All posts tagged: security camera

5 Best Video Doorbell Cameras (2026): Smart, Battery, AI, Budget, and Subscription-Free

5 Best Video Doorbell Cameras (2026): Smart, Battery, AI, Budget, and Subscription-Free

Published by skeptic

Other Video Doorbells to Consider I’ve tested several other video doorbells. These are the ones that narrowly missed out on a place above. Photograph: Simon Hill SwitchBot Smart Video Doorbell for $100: I don’t love the design of this wide doorbell, but it does come with a wee display that you can use to view who’s there and answer. This could be handy for folks who don’t want to rely on a phone and it lets anyone in the house check who is calling. Video quality is decent, though the frame rate is limited to 15, and the display is low res. You can record locally, and there’s a subscription option if you want cloud storage. Sadly, I found the display was often slow to wake up, and sometimes I had trouble playing back recorded videos. Philips Hue Secure Video Doorbell for $170: After a fiddly installation, you get a stylish doorbell offering sharp 2K resolution day or night and a wide view that takes in your whole porch. Notifications are swift and reliable, and …

The Best Subscription-Free Home Security Cameras I’ve Tried

The Best Subscription-Free Home Security Cameras I’ve Tried

Published by skeptic

Local Hub: Manufacturers like Eufy and TP-Link offer smart hubs that link wirelessly to their security cameras and offer expandable storage. Sometimes these local hubs allow for more local AI processing (Eufy’s hub enables facial recognition). They can also sometimes extend the wireless signal and stability for cameras. These hubs often need to be plugged directly into your router via Ethernet cable. MicroSD Card: Plugging a microSD card into a camera is a quick and simple way to record locally, but if an intruder steals the camera, your footage is gone with it. Occasionally, camera manufacturers offer indoor hubs that are expandable via a MicroSD card. Network Attached Storage (NAS): If you have a NAS server, you can likely configure it to store your security camera video. These devices contain hard drives and are expandable, offering a potentially enormous amount of storage. The best USB flash drives and external hard drives can be used to expand or offload footage from some of the above. Cloud vs. Local I have a guide on Cloud vs. Local …

Video Doorbell Advice and Settings for Opting Out of the Surveillance State

Video Doorbell Advice and Settings for Opting Out of the Surveillance State

Published by skeptic

There’s also the risk that footage falls into the wrong hands and ends up enabling politically-motivated investigations, police harassment, or stalking without you intending or even knowing about it. Maybe company employees or third-party contractors gain access to videos, or your cameras are hacked. Amazon settled a privacy lawsuit brought by the FTC that mentioned both scenarios a few years ago. More recently, ICE has been tapping into Flock’s automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras across the US, according to 404 media. What might it do with access to video doorbells? Then there are doorbell owners. Camera footage is frequently shared online without the knowledge or permission of the subject. People on neighborhood networking apps and social media groups post videos of supposedly suspicious characters. Unfortunately, these suspicions are often subject to their prejudices, and racial profiling can be a real problem, as this research suggests. But, provided footage is captured in a public place, it’s perfectly legal to share it. “Recording into windows, fenced backyards, or other private spaces on your property may be …

A K Bounty Awaits Anyone Who Can Hack Ring Cameras to Stop Sharing Data With Amazon

A $10K Bounty Awaits Anyone Who Can Hack Ring Cameras to Stop Sharing Data With Amazon

Published by skeptic

Usually, when you see a feel-good story about finding a lost dog, you don’t immediately react with fear and revulsion. But that was indeed the case in response to a Super Bowl commercial from Amazon-owned security camera company Ring. There’s now a group offering to dole out a $10,000 bounty to wrest back control of the user data Ring controls. The ad showed off a new feature from Ring called Search Party. It uses a network of Ring cameras to scour a neighborhood for signs of lost dogs. But as the details of a leaked internal Ring email reported by 404 Media revealed, the service could eventually be used to find other animals and people as well. The commercial was met largely with widespread criticism across social media and the tech press, which called out Search Party for essentially being a thinly-veiled neighborhood surveillance dragnet. People are even publicly destroying their Ring cameras. In response, Ring immediately canceled its partnership with the controversial AI surveillance company Flock. Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff has been on something …

