Arlo Rolls Out Apple Home Support for 2nd-Gen Essential Camera Lineup

[Dr McKay]

Unfortunately my door is in bright sunlight for the afternoon, so this doesn't sound like the right one for me!

I also can't find any reference to it on their UK website...

If you’re UK based something tells me the sun won’t be causing it to overheat like the other guys 😂

 

[SteveJUAE]

Yes. Local storage on a base station or on a memory card in the cameras. Only recordings on the base station can be viewed remotely. It was a little quirky to get a schedule set for arming and disarming the cameras. Solar recharging works well.

The no subscription was the big selling point. There is an optional plan that costs and adds some features.

Arlo can suck the business end of a septic pumper for all I am concerned. Their greed deserves to be recognized, and avoided. Support was an adventure in stupidity, on a par with Comcast.

But that is the same as my Arlo setup, its not compulsory to have a subscription unless you want extra features

 

[yanksfan114]

Eurgh. Smart hubs. Absolute bane of smart home. This is what Matter is designed to get away from - so you don't need half a dozen Apple TV sized boxes sitting in your cupboard just to run a load of proprietary bridges.

One exception is the Lutron Caseta hub. Best and most reliable smart home product of all time. Their spectrum they use to communicate with switches and blinds is rock solid.

 

[MallardDuck]

Their base stations suck. Not sure why they refuse to enable homekit on their direct wifi units, but it's a real pain.

I plan to chuck all their equipment and cancel the service the day Apple's rumors stuff hits the street.

 

[raythompsontn]

But that is the same as my Arlo setup, its not compulsory to have a subscription unless you want extra features

Arlo wanted $4.95 a month, per camera, for my new Arlo cameras for video storage, local or in Arlo's cloud, when I purchased upgraded cameras. Arlo would not give me my money back for the cameras. I could get still images, stored locally, for no charge. That sort of defeats the purpose of having a video surveillance system.

The older Arlo 2 cameras would still store video locally without charge, but none of the newer cameras. If I am going to store locally, then why should I pay Arlo anything? The answer is corporate greed.

Now I have better cameras, recharge via solar, local storage in the base station or in the cameras. Eufy is a much better product in my opinion. Certainly the long term costs are much lower with Eufy than with Arlo.

Thanks Arlo, I voted with my dollars.

 

[profwafflez]

I'm currently looking for a doorbell to integrate into HomeKit but, after all this time, there still seems to be so little choice, and reviews are varied, to say the least...

Does anyone have a recommendation? Currently looking at the Aqara Video Doorbell G4 - but as I say, reviews are mixed...

Absolutely do not buy Arlo. Buggiest smart home stuff I've purchased and we've been slowly replacing everything. They also announced HomeKit for gen 2 over a year ago and now that it's finally here hubs are required? Need to replace my stuff even faster.

 

[joecomo]

they can keep their cameras and their subscriptions …

 

[SolidAdamantium]

Rumor is Apple is actually working on a door bell camera of their own. Could debut later this year from what I’ve read. Take that with a grain of salt, as Apple could also delay it until they feel it’s up to their standards which could mean waiting forever.

That said, if Apple does enter the smart home market, they could clean up. They obviously know how to make good cameras and hardware. That their products would work well within their own ecosystem would be a given.

They really dropped the ball all those years ago when they passed on acquiring Ring and let Amazon snap it up.

I’m dying for some quality home kit options that work reliably within my already established Apple ecosystem.

 

[SteveJUAE]

Arlo wanted $4.95 a month, per camera, for my new Arlo cameras for video storage, local or in Arlo's cloud, when I purchased upgraded cameras. Arlo would not give me my money back for the cameras. I could get still images, stored locally, for no charge. That sort of defeats the purpose of having a video surveillance system.

The older Arlo 2 cameras would still store video locally without charge, but none of the newer cameras. If I am going to store locally, then why should I pay Arlo anything? The answer is corporate greed.

Now I have better cameras, recharge via solar, local storage in the base station or in the cameras. Eufy is a much better product in my opinion. Certainly the long term costs are much lower with Eufy than with Arlo.

Thanks Arlo, I voted with my dollars.

I have no idea what you are talking about I have in Thailand several Pro 4 external cameras on solar panels (Not Arlo) for the last 2-3 years and several indoor essential 2 cameras, a door bell camera and the pro hub. I also have a much smaller system in the UK for doorbell and 2 cameras.

I have no subscriptions and can view them etc and get alerts from anywhere in the world and any recordings are stored on the hub SD that you can access through your own router (A similar setup you note from another company)

I am not promoting Arlo they are not perfect but what you note seