Apple's Secure Video HomeKit Feature Requires a 200GB or 2TB iCloud Storage Plan

[realtuner]

i am glad i still live in an area where you can just leave the front door open all summer and have the kids walk to school on their own every morning tbh

Not only did we do that in our town, but if the train came through at lunch while we were walking home from school we'd just jump onto the train and cross over. While it was moving.

I can't imagine parents today letting their kids do a fraction of what we did.

 

[Mobster1983]

Love this. I have a Piper camera system that is about 5 years old now and just completed outdated (but still works). Been waiting for something like this to upgrade the system in my home. Far better, IMO, than paying $40-50 a month for a monitored home security system.

I also don't get people complaining about "clips". These are motion activated, so if there is no motion, and nothing going on inside, when why would you want to sort through all the video? Stored clips of all motion events for 10 days (if that is how it works) is awesome. I already pay for the 2 Tb so its basically free.

 

[brofkand]

Shakedown? Are you expecting "free" stuff?

Apple puts their tax every step of the way - that "HomeKit" label on the box isn't free for the camera OEM to put on, the iPhone you buy to access your recordings comes at a significant cost premium compared to other platforms, the Mac, HomePod, etc., they are all far more expensive than equivalent choices - iCloud storage should be ample, and yes should be free (or included if you like) - at least for some time after purchase of a device.

I have no dog in this hunt, other than supporting macOS and iOS as a career. I do not own Apple devices personally anymore, nor do I use their cloud services. But I deal with the pain points of the iCloud inadequacies daily. It keeps me in a career so I can't be too upset I suppose.

 

[redheeler]

Nothing wrong with Apple offering more incentives like this to encourage people to upgrade to the paid tiers, but I refuse to do so until that measly 5 GB of storage on the free tier is increased to something more reasonable and competitive with other cloud services.

 

[rwright]

I'm paying $120/year for 4 devices for 14 days of storage. Apple has created a great deal here because for people like me who already have the 2TB plan (our family uses iCloud Photos so need more than 200G) this is free. Even if it weren't, this is still a good deal for security camera video storage. I choose my current security camera because it was one of the least expensive so that $10/month I'm paying is pretty cheap. With Apple you get a much more secure solution on top of all this. Would be a no brainer if I was starting from scratch. Let's see what camera solutions are out there, may be worth the switch.

 

[dewalt]

Anyone looking for this needs a real NVR system.

These products are consumer products, and the emphasis on motion-triggered recordings only, instead of 24/7 recording, is what makes these products possible, to be quite honest.

This change to HomeKit is huge. I don't want home recordings going to the cloud, period. Hopefully this is one HomeKit endeavor that is actually adopted by real products (why in the hell is Apple not subsidizing someone somewhere to bring quality Home products to market?????).

This. Full set IP NVRs are as cheap as the consumer level cameras. For anyone with a house, there is almost always a way to wire cat5e. You may need to make a couple holes but end result is far far superior.

 

[ersan191]

I love it when all the truth comes out a few days after the keynote.

It was literally on the slide they showed at the keynote - are you people blind?
[doublepost=1559847329][/doublepost]I hope they add this to the Circle 2 - id really prefer not to buy a new camera..

 

[mi7chy]

Big question is if Apple will support local NAS storage or force you into another paid subscription?

 

[rwright]

Nothing wrong with Apple offering more incentives like this to encourage people to upgrade to the paid tiers, but I refuse to do so until that measly 5 GB of storage on the free tier is increased to something more reasonable and competitive with other cloud services.

Yes, it's annoying and short sighted of Apple but it's only $1/month for 50GB. Not a battle worth fighting for me. How much is enough for the free tier? My iPhone backup takes 13GB so that base 5GB wouldn't even cover that. I think a change they could make that would be meaningful is to not count iPhone/iPad backups when calculating usage. Then 5G would be fine for "free".
[doublepost=1559847826][/doublepost]

I've never heard of a place that safe in my half century of life. Congrats to you on finding it.

You must have spent that 50 years at home. Singapore and Dubai are very safe, for starters. Some off the beaten track places in the US as well.

 

[31 Flavas]

So now apple will also see all of you home. When you leave, how late, with whom. What guest arrive (with facetracking they even can see who the real persons are). They are knowing too much imo.

Read the flipping post: “Video feeds will be encrypted end-to-end and uploaded to iCloud where you and you alone will be able to see the footage.” It was also in the keynote speech. The video is processed and analyzed on an Apple device in your home - then encrypted - and uploaded encrypted and stays encrypted. Your video is viewable by you and you alone. Apple cant and doesnt see your video. Come on, they’re not facebook, google, or amazon.

 

[gnasher729]

So now apple will also see all of you home. When you leave, how late, with whom. What guest arrive (with facetracking they even can see who the real persons are). They are knowing too much imo.

End to end encryption. Apple knows _nothing_. I don't know what keynote _you_ watched that was different from everyone else's, but the whole point is that the video is analyzed on your computer at your home to detect motion, and faces of people you don't know, instead of sending the video elsewhere to be analysed.
[doublepost=1559851554][/doublepost]

Nothing wrong with Apple offering more incentives like this to encourage people to upgrade to the paid tiers, but I refuse to do so until that measly 5 GB of storage on the free tier is increased to something more reasonable and competitive with other cloud services.

I personally know people who paid £800 for an iPhone, and who are losing photos because upgrading from 5GB to 50GB for £0.99 per month is too expensive.
[doublepost=1559851741][/doublepost]

Big question is if Apple will support local NAS storage or force you into another paid subscription?

