while it was raining. This was to test the AirTag's durability against the water and sand.

Haphazardly rummaging the AirTag around in the wet sand to make sure it was covered, I then proceeded to find the AirTag with Precision Finding. Everything worked normally, so it seems that the AirTag held up to the IP67 rating.

Upon further inspection, when opening the AirTag (there's a photo a little bit later) I couldn't see any remnants of water or sand. The AirTag is sealed well, and seems pretty durable.

Finding an AirTag With an iPad

All the promos talk about finding an AirTag using an iPhone, as the U1 chip enables Precision Finding. But it's important to see what would happen if you tried to use an iPad instead.

On an iPad, the Find My app still shows your items on the map, you can play a sound through them, and enable Lost Mode. As expected, the only feature you can't use is Precision Finding due to the lack of a U1 chip.

Apple AirTag Compared to Competitors

Without going to into too much detail, Apple's AirTag is similar to the Bluetooth trackers of many other companies, but just steps ahead of the competition. Both the Chipolo and Tile are similarly priced to the AirTag, and the same basic tracking function remains the same. The difference is that Apple has a network of billions of iPhones to help keep track of lost items.

The Find My network must be the biggest selling point. While Tile offers its own similar network, there are not nearly as many devices on it. So the AirTag wins in that respect.

Also, both the Chipolo and Tile apps need to run in the App Switcher at all times to work properly. This can be a bit of a battery drain, but luckily the Find My app doesn't need to do that.

Read More: Apple AirTags vs. Chipolo vs. Tile: Which Is the Best Bluetooth Tracker?

Apple AirTag Repairability

For repairability, it's actually pretty easy to fix an AirTag. Granted, nothing much can go wrong other than the battery needing changing, but it's nice that Apple lets the user do this for a change.

You just push down and twist the metal section of the AirTag to open it up. The metal part just pops off, and then you've got access to the battery. So I'd mark repairability at a solid 9/10.

The motherboard is hidden behind the plastic shell, so you can't get to that part, but it's unlikely that you'll need to. Each AirTag remained well sealed, and I can't find any sand or water inside from the earlier test.

If you're looking for a teardown of the AirTag, the YouTube channel Brandon Geekabit has opened up the new tracker and taken it apart,

youtube

Accessories for the Apple AirTag

As you may have seen, the AirTag doesn't have a hole for attaching it to a keychain. For this, you'll need a keychain or loop accessory.

Apple sells these accessories directly on its website. Pricing starts at $29, which shockingly is as much as the AirTag itself. Apple also sells a Hermès edition for a daft amount of $349.

Third-party accessories such as from Belkin and other brands on Amazon, come in around a more reasonable $10-$15 range. The leather keychain I'm using is a third-party one.

Should You Buy the Apple AirTag?

Yes. Without being too blunt, but I think it's a fairly simple answer. Apple has priced AirTags competitively, the features work as promised, and AirTags can utilize a worldwide network of billions of devices to beat out the competitors.

With only two minor caveats of needing to purchase separate accessories for some attachments, and finding it a bit too thick for a wallet, it would be extremely difficult to not recommend AirTags to anyone who needs to keep track of their stuff.

Apple AirTag Review: Apple Finds Itself Ahead of the Rest published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/

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kjg222453kjg222454 · 6 years

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Week 7 - Independent Study

chat with Jason

Chatting to Jason about presentation: - You don’t need to present every single aspect - i.e an app you can show just a few screens or features. - Alongside Karl maybe ask for Tim Parkin or Kerry Ann Lee to mark your work. - Experience - Think about what + how you’re going to present and work it backwards.

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planning of presentation

jotting some ideas down to get the ball rolling:

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character - first set

playing with watercolour and fine liner

looking a a flat vector style graphic - cute but I think that flat vectors are a little overdone?

Doodles from sitting in Midnight Espresso - not overly happy with these they look like poorly drawn chickens or pigeons...

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scene

3 kind of styles going on here - bit of a mess but seeing how these might work together.... they don’t. Quite like the style of the mountains though

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Chat with Libby - a spatial design student

After Lachie’s talk I realised that I really needed to talk to someone from Spatial and see what I could do to actually execute and lead a child through the spaces I was focussing on. I didn’t know what I didn’t know so this chat was really helpful. Some key notes: Questions for me to think about - who else uses this space? who are the main users of this space? will they want to see these things all the time especially in a prison? Interactive prompts: “Look up!” “Turn around!” How might they linger in the space? How might they transition through the space? Tactile - feathers, leaves Do the longer durations - leave them to imagine the rest. Build a narrative through the space - 5-6 different points. Different imagery & textures. Doesn’t need to be a big thing. Could it change every 6 months or so? Could the new narrative be something that is co-designed by prisoners and designers? Add stickers to the kea kit for children to be able to recognise the narrative. The narrative could also be the story for storybook or storybook mums/dads recording.

