Apple Drops Price of HomeKit-Enabled D-Link Omna Camera to $149.95

[MacRumors]

Apple recently dropped the price of the HomeKit-enabled D-Link Omna 180 Cam HD camera from $199.95 to $149.95 in the United States, a $50 discount off of the launch price. Apple's website doesn't mention a discount, suggesting the base price of the accessory has been lowered.

The price has also been lowered in Canada from $269.95 CAD to $199.95 CAD, and it's also been discounted in several other countries, including the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and more. It appears the price cut went live a few weeks ago.

The D-Link Omna 180 Cam HD was the first camera to include support for HomeKit, but other products have been released since then, including Logitech's Circle 2.

The Omna is a quality in-home security camera with a wide angle lens, night vision support, and an accompanying app, but it records all content to a microSD card and does not include support for uploading to the cloud, a feature that may keep some users from wanting to buy it.

For a more complete picture of the D-Link Omna, make sure to check out our review.

Article Link: Apple Drops Price of HomeKit-Enabled D-Link Omna Camera to $149.95

 

[dannys1]

Not really sure why you'd need a homekit enabled camera. The only point of homekit is to get siri to do stuff, the automation side of it is severly lacking and you'd be much better off using SmartThings to trigger reactions to motions

 

[Jest3r]

As of now, the Circle 2 is not HomeKit compatible. They claim it will be enabled in a firmware update but they also made the same claims for the original Circle, which never came to be.

 

[WilliamG]

Not really sure why you'd need a homekit enabled camera. The only point of homekit is to get siri to do stuff, the automation side of it is severly lacking and you'd be much better off using SmartThings to trigger reactions to motions

To have everything in one place.

 

[Jest3r]

Not really sure why you'd need a homekit enabled camera. The only point of homekit is to get siri to do stuff, the automation side of it is severly lacking and you'd be much better off using SmartThings to trigger reactions to motions

iOS 11 has already addressed the automation shortcomings.

 

[nutmac]

Not really sure why you'd need a homekit enabled camera. The only point of homekit is to get siri to do stuff, the automation side of it is severly lacking and you'd be much better off using SmartThings to trigger reactions to motions

It's all about standardization and security.

Even if a vendor stops supporting the product (or goes out of business), HomeKit devices should continue to work (unless Apple updates the requirements to a point where older product will no longer comply), even if you uninstall the third party app.

While not always the case, HomeKit generally provides better security framework than third party.

And a nice side benefit is integration. A HomeKit device will respond to Home app and Siri's commands, as well as work with other HomeKit devices though automation rules.

 

[mbezzo]

iOS 11 has already addressed the automation shortcomings.

I mean, it's better than iOS 10 but... there's lots of room to improve. Why aren't temperature sensors a valid "sensor"? I'd sure love to have my window fan turn on when the temp upstairs hits, say 75 - seems super simple, yet there's no way in home to do that yet - at least that I can find. Simple stuff like this just seems to be a no brainer yet it's still missing.

I love home kit and have spent way too much money on it, but man there's LOTS of room for improvement still, even once iOS 11 ships. Sadly.

 

[AppleInLVX]

Is this thing compatible with Synology's surveillance station?

 

[jocamero]

Homebridge. Or use another iOS app like Eve which supports most everything, then the advanced stuff shows up in Apple’s Home app.

I mean, it's better than iOS 10 but... there's lots of room to improve. Why aren't temperature sensors a valid "sensor"? I'd sure love to have my window fan turn on when the temp upstairs hits, say 75 - seems super simple, yet there's no way in home to do that yet - at least that I can find. Simple stuff like this just seems to be a no brainer yet it's still missing.

I love home kit and have spent way too much money on it, but man there's LOTS of room for improvement still, even once iOS 11 ships. Sadly.

 

[wesley96]

I mean, it's better than iOS 10 but... there's lots of room to improve. Why aren't temperature sensors a valid "sensor"? I'd sure love to have my window fan turn on when the temp upstairs hits, say 75 - seems super simple, yet there's no way in home to do that yet - at least that I can find. Simple stuff like this just seems to be a no brainer yet it's still missing.

I love home kit and have spent way too much money on it, but man there's LOTS of room for improvement still, even once iOS 11 ships. Sadly.

This is an issue of the default Home app, not the HomeKit framework. You can, in fact, have the temperature as a valid trigger for automation in HomeKit even under iOS 10, but you need a separate app like Elgato Eve to program it first. Apple needs to beef up the Home app to take advantage of all that HomeKit offers.
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The Omna is a quality in-home security camera with a wide angle lens, night vision support, and an accompanying app, but it records all content to a microSD card and does not include support for uploading to the cloud, a feature that may keep some users from wanting to buy it.

The thing is, some people actually WANT it this way because they don't trust a 3rd party cloud storage. I personally think both options should be available.

Logitech Circle 2 goes the full opposite direction by having no local storage and the MR article reporting on that understandably had people complaining about this.

 

[BandH]

HomeKit support can be convenient for simple devices, but many devices support only a "least common denominator" of features through HomeKit.

In case of IP security cameras, HomeKit features are so limited at this time that is makes choosing to use an IP Camera only via HomeKit to be almost worthless.

There are two kinds of IP Cameras - proprietary and industry standard. HomeKit cameras should be considered proprietary to Apple, and NestCam/Dropcam is proprietary, to Google/Nest, etc.

Industry standard cameras (and there are tons - just look on Amazon or Alibaba) support the standard ONVIF streaming video interface so you can use them with lots of software apps and systems - not just the proprietary/special app that comes with it.

Most ONVIF cameras include an SD or MicroSD card slot, so if you only want local storage of video and images, that is not a problem.

Where they shine is in being able to interface them to 3rd party software servers so you can control the video streams yourself - storing them local, in a NAS, in a private cloud, etc. and tweak the motion detection masks, etc. etc.

There is so much you would probably want to do/control with an IP Camera that you have to use 3rd party software or the manufacturer's app that it makes no sense to buy a HomeKit camera if it does not also support ONVIF or other systems.

A "pure" HomeKit IP camera is so limited, it is just a toy and pretty useless "at this time".

 

[eyeseeyou]

The alternatives to homekit enabled devices for hone automation are sooo much cheaper it doesn’t make sense to but HomeKit specific devices.

 

[mistafro]

This is all gonna get much better with the new iOS 11 HomeKit software certification.

 

[dannys1]

iOS 11 has already addressed the automation shortcomings.

It's good for basic stuff, but don't try and do anything to advanced. We'll never get SmartThings level of control but of course I wouldn't expect it from Apple anyway. Maybe those basic automations will be enough for most people though.

 

[az431]

The only point of homekit is to get siri to do stuff

It's not a Siri thing. If it doesn't support HomeKit it won't work with an iOS device absent some third-party hack like homebridge.

 

[JosephAW]

Is DLink still requiring JAVA to configure their cameras. All my DLink camera still do and it's awkward to configure the sound and motion.

 

[dannys1]

It's not a Siri thing. If it doesn't support HomeKit it won't work with an iOS device absent some third-party hack like homebridge.

It'd work with any other home automation system, of which there are many that can be controlled from iOS. The only thing Homekit does is enable Siri.