Home security cameras are normally fixed to a certain projection and to change where they are viewing you have to physically move the camera itself.  Now Ring has released a camera that can pan a full 360 degrees and tilt vertically 169 degrees.

Unsurprisingly called the Ring Pan-Tilt Camera, the new camera has been front and centre in my kitchen for the past few weeks and although it’s a breath of fresh air when it comes to Ring home security cameras, Ring could have, and should have, done so much more.

At just $129 it is not expensive so you shouldn’t expect it to be perfect but at $129 it does represent good value for money.

Design

The Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera is very reminiscent of the Ring Indoor camera and it looks exactly the same as one, except it has a pan-tilt base underneath instead of a simple stand.

The footprint is nearly as compact as that of the Ring Indoor Camera so it takes up very little room wherever you end up placing it.  Ring has also included a base mount that you can use to easily mount the Pan-Tilt Indoor camera on your wall or ceiling.

The Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera includes the manual shutter that debuted on the Ring Indoor Camera refresh last year and although it is incredibly flimsy it does the job it is designed for.  There is no remote control over it of course, just a physical movement of the shutter itself by you.   Simply slide it into position and the camera lens is physically blocked.

The rest of the Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera is extremely well built and solid, as we have come to expect from Ring cameras.  Installation is easy with all the screws and mounts required for full installation included, as well as easy step by step instructions for those of you like me who struggle to know which end of the hammer to hold.

The Pan-Tilt camera from Ring includes all of their usual features which are great and easy to use.  One of my favourites is the colour night vision.  Don’t expect the colour to look like daylight but that addition of a small amount of colour adds a lot of useful information when viewing captured vision.

The two-way intercom works great with both sides of the conversation able to hear each other easily — being an inside camera only does help with the clarity of reception of course.

Ring introduced GPS geolocation reminders for changing the Ring protection status which I love but it would be even nicer to have them automated.

I love the GPS geolocation reminders for changing the Ring protection status but it would be even nicer to have them automated and not have to think about changing it yourself.

Pan and Tilt

To pan and tilt the camera you just need to open up the camera in live view and tap on the rotate link/menu button at the bottom of the page.  Up pops the left/right, up/down arrows to allow you to move the camera as you wish.  It moves smoothly allowing for a non-stuttering video.

The downside is that it will not move without you.  While some smart displays have auto person tracking the Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor camera does not.  In other words, if you don’t jump into the app and follow the intrusion yourself you will not get the entire field of view possible and the pan-tilt function of the camera will have been for nought.

But what about…

Ring cameras are very good at recognising packages, people, and pets with their camera software, so I hope they harness this to then follow those that are human faces — as mentioned above.  This is essential in my opinion if they are to maintain their market share, and if we are talking about removing blind spots with this camera, face and person tracking would really remove the blind spots!

1080P HD recording used to be a selling point for security cameras but that has long passed.  Many cameras are now 2K and 4K but Ring continue to bring the same optics and 1080P to their cameras.  It is time for an overhaul.  Most of us have faster home Internet and 5G now so we can handle 2K and 4K streaming of a security feed, time for Ring to step up.

My final bug bear, which isn’t an issue for me but could be for others.  There is no local recording in the form of SD card and to get full use and functionality of your Ring camera you need to have a subscription to Ring Protect or Protect Plus.  They are far from the only company to do this though so my advice to everyone is, find a camera system you love and stick with it.

I have over 10 Ring cameras in and around my house and thus the subscription is relatively affordable for me because once you hit more than three cameras it becomes cost effective to get the full Ring Protect Plus subscription.

Final Thoughts

I love the addition of the pan and tilt functionality to the Ring cameras. I have so many of these types of indoor cameras around my house that I now wish many of them also had this functionality.

For me, I cannot see myself replacing any of my current Ring indoor cameras with an exact same camera only with pan and tilt. Now, were I to need another location covered and needed another camera then yes, definitely, it’s a purchase I would consider in a heartbeat — $129 is not much more that the standard Indoor Camera but with so much more functionality.

I sincerely hope that Ring are working on new optics for their cameras as their current ones are getting a bit old in the tooth and run the risk of falling behind their competitors. If Ring introduced a new camera of this size with pan and tilt but with NEW optics and 4K recording then hell yes I would start replacing my older cameras when the funds deemed it possible.

Should you buy the Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera

The Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera is a good camera that could be great.  If you are in the Ring ecosystem already and need a new indoor camera then it is a no brainer.  Buy the camera and pair it with your Ring Protect subscription for full functionality.

If you are not in the Ring ecosystem yet and want to get into a security system you could do a lot worse than Ring.  I would be careful investing too much money at this early stage until we see what Ring do to improve and modernise their cameras in the next year or two.  If Ring add in automatic person tracking and 4K video then it sells itself, to anyone and everyone.

The Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera is available now in white and black colours for $129 from Ring.com and all the usual Ring retailers.

The post Ring Pan-Tilt Camera review — compact and versatile appeared first on Tech Guide.

The choice that exists for smart-home security cameras today is quite amazing and that’s only good for Aussies who want to protect their home with a strong deterrent and arm themselves with evidence if the need should arise.

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been testing Uniden’s entirely new App Cam range, kicking it off with the Solo X2k Bullet kit which is literally the one stop shop for all you need given the $199 price tag includes a solar panel for charging.

Setting up the App Cam Solo X2k Bullet

Out of the box this kit has all the things you need – except a screwdriver.  Three simple screws into the bracket base, put the camera on and it’s mounted with ease.

The included Solar Panel is the same – it’s a slightly different mount, but not hard to understand.

Once you have the MyUniden+ app and an account setup, the pairing process to is very very easy – from there it’s just about aligning the picture to get the right angle.

The new MyUniden+ app.

This is a vastly different app – I think its really quite great.  But I can imagine some existing Uniden Solo users seeing it as a leap sideways – sadly, you’ve just got to roll with it – this is the app!

If anything the app suffers from too much detail, and the cameras too many features.

It took me some time to find the motion setting schedule so that I wasn’t getting alerts all day and night – just night thank you!

For a new user I’d highly recommend taking your time to tweak all the settings, learn what they are, enable the functions that matter.

Uniden still offers their 7 days free cloud storage, but there’s a price to pay for more days, as well as a new AI subscription to get additional notification features.  This is mainly useful for differentiating between people and animals, and cars etc.

I’ve just got the one camera setup in this home “unit” on the app, but encouragingly, you can have several sites – so I also have an office profile, allowing me to adjust settings per location.

Camera quality.

Excellent stuff here, very good clarity in the bulk of the foreground. On some morning shots I noticed a bright sunlight at the top of frame, and while it did render that area useless, the foreground was still excellent.

Basically it seems a lack of HDR might mean direct sun is a deep challenge for this one.

But there’s excellent colour night-vision and a spotlight that really lights the area up for you when motion is detected.

Two-Way audio works a charm, though it’s not full duplex so just one person speaking at a time please!

Overall

This is just fantastic value. $199 for an entire camera and solar panel unit is probably the best value on the market.

It’s a larger camera than it’s competitors, but if the three month battery life holds true, the value proposition continues.

Grab yours from Uniden

The post Review: Uniden App Cam SOLO X2K Bullet Kit – Amazing value for $199 appeared first on Tech Guide.

The new Echo Spot from Amazon is an Alexa-powered device ideal for the bedside table or the desk with a screen that can display various custom clock faces and colours. 

Priced at $149, the Echo Spot is designed to replace the Echo Dot with Clock in Amazon’s Echo line-up.

While the device itself is only available in Black, Glacier White and Ocean Blue, the display can be customised to various colourways to match your décor — orange, violet, magenta, lime, teal and blue. The colour changes are subtle but add a little bit of customisation that can make a device feel like part of your furniture.

Echo distinctive design language

The design of the Echo Spot follows the design language of the recent generations of Echo smart speakers.  Instead of a full sphere, it is a portion of the sphere, much like the Echo Pop.  The front of the device has a display which takes up just over half of the top of the front of the device.  The bottom section is a speaker covered in the usual Echo cloth.

The rear of the device is a sphere upon which is located the volume up and down buttons and a microphone mute button while the proprietary charging port (yes, not USB-C unfortunately) is housed at the bottom of the rear.

The display is basic at best but good enough for showing the time, alarm clock, basic weather information and the album art of media you are currently streaming on the device.  The display is so basic that you cannot view any of your Ring cameras on it which is incredibly disappointing — the burning question here is, what is the point of an Amazon/Echo/Alexa device with a display that cannot show you (Amazon-owned) Ring cameras on it?  I wish it did.

Move from the front of the Echo Spot and the display dulls very quickly.  Not the best display so be careful where you are positioning it if you want to see the display in full detail.

The Echo Spot is Matter complaint so one day you *should* be able to use all Matter compliant devices, no matter the manufacturer — but I doubt the display will ever be able to show the video but will allow for two-way audio.

The speaker is good but nothing special.  The speaker is good enough to listen to music in a pinch or if you are not that fussed with high fidelity audio (such as for audio books and podcasts) but it lacks the loudness and depth of bass to allow it to take the place of the dedicated headphones or high-end speaker you may currently use. 