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Skill share with Ella

I was a bit stuck with my character illustrations so got my gal pal Ella to help me out - we did a bit of a skill swap where I did some user-testing for her and she helped me visualise how my character could look and also taught me some new shortcuts in illustrator!

Ella’s drawings

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Drawings 2.0

Tracing photographs with a fine liner - using the windows and sunshine as a light box! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Renders 2.0

Pretty happy with these but they do look a little bit mean and menacing - definitely in need of a little refinement!

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Kelvin Davis

https://www.facebook.com/KelvinDavisLabour/videos/1419767494826183 Launching of new Māori > Crown Office - THEY’RE LISTENING TO THE PEOPLE YAY!

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Chat with Te Kani

Chatting with my good friend TK - who’s currently creative director at Huia Publishers - about my project. The biggest takeaway from this chat was that tikanga needed to influence my system as well as my execution, so what does manaakitanga look like to a child experiencing trauma?

Notes:

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Chat with Ati

Chatting about what manaakitanga might look like to a child experiencing trauma. Key takeaways: manaakitanga in terms of making sure that child feels secure and supported > further notion of tāwharau.

what is manaakitanga and tāwharau?

^Māori Dictionary

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Chat with Siobhan McCarthy

Just chatting with Siobhan more about my project and where I’m at - just starting my journey map so getting her advice on EVERYTHING.

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Research into kea environment for narrative/hallway plan

Wild Kea environments: https://www.keaconservation.co.nz/kea-information/kea-wild/ ^Trying to figure out what my imagery for my narrative my lead through and show. Kea diet: https://www.keaconservation.co.nz/kea/kea-diet/ ^part of working to make a child feel as if it’s being welcomed into another’s home is acknowledging that person/things norms too Alpine Landscape: https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/habitats/alpine/ ^What kind of native trees might be in a Kea habitat? General Kea info: http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/kea ^again part of working to make a child feel as if it’s being welcomed into another’s home is acknowledging that person/things norms too Rimu: http://www.nznativeplants.co.nz/Articles/Dacrydium+cupressinum.html ^One of the native trees often found where Keas inhabit

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Rachel found these cool things and thought it would be helpful for my project

They’re pretty groovy and I really like the style though - might be something I could experiment with.

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Journey map

Inspired by Lachie’s Family Violence journey map I went ahead and mapped out the system of my project:

Final result:

The Kea Project feeds in to create an intervention on the situation/incident and how the child might be feeling or reacting. There’s an overarching notion of manaakitanga making sure that the children always feel supported.

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Hardcopy & Wander

Examples of some projects getting fed through from Karl:

Wander: https://www.behance.net/gallery/26683473/Wander-Link-Alzheimers-App-Massey

Hardcopy: https://nevelinforth.com/hardcopy-news-media-ecosystem/

I really like how similar Neve’s journey map is to mine showing a cycle and points + measurements of interaction (mine shows intensity of emotions/interventions).

#s2w7

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succeedly · 7 years

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5 Fab Ways to Animate Your EduLife!

This article was published in NEA Today Magazine - pages 18-20 - and also posted on the NEA Today Website 5 Fab Ways to Animate Your EduLife!

