[HN Gopher] Tell HN: Repurposing old iPads as home security cameras
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Tell HN: Repurposing old iPads as home security cameras
Last month I asked[0] what could be done with an old iPad; the
responses led me to discover Alfred Home Security[0] and It's
exactly what I was looking for. The winning feature being, you can
repurpose any old iOS device as a camera. I have since used the
app with 2 old iPads, and an iPhone 7 Plus. Works better than I
expect, really nicely done app. The motion detection is spot-on.
I've been mostly using this to see what our new very shy kitten is
up to since we've only seen him twice in 5 weeks; basically he's
impossible to find during the day and only comes out to play after
we're asleep. The videos are super fun / cute, and it's nice to see
he's having fun and in good health! [3] Alfred Security also make
a impressive, very inexpensive camera ($34 US, 1080P, night vision,
130 degree viewing angle and easy to mount). I just received 3 of
the 4. TLDR: last month I wanted to know what was the best use for
old iPads /iOS devices, and I've since discovered Alfred Home
Security[1]. Supported Devices[2]: Android: Android 4.4 or above
(For a better experience, operating systems above Android 5 are
highly recommended) iOS: iOS 10 or above Original post: [0]
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34165418 [1]
https://alfred.camera/ [2] https://alfredcamera.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360039755... [3] https://alfred.camera/tv/9IHo74Mj5 *
I have nothing to do, nor any affiliation with Alfred other than
pay for and use their products. * Original Post is locked; I
couldn't post this information there. * Updated with devices /
link, and kitty video link (this is off an old iPad, not the Alfred
Camera), and formatting.
Author : evo_9
Score : 68 points
Date : 2023-01-15 20:07 UTC (2 hours ago)
| timkpaine wrote:
| I was in the same situation recently and decided on weather /
| spotify remote control split screen with a desk mount
| https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=16068
|
| useful when combined with the spotify headless app that was on
| here recently
| theden wrote:
| Another use-case for old iPads would be to run altstore
| (https://altstore.io/) and install emulators for retro gaming
| jollofricepeas wrote:
| Wish I could hide like a kitten sometimes:
|
| I remember having a very shy kitten. To our surprise we found out
| that he had discovered that he could climb into an old, hardly
| used dresser that we used as a linen cabinet.
|
| He would climb up the empty cavity space between the drawers and
| back wall of the dresser to then sleep in a drawer.
| diedead wrote:
| I use my old iPad as an ereader. I don't have any fancy setup,
| just sync books onto it either using iTunes or download directly
| from libgen or zlibrary. Works well enough for me :)
| Analemma_ wrote:
| Same. It doesn't have the battery life of something like a
| kindle but it's a lot more flexible (PDFs, web pages, etc. are
| all a lot better than on a kindle), and I can take handwritten
| notes too. I've actually experimented with several note-taking
| devices like the reMarkable and eventually the iPad won out as
| just nicer to use. The one issue is the apps and web access can
| be a distraction from reading, but I've found that by throwing
| up enough friction in the form of whitelisting sites in Screen
| Time and not having many apps installed, it's not an issue in
| practice.
| psim1 wrote:
| I was excited to read this Tell HN, but quickly deflated. I have
| an original iPad without a camera. :(
| mysterydip wrote:
| I started using mine for cheap IoT devices that needed some
| random app installed to run. I didn't want that garbage on my
| main phone, but many of them still work on older devices. So I
| made an account that just uses these apps, nothing else for the
| email etc.
| osigurdson wrote:
| I've a vague notion that one day I would make a cloud service
| where people send in old iPhone 4/5/6, old iPads and various
| common old/unused hardware. You would get (lots) of credits for
| sending in your old devices. Not sure it would be successful but
| it would be fun to make - and fun to use for cheap little
| projects.
| logicalmonster wrote:
| Why not leave it on your coffee table with a few games and home
| automation tools?
| mtlynch wrote:
| This is cool! Thanks for sharing.
|
| > _I 've been mostly using this to see what our new very shy
| kitten is up to... The videos are super fun / cute, and it's nice
| to see he's having fun and in good health!_
|
| No links to videos? The cruelty of this post!
| evo_9 wrote:
| Doh, I actually meant to include this in the original above:
| https://alfred.camera/tv/9IHo74Mj5
| mtlynch wrote:
| Much appreciated! He's a very cute kitten.
| rz2k wrote:
| I've tried using LiveReporter[1] with an old iPad to send a RTSP
| stream to Frigate[2] running in a Proxmox virtual machine because
| I wanted to find out who was stealing plums from my trees.
| However, I never caught the plum-stealing-person, because
| LiveReporter crashed every few hours on my ancient iPad.
|
| Does anyone know of an app that reliably streams the camera of
| old iPads and iPhones to your local network that is _not_ tied to
| any cloud service or subscription that collects unnecessary user
| data?
|
| [1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/live-reporter-live-
| camera/id99...
|
| [2] https://frigate.video/
| LimeLimestone wrote:
| We'd love to see the videos of your new kitten!
| jb1991 wrote:
| I would want something like this that also records the activity
| for quick review later at high speed.
| jb1991 wrote:
| looks like that feature is coming:
| https://alfredcamera.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/446400615...
| evo_9 wrote:
| Update: Camera setup / experience. The cameras are quite nice,
| the 130 degree viewing angle makes a huge difference over the
| built-in iOS camera devices I had been using.
|
| The resolution / refresh rate is nice too. The video loads up
| very fast, I'd say withing 5 seconds.
|
| I wonder if I can mount one of these outside. That might be the
| only 'short-coming', for a security solution they need to provide
| an outdoor camera, or enclosure for these (presumable) indoor
| cameras. The cameras are new, though, so I'm sure they are eyeing
| Ring and are working on more products. Either way, something to
| keep in mind that didn't occur to me until now (no easy outdoor
| camera solution currently).
|
| Also - the setup is very easy / smooth. The camera 'talks' and
| you have audio prompts to guide you through pairing. It's pretty
| slick. I'm impressed, I'll be buying a few more for my wife's
| retail shop.
| voisin wrote:
| Is there anything like this that allows the same features for old
| MacBooks?
| speedgoose wrote:
| The energy cost of running an old MacBook, I assume an Intel
| one, may not be financially worth it. It's probably not too bad
| during winter if you use electricity to heat your home and
| don't have a heat pump because you will enjoy the heat. But
| otherwise, it's going to be expensive.
| evo_9 wrote:
| They also have a web page, that should work on an old Mac:
| https://alfred.camera/webapp/camera
| gnicholas wrote:
| So is the $34 fee a one-time fee, and it works across all devices
| linked to your iCloud account? If so, that makes this tip much
| more useful for folks with several old devices.
|
| How does the night vision work? I assume it's not nearly as good
| as IR-enhanced night vision on other security cams?
|
| Can you use Alfred in combination with HomeKit or IFTTT to
| trigger lights to turn on?
|
| EDIT: I'm seeing pricing of $30/yr, not $34 as a one-time fee. Am
| I looking in the wrong place?
| https://apps.apple.com/us/app/alfred-home-security-camera/id...
| evo_9 wrote:
| $34 is for the physical camera you can buy from them now; you
| are correct the yearly unlocked subscription is $30, my bad I
| should have noted the pricing above.
| gnicholas wrote:
| Wait, so how does this use an old iPad? I assumed that this
| app turned my old iPad into a security camera. Is that not
| the case?
|
| I can buy a Wyze camera for $30 and get notifications with no
| monthly fee (or pay a fee and get more cloud storage).
|
| I honestly don't understand how this app is a good use of my
| old iPad. How is an iPad even involved? Wouldn't I view the
| video from my phone?
| jonobird1 wrote:
| Have a read of the Alfred website and your questions will
| be answered.
| s3p wrote:
| Also interested in homekit. wondering about homekit secure
| video compatibility and whether this could be set up in an E2EE
| way.
| pfoof wrote:
| What is the lowest iOS/Android version required for it?
| evo_9 wrote:
| I updated the main comment above with this info too:
|
| Android: Android 4.4 or above (For a better experience,
| operating systems above Android 5 are highly recommended) iOS:
| iOS 10 or above
| ataru wrote:
| I tried a similar phone app years ago but it crashed almost every
| day, which made it impractical. I'm not sure why it should work
| now as phones aren't designed to run continuously for long
| periods without attention from a user.
| mozman wrote:
| I just tried Alfred Camera but I can't say I'm impressed. Poor UX
| and the functionality is poor. Perhaps it's me.
| gpas wrote:
| I've used Alfred some time ago on an old android phone to catch
| who was throwing cigarette butts in my backyard. The app worked
| flawlessly, the relations with my neighbors not so much.
| Gigachad wrote:
| What is it with smokers being the most rampant littering
| offenders? The average person would never consider throwing a
| chips packet on the ground even if no one was looking, but
| smokers will happily chuck their butts in the gutter no matter
| how many people are watching.
| codetrotter wrote:
| I don't smoke usually but, the difference between a bag of
| chips and a cigarette butt is that the cigarette butt is on
| fire and smells bad.
|
| You can easily put an empty bag of chips in your pocket or
| backpack and carry it with you until you find somewhere to
| dispose of it responsibly.
|
| With a cigarette butt, it's difficult. And also it's very
| small anyways so it may not seem like a big deal.
|
| The solution is to give up smoking. If you stop smoking then
| you won't have any more cigarette butts that you need to get
| rid of.
|
| One neat thing I've seen in some places is a "poll" where
| they ask a question with two alternatives, and they have
| people put cigarette butts in the compartment corresponding
| to their choice. Here, the photos on this website explains it
| better than words: https://ballotbin.co.uk/
| orobinson wrote:
| A smoker friend of mine used to carry around one of those
| little camera film canisters to put his cig butts in.
| Obviously being careful to extinguish them fully first
| beforehand so the plastic didn't get melted.
| password4321 wrote:
| Clickable: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34165418
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