For most folks the audio quality will be more than acceptable, especially for a device with such a small footprint.

The downside of the display is that it is small and unable to play videos.  If you want to see the album art of the music you’re playing/’casting’ through it though you’re all good.  Weather?  Yep, got you covered.  Time and alarms?  Yes. But that’s about it.

The display is a touch display and although not as sensitive as your phone it can be used to control audio playback and some basic smart home devices.

One thing missing which is very disappointing, is a video camera so you cannot use this display to make video calls.  It is possible this has been done to reduce costs but the device is not cheap at all. 

So what can it do?

It is basically an Echo Dot with Clock (which was my previous office Echo device) but with a small display (albeit very limited).  The Echo Dot with Clock has been discontinued and this new Echo Spot is designed to take it’s place.  It does that but only in a very small incremental upgrade.  The Echo Spot has full Alexa functionality and will display some helpful information – as long as that information is the time, weather or album art.

Not everyone needs a large fully functional display on their smart hub and that is who this is for.  Some very basic information displayed for you but the device still includes all the Alexa skills of any other Echo speaker.

Use it as an alarm clock, bedside clock and a way to quick check the weather and occasionally play some media and this is perfect for you.

Final thoughts

The Echo Spot is just an Echo Dot with Clock but with a much improved display (and speaker).  The display shows the same information the Echo Dot with Clock showed but in a nicer, coloured touch display — and with some pictures.

Buy this if all you need is a basic speaker with a very basic display.  If you do not need a fully functional smart display with the ability to view cameras and make video calls (among others things).  Buy this if all you need is a smart speaker — the display is just a (small) bonus.

The all-new Echo Spot is available now for $149 AUD at amazon.com.au/echospot, JB HI-FI, and in leading Australian retailers. It is available in Black, Glacier White, and Ocean Blue.

The post Amazon’s new Echo Spot (2024) is a smart speaker but not a smart display appeared first on Tech Guide.

Netgear has always led the way creating a robust and reliable wireless network with its Orbi products and its latest offering – the Orbi 970 – packs in the latest Wi-Fi 7 technology and raises the bar in terms of speed and quality.

Tech Guide replaced all the networks at our place with the new Orbi 970 and it gave us high speed connectivity in our two-storey home from the front of the house all the way to the back, upstairs and down.

Today it’s not uncommon for a household to have more than 40 or 50 connected devices or maybe even more from your smart TV, laptops, smartphones, gaming consoles, printers, smart devices, security cameras and much more.

We are also spending more time working from home so having a robust connection for high quality video calls and downloading and uploading files is essential.

On top of Wi-Fi 7, the Netgear Orbi 970 packs in so much new technology to create a network that’s going to keep you connected at high speeds across your entire home.

There are three units in the box – a main router and two satellites which can provide coverage at up to 660 square metres.

These units are taller than the previous Orbi units but have a more cylindrical look and a smaller footprint.

The Orbi 970 has four bands – a 6Ghz band, two 5Ghz bands and a 2.4Ghz band.

The 6Ghz band was introduced with the Wi-Fi 6E and Netgear expands that channel to 320Mhz to increase the speeds and performance – and you can tell.

The Orbi 970 also has enhanced dedicated backhaul – this is the channel that brings data back from the satellites to the main router – to keep the wi-fi fast on the other bands.

The Orbi 970 uses both the 6GHz and 5Ghz bands at the same time to reduce the amount of network traffic and keep you connected at high speed.

What it also does is enable your connected devices to simultaneously send and receive data across these bands which increases throughput.

The other problem with older standards of wi-fi is interference. This new Netgear Orbi has smart interference management to reduce the network congestion and keep things moving along.

The Netgear Orbi 970 a 10 Gigabit internet and Ethernet port which will be able to handle even faster internet speeds when they are available.

Netgear says Wi-Fi 7 delivers up to 2.4x faster speed than Wi-Fi 6 and is also backwards compatible with older devices.

Naturally if you have a Wi-Fi 7 device, like the latest Microsoft Copilot+ PCs and the latest smartphones, you’ll enjoy the full benefits of this latest technology.

The Orbi achieves all this with an innovative high performance antenna array that sprays out 360-degree Wi-Fi coverage to reaches every corner of your home.

It certainly did that for us.

Set up is really simple and is managed through the Netgear Orbi app which takes you step by step through the process.

Basically it involves connecting the main router to your existing NBN modem router, connect via the Orbi app before renaming the network and creating your own password.

The next step is to choose locations in your home for the two satellites.

In our case, the main router was located on the lower floor in the middle of the house, so we placed one satellite towards the back of the bottom floor and the second satellite upstairs towards the front of the house.

Then it was a matter of the router locating those other satellites and bringing them online and communicating with them.

The whole setup process took roughly about 20 minutes.

The Orbi app also comes in handy to manage the network with the ability to see the devices on your network as well as set up parental controls and give you an excellent top down look on the entire network.

The main router and the satellites also have Ethernet ports, so you can connect nearby devices like smart TVs, gaming consoles and computers.

But the wireless performance will still offer the same performance and reliability.

The Orbi 970 creates up to three separate networks – a main network, a smart home IoT network and a separate network for guests.

The IoT network runs on the 2.4Ghz band and that makes adding new smart home devices even easier.

So how does the network perform? The answer is amazingly well.

We were stunned to see amazing speeds in all corners of our home.

We have a 1Gbps NBN fibre to the home connection through Aussie Broadband and we were able to enjoy most of that speed anywhere in our home.

Now there are two speeds to look at here.

The Netgear Orbi app provides a speed test which looks at the speed of the network between the satellites and the router inside your home.

The Speedtest app by Ookla tests just how fast your internet connection is in various locations around the house.

We tested for both speeds on the bottom floor – front, middle and back and front, middle and back on the top floor and found we achieved speeds that were well over 900Mbps in all areas of the house.

And these speeds were tested in the usually busier morning period of the day.

The Netgear Orbi 970 also comes with a one-year subscription to Netgear Armor which is powered by BitDefender.

This offers an added layer of security and a VPN that helps plug up any vulnerabilities in your network and on your connected devices.

The Netgear Orbi 970 has created easily the best wi-fi network we’ve ever had.

We are seeing consistent high speeds across our entire home.

But this level of quality and reliability does come at a price.

The Netgear Orbi 970 3-pack is priced at $4,299. That’s not cheap.

There is no question about the quality of the wireless network and, at this price, this would be seen an investment.

An investment in your connectivity which is not just about entertainment and gaming but also for education and work.

For those who are renovating their home or building a new home this would be an ideal addition.

The Netgear Orbi 970 is the Rolls Royce of mesh systems.

But there are other Netgear Orbi options that are a lot cheaper but you it won’t be Wi-Fi 7 and it won’t have the range and quality of the latest Orbi 970.

 VERDICT

The Netgear Orbi 970 is the new benchmark when it comes to creating the ultimate wireless network in your home. It is not the cheapest – but it is the best.

The post Netgear Orbi 970 Wi-Fi 7 review – the Rolls Royce of mesh systems appeared first on Tech Guide.

When is a router not a router? When that router looks like the D-Link Aquila Pro AI M30 which is designed to blend in or fade in to the background in your home.

This worked out well for our review because my daughter had asked me to come and fix up the wi-fi in her two-level apartment.

The issue for her was that upstairs, where the NBN modem router was located, the wi-fi was good not great but downstairs it was rubbish.

This is a common occurrence for many NBN customers with the modem at the front of the house and their TV and gaming consoles and anything else that needs the internet located at the back of the home.

So it’s the Aquila Pro Wi-Fi 6 mesh wi-fi router to the rescue.

My daughter wouldn’t want anything too big and definitely nothing that obviously looks like a modem with flashing lights.

The Aquila Pro was the perfect fit. The two-pack ($399.95) includes two routers that look more like a work of art than a tech product.

In fact, it won the 2023 Good Design Award.

With its curved wing design, the Aquila Pro looks more like a sculpture than a piece of technology but under the hood it’s got what you need.

This includes speeds of up to 3Gbps with 160Hz bandwidth support along with a Gigabit Internet WAN port and four Gigabit LAN ports so you can plug in other products like smart TVs, gaming consoles, 4K players and set top boxes.

It also has AI onboard including AI Wi-Fi Optimiser, AI Mesh Optimiser and AI Traffic Optimiser which all add up to improved wi-fi performance in your home.

Wi-Fi Optimiser works out the best channel for each connected device on the network while AI Mesh Optimiser can also head off any potential network issues.

The AI Traffic Optimiser make sure that you have uninterrupted 4K and 8K streaming with AI-powered QoS (quality of service) technology to make sure your connections are fast and smooth.

Set up is a breeze thanks to the Aquila Pro companion app that takes you step by step through the process.

In our case, it was a matter of first of connecting the D-Link router to the modem and establishing that connection before positioning the second unit downstairs and joining them together using the WPS (Wi-Fi protected setup) button on each unit.

This got the two units talking to each other and connecting.

As a result the faster connection downstairs was extended and shared downstairs.

Our subsequent speed tests showed the wi-fi speeds downstairs were the same if not slightly faster than those upstairs.