Begin Bitmoji

Savvy Signage

Fresh Feedback

Social Sharing

Cool Communication

Have you fallen in love with Bitmoji yet? This fun FREE app has been around for a few years and now can be easily used to transform and animate your professional life and classroom. For those new to this app, Bitmoji is an emoji or avatar that you can customize to look just like you (or in my case a younger skinnier version of me!) which is then automatically inserted into all kinds of colorful cartoons. You can use Bitmoji stickers as your Twitter avatar, on Snapchat stories, within Seesaw and Google Apps for Education, rubrics, within Gmail, on your blog, or for classroom or library signage. It’s also a fun way to add spice to you texting life with friends and family -- and there are at least four fab ways you can animate your edulife and use in the classroom! I'm hooked! DISCLAIMER & BACKSTORY: There are other avatar creators out there, I have blog posts, articles, and resource web pages that go over more than 15 of them - but Bitmoji is FREE and is, by far, the easiest one to start with. I also have to assure you, I don’t work for them, this is not sponsored or a “paid advertisement,” nor do they even acknowledge my positive Tweets or social media love, though I wouldn’t be mad at them if they sent me a T-Shirt! I used Bitstrips back in the day, and Bitmoji was created by them. A couple years ago one of my amazing MHMS Social Studies teachers, Ms. Daniller had her Bitmoji as her Twitter profile pic and I was all like "OMGosh, where did you get that!?".....she graciously shared, and well, now

1- Begin Bitmoji With Bitmoji you can create your face, hairstyle, shape, and then dress it up, & BOOM! They're automatically put into fun cartoon stickers that are an alternate emoji keyboard on your cell phone, Chrome extension, Snapchat, and more! Even my 70 something year old Mom and Dad have them, and we use them with each other all the time. It's hilarious and a blast! Though I gotta warn you, they’re a bit addictive! Sweet Setup:

Get the FREE App by searching for Bitmoji - available in iOS iPhone and Android. Download, open the app, start designing your avatar. Don’t worry, you can easily and always change it later. First you need to choose a cartoon style: either the more anime or squished Bitmoji style or the regular cartoony Bitstrips style. You can play around with skin tones, eye colors, eyebrows, hair color and style, body shapes and even outfit styles. Keep choosing and testing until your digital doppelganger looks just like you. Once you finish, Bitmoji will automatically create an entire library of fun — and just a tad bit silly — images. Like this one of me: Add the Keyboard & Give Full Access To use these Bitmjoji's you have to add them as an additional keyboard on your phone. For an iPhone go to General Settings > Keyboards > Add new keyboard and make sure you select ALLOW FULL ACCESS, this way you can use them on your iPad's, too. For Android, Wikihow says: “Enabling the Bitmoji Keyboard. Open your Android's Settings. It's the gray gear icon in the app drawer. Scroll down and tap Language and Input. It's in the

“Personal” section. Tap Current Keyboard. Tap Choose Keyboards. Slide the “Bitmoji Keyboard” switch to the On position. Tap OK.” While you’re texting, there are 6 categories of Bitmoji's, you select them by just touching, copying, and pasting into the text message box. To take them from the app and to send them into your computer, you can save them to your Camera Roll, upload to Flickr, email them to yourself, or the easiest way is to insert it into a Google Doc then take a screenshot, that way you can easily edit them in Photoshop or FREE with PicMonkey. Learn how to do that here Like Bitmoji? There's an Extension for That!

2 - Savvy Signage Once you have your Bitmoji on your computer you can make signage for your classroom or library. Think of Back to School Night signs and a classroom door welcome sign with your room number and name, or a “Place Homework Here” sign, the possibilities are endless. I created the sign here by adding the text using PicMonkey, a FREE site with creative tools for photo editing and graphic design.

Classroom do’s and don’ts signs can be so boring, Bitmoji’s really jazz them up! My friend Andrew Tyler aka @atylerlibrarian in New Hampshire, created really a neat Computer Lab sign featuring Bitmoji’s for his school! (Picture found here in many sizes) Andrew also shared on Twitter how he created a fantastic photo booth sign for his Middle School Library for Grandparents Day!

3- Fresh Feedback

Bitmoji is now available as a Chrome extension that puts your cartoon avatar stickers super handy on your browser toolbar to use within Google Apps for Education, Gmail, Seesaw, and a growing list of other platforms. Getting feedback from teachers, in cartoon form, makes that feedback fun and much more personal. Super educator, speaker, blogger, and author Alice Keeler, says about Bitmoji’s: “When using digital tools try to put yourself into them to help students feel there is a teacher guiding them through the lesson. Bitmoji’s are great for adding “you” along with some personality into digital resources. Google Forms are awesome for flipped learning, formative assessment, checks for understanding, and so much more. Bitmoji AND Google Forms… the awesomeness meter here might explode.” For step by step directions, search for her blog post titled: Bitmoji Feedback in My Google Doc

Mr. Parkinson aka @ICT_MrP, a Primary ICT teacher in Britain, uses Bitmoji stickers in a rubric for writing prompts. What a great way to give kids a visual feedback for their assignments. Anything we can do to make Rubrics more approachable and useful the better!