Well, there is the argument that if your home is robbed and all your valuables including computers and NAS storage are taken away, then having the video in the cloud would come handy. Myself I would find it very clever if you had backup that stores your data in a box in your neighbours home and their data in yours, which would probably reduce the risk of total loss by 90% or more.

 

[Heelpir8]

Remember “The Cloud” here means Amazon as in AWS cloud, not Apple. They outsource to AWS like many these days.

All good for me as long as Apple keeps encrypting the data before it gets there.

 

[burgman]

So now apple will also see all of you home. When you leave, how late, with whom. What guest arrive (with facetracking they even can see who the real persons are). They are knowing too much imo.

Bonus points for not even reading the article.

 

[xpxp2002]

Apple says that Netatmo, Logitech, and Eufy will be among the first companies to provide cameras with HomeKit Secure Video support, suggesting new hardware is required to take advantage of the Secure Video capabilities.

Actually, Netatmo says it will be adding the capabilities to its Presence and Welcome cameras later this year. Seems at least some existing hardware is already capable.

https://twitter.com/netatmo/status/1135826539873021952

 

[burgman]

This. Full set IP NVRs are as cheap as the consumer level cameras. For anyone with a house, there is almost always a way to wire cat5e. You may need to make a couple holes but end result is far far superior.

Yeah couple of holes, if you string the cable across the rooms and down the stairs. thanks for the laugh.

 

[xpxp2002]

The shakedown continues.

Doesn't count against storage but you need to buy more storage.

Makes sense to somebody I guess...

I think Apple went this route because it's hard to justify to common folk how many MB their videos consume. Plus, if they fill up their 5 GB free storage with camera video, their devices will stop backing up and then you'll have those complaints.

I think this decision makes sense for most people. In other words, Apple's saying, "don't worry about how much storage space your security camera footage consumes. We'll let you keep up to 10 days, no matter what, at a simple flat rate."

 

[ignatius345]

$3 per month is nothing. That is what Ring charges per camera.

I misread things, but still $10 is in line with what the other guys charge.

Right, and that $10 also gets you a full 2TB of iCloud storage, which is quite large -- and the camera footage isn't even taken out of that. It seems like a decent deal.

 

[doingitlive]

It would be great it Wyze cam would support HomeKit!!!

 

[mi7chy]

Well, there is the argument that if your home is robbed and all your valuables including computers and NAS storage are taken away, then having the video in the cloud would come handy. Myself I would find it very clever if you had backup that stores your data in a box in your neighbours home and their data in yours, which would probably reduce the risk of total loss by 90% or more.

There's the counter argument that petty home robbers are savvy enough to first cut broadband line at common demarc point and even employ WIFI jammer against the cameras which take much less time than rummaging through a home to find the primary and backup systems. Even banks use local DVR and not cloud based which is only adequate as secondary storage. A more robust surveillance system has local primary storage, wired cameras, UPS, redundant backup and cellular alerting.

 

[Coffee50]

This. And I really hope Logitech does the same for the Circle 2s. I have four and I don't want to buy new ones.

I feel the same way. There have been a few people reaching out to Logitech on Twitter asking if this feature will be coming to Circle 2 & they've been replying to every tweet with "We will continue to support Circle 2 on Apple HomeKit - stay tuned for more details in the future.

So that isn't a confirmation OR denial....just a generic "support will continue". Although a noticed today someone tweeted a more specific direct question if new hardware will be required or if a software / firmware update will go out to existing circle 2 customers.

But if Netatmo said that a firmware update will add HomeKit Secure Video to new & existing cameras, that's a good sign!

Hopefully Logitech will follow suit with an official announcement. They are only a handful of companies that offer HomeKit compatible cameras....so there's probably a decent sized base of customers who have the circle 2 already.

 

[subjonas]

i am glad i still live in an area where you can just leave the front door open all summer and have the kids walk to school on their own every morning tbh

Where do you live?

 

[5105973]

[doublepost=1559847826][/doublepost]
You must have spent that 50 years at home. Singapore and Dubai are very safe, for starters. Some off the beaten track places in the US as well.

No I’ve been abroad. I have heard nice things about Singapore and hope to visit someday. My husband has business connections there.

 

[Itinj24]

“Apple says that Netatmo, Logitech, and Eufy will be among the first companies to provide cameras with HomeKit Secure Video support, suggesting new hardware is required to take advantage of the Secure Video capabilities.”

Not a good sign. I currently have two Logitech Circle 2’s and was looking to upgrade to many more. Guess I should wait.

Which brings to me to my next question. 200GB storage plan gets you a plan for one camera and 2TB gets you a plan for five cameras. How does it work if you have seven cameras?

Also, hoping this is the reason companies that announced HomeKit like Ring, Arlo and Simplisafe were holding off on HomeKit integration. This is nothing much to brag about when only a small handful of cameras made it to HomeKit and the competition looks a lot better.

 

[Stryder541]

Big question is if Apple will support local NAS storage or force you into another paid subscription?

I have Netatmo cameras, and they currently stream ftp to my NAS and to Dropbox simultaneously besides having SD card storage. It seems likely they can do both using ICloud instead of Dropbox.

 

[itsmilo]

Where do you live?

In the suburban area of a german capital but I grew up in a small 400 people village so I grew up not knowing any different. Not to even getting into the whole gun debate but if you live in a country where potentially anyone could carry a weapon, of course you are gonna be more paranoid. Seems like a vicious cycle. I never had someone breaking in on my mind. AC isn’t a thing in Europe really either so everyone sleeps with windows wide open during summer too haha