Even the wi-fi speeds upstairs had improved from our first test thanks which the Aquila Pro routers.

What helps here is the special antenna array system which cover up to 465 square metres. And if you buy the three pack you can cover up to 650 square metres.

As we demonstrated with my daughter’s two-level apartment – the Aquila Pro is built to handle multi-storey dwellings.

The one downside of the device is it offers one combined network and doesn’t separate the 2.4Ghz band from the 5Ghz band.

Having the 2.4Ghz band on its own makes it easy to connect certain smart products that can only connect to the 2.4Ghz portion of the network.

But that’s not an issue here because the AI Wi-Fi Optimiser steers the product to the right band.

The D-Link Aquila Pro is available now and priced at $399.95 (two pack) and $549.95 (three pack).

VERDICT

The D-Link Aquila Pro AI M30 Wi-Fi 6 mesh system is easy to set up and manage and is designed to sit in the background offer a faster and more robust wireless network. It’s a no-fuss system that delivers excellent results.

The post D-Link Aquila Pro AI M30 mesh router review – a stylish and simple way to boost your home’s wi-fi appeared first on Tech Guide.

The Amazon Echo Hub is a great way to bring together your smart home devices and control, manage and monitor them all in one place.

I’ll be honest – at first, I struggled to understand the difference between the Echo Show 15 that’s already on wall and the new Echo Hub with its 8-inch touchscreen.

We can talk to the Echo Show and ask it to play music, videos, set reminders and control our devices.

The Echo Hub is a different beast. It can also play content and do most of the things the Echo Show can do, but where it excels is as a controller and as an all-encompassing dashboard to see the connected devices in your home.

If the Echo Show is where you play your content, then the Echo Hub is your remote control.

A few years ago, a system like Echo Hub was only possible with smart home automation control systems like Control 4, Crestron, Legrand, C-Bus, Savant, Lutron and others that required cabling and physical connections between rooms and between products to operate sufficiently.

These were typically designed for mansions and affordable only by the wealthy.

What Amazon has delivered with Echo Hub takes several pages out of those systems, including compatibility with Matter, Thread and Zigbee and wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity, to make a more consumer friendly version.

What has allowed Amazon to offer this level of control at this price is the fact that nearly every home now has a high-speed broadband connection and a decent wireless network where all of today’s smart homes devices now reside and operate.

The Echo Hub is a wall-mountable 8-inch touchscreen that’s just 1.5cm thick.

We chose to use a specially built Sanus desktop mount so we could sit it on our desk within reach.

It also has a motion sensor, so the screen instantly comes to life as soon as we sat down in front of the screen at our desk.

Once you go through a pretty simple set-up the Echo Hub will gather the connected items in your home and display them in groups on the screen.
If you have Echo speakers, smart plugs, security cameras, video doorbells, locks, light bulbs and other smart products, you will see them grouped together on the screen and control them with a touch of the screen or with your voice.

And don’t worry if you have an Echo speaker in the same room as the Echo Hub.

You can choose the default speaker to play your content. In our case we ticked the box for the Echo Show 15 a couple of metres away on our wall.

So now when we ask Alexa to play music or the radio it’s going to come from the Echo Show 15 which has a better speaker than the Echo Hub and there is no double-up on the audio.

Users can also choose from a few widgets that create shortcuts on the dashboard which can group devices, provide information, display calendars and information and other tidbits including daily trivia and celeb birthdays.

Users can easily set routines so it can do things like wish you a good morning, tell you the news traffic and weather, turn on connected devices and play the day’s news and even play relaxing music when you get home.

Echo Hub can also act as a room to room intercom if you have other Echo products in your household.

It’s also possible to easily create groups so devices in the same room, for example, can easily be seen and displayed on the dashboard.

The beauty of the Echo Hub is that it can connect with thousands of devices including cameras, lights, plugs, speakers and much more from a variety of brands thanks to its compatibility with Matter, Zigbee and Thread.

Once connected to the hub you can control all these compatible devices within your home’s network even if your Internet is down.

The Echo Hub isn’t a glorified tablet. You can’t pick it up and browse the web or run apps like an iPad or an Android tablet.

It’s built to be the universal remote control for your home.

Another favourite feature was grouping our security cameras and being able to see a live view on the screen either by tapping on the display or asking Alexa to show it to you.

Naturally, the Echo Hub works beautifully with Ring products – Amazon owns the company so compatibility was no surprise.

We have mainly Arlo cameras at our place, and it only managed to show the live view from one of our six cameras.

But we did notice some other limitations.

We felt it could have given us more on device control to edit and remove devices.

For this we had to go to the Alexa app to make those changes.

Same thing for when we wanted to edit a device’s name or move it to another room – it was always back to the app to do the job.

So why don’t you just use the app instead of purchasing the Echo Hub.

The app does give you a lot of control, but you’ve got to get your phone and open the app and find you what you want to do where is Echo Hub is always there and ready to go with your devices and groups and shortcuts literally at your fingertips.

And if it’s in a central place in your home everyone can use it.

The Echo Hub is available now and is priced at $329.

VERDICT

If you have several smart devices in your home, especially Echo speakers and Ring products, then Echo Hub is an ideal investment to make the most of your connected products, prepare for more and to give you the ultimate control.

The post Echo Hub review – the universal remote control for your home’s smart devices appeared first on Tech Guide.

The need for wi-fi speed has never been more apparent in today’s households as we stream content, playing online games and connect numerous smart devices.

The good news is Netgear’s Nighthawk RS700S Wi-Fi 7 tri-band router can provide the speed you need and more.

Wi-Fi 7 is the very latest wireless standard and one that will be used by more and more products so it doesn’t hurt jumping in early to future proof your home at a time when we take streaming 4K and gaming with low latency for granted.

Wi-Fi 7 is onboard the upcoming Samsung S24 Ultra, the Google Pixel 8 and the Pixel 8 Pro but you can be certain new smartphones and laptops will be supporting Wi-Fi 7 as sure as nose on your face.

So what’s new with Wi-Fi 7?

For a start it has three bands – 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz and 6Ghz – and can achieve speeds up to 19Gbs.

The new ultra-wide bandwidth offers 2.4x the speed to your connected devices and Wi-Fi 7-compatible devices like smartphones and laptops enjoying up to 5Gbps.

The device uses multiple wi-fi bands at once to the reliability of the network, reduce latency and deliver data with maximum speed.

The Netgear Nighthawk RS700S is powered by Broadcom’s BCM6726/3 Wi-Fi 7 System on a Chip (SoC) and has a 10Gb internet port to support the faster internet speeds when they are available along with four 1Gb LAN ports for faster wired connections.

There is also a 10Gb LAN port to connect a Ethernet switch or a separate mesh wifi satellite.

There are few things different about the RS700S.

Firstly, it is more like a tower rather than the traditional Nighthawk shape with wings. This slick design means a much smaller footprint

There are also no antennas poking out.
All the technology is contained in the narrow chassis while still offering 360-degree coverage over 325 square metres.

It’s all thanks to the new internal 3D antenna design – that’s more than enough to cover your entire home – even multi-storey homes.
Set up is remarkably simple thanks to the Netgear Nighthawk app which steps you through the whole process and also allows you to change the name and password to the new wireless network.

Once we were connected out tests over wi-fi were seeing speeds well over 900Mbps – some as high as 975Mbps.

We have a 1Gigabit per second plan through Aussie Broadband so the Netgear Nighthawk RS700S was giving the speeds we’re already paying for.

And as more Wi-Fi 7 products become available those speeds will improve even further and maintain that new consistency.

The RS700S can handle up to 200 connected devices on your network – and that’s a lot. We have more than 70 at our place and that still leaves plenty of room to add plenty more.

The Netgear Nighthawk RS700S Router is priced at $1,499 and can provide the sort of coverage you’d expect from a mesh wi-fi system so that can justify this price

Technical specifications:

– 320MHz high-capacity channels & 4K QAM – New, ultra-wide bandwidth means 2.4x the speed to your connected devices. WiFi 7 smartphones and laptops can get speeds up to 5Gbps.

– Multi-Link Operation – Uses multiple wi-fi bands at once to improve network reliability, reduce latency, and ensure data is delivered with maximum speed.

– Lower latency – Dramatically upgrades gaming and interactive online experiences and opens the door for immersive next-gen AR and VR.

– More Capacity for Data-Intense Activities – Connect up to 200 devices, such as security cameras, smart home devices, and speakers, while enjoying 4K/8K video streaming, online gaming and HD video conferencing.

– Multi-Gig Speeds with 10GbE Internet Port – Use the 10 Gig internet port for cable and fibre plans up to 10Gbps. Compatible with any internet service provider.

– More wired ports on every device – Plug in wired devices to improve performance via a 10Gbps and four 1Gbps LAN ports.

VERDICT

The Netgear Nighthawk RS200S Wi-Fi 7 router can offer you expectational wi-fi speeds and coverage in your home now and well into the future.

The post Netgear Nighthawk Wi-Fi 7 Router review – expectational speeds and coverage that’s future proof appeared first on Tech Guide.

When it comes to security cameras, the more area you can cover the better and the Uniden App Cam Pano can give you a 170-degree field of view – it’s actually two cameras in one.

