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Beyond the All-Black Cylindrical Speaker

Amazon Unveils New Smart Thermostats, Ring Security Products, Halo View, and a Blink Floodlight Cam

By Michael Heiss

Imagine my surprise one day about seven years ago when a colleague called me to talk about “some new smart speaker thing that Amazon has just announced.” We were all amazed that it could not only play music but answer questions, set timers, and control other devices. I was a bit skeptical at first but ordered one anyway. Who would have thought that the all-black cylindrical speaker would be the start of a wide product category and offshoots like the new Ring home security products, smart thermostats, and health and fitness products that were recently introduced?

Amazon Smart Thermostat

Amazon Smart Thermostat is the company’s first entry in that growing category. Developed with Honeywell’s technology, this is a rather basic unit whose features don’t compare with Nest, ecobee, and similar products. After all, it doesn’t work with remote temperature sensors, and it doesn’t have a built-in link to a speaker. It does, as one might expect, respond to commands spoken to any Alexa app or device.

Amazon Smart Thermostat will certainly do the basics of controlling an HVAC system along with the obligatory “learning.” Along with those pros and cons, there will be one very important thing that the Amazon Smart Thermostat will have: an incredibly low price. At $59.99, it will be one of the lowest-priced Wi-Fi-controlled smart thermostats on the market. That, alone, along with its fitting into the Alexa ecosystem should make it a big seller.

Health and Fitness With Halo View

Another crowded category where Amazon is extending its offerings is in the health and fitness and “wearables” category. The new Halo View fitness tracker adds a model with an AMOLED display to the Halo line along with significant updates to the underlying Halo service. The Halo View and its associated app components will check all the expected boxes for a wearable. It features activity tracking, sleep tracking, and body assessment and nutrition coaching when used with Halo apps and other new nutrition and fitness components.

The user can be guided through a variety of different fitness routines with content available from a library of premium brands such as re•spin by Halle Berry and Orangetheory Fitness. On the nutrition side, there will be dozens of menu and diet preference options. It should come as no surprise that when viewing recipes on the app a simple click will add grocery items to a shopping list.

Pricing will be $79.99, with one year of Halo membership, with additions to Halo Fitness and Halo Nutrition, both included in the app as part of Halo membership, rolling out through January 2022.

Blink Doorbell Cam

Ring is one category that Amazon is wellknown for, including their doorbell cams and a wide variety of security and protection-related products. Perhaps less well known is the companion Blink line, a more value-priced line of indoor and outdoor cameras. Now, however, Blink will also include its own doorbell cam, the Blink video doorbell.

Amazon Smart Thermostat is the company’s first entry in that growing category. The new Halo View fitness tracker adds model with an AMOLD display to the Halo line along with significant updates to the underlying Halo service.

Here, too, we have a product that checks the boxes for a basic product. It is compatible with the Alexa ecosystem for chimes from and communication with those at the door, and the ability to see visitors on a Show or Fire TV OSconnected device. So far, so good. What, you may ask is the tradeoff? The camera is listed as 1080p/30fps, but the captured images are shown at 640x360. The Wi-Fi is only 2.4GHz at Wi-Fi 4 (802.11b/g/n) speeds but depending on the location of the Blink to the Wi-Fi access point that will be good enough in many cases. The batteries are standard non-rechargeable AA, but they are said to last for up to two years and standard size makes them easy to replace.

Is this as good as the Ring models or the many other products in the video doorbell space? Perhaps not. However, at $49.99 with a 30-day trial to the Blink Subscription Plan, it’s priced aggressively. Alternatively, the Blink optional Sync Module 2 at $34.99 supports local storage on a USB flash drive for playback through the app or on a PC, but that does not support live view recording. All in all, taken for what it is, it’s a very interesting, value-priced product.

Blink Floodlight Camera mount

Also announced to flesh out the Blink line was the Blink Floodlight Camera mount that works with the existing Outdoor Cam to deliver 700 lumens of lighting, triggered by a motion detector. The mount is $39.99 and is available in a package configuration which also includes the Sync Module 2 at $139.98. The final new Blink product is the Outdoor Cam with a Solar mount. As the name implies, this is an outdoor camera with the same specs as the video doorbell but is solar-powered with battery backup. The $129.99 price tag includes a camera and the mount with a Sync 2 module available as an option. It should be noted that one Sync 2 Module will work with up to 10 of the Blink camera products.

Ring Jobsite Security

A final product that incorporates Ring cameras and their technologies will curiously not be sold through Amazon. Ring Jobsite Security will be sold exclusively through The Home Depot. If you first see the product other than in a store you won’t have any problem guessing where it came from. The products come in a secure travel case that sports that unmistakable orange color.

Presumably designed for construction professionals, the concept will be quite valid for any commercial or residential construction or installation location where site surveillance both for video and motion detection is needed. Given the hardened nature of the products, this might even be interesting for places such as a boat dock or temporary overnight parking area.

The basic five-piece kit starts at $399.99 and includes the Ring Alarm Pro, a battery-operated Stick Up Cam, a battery-operated Smart Lighting Spotlight, a Smart Lighting Motion Sensor, and the protective, powered, Security Case that may also be wall-mounted. All the components are also available individually or to increase coverage area, as well as a power pack and outdoor contact sensor.

The names of some of the parts of the kit are self-explanatory, but the key is the new Ring Alarm Pro. It combines the features of the consumer Ring Alarm but adds a built-in eero Wi-Fi 6 access point/router that is the glue for communication between the components and off-site monitoring via the Ring app or professional monitoring.

For job sites where there is broadband, Alarm Pro will enable connection with laptops, tablets, or other devices on the site. With the addition of the Ring Protect Pro subscription at $20 per month, you are also able to use cellular connectivity. That, in conjunction with the optional Ring Power Packs at $129.99 each, lets you secure the job site even when the power is out or the Wi-Fi drops off.

For more traditional home installations, the new $249.99 Ring Alarm Pro combines protection against break-ins, floods, fires, and online threats with the reliable connectivity of a built-in eero Wi-Fi 6 router. Ring Alarm Pro also offers 24/7 backup internet with a Ring Protect Pro subscription to keep all the devices customers care about online with a cellular data connection.

All in all, an innovative and interesting product combination. Equally important is the fact that Amazon has reached out to a separate company to sell a version of things they developed. This should be a good play within our community. x

The new Blink now has a solar mount to power an Outdoor Cam from the sun. The Ring Alarm Pro combines the features of the consumer Ring Alarm but adds a built-in eero Wi-Fi 6 access point/router.

Ring Jobsite Security, a Home Depot exclusive, builds a complete security system and remote monitoring in a kit that is easy to move from one job location to another.