4 - Social Sharing

Bitmoji avatars are super for sharing on social media. Whether it’s as your Twitter profile picture, on a blog, in Snapchat stories, or on Instagram - these cartoons really bring personality to any platform. One of the coolest ideas I’ve heard lately was from Tara M. Martin aka @TaraMartinEDU called #BookSnaps. Tara shares how she takes a picture of a section of text, uploads it to Snapchat, adds a filter, re-types the quote from the book, draws arrows, writes words, and then brings in a Bitmoji to add more zip. This is a cool way for the reader to express their connections to text with a digital visual representation. Search #BookSnaps for articles, directions, blog posts, and videos on how to join in on the fun. But since I don't want to "friend" my kiddos on Snapchat (because, boundaries and I teach Middle School) I could see how you can do this same thing can be done using Instagram. You could also create these with Google Docs!

5- Cool Communication Leveraging the power of the FREE Chrome extension puts your Bitmoji right in your browser toolbar for easy use with Gmail and Drive. Linda Lindsay aka @mauilibrarian2, a super Teacher-Librarian in Hawaii says: “If I had my druthers, I would use my Bitmoji all the time! So I have to restrain myself. My favorite use is in Gmail (Chrome extension) to punctuate my ideas and responses to make my colleagues laugh. They're always pleased, and it makes me so happy imagining the looks on their faces.” Our wonderful school data clerk Kimberly Walley (who has since moved schools - miss her! She the one saved teachers when our Synergy electronic gradebook went wonky or changes - she used it to transform a possibly boring newsletter to bright when directions or updates are shared with the school staff. See her graphic above! Caution: For Grownups Only! I have to warn you that Bitmoji’s are to use FOR kiddos and not to use WITH the kiddos. This is because some of the stickers or cartoons have to do with drinking alcohol, some have trendy bad-ish language (FML), and some are sorta flirty. Not R rated, maybe not even PG-13, but just not for kiddos in my humble opinion. Since I teach Middle Schoolers, this is right-out. Sure, some of my kiddos might have their own Bitmoji, but I’m not going to be the teacher to promote their direct use. This is for your professional classroom branding and fun.

Why Bitmoji? Emojis have become necessary in recent years because they fill a gap people didn't even know they had. When texting, they add feeling to conversations and allow you to tell if someone is being sarcastic or sweet. Bimoji’s give those conversations identity and personality. Maximizing that super power of a customized and engaging cartoon and using it in your professional practice brings it to the next level. Give it a whirl, and discover more ways to use them in your classroom! I’d love to see your Bitmoji, share and Tweet them to me @GwynethJones so our cartoons can be friends! Resources: If you’re reading this on paper, Google the title to find online & enjoy! Gmail Just Got Zanier, Thanks To Bitmoji | HuffPost Using Bitmoji In Your Classroom - BISD Learning Technologies Bitmoji Feedback in My Google Doc By Alice Keeler Why and how I Bitmoji in my classroom? - Sahar @MyMathscape #BookSnaps by Tara M Martin It's a Cartoon, It's An Avatar, It's a New Animated YOU! Got Bitmoji? - The Daring Librarian A Super List of 15+ Avatar Generators & Creators by The Daring Librarian The Daring Librarian Bitmoji Flickr Gallery 5 Fab Ways to Animate Your EduLife! published first on http://ift.tt/2jn9f0m

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droneseco · 3 years

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Nooie Smart Doorbell Cam Review: Stylish Home Security

Nooie Wi-Fi Video Doorbell Camera

8.00 / 10

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The Nooie doorbell cam offers a diverse variety of security features while allowing for many layers of customization. With the completely opt-in cloud subscription, it's a welcome alternative for those looking into a lower-cost entry into home security. It doesn't have every bell and whistle, but its user-friendly design and features offer plenty of value.