Uniden’s App Cam Pano has two lenses so it can cover a larger area but stitches the feeds together and presents you with one widescreen video or image.

For our review we installed the Pano on our back deck overlooking our yard along with the included solar panel.

When we’re not home we like to observe our two dalmatians – Ziggy and Logan – if they are outside in the yard.

After setting up, thanks to the 170-degree viewing angle, we were able to see our backyard in 3K video resolution from the fence on the left side to the fence on the right so basically there was nothing we were going to miss.

If anything is within 30m of the camera it will be captured on video.

Typically an outdoor security camera has around 130-degree field of view so to achieve what we did with the Uniden Pano and cover the same area, we’d have to position two cameras and look at two different feeds.

Naturally, it’s possible to view live video and notifications with the Uniden Solo app on your smartphone as well as record video and capture images to share.

The onboard camera activates immediately thanks to the built-in AI which also gives it the ability to distinguish between people, animals and vehicles.

And the Uniden Thermo Sense also prevents you getting flooded with notifications because it detects both heat and movement so it will flag a person in front of the camera rather than a tree swaying in the breeze or a car passing by in the street.

It also has a bright motion-activated spotlight also provides colour night vision which is enabled through a CMOS sensor.

The onboard passive infrared sensor spotlight with 440 lumens brightness. This enables colour night vision to be captured up to 30m away.

And everything can be saved locally on a microSD card or on Uniden Cloud for later playback.

Set up was very straightforward – once it was installed.

Where I decided to install the camera and solar panel involved ladders and power drills and it was more where I placed them that made the job slightly more difficult than the actual job itself.

And this proves that if a pen pusher like us can install this – anyone can.

And with the solar panel which was attached next to the camera and connected to the unit via a USB-C cable, we won’t ever need to worry about recharging the onboard battery.

Once in place the Uniden Solo app did the rest. It was just a matter of scanning the QR code on the side of the camera, aiming a second QR code for the camera to recognise and connecting it to our wi-fi network.

The whole onboarding process took a matter of minutes.

The Uniden App Cam Pano is a larger unit thanks to its twin lens design so it’s not as discreet as other cameras – but that’s a good thing.

A visible camera is a great deterrent to anyone coming on to your property with ill intentions.

Key features

– 100 per cent wire free over Wi-Fi

– Dual Lens – Double the Coverage

– Solar power compatible (Solar Panel Included)

– rechargeable battery with 120 days standby time

– low-battery notifications

– rapid wake-up

– colour night vision

– 170-degree viewing angle with dual lens and dual view

– Thermo Sense technology

– 3K (6MP) resolution to view, record and playback video

– SD Card and seven days free cloud backup and storage

– weatherproof design

– AI intelligent alerts

– customised voice-recordable alerts

– siren alert trigger

– motion detection record

– privacy masking to black out areas within the camera’s view

– black out areas within the camera’s view that you don’t want to be recorded.

The Uniden App Cam Pano is priced at $429.

VERDICT

The Uniden App Cam Pano is an excellent product that offers even wider coverage – something that usually requires two regular cameras so you can keep an eye on things when you’re not around. And with the inclusion of the solar panel – it becomes a set and forget solution that will always provide peace of mind.

The post Uniden App Cam Pano review – the twin lens security camera that won’t miss a thing appeared first on Tech Guide.

The new Arlo Video Doorbell not only provides convenience but also peace of mind as an added security device in your home right there at your front door.

The latest version of the Arlo Video Doorbell 2^nd Generation is an impressive upgrade with 2K video quality and 180-degree field of view.

Users can answer their door from anywhere whether they’re home or on the other side of the world and the person on your doorstep will be none the wiser.

When a visitor presses the button on the doorbell this initiates a video call to your smartphone.

When you answer the call, you can see a 1:1 video of the person at your door so you can see them from head to toe.

If it’s a delivery person, you’ll be able to see the package even if they placed it on the floor at their feet.

What impressed us was how quickly we were able to connect when the Arlo doorbell rang – we were talking to the person at our door in just a few seconds.

Other brands can take so long to answer and connect that the person has assumed no one is home and is already walking back up the path or the driveway by the time your video can be seen.

Even if you can’t talk to whoever is at your door, there are pre-recorded messages you can play instead.

Naturally the Arlo Video Doorbell it can handle the weather – rain, sun, cold and heat – so it’s always working for you.

The 2K quality, which is better than full high definition so you can make a lot more detail in the video than you could for the previous model.

It also has colour night vision so it can see as clearly after dark as it can during the day.

The Arlo Video Doorbell is also a security camera and can detect and record motion near your front door.

And you can track everything through the Arlo app including your other Arlo cameras as well as arm and disarm the system at the press of a button.

Customers receive a free three-month Arlo Secure trial when they but the Arlo Video Doorbell – and it’s worth hanging on to and paying from $12.99 a month to keep it.

One benefit of membership is smart notifications which can distinguish between people, packages, vehicles and animals.

Users can also access videos and event history for 30 days.

And with Smart Secure you’re also possible to customise the Smart Activity Zones so the camera is keeping an eye out for motion on those designated areas.

For us we set the activity zone closer to the door rather than including the street which could be seen from the doorbell that would send us a notification every time a car drove by or person walked past the house.

Setting up the Arlo Video Doorbell has been streamlined so you’ll be up and running in minutes.

The Arlo app gives you step by step instructions to detect and connect the doorbell to your home wi-fi.

It also comes with mounting plates so you can position the device precisely how you want it at your front door.

We replaced the previous Arlo doorbell with this new 2^nd Generation model and the mounting plate didn’t line up with the holes we had already drilled. We used one hole and had to drill another one to secure the new mount.

The onboard battery is also not removeable like the old one, so you need to pop off the entire doorbell to charge it whereas with the previous one we had a spare battery on charge to immediately swap the battery when needed.

We suggest you charge the Arlo Video Doorbell overnight when no one will be coming to your door.

Battery life runs at between six weeks to a couple of months depending on how busy your front door is and how much motion is being detected.

But if you have power available at the front door you can power the doorbell, so you never need to worry about charging the battery.

The new Arlo Video Doorbell 2^nd Generation is available now and is priced at $229.

VERDICT

The Arlo Video Doorbell 2^nd Generation offers higher quality and convenience than ever before and is an essential device to not only easily answer the door from anywhere but to act as an additional security camera as well.

The post Arlo Video Doorbell 2nd Generation review – an essential item for convenience and security appeared first on Tech Guide.

For many, mowing their lawn is a chore that’s right up there with vacuuming their carpets and mopping their floors. And it’s no coincidence then that ECOVACS ROBOTICS has extended its expertise from inside the house to the yard with the new GOAT G1 robot lawn mower.

The robot can do for your lawn what the other ECOVACS products can do for your carpets and hard floors inside your house.

Tech Guide has taken a hands-on look at the GOAT G1 from ECOVACS which was surprisingly easy to set up.

The idea of the GOAT G1 is to go out and keep your lawn trimmed and looking good rather than cutting long grass every couple of weeks like you would with a regular lawn mower.

In fact, ECOVACS says if your grass is 6cm or higher you will need to do a regular mow before putting the GOAT G1.

And that’s exactly what we had to do for our review.

Cutting the grass to the level you want is what you need to do so the GOAT G1 will keep it at this length without you having to lift a finger.

And for the record, ECOVACS named it the GOAT G1 – not to mean Greatest of All Time – but after the animal which happens like eating grass.

It was a straightforward setup which began with placing the charging station in an area of your yard which had plenty of space around it but near a power source.

The ECOVACS app steered us easily through the process which included linking to our wi-fi and even performing a firmware upgrade.

Next, we had to connect the two beacons which serve as boundary guides for the GOAT G1 in the yard.

Unlike other robot mowers, there was no need to run a boundary wire around the circumference of the lawn.

This often requires you to dig shallow trenches and hammer in the wiring with stakes.

The app presents various yard shapes and sizes and, if you can match your yard to one of these, it does make setup even faster.

Part of the process was to drive the GOAT G1 using the app like a remote control car around the edge of your lawn to map the mowing area.

You can see within the app as the map of your yard is being built – in much the same way that any Ecovacs Deebot would map your floor plan.

It also does this for the same reason, to establish the most efficient mowing path.

ECOVACS has taken a lot of the technology from its robot vacuums and brought it to the GOAT G1.

One of those technologies is obstacle avoidance with its AIVI 3D technology and a 150-degree fisheye camera which can not only detect objects in its path but navigate around them.

It can see objects as small as three centimetres which could include hoses pets, rocks and toys.

If you have dogs, we can’t tell you whether the GOAT G1 will be able to detect their poo as an obstacle so it might be an idea to clean up after them before you deploy the GOAT G1.

We tested the obstacle avoidance for our review by putting a rolled up hose in the G1’s path. It stopped short and went around it.

But a word of warning if the hose isn’t coiled high enough, there’s a chance the GOAT G1 will run right over it and damage it.

During setup, the app took note of the size of our yard after it was mapped and came up with a suggested schedule for the GOAT G1 which we gladly accepted.

