August unveils a Homekit-enabled lock, keypad and doorbell camera

August Home Inc, makers of the August Smart Lock, announced the forthcoming release of three new products as well as a new service at a press event in San Francisco today. The new product lineup includes a second-generation Smart Lock, a Smart Keypad and a Smart Doorbell Camera. The lock itself offers a number of design improvements over its predecessor including a magnetic faceplate that won’t pop off every time you manually engage the lock as well as a stainless steel indicator on the lock sleeve. Plus, being Homekit-enabled, the new Smart Lock will allow users to issue voice commands through Siri rather than opening the app itself. It’s available for order today and will retail for $230. The older generation locks will be discounted to an even $200.

The weather-proofed keypad will make granting temporary access to service providers (say, the delivery guy or your dog walker) much easier. Instead of forcing folks to download the August app just to use a one-time Bluetooth code, users will be able to program a 4 – 6 digit PIN into the keypad themselves and then share the code via text message or what-have-you. And, like the older shared BT codes, these PINs can be set to last for as many hours, days or uses as you’d like. The keypad will retail for $80 when it becomes available in the next few weeks.

The Doorbell Cam is also weather-proofed, Wi-Fi enabled and pretty darn clever. It’s equipped with a standard motion detector but will also turn on the camera when it detects movement near the door. So instead of issuing a push notification every time a car drives past your house, the motion detector will also turn on the Wi-Fi camera (which is equipped with human-detection software) to ensure that the movement is actually a person standing on your stoop, not just parking at the curb. The camera will retail for $200.

What’s more, the camera integrates with the rest of the August devices allowing you to remotely unlock your door for the delivery guy and record both him entering and exiting the residence. This ensures that he doesn’t swiped stuff from your house while dropping a package in the foyer. Plus, this way, you’ll never miss a delivery. The only drawback is that the camera is powered by your existing doorbell wiring so if you don’t have a doorbell already installed on your door (like me) you are SOL.

Finally, August is expanding the scope of its temporary access system to allow services, not just individuals access to your door. “We’re announcing a new service that we call Access,” August co-founder Jason Johnson told Engadget. “Probably the best way to describe it is, much like, new transportation apps like Uber helps consumers find service providers [in this case, drivers for hire – ed.] are in third party transportation logistics, we’re in third party service logistics. We help consumers find services that have integrated with our platform and we help them connect in a trusted and secure way.”

The company announced 12 initial launch partners today including Sears, Postmates, Pro.com, Handy, Fetch, Shyp, BloomNation, Envoy, Rinse, HelloAlfred, Wag!, Pillow, and Doorman. Instead of having to give partial access to a delivery person every single time you order from Postmates, users will be able to grant access to Postmates the company. This may seem like a security issue however it’s not that far off from what many August users already do with trusted service partners like these. Plus, the lock maintains copious logs about who opened which August-locked door with which access code so tracking down the responsible party should your valuable go missing during a delivery will be a piece of cake.

GoPro rewards you for sharing photos and videos of your adventures

To encourage GoPro users to share more action-packed video footage and still photos, the company is offering rewards. The GoPro Awards will give you money when your snapshots, raw video or edited footage are selected for use on the GoPro Channel or licensed for other uses. Those rewards are $500, $1,000 and $5,000, respectively, and span a smattering of nine genres including motorsports, action, adventure and more. GoPro is pretty serious about the program too, as it plans to shell out $5 million in rewards annually. The company says the awards program offers its customers a way to gain recognition for their efforts as its user base has “some of the most creative people on the planet.” Ready to submit your work? Head over the Awards page to get started.