Key Features

Weatherproof (rated IP65)

Night vision up to 49 ft

PIR Motion Detection with human detection

10,000 mAh battery

Specifications

Brand: Nooie

Resolution: 2K

Connectivity: Wi-Fi

App Compatibility: Yes

Night Vision: Yes

Internal or External: External

Power Source: 10,000mAh battery

Axis Control: N/A

Pros

2K video quality

Two-way audio and quick responses

Local and cloud storage options

Mounting options (flat and 15° wall mount)

Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant support

Anti-theft siren and safety lock

Cons

158° field of view is narrower than some competitors

No wireless power option

Occasional app glitches

Base station requires an outlet

Buy This Product

Nooie Wi-Fi Video Doorbell Camera amazon

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The Nooie Doorbell Cam offers both essential security and everyday features to simplify your life. This stylish wireless doorbell by Nooie also forgoes a mandatory subscription to keep its usage flexible. For those looking for protection without a huge investment cost, Nooie's doorbell cam may work for you.

youtube

Nooie Doorbell Cam Design

From a design angle, Nooie has broken from the standard whites, black, and metallic hue focus of other doorbell cams. The speckled beige coloration provides a warm neutral option for those looking for an alternate color option from the norm.

The Nooie wireless doorbell measures 6.7 x 2.4 x 1.6 inches but weighs only 1.94 pounds, so it feels extremely light in your hand. When either installing or removing the doorbell cam on its mount, the body's dimensions also allow for an easy grip.

With an above-average size, it serves as a great visual deterrent since it's easy to spot at a distance. In practice, the doorbell button is also a good size, so there's no issue giving it a press regardless of how big your hands are. The speaker at the bottom of the doorbell cam isn't the loudest, but it's clear enough to communicate from.

Nooie Doorbell Cam Technical Specifications

To serve as a proper technological 24/7 security guard, Nooie offers some impressive specs to keep everything in sight. This wireless doorbell cam uses a 2K resolution to provide crisp video coverage. The 158-degree field of view is smaller than other similarly priced doorbell cams, but it seemed a smaller trade-off for the camera depth and quality.

There was a small blind spot as a result, but the proper placement of the doorbell circumvented this issue almost entirely. By extension, the night vision coverage of up to 49 feet and passive infrared motion detection ensured even more control over my detection zone.

This doorbell cam comes rated at IP65, so it's considered weatherproof. While you won't want to submerge the unit in water, it was able to stand up to turbulent thunderstorms and rain blowback during its testing window.

For those concerned about device theft, Nooie also features an anti-theft siren if the device is removed from its backing. To prevent accidental triggers, you can also disable this protection at any point from settings.

Nooie Wireless Doorbell Battery, Set-Up, and User Experience

Nooie opted for a wireless design for its doorbell cam, so it needed a battery that could provide power for prolonged everyday use. Its doorbell cam utilizes a battery with a 10,000 mAh capacity. In terms of charging, it took a few hours of outlet charging to fill it to the max via the included USB-C cable.

The battery life will fluctuate depending on what settings you opt into. These hinge around the detection radius, so they can be tweaked towards your home or particular concern. Even when opting into the higher drain settings, the battery drain was never severe enough that it made me feel like I needed to opt into a lower-tier.

When integrating a new smart device into your home, it can be tempting to stick with the most common market device. Set-ups for these tend to be the most streamlined, and they do a good job at making the process painless. Even if you haven't heard of Nooie, it's worth noting that they put a lot of effort into the graphical guidance and intuitive functionality.

When you open the box, everything is clearly labeled. The included instructions cover the major bits, but visual add-ons such as a card explaining the angled mount and mounting foam sticker make for useful visual aids.

The Nooie app itself also tries to keep you from getting stuck during the set-up process. If you run into an issue and something isn't working as intended, Nooie made sure to include in-app tips on what to do next. Not having to immediately dip into a manual to troubleshoot was a time-saving user-friendly touch.

Similarly, learning the LED color patterns for both the doorbell and base station makes it easy to discern specific issues.

Placing and Utilizing the Base Station

The Nooie base station serves a variety of useful functions at the cost of an outlet plug. It provides dual-band Wi-Fi amplification, local storage, an ethernet jack, and plays your in-home chimes.

Placement near your router is more optimal if you have any issues connecting wirelessly. If this doesn't help, the included ethernet cable can circumvent connectivity issues by directly connecting to your router. You may also need to make some router setting tweaks if issues continue to occur.

At the side of the base station is its microSD slot. For those interested in local storage, the option to utilize up to 128 GB of space on a microSD provides some immediate benefits.

First off, there's instant freedom from cloud-based subscription models. Plus, if someone were to steal your doorbell cam, this in-home measure keeps your data safely stored. Furthermore, the short recordings don't take up much space, so you don't have to worry about your card filling up rapidly.

In terms of chime ringtones, there's a small handful of options. Nooie offers a total of four default chimes with one downloadable holiday addition. They're mostly forgettable, but they play well from the base station.