It goes out three times a week and maintains the lawn as if we’ve employed a professional gardener.

And there are no trimmings to dispose of. The GOAT mulches the clippings as it cuts and puts it back into the grass.

And if it gets low on power halfway through your mow, it will simply return to the charging station to top up the battery and return at precisely the spot where it left off.

The app gives you plenty of control as well as giving you the ability to provide a view of the location of the lawnmower through the built in cameras.

The mower can also capture and mark the location of a person on the map and send it to you as a notification. So not only is it mowing your lawn it’s also a security camera on wheels.

Speaking of wheels, the goat G1 can easily get around your lawn and even go over paths and short dividers that separate some yard into different levels.

The GOAT G1 isn’t cheap – it’s priced at $2999.

But if your time is valuable, it will soon pay itself off.

And if you normally hire a gardener to keep your lawn looking good it might work out as a good investment.

VERDICT

The ECOVACS ROBOTICS GOAT G1 can keep your lawn manicured without you lifting a finger – it is easy to set up and run and will save you time and the cost of hiring a gardener to do the work for you.

The post ECOVACS GOAT G1 robot mower review – keep your lawn manicured without lifting a finger appeared first on Tech Guide.

The new Arlo Pro 5 2K Wire-free Spotlight Security Camera is a real step up in quality and additional features for those looking to improve their security and keep an eye on their home from anywhere.

We replaced two of our older Arlo cameras with the Pro 5 2K and could immediately tell the difference.

For one, the improved 2K resolution with HDR (High Dynamic Range) offers a much clearer view with a lot more added detail even in bright and dark areas of the coverage area.

That added detail can allow you to see faces, objects and car number plates even clearer.

This could be really important in the event of an incident and make it easier to identify a person or vehicle on your property.

You can also zoom in up to 12x to see things even more clearly.

Arlo’s Pro 5 2K camera has a huge 160-degree viewing angle as well so it can cover an area that might require two regular cameras.

What really impressed us was how much faster we were able to see the live view from the camera.

What helps here is the fact the camera supports dual band wi-fi – 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz – which means less buffering and speedier response times.

Each camera also has a built-in spotlight and a smart siren which can be triggered after motion is detected or activated manually.

Colour night vision is impressive – it lets you see full colour rather than black and white.

Another excellent improvement is the full duplex two-way audio quality which is more like a phone call than a walkie talkie with both people able to talk at the same time.

We were also pleased to see the improved battery which Arlo says is up to 30 per cent longer than previous models.

What helps here is Pro 5 2K’s low power mode which results in longer times between charges. This means additional weeks of use before the battery needs recharging.

Set up is pretty simple – and the app does all the work.

Users can choose to connect to an Arlo bases station, if they already have Arlo cameras, or directly to their wi-fi.

The advantage of having a base station is the ability to store your videos locally on a microSD card.

If you are using the current app and add the Pro 5 2K camera, the app will be upgraded with a slightly different look and a few new features and shortcuts.

The basics are the same but it’s easier to find the different arm modes – Arm Away, Arm Home and Standby.

Arm Away is for when you’re not home and you can set the motion notifications you want to receive.

Arm Home will still detect motion but with reduced notifications depending on the rules you set.

And Standby is basically all cameras working but all notifications off.

Users can also set rules around when notifications are sent and who receives them.

And with Arlo Secure (you get three months free when you install any new Arlo camera) you’re able to receive separate notifications for people, vehicles, animals and packages.

Of course the Arlo Pro 5 2K camera is weatherproof and comes with a mount and the screws and plugs to attach them.

Users can also add on accessories including a solar panel charger, waterproof outdoor charging cable, and XL capacity battery/housing.

The camera also works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and IFTTT for easy interaction, automation, and voice control.

The Arlo Pro 5 2K is priced at $329 for a single camera, $599 for a two camera kit and $1,099 for a four camera kit.

www.arlo.com

VERDICT

The Arlo Pro 5 2K Wire-free Spotlight Security Camera offers a lot of bang for your buck and provide a complete security system that’s easy to install and easy to manage within an excellent ecosystem.

The post Arlo Pro 5 2K Spotlight Security Camera review – step up in quality and protection appeared first on Tech Guide.

Uniden has unveiled a new dual mode smart baby monitor so parents can keep an eye and an ear on their little ones from anywhere.

The Uniden BW6101R Smart Baby Monitor offers 2K super HD resolution for high quality live streaming so you can catch even more detail.

The device has dual mode functionality which means you can view the live stream on the included 5-inch colour HD (720p) monitor or from your iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone or tablet remotely or at home.

You can even get in closer with the camera with up to 4x local digital zoom via the monitor and 6x remote zoom.

The camera has a multipurpose clamp which can either rest on a surface or secure itself to the rails of a cot or a shelf.

The camera also includes a portable back-up battery so it will continue to operate if there’s a power outage or if the camera is unplugged accidentally.

It is also equipped with night vision so you can clearly see your baby at any time of the night.

Also onboard is a room temperature and humidity display which provides alerts if the it gets outside your chosen temperature ranges.

There is also a built-in night light which can be changed to multiple colours to create calm sleeping conditions.

Users can also set a danger zone to mark out an area which a no-go for the baby and receive an alert if there is any movement in that spot.

The walkie talkie function gives parents the ability to soothe their baby without entering the room.

The Uniden BW6101R Smart Baby Monitor also work with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa so it can be integrated into your smart home set-up.
The Uniden BW6101R Smart Baby Monitor is priced at $399.95.

Key features

– 2K (3MP) super high-definition camera

– 5-inch colour screen (720P) monitor

– 4 times local digital zoom and up to 6 times remote digital zoom

– Customisable night light – multiple colours in animation and static mode

– Dual mode: 5-inch viewing monitor included or remote smartphone viewing handy clamp camera and novelty silicon cover

– Portable battery backup

– Room temperature and humidity display

– Danger zone detection mode

– Smartphone remote access

– Two-way talk “walkie talkie” function

– Storage of footage via micro-SD card (supports up to 128GB, not included)

– Sound and motion detection

– Night vision

– Selection of 14 lullabies, including white noise

– Works with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa

– Two-year Australian warranty

The post Uniden has unveiled its new dual mode smart baby monitor appeared first on Tech Guide.

How do I improve my Wi-Fi? That is the question we get asked quite often and our answer is always the same – with a mesh system and Netgear’s new Orbi Wi-Fi 6E is the best you can buy right now.

Having solid wi-fi at home is so important whether it’s to work or learn from home or to enjoy your favourite streaming services and play competitively online anywhere in your home.

The real issue most Australians face is their NBN-issued modem/router is not always near their most important connected devices.

The modem part is fine, but the reach of the router part is useless unless you’re standing next to it.

A mesh wi-fi system like the new Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6E is the solution to this common problem.

Whether you live in a long narrow house or multi-storey home, you want your wi-fi to be consistent no matter where you happen to be.

The Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6E provides four bands of coverage in your home including a 6Ghz, two 5Ghz and a 2.4Ghz channel.

The Netgear Orbi also creates a dedicated 2.4Ghz band making it even easier to connect your smart devices which operate on this 2.4Ghz band.

Then there are two 5GHz bands, one for the main traffic of the house and the other acting as a dedicated backhaul.

This dedicated 5Ghz channel allows data to flow from the satellites back to the modem so it’s not going to impose on the other channels and cost you any bandwidth or speed.

And the all-new 6Ghz band is reserved for the fastest devices in your home, those that are compatible with the Wi-Fi 6E standard including some of the latest smartphones and laptops.

On this band users will find noticeably faster speeds between the modem and the device to ensure smooth streaming and fast gaming on your network.

In fact, the 6Ghz band has more than twice the bandwidth of 5Ghz and eliminates any interference and congestion so you’re getting impressive speeds for your connected Wi-Fi 6E devices.

Setting up the device is quite simple.

Using the Netgear Orbi app, you connect the main router to your existing modem and the two other Orbi satellites are then positioned around your home.

The units themselves have a slick design but nothing too flashy that won’t fit your home’s decor.

Netgear says you should unplug your modem from the power point before connecting the Orbi main router and plugging in the satellites.

Once everything is connected and powered up, the name of the network and its password, displayed on a sticker on the main router will be seen on your list of networks on your mobile device.

Once connected, the app does the rest including locating your satellites and allowing you to rename the network and set a different password.

Our install took about 20 minutes and that included walking around the house plugging in the new Orbi products and downloading a firmware update for the system.

The router and the satellites also have multi gigabit Ethernet ports for wired connections to nearby devices like smart TVs and gaming consoles.

The Orbi Wi-Fi 6E system can support 16 simultaneous Wi-Fi streams – that’s good to know especially when you have people in your household streaming on their own devices and different smart TVs.

The Orbi main router has support for up to 10Gbps internet speeds so it can future proof your home network.

At the time of writing our review, we were hoping that our NBN fibre upgrade would be complete and offer up to 1Gbps speeds through our Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) connection.

And that’s the speed you would get throughout your entire home thanks to the mesh network created by the Orbi system.

Currently our NBN plan is 100Mbps down and 40Mbps up and our speed tests showed we were getting every bit of that speed we were already paying for.