Source: GoPro (1), (2)

OMRON’s Family Eye home camera is both cute and powerful

Most home security cameras these days already come with microSD storage, two-way audio, motion detection and night vision, so it’s about time someone offers a more powerful package. If you happen to reside in Japan, then you may want to consider OMRON’s Kazoku Mesen aka Family Eye. Hardware-wise this is just a cute 720p video camera with all of the aforementioned features, but it’s the company’s OKAO Vision technology that really sells it: It’s able to recognize faces, hand gesture, age, gender, expressions (it can automatically take photos of a baby whenever he or she smiles) and even cats plus dogs. Offices and shops can also take advantage of the Family Eye for customer analysis and head counts. Not bad for a ¥29,800 (about $250) kit, except for one slightly unfortunate flaw: It cannot record video, just still photos, so you’ll have to rely on notifications and the app’s live stream feature. We still want one, anyway. Slideshow-327655

DJI’s slick 4K hand-held gimbal is ready for action

The day has finally come. After our sneak peek at a prototype back in January, DJI’s first hand-held gimbal is finally arriving in its slick true form along with a new name: Osmo. This $649 device is designed to house the Zenmuse 4K range of detachable three-axis stabilized cameras, with the default one being the Zenmuse X3 which packs a 1/2.3-inch Sony Exmor R CMOS with an effective resolution of 12.4 megapixels. Together with the single-hand grip and the metallic phone clamp, the whole package is essentially a wingless Inspire 1 and its controller combined as one. Should you decide to jump on the Micro Four Thirds bandwagon, you can also pop on a Zenmuse X5 at an extra cost. Slideshow-327611 Slideshow-327609

We’ve yet to give our Osmo some proper hands-on time, but so far, we’ve been very pleased with its ergonomic design, and the relatively light weight of 201 grams (battery included) is a nice bonus. It certainly feels significantly better than most other competitors in the current market, though it’ll be interesting to compare this with the Aetho Aeon when it hits the market. On a similar note, the metallic phone clamp feels sturdy and should be able to handle screen sizes of up to around six inches. We also dig the included carrying case, partly because it can trick people into thinking you’re carrying a ukulele.

As with other DJI devices, the setup process is quite straightforward: Just install the DJI Go app, and then launch it after connecting your phone to your Osmo’s WiFi hotspot. That said, the app doesn’t appear to be fully optimized for the Osmo just yet, as we still see a lot of irrelevant features that only apply to drones, plus we’ve been seeing a lot of hiccup while attempting to stream video files from our Osmo. We shall let DJI smooth out these kinks while we dig deeper for our upcoming review. Alternatively, if you have $649 handy, you can simply head over to DJI’s online store and pre-order this cool-looking gimbal.

Aetho’s ‘Aeon’ GoPro stabilizer looks slick, and so will your video

“Shoot video that’s worth watching” reads one of the straplines for Aetho’s “Aeon” handheld GoPro stabilizer. It sounds kinda obvious, right? But, if you’ve ever walked/ran/danced/dived/whatever with a GoPro in your hand/mouth/knees/whatever you’ll know it’s not that simple. You thought you had an oak-like steady grip, turns out you shake like a cold chihuahua — and the GoPro does a wonderful job of translating that to your videos. Aethos’s marketing copy suddenly doesn’t seem so vapid, does it? Especially once you see what the Aeon can do for your footage. Which, helpfully, you can right here in this article.

Let’s back up a little. What is Aeon? It’s a camera gimbal (stabilizer) designed for GoPros. If you’ve ever watched a silky-smooth drone video, you’ve already enjoyed gimbal-stablized video. But, handheld versions of these already exist, right? Yeah, they do. In fact, when I recently wrote about some of the best accessories for the ubiquitous action camera, I cited an existing gimbal as my “must have” add on. The problem with current products, though, is they either feel a little delicate, a little clunky, or simply lack practical design.

Aetho’s goal with the Aeon is to make a stabilizer that looks and functions as slick as the video it produces. I spent some time with a 3D-printed prototype, and I have to say, it looks and feels very promising. Firstly, the design is unlike most competing products (which usually resemble a frame on the end of a pole). Aeon, on the other hand, looks like the offspring of a traditional steadicam that got friendly with the steering controls of a supercar. The curved handle feels much more comfortable to hold for extended periods, and it also places the camera directly level with your hand. With other gimbals, the GoPro is usually above your hand, which makes framing less predictable. With Aeon, you just point your knuckles where you want to film, and the GoPro follows. A small, but significant detail.