Mounting the Nooie Doorbell Cam

To help get your doorbell cam up and positioned perfectly, Nooie included two wall mounts (one flat and one angled fifteen-degree mount), screws (two concrete and two wood screws), and four anchors. The included mount foam sticker also makes it incredibly easy to visualize your placement prior to installation.

After installing your choice mount, attaching the doorbell is a simple matter. With the flat wall mount, I had no issue placing the doorbell cam. However, the fifteen-degree wall mount had a top locking mechanism that would stick.

While this was relatively minor and solved by feel, the added jostling of the device to properly lock and also remove the doorbell proved irksome.

To remove the doorbell, there's a small hole at the bottom of each mount that requires you to insert a small included pin. This releases the lock and allows you to safely remove the doorbell cam.

Nooie Doorbell Cam Monitoring

When you're ready to check in on your doorbell, the Nooie app makes it easy to manage the experience. Once you've selected your doorbell from the camera list and checked its current connection strength, you can either go live or view recordings from the timeline.

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From the live view, you can toggle between 2K and HD video depending on your connection. While also in live view, you can record video, take a photo, set off the alarm, speak via your device's mic, and mute the live feed. If you tap the view playback option beneath the icons, you can view prior recordings by date either in a timeline or list view.

If you do run into issues here, these typically are a result of your network strength. These present in the form of a laggy live feed, recordings not playing always, and the rare loss of connection with the doorbell itself. With a faster connection speed, the app works fluidly.

Responding With the Nooie App

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When someone presses your doorbell, the Nooie app will cut to a live call screen with a preview of what the doorbell cam sees. From here, you can answer for two-way talk, end the alert, or respond with a pre-programmed quick response or use a custom one that you've recorded for yourself. If you want to change your current custom quick responses, it's as simple as tapping the respective slot and recording over them.

In practice, the quick response can be immensely helpful if you don't have time to chat. The only unfortunate element is the name character limit for the custom responses is fairly short, so you can't go as detailed as the default messages.

Nooie Detection Options and Notifications

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Besides the basic doorbell press, the detection elements on Nooie's doorbell cam allow you to both adjust your battery life as well as any related notifications. The PIR (passive infrared) motion detection works at a default sensitivity of ten feet, but you can adjust it to either three feet or up to twenty feet to tweak your notification frequency. Human-shape detection is activated by default, so you won't have to worry about any simple motion triggering an alert.

During testing, I didn't run into false alerts, but the option to set your detection zone makes it even easier to save battery if you really want to narrow your view. To maximize your battery life, there's also the option to disable the use of PIR motion detection.

As for the actual detections, these get sorted into human detection and doorbell presses within the Nooie inbox.

Nooie Cloud Versus Local Storage

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One of the high points of the Nooie experience is paying for its cloud service remains completely optional. If you're after continuous recording and want to replay events from your video history, you can choose between Nooie's assorted plans. You either pay monthly or yearly while opting to either save videos for up to seven or thirty days before they're deleted automatically.

The service is backed by Amazon Web Service, and you can cancel at any time. If you pay for one month with seven days of video playback, it will cost you one dollar as their cheapest option.

If you need Nooie to capture every single possible moment, or you're especially worried about porch theft, then it doesn't cost much to try. In testing, local storage sufficed for my rural area with its set recording at intervals and overall sensitivity to any human detection. However, in a more populated or busy space, it's easy to see where 24/7 recording can appeal more.

Third-Party Control With Nooie

The Nooie Doorbell Cam supports both third-party control with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. For testing, I had an Amazon Echo Show 8 on hand. To see a live feed, simply ask Alexa to show you the doorbell cam's name.

When pressing the doorbell, Alexa can play its own chimes and note that someone is at the front door. While the overall integration is relatively minor, it does offer more ringtone options and allow for an alert from another room away from the base station. So if you're in a larger home and you already have a supported assistant device, it's worth integrating your doorbell cam.

Should You Buy the Nooie Doorbell Cam?

Whether you buy the Nooie Doorbell Cam boils down to what features you value the most. For most, the excellent picture quality and superb detection make it an appealing option. However, possible deterrents include its wireless-only option, limited subscription benefits, and app glitches.

If you're after a more budget-friendly doorbell cam and can work with its limitations, the Nooie Doorbell Cam offers great value.

Nooie Smart Doorbell Cam Review: Stylish Home Security published first on http://droneseco.tumblr.com/

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