Actually, we were getting more than 100Mbps speeds when we did three separate tests literally in the three furthest corners of our home.

The other great benefit of a system like the Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6E is the capacity to connect more than 70 devices – many of us are already there with the popularity of smart home and security products.

The movement of data within your home – separate to the sheer speed of the internet coming into your home – is what makes the Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6E a great choice to be able to view simultaneous 4K and eventually 8K streams in our homes smoothly and without buffering.

The system can provide wall-to-wall coverage for homes up to 840 square metres in size and you can increase that coverage with the addition of more satellites.

The Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6E is not cheap at $2,799 but customers need to remember there are three Wi-Fi 6E routers in the pack.

The cost of a single Wi-Fi 6E router is about $1,100 so there is actually some value with three at less than $3,000.

VERDICT

The Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6E is the best mesh system you can buy right now. If who want a better and more reliable wi-fi experience to enjoy your entertainment, remain connected and to be able work and learn effectively – the Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6E should be considered as an investment to ensure that quality today and into the future.

The post Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6E review – ultimate solution for fast and consistent wi-fi at home appeared first on Tech Guide.

The Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight Wireless Security camera combines excellent video quality and ease of installation to offer customers a great way to keep an eye on their home or business.

Arlo has a range of security cameras with varying video qualities – Full HD, 2K and 4K.

The Arlo Pro 4 sits right in the middle with 2K video resolution.

Choosing a camera resolution depends on the area you want to cover and how much detail you’d like to see.

With the 2K Arlo Pro 4, it is ideal for monitoring medium to larger spaces and includes HDR (high dynamic range) so you can zoom in and make out more detail in the brighter and darker areas of the video.

The camera offers up to 160-degree field of view so you can cover a large area.

But it is possible to narrow that field of view down to 110-degrees if you don’t need that much of a wider view.

And even at 160-degrees, the video is still clear and flat and doesn’t end up looking like a highly distorted fisheye view.

The camera is also completely weatherproof so you can place it outside in the rain, the cold and the heat and enjoy year-round security.

And it’s not just all about video, the Arlo Pro 4 also has two-way audio that’s as responsive as talking on the phone.

When motion is detected, a notification is instantly sent to your smartphone via the Arlo app showing video of the incident.

Also onboard is a spotlight to illuminate the area in front of the camera.

There’s also a built-in siren which you can activate manually out set to trigger automatically to deter unwanted visitors.

And when the sun goes down, you can still keep an accurate eye on things thanks to the colour night vision so you can clearly make out colours and more easily identify people rather than the typical black and white night vision which offers hardly any detail.

We set up our Arlo Pro 4 for this review to look into our backyard and to also keep an eye on our telescope from inside while we’re capturing multiple long exposures for hours at a time.

From this vantage point we can also see our backyard fences and can also see our two dalmatians when we’re not home – and even talk to them through the camera.

That’s a lot of use from just one camera.

Of course, you can set up multiple cameras at your place – like we have. We have a camera at the front door, an Arlo Video doorbell, a camera near our backdoor and this new camera in the backyard.

We already have a base station so the camera connected in minutes but it’s also possible to connect multiple Arlo cameras by connecting directly to your wi-fi.

The Arlo app offers a step-by-step guide to get you connected and can detect the camera, give it a name so it can be easily identified and monitored through the app.

Once connected, the camera can also be customised with the field of view that suits your coverage area and you can also activate Auto Zoom and Tracking so if there is movement it can zoom in and follow any movement.

It’s also possible to set up activity zones so you can highlight the areas in the video the areas where you would like to receive motion alerts.

This can help customers avoid excessive notifications if you know there is an area that is being monitored that will have a lot of movement like the road or footpath outside your property, for example.

This way you would only receive alerts only when someone comes on to your property.

The Arlo Pro 4 comes with three-month free subscription to Arlo Secure which can store video for up to 30 days and differentiate between people, vehicles, animals and parcel when detecting an object and sending notifications.

Once the three-month trial is up, users have the option on continuing for $4.49 a month for a single camera or $14.99 a month for unlimited Arlo cameras.

The battery on the Arlo Pro 4 can run for up to 6-months and can be charged via a cable while the camera is still in place or charged with a cable when it’s removed from the magnetic base which can be positioned on your wall with a single screw.

The Arlo Pro 4 camera can also be linked to Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Samsung’s Smart Things and IFTTT so it can be monitored and controlled within those ecosystems.

If you are already using one of those systems, the Arlo Pro 4 can be easily added.

The Arlo Pro 4 is available now and is priced at $369. A two-camera kit is $699 and a four-camera kit $1,299.

VERDICT

The Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight Wireless Security Camera is one of the best products of its kind you can buy that’s easy to set up and manage. It offers high quality monitoring and notifications so you can have complete peace of mind.

The post Arlo Pro 4 Spotlight Wireless Security Camera review – protect your home from anywhere appeared first on Tech Guide.

Uniden’s new Guardian App Cam Home+ indoor camera lets you see more than regular smart cameras because you can pan and tilt the camera and get wider view of the area.

The camera also offers 2.5K video quality and 3x zoom so you can see even more and in higher quality.

Also onboard is pre-motion recording that starts four seconds before motion is detected so you don’t miss a thing.

The Uniden Guardian App Cam Home+ can be positioned anywhere in your home and is ideal for large open plan living areas which can easily be covered thanks to the 355 degree panning and 50 degree tilt.

The camera also has 3x zoom so you can zoom in for even more detail while accessing the camera remotely through the Uniden companion app.

Uniden’s Guardian App Cam Home+ is quite easy to install.

It can rest on a flat surface or be mounted on the wall or upside down on the ceiling.

For our review we installed the camera on the bottom of a shelf. We then had to turn the display around in the app so the video was not upside down.

The device comes with a small mounting plate that can be fixed two screws so the camera then snaps into place.

Being an indoor camera it is always plugged into power so there is no need to worry about charging a battery.

It’s also pretty easy to connect the camera to your wireless network through the Uniden Solo App with step by step instructions.

You can also view your other Uniden cameras in the app as well.

The Uniden Guardian App Cam Home+ offers sharp and clear 2.5K video and, even when you zoom in, it’s still pretty clear so you can make out a lot of detail.

Users can also pan and tilt the camera through the app through the joystick control to adjust their view.

There is a slight lag when you are panning and tilting and it might take a couple of attempts to settle on the exact spot you want.

The camera also has an in-built siren to deter intruders as well as night vision so you can still just as see as clearly after dark.

Users can also receive notifications when movement is detected.

It’s also possible to save recordings to a microSD card as well as accessing video from the last seven days from the free rolling cloud back-up.

Being an inside camera, privacy is important and the app allows users to black out areas within the camera’s view field of view that you don’t want to be recorded.

The Uniden Guardian App Cam Home+ is available now exclusively through Bunnings and is priced at $149.95.

VERDICT

The Uniden Guardian App Cam Home+ is a great solution for anyone to monitor a wide area inside in high quality without the need for multiple cameras.

The post Uniden Guardian App Cam Home+ review – indoor security camera that pans and tilts appeared first on Tech Guide.

If you need a fast connection no matter where you’re located then you need the new Netgear Nighthawk 4G LTE Wi-Fi nighthawk Router which can be easily set up for your home and business.

And all you need is a 4G LTE nano SIM card to provide your connection to the Internet.

Normally a router connects to a modem which brings into your home or business a fixed broadband connection.

But in the case of the Netgear Nighthawk 4G LTE Wi-Fi router LAX20, that link to the internet is provided through the 4G LTE SIM card which needs to be purchased separately.

The product is ideal for users who need a connection but are out of reach of wi-fi networks and a hard wired connection.

It can also be used when you’re on vacation or in a short term rental property.

Once this SIM card establishes connection to the device, you are then able to create your own Wi-Fi 6 network to share with others who want to connect at high speed.

The device is capable of delivering up to 1.8Gbps of speed so you can connect your mobile devices and other wireless devices including security cameras, smart lights, baby monitors and smart switches.

For our review we set up the Netgear Nighthawk 4G LTE Wi-Fi router LAX20 in our backyard shed which we use to operate and store our astrophotography gear.

The shed is situated a few metres away from the house and our regular wireless connection was available but didn’t have the strongest signal.

We were able to insert a Telstra 4G LTE SIM card into the Netgear unit and achieve download speeds of more than 120 megabits per second.

The Telstra signal is quite strong where we live and we were able to take advantage of that for our connection with the Netgear Nighthawk 4G LTE Wi-Fi router.

The product works with a SIM card from any 4G provider.

Setting up the device is fairly simple using the companion Nighthawk app which can step you through the process from initial connection all the way through to renaming your network and setting your own unique password.

The app also provides a control panel to monitor your network, pause the Internet to any device, track Internet data usage and even set up a separate wi-fi network for guests.

The router also creates a dual band connection – both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz which are also distinguishable when you search for the SSID.

This is important because many of the smart devices in your home need to connect to a 2.4Ghz network and this is easy to identify with the Netgear Nighthawk 4G LTE Wi-Fi router.

On the rear panel of the router are four Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports to allow you to connect other wired devices.