The Aeon also allows a broader range of lateral motion. The camera’s 3-axis articulation is designed into the handle itself, so instead of motors moving on the end of a pole, the grip has much more ability to twist and maneuver. To make use of this, Aeon has an analog joystick (a-la PS Vita etc.), that lets you pan the camera left or right (or up/down) without your wrist moving. This means you can be moving (say, on a board/bike) and track your subject with your thumb, while keeping your hand naturally pointed forward. Another big plus, is a circular LCD display at the top of the grip so you can see exactly what you’re filming at all times. At the base of the grip, is a GoPro mount, letting you attach this to helmets, selfie-sticks and any other compatible accessory you might already have.

The prototype I tried didn’t have some of these extra features (no LCD or GoPro mount), but the gimbal and joystick worked perfectly, and the results are impressive. I took it for a walk, which might not be extreme, but the movement of walking is one of the best ways to bugger up your handheld video — and you can see below how smooth it is (the video starts with unstabilized video first). Frustratingly, I realized after shooting that the GoPro in the Aeon has a bust lens hood, so there’s some blurring from the camera, but the results are unmistakably much, much smoother than the camera that’s just on a regular grip (GoPro’s 3-Way, incidentally).

Other details I noticed, is that where the motors in my current gimbal can jam when you reach the end of their rotational range — creating an annoying vibration in the gimbal and your footage — the Aeon prototype didn’t do this once. That alone make me excited about this product. It only takes one rogue wobble to ruin your meticulously planned cinematic skate intro, right? Oh, and the Aeon can be charged via USB cable — no weird-sized batteries with a cradle (if you have a Feiyu, you know what I mean). I still love my Feiyu G4, but Aetho’s taken a good idea, and tried to make it great — and from what I can see, it works. If there are any concerns, it’s whether it’ll deliver the five hours of battery life promised, and how rugged or delicate the final units will be, something I can’t judge from the prototype.

The Aeon’s currently taking orders on Indiegogo, but, from my conversations with Aetho founders Harrison D. Lee, and Ian Nott, all the development is done (for real, it used to look like this), and production is ready to go — slated for early 2016. The money pledged is to directly fund the production of those devices. How much for one you ask? If you’re quick, $300. If you’re not so quick, $350. That’s about $100 more than the popular Feiyu G4, but with LCD, and other design advantages above, that seems about right.

Source: Aetho (Indiegogo), Aetho

The dark side of Rosetta’s comet is icier than expected

The comet that the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft has been chasing around the sun has a dark side. No, 67P isn’t hiding any terrible secrets — the southern hemisphere literally faces away from the sun during most of its 6.5-year-long solar orbit. Until recently, none of the cameras aboard Rosetta have been able to image it due to that utter lack of light, except for one — the MIRO microwave instrument. NASA scientists behind the device have released a report on their observations, and lead author Mathieu Choukroun said “these unique data are telling us something very intriguing about the material just below its surface.”

The MIRO instrument is designed to detect water both in comet 67P’s “tail” and up to an inch below its surface. Early observations taken in June 2014, when Rosetta was still 350,000 km from the comet, showed that the highest concentration of water was in the comet’s northern half. However, closer observations of the region taken with different wavelengths show that significant amounts of ice might lie within the first few inches of its surface. In fact, “it appears that either the surface material or the material that’s a (few inches) below it is extremely transparent, and could consist mostly of water ice or carbon-dioxide ice,” said Choukroun.

Despite problems with the Philae lander, Rosetta has given researchers a trove of valuable data about the comet, particularly its water composition. For instance, the amount of deuterium (heavy water) in 67P has strengthened the argument that Earth’s water must have come from asteroids rather than comets. However, NASA said its odd water composition findings are still preliminary, and it plans to verify the results using data it collected more recently.

Source: NASA