Gear News of the Week: Google’s Pixel 10a Arrives Soon, and Valve Delays Its Steam Hardware

Gear News of the Week: Google’s Pixel 10a Arrives Soon, and Valve Delays Its Steam Hardware

Published by skeptic

In an update on its blog, Valve says its goal is still to ship the Steam Frame, Steam Controller, and Steam Machine in the “first half of the year.” But it also indicates that specifics around pricing and launch dates are in flux, saying that “limited availability and growing prices” on storage and memory are forcing Valve to “revisit” these issues. That sounds a lot like price increases, something that nearly every PC manufacturer has already warned about in new products coming in 2026. Companies like Dell and HP are doing everything they can to secure supply, including working with Chinese memory manufacturers for the first time. The memory shortage has been caused by a huge spike in demand for AI in data centers. The three primary memory manufacturers in the world, Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix, have all but abandoned the consumer market in favor of supporting AI data centers. Prices on off-the-shelf PC memory began to rise in September and October, and really ramped up in the following months, now up to four …

9 Best Outdoor Security Cameras (2026): Battery-Powered, LTE, No Subscription

9 Best Outdoor Security Cameras (2026): Battery-Powered, LTE, No Subscription

Published by skeptic

Compare These Security Cameras Best MicroSD Cards Courtesy of Samsung Some security cameras support local storage, enabling you to record videos on the camera or a linked hub. A few hubs have built-in storage, and some provide slots for hard drives, but most rely on microSD cards. This is a quick guide on what to look for (plus some recommendations). The microSD card you choose should have fast read and write speeds so you can record high-quality video and play it back without delay. I recommend going for Class 10 microSD cards rated as U1 or U3. You can dive deeper into what that means in our SD card explainer. Before you buy, check the card type, format, and maximum supported card size for your security camera. Consider how many hours of video each card capacity can store. For example, you might get a couple of days of HD video on a 32-GB card. If you want to record continuously, you likely want a higher-capacity card. I recommend formatting the card as soon as you insert it …

3 Best Floodlight Security Cameras (2026), Tested and Reviewed

3 Best Floodlight Security Cameras (2026), Tested and Reviewed

Published by skeptic

Consider These Floodlight Cameras Photograph: Simon Hill Reolink Elite Floodlight WiFi (Wired) for $230: Similar to our Reolink pick above, the difference with the Elite Floodlight is that it’s a fixed dual-lens camera designed to give you a wide 180-degree view (59 degrees vertically), rather than a pan-and-tilt camera. If you want a fixed camera to cover the entire side of a property, this could be a solid pick. It records up to 4K video at up to 20 frames per second, has a 105-decibel alarm, and supports dual-band Wi-Fi 6. The rest of the specs, including the two-panel, 3,000-lumen, adjustable temperature floodlight, match the TrackFlex above. Google Nest Cam With Floodlight (Wired) for $280: This aging floodlight security camera might still be your best bet if you prefer Google Home and have a Nest doorbell. The limited 1080p resolution is mitigated by the high frame rate (30 fps), HDR, and decent 6X digital zoom. The two-panel floodlight can put out up to 2,400 lumens of warm (4,000K) light, and brightness is adjustable. Google’s AI …

10 Best Pet Cameras (2026), Tested With Our Pets

10 Best Pet Cameras (2026), Tested With Our Pets

Published by skeptic

Compare Our Picks Others Tested Photograph: Molly Higgins Enabot Rola PetPal Robot Pet Companion for $229 (with no attachments): This rolling pet camera has the best of intentions, but the sometimes glitchy app makes the combo pet camera/toy/feeder a little unpredictable. Through the app, you can watch your pets on the security cam and drive the robot around, pressing buttons to do tricks and dispense treats. You can watch the camera feed live from the app, but you can also schedule recordings, which are viewable via cloud Playback, and it compiles a 30-second “day in the life” compilation. The robot is also supposed to detect abnormal movement or sounds, like barking or broken glass, and send a smart alert to the owner with a timestamp while away from home. Through AI-powered pet recognition, the bot can also snap a picture of your pet, but the AI features were unreliable. Photograph: Molly Higgins Petcube Cam for $32: This simple, compact camera doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, but it’s a great price for being a …