There is also a fifth WAN port for users who want to connect the router to their regular modem.

For our setup we are able to wirelessly connect our computer and TV (yes we have a 32-inch TV in the shed which doubles up as our computer monitor) so we are able to not only connect to the Internet but also stream content as well.

The Netgear Nighthawk 4G LTE Wi-Fi router also has a USB port on the rear panel which allows users to connect a hard drive and share its contents on the network.

Users also receive a free 30 day trial of Netgear armour which can protect your home network and its connected devices.

The Netgear Nighthawk 4G LTE Wi-Fi Router is available now and is priced at $499.

VERDICT

The Netgear Nighthawk 4G LTE Wi-Fi Router can connect users quickly and is essential for users who just need to stay connected wherever they go.

The post Netgear Nighthawk 4G LTE Wi-Fi Router review – a high speed connection anywhere appeared first on Tech Guide.

The idea of a smart speaker that follows you as you move around the room maybe a little off putting but the Amazon Echo Show 10 is a handy smart display to have in your life.

And when we say follow you around the room, we don’t mean it actually follows you around the room we mean the display turns to face you when you need it to.

Amazon has had a number of smart displays in various sizes but these were static products that could only be viewed when you were in front of it.

The Echo Show 10 brings all the smarts from the wide range of Alexa speakers and combines the tracking screen and a high-quality speaker into one attractive unit.

Set up is really easy and is all done through the product’s touchscreen display so you could be up and running in minutes.

But with this speaker there are a couple of other steps you need to take including choosing Its position, whether it’s against the wall in a corner or on an open surface, in placing the speaker needs to be considered carefully to ensure the swivelling screen has a full range of motion.

Having a screen like this, when used in the right position, can be a very helpful and useful tool.

 

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We set up the Amazon Echo show 10 for our review on our long kitchen counter and it came in handy when following a recipe, when watching content and when making a video call.

The screen can also be tilted manually to create a more comfortable viewing angle.

Having a screen adds another layer of versatility to a smart speaker with the unit not only able to tell you what you want to know but also being able to show you as well.

As with other Alexa speakers, the Echo Show 10 can be used in a variety of ways whether it’s to find information, connect and control smart devices and to consume a variety of content.

The fact that the screen will swivel in your direction means you can still get on with what you’re doing and see the smart display at the same time.

In the kitchen it is ideal especially if you’re cooking and following a recipe.

With voice control and a 10.1 -inch screen that will always be pointing in your direction, you can be elbow deep in your ingredients and still find out what you need to know.

The screen is located above a cylindrical speaker which is a decent size and would have been a great product on its own.

That size adds to the audio quality so music sounds crisp and clear and adds a decent level of bass as well.

It’s easily the best quality Amazon speaker you can buy.

The audio quality makes consuming your content even more enjoyable.

Users can watch Netflix and Prime Video on the Amazon Echo Show 10.

The 10.1-inch HD screen is large enough to enjoy your shows when you’re sitting close by if the device is on a kitchen counter or a desk.

But you can’t watch YouTube on the Echo Show 10. That would require a Google Nest Hub because Google actually owns YouTube.

And of course your music is just a voice command away with access to music services including Amazon Music and Spotify.

You have to remember the screen will move with you with your watching something or listening to music and when you ask Alexa a question.

The screen will swivel effortlessly to face you so you can always see what’s on the screen.

Users can also make video calls to the unit – this is called a drop in – and if you’re receiving a call on the Amazon Alexa Show 10, the device will follow you and always keep you in the centre of the frame.

it’s also possible to access the built-in camera to remotely monitor your home through the Alexa app or from other echo show smart displays.

This is a quick and easy way to check in on your home to see what your pets are up to or to make sure your children are home from school.

But there is a way to block the camera and to disconnect the microphone if you want complete privacy.

Users can also disable motion at any time if you would prefer the screen not to follow your every move.

The Amazon Echo Show 10 is available now and is priced at $399. It is available in stores and at www.amazon.com.au.

VERDICT

The Amazon Echo Show 10 takes the smart display to a whole new level with an improved speaker and a display that can always be in view.

The post Amazon Echo Show 10 review – the screen will follow you and stay in view appeared first on Tech Guide.

The new Google Nest Hub second generation is a lot more than a smart display – it’s also a sleep tracker that provides an accurate snapshot of your nightly slumber.

The device has a 7-inch display with a resolution of 1024 x 600 and is 17.5cm wide and 12cm tall so its small enough to fit anywhere – including your bedside table.

It has a simple minimal design so it can fit in any space in your home.

And it also has a built-sensor so it can assess the room’s brightness and adjust to suit.

Google has also taken an environmentally friendly approach with the Nest Hub which is made from 54 per cent recycled plastic.

The Nest Hub is an all-rounder and it can be used to find information, control your smart products and even access streaming content through services including Netflix, YouTube, Spotify and much more.

What’s also handy about the device is the new Quick Gestures feature which means you can control your content playback by moving your hand in front of the device.

And the Google Nest Hub doesn’t pick up those movements through a camera because there isn’t one.

It uses Motion Sense to detect and interpret your hand movements to control the playback and features.

One example when this feature would come in handy is if you’re in the kitchen following a recipe on YouTube and you’ve got messy hands – you can play and pause the video or audio without touching the Nest Hub.

The other really obvious and popular use of the Nest Hub is to control other smart devices in your home like smart lights and switches.

You can see at a glance the connected devices available to you on the Nest Hub’s screen and control everything from the touch display or with your voice.

Users can also see the live feeds from the security cameras and doorbells through the Google Nest Hub as well.

Naturally it’s easy to find information and set timers and alarms. We used our Nest Hub to access radio stations instead using a digital radio.

All we had to say was “Hey Google, play 2GB” and a few seconds later we were listening to 2GB. If there’s a radio station you like listening to – you can just ask for it.

It’s the same deal if you want to hear music through YouTube or your Spotify account – just ask for the song or the artists and you’re hearing the music.

One big improvement with the second generation Google Nest Hub is the audio quality.

This speaker delivers 50 per cent more bass than the last model so you can easily hear the improvement and it’s even possible to group other Nest speakers in your home and control them together or separately.

This isn’t going to match the audio quality of other purely audio Bluetooth non-smart speakers but it can hold its own.

But it’s the Sleep Sensor side of the device that we focussed on for this review.

The device doesn’t have a camera – people will appreciate that considering many customers will be using this in their bedroom.

The Nest Hub gathers all of its data about your sleep through the onboard sensor which can detect sound and movement.

The other bonus is you don’t even have to wear any type of sensor or watch to bed for the Nest Hub to track your sleep.

It just needs to be positioned on your bedside table at about the height as your mattress for it to work.

For our review, the Nest Hub was slightly lower than the mattress and it still provided remarkably accurate data.

And when you wake up you can ask to see your sleep report to find out how long you slept, the quality of your sleep, if it heard coughing or snoring and how long it took you to fall asleep.

You can see not only your stats for the previous night but also for the entire week.

We were told we got less than six hours sleep but it was restful so we had deep rejuvenating  sleep.

One thing we noted was it did assume I was coughing during the night – that happened to be my wife but it did assign that sound to me.

The same thing could be said for the snoring it detected – but I’ll leave that debate alone for the sake of my marriage!

But it doesn’t stop at just delivering your sleep stats.

The next thing Nest Hub offers are way to improve your sleep like going to bed earlier and getting in the sleep zone like dimming the lights and playing soothing music.

None of your sleep data ever leaves the device so your privacy is protected.

The other cool feature is the sunrise alarm which can slowly brighten the screen like a sunrise to wake you up rather than using an audio alarm.

The Google Nest Hub is available now and is priced $149.

VERDICT

The Google Nest Hub is an excellent first smart display for customers who have never invested in a smart product and a handy addition for customers who already have a Google speaker. Its versatility will certainly impress first time users especially with the accurate Sleep Sensing technology.

The post Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen) review – all the smarts and it can monitor your sleep too appeared first on Tech Guide.

One of the questions I’m asked most often is: how can I improve my wi-fi? One of the best solutions is the Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6 which can be set up in minutes and solve all your wi-fi problems.

We’re working and learning from home now and rely on our broadband connections more than ever.

And this is on top of what we’re already doing including streaming content, gaming online, accessing the internet from our laptops, smartphones and tablets and also connecting our numerous smart home devices.

All of this has put many home networks to the test and many of them have not been able to handle the load.

Netgear, one of the leading wi-fi brands with more than 20 years’ experience, has just released the Orbi Wi-Fi 6– the latest mesh wi-fi system that can create wider and more consistent wireless coverage throughout your home.

There are two Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6 models – the RBK852 ($1,399) and RBK752 ($949) which use a dedicated wireless backhaul which provides a dedicated 5Ghz channel for data exchange between the router and the satellites.

This reduces network congestion and allows devices to run faster on the network.

The RBK852 is designed for larger homes and offers 12 simultaneous wi-fi streams with support for more than 60 connected devices.

The RBK752 has the same level of wireless coverage with support for 8 simultaneous wi-fi streams and more than 40 connected devices.

They can both provide up to 465 square metres of coverage and can accommodate a two or three storey home.

