Amazon offering five new home security packages

Amazon now is offering home security services through a new portal. There are an array of smart security packages, including items such as entryway sensors, sirens, and a video doorbell all installed by Amazon workers and with no monthly contract.

There are five different tiers to choose from. The cheapest version costs just $240 . It is designed to make it appear that you are home. It includes a number of motion-detecting light, smart indoor lighting, plus a wireless waterproof speaker.

The most expensive package costs $840 and comes with smart sensor that can detect flooding and leaks. There is a Wink hub, everyday sensors and a Ring doorbell. Every package contains the Amazon Echo Dot and two visits from an Amazon smart home expert. The first identifies your needs and the second installs and configures all your devices.

Wink hub

Wink is a brand of software and hardware products designed to connect and control smart home devices from one consolidated interface. Wink connects with third-party smart home devices part of the Internet of Things (IOT). This includes such items as thermostats, door locks, ceiling fans, Wi-Fi enabled light and other devices. Wink provides a single user interface on either a mobile app or a wall-mounted screen called Relay.

Ring doorbell

Ring Video Doorbell is a smart doorbell device. It allows users to monitor and operate, front, back, and garage doors remotely. When the doorbell is pressed, the Ring application begins a VOIP video call to a connected device so that the house owner or whoever else is answering can see and speak to visitors.

Ring is owned by Amazon who bought it for somewhere between $1.2 billion and $1.8 billion in February of 2018. However, Reuters valued the deal at more than a billion dollars.

Amazon Echo Dot

The Echo Dot a voice-activated speaker with assistant Alexa, who wakes up in response to her name, can do multiple things for you as described in a recent cnet review: "You can ask Alexa to do all sorts of things. For starters, she can stream music from Amazon Prime Music, Pandora, or Spotify. She can can play podcasts from iHeartRadio or TuneIn. She can set kitchen timers. She can look up facts. She can wake you up in the morning. She can tell your kids painfully bad jokes. She can read off the day's headlines from whatever news sources you like (including, ahem, CNET). All you have to do is ask. "

Blink

Blink is a home automation firm that makes battery-powered home security cameras and also a video doorbell. Blink makes an outdoor security camera, a home security system, as well as the video doorbell.

In December of 2017 Amazon announced it had acquired Blink. However, the company has continued to operate as an independent subsidiary of Amazon.

Amazon Key

You can buy an Amazon Key Kit that among other features allows couriers to unlock your front door to place packages inside your home. You can opt out if you think this is too much of an invasion of your property. Amazon Prime members in select cities and the surrounding areas can opt in to the system that ensures that Amazon packages are securely delivered inside your front door. You can watch the delivery happen on video or view a video clip later. Notifications are sent the morning of the delivery just before and right after.

Previously published in Digital Journal

New technology allows seniors to remain at home longer

Many seniors want to stay in their homes as long as they can rather than go to an old folks or nursing home. New technology helps to make this happen while ensuring that the health and safety of the elderly is not compromised.

A new startup based in Cincinnati, TruSense provides technology that enables the elderly to stay safely in their own homes longer. The company uses smart home technology to help seniors, including motion sensors, temperature monitoring, leak detection, and even voice controls. The company offers a do-it-yourself kit of connected products along with a monitoring service and an app that enables family to keep track of the habits of their aging parents so that they will know if something unusual and dangerous may be happening.

TruSense does not have hardware of its own but depends upon SmartThings for its motion sensors and hub, and Amazon Echo Dot for its voice control. The two hundred dollar U.S. starter kit contains the following: six motion sensors; two contact or door/window sensors; a visitor sensor: a smart outlet; a hub; and an Amazon Echo Dot. You can add to the kit items such as a GPS tracker, a leak detector and a pendant or vehicle tracker.

As a result of all this technology, the TruSense app is able to track which room residents are in, and be able to chart their activity over time. The door or window sensors could be put on your fridge or kitchen cabinet to keep track of their eating habits. A motion sensor will allow the user to know when the occupants are sleeping or getting up in the morning.

TruSense charges $50 per month for its monitoring service. Customers are able to customize which notifications to receive. The Amazon Echo Dot, a speaker that one can control with you voice, can be used by house occupants to call the monitoring service for help.

While the monitoring fee is higher than some other plans, it is on a par with those of others offered by ADT and AT&T. Perhaps some elderly parents will want to place some controls over how much their concerned children monitor them. The appended video shows another device that can help monitor elderly parents.