RBK852 can support wi-fi speeds of up to 2.5Gbps while the RBK752 can manage 1Gbps.

For this review, Tech Guide took a look at the RBK852 and set it up in our two storey home.

Each Orbi unit is 25.4cm tall and also have four Ethernet ports on the back to connect other devices like gaming consoles and smart TVs although they can just as easily connect wirelessly.

The issue with a regular modem router is the router half responsible for creating a wireless network to allow users to connect around the home is just not up to the task of managing so many connected devices and meeting our modern needs.

When working from home we need to have good speeds to share and upload documents and files and to also have enough bandwidth to handle video calls and online meetings.

And when it’s time to relax, we turn to streaming content on Netflix or Stan or any number of other streaming services.

Meanwhile other members of the household might be browsing the web on their laptop, playing a game on their iPad or competing online on a gaming console.

And often this is happening all at once and most NBN-issued routers just can’t cut it.

The Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6 not only offers superb mesh wi-fi coverage but it also had the latest wireless standard – Wi-Fi 6 which is up to four times faster with compatible devices like the latest smartphones, laptops, tablets and upcoming next generation gaming consoles.

So basically you’re future proofing your network as well as making it more reliable and consistent.

Connecting the Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6 RBK852 is a simple five-minute job.

Through the Netgear Orbi app on your smartphone, you are taken step by step through the process.

Firstly you scan the QR code on the main unit that connects directly to your modem and connect the cable and plug it into power.

After the app detects the new Orbi it’s time to install the second satellite unit.

In our case the modem is towards the front of the house on the lower level and we placed the satellite towards the back of the same level of our house.

Again, with a quick QR code scan, the unit was detected and our new network was created.

The finishing touches was renaming the network and setting a password and we were done.

No longer than five minutes and the Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6 was already up and running.

The app not only helps you set up the network but also allows you to manage it as well.

You can see the devices connected to the network and also see an alert whenever a new device connects.

You are also able to monitor the health of the network and perform speeds tests to ensure things are running properly.

There’s also a free month’s trial of the Netgear Armour – an internet security system that looks after all devices at the router level that can usually prevent a security issue even before it reaches the devices on your network.

You can also access wi-fi settings and also turn on guest wi-fi that allows for connection without sharing your network password.

Once it’s set up there is nothing more to do except enjoy the fast and consistent speeds.

The Netgear Orbi can also automatically assign the traffic on your network to the appropriate 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz band on so there’s no need to get complicated with it – a welcome feature we’d imagine for most users.

And for those who do want to tinker with the networks and still enjoy mesh wi-fi coverage and Wi-Fi 6, Netgear also offers the Nighthawk Mesh Wi-Fi 6 system which comes with three base stations.

When you’ve got Orbi up and running, you can get the same speeds throughout your home – not just when you’re in the same room as the modem.

That’s the biggest frustration for customers – the weakness of their wi-fi even one or two rooms away from the modem where they want to stream a 4K movie.

With the Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6 we were able to enjoy the same speeds in every corner of our two-storey home.

We have the NBN at our place – fibre to the curb through Optus on the 100/40 plan – 100Gbps download and 40Gbps upload which is typically around 95 and 38.

We did speed tests in three locations downstairs and three locations upstairs and got a consistent speed test result in each of these locations which are all separated by walls and staircases and doors.

Downstairs where the modem is located the Orbi achieved speeds of 96.92Mbps down and 39.13Mbps up.

At the very front of the house about 12 metres and two rooms away, the speeds were 95.54Mbps down and 38.42Mbps up. At the very back of the house – three rooms away from the modem – on the beck deck we got 95.08Mbps down and 38.47Mbps up.

Then we headed upstairs at the very front of the house we got 94.86Mbps down and 39.39Mbps up.

In the middle of the second level in the hall way between two of the bedrooms the speed was actually 97.71Mbps down and 38.98Mbps down – that’s faster than the speeds we achieved beside the modem downstairs.

And finally in the ensuite of the master bedroom which is upstairs and literally at the farthest corner of the house away from the modem the speeds were 95.92Mbps down and 38.37Mbps up.

And I know it was working fine because none of my kids or my wife ever complained that the internet was slow or unavailable even when they were streaming Netflix and playing games.

The Netgear Orbi RBK852 is not cheap at $1,399. The RBK752 is cheaper at $949.

But when you consider the money you’ve invested with a new smart TV, a laptop computer, a gaming console and the smart home products designed to provide security and convenience, we think it’s a worthy investment.

That’s how important a home’s wi-fi has become – it’s an investment.

We not only rely on it to keep us connected and entertained but we now also need it to do business, do our jobs and allow our children to learn.

You might have paid top dollar for the fastest NBN speeds at home but if it’s being let down by the router then you’re not getting the most out of it.

It’s like owning a Ferrari but only putting the cheapest tyres on it.

The Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6  is the best mesh wi-fi system hands down.

Yes, there are cheaper mesh system but they also offer a fraction of the coverage and reliability.

If you want to see the results and take comfort in the fact you and your family and devices and appliances and smart products are all connected securely and reliably, then you’ll be glad you decided to pay a little extra for the Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6.

VERDICT

The Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6 is the best mesh system you can buy right now and it can put an end to your wi-fi woes and allow you to keep all of your devices connected whenever you need them.

The post Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6 review – the mesh system that can solve all of your wi-fi problems appeared first on Tech Guide.

Arlo is one of the leading companies in the huge wire-free security camera market and its latest Arlo Pro 3 Wireless Floodlight camera is a fine addition to the impressive range.

It is actually the first wire-free floodlight camera with a motion sensor that can activate the onboard LED light when it detects movement.

Other floodlight cameras need to be hard wired to power so it’s an effort to install them.

It could also cost you more money if you need to hire an electrician to help you.

But you don’t have that worry with Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera – it’s as easy to install as the other Arlo cameras.

The beauty of the wire-free design is that is frees up users to place it anywhere they want rather than being limited to where they can only access power.

And it’s also completely weatherproof as well so you can place it anywhere.

For our review we installed the Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera on our front porch so it could illuminate the driveway and front yard.

This is quite handy especially if it is able to illuminate a path or stairs which are hard to navigate in the dark.

What you have here is basically an elongated Arlo Pro 3 camera which has a larger rechargeable battery than the regular Arlo Pro 3 – but you can use the same Arlo battery charger.

The LED light fans out on either of the camera. It is a surprisingly thin panel – that’s the advantage of using LED light. It has a pretty slick and modern design.

Installation is as easy as drilling three holes and attaching the camera mount and then screwing on the camera itself.

It took us 10 minutes to drill the holes and mount the camera – and no electrician was required.

The camera’s mount is also versatile so it’s easy to aim it exactly where you want.

But with a 160-degree field of view, it’s going to catch everything you want anyway.

The next step was set up the Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera and link it to our wi-fi.

Because we already had a base station for our other Arlo cameras, the new Floodlight camera recognised it right away and proceeded to add it to the network.

But the good news is you don’t need a base station to install the Arlo Pro 3 Flood Light Camera – it will work on its own.

All you need to do is download the Arlo app to complete the set-up which is pretty straightforward.

Users can also name the camera – usually where it’s located. Ours is called Front Floodlight and it joins the other Arlo cameras we have installed in our home.

The camera provides 2K quality – resolution is 2560 x 1440 – and it also includes HDR so your videos are clearer in all conditions whether it’s bright light or near darkness.

At this resolution it’s also possible to zoom in on live videos and saved videos to see something closer.

Now the first thing you’ll discover is the LED lights are really bright at 3000 lumens and illuminate quite a wide area. It was bright enough to shoot a movie in this light.

We had to turn it down to about 70 per cent.

This is done through the app which will also allow you to control the activity zones so you can determine where the camera will detect motion.

You can also manually switch on the light through the app as well to light up the area of you are monitoring through the app.

But you need to go to another section of the app to arm the Floodlight Camera to activate the light to detect motion.

This was a little confusing at first because we though setting the activity zone would have looked after the motion settings.

It would have been good to locate these settings here rather than having to find them in another section of the app with our other cameras.

There is also two way audio onboard so you can talk to anyone on front of the camera.

And if that person is someone you don’t know or don’t want on your property you can also sound the built-in siren which is also quite loud at 80 decibels.

The Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera comes with a free three-month trial of Arlo Smart which provides even more features like intelligent notifications which can distinguish between people, animals, vehicles and even packages.

Users can access their cloud recordings for up to 30 days with the service.

Alternatively, you can record to an SD card if you already have an Arlo base station.

The battery will run for weeks before it needs recharging and you can also check the percentage level in the app and you’ll also receive a notification when it’s time to recharge.

Customers can also buy an Arlo solar panel which can keep the Floodlight camera continually charged.

The Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant as well as IFTTT for easy interaction and automation.

The Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera continues Arlo’s legacy as a market leader in the security camera space.

Security cameras have become a vital addition to our homes and the Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera is a great way to start or a tremendous addition to your existing set-up.

The Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera is available now and is priced at $449.

VERDICT
The Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera is a versatile addition to any home to increase your security and peace of mind and literally shed more light wherever it is needed.

The post Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera review – let there be light and added security appeared first on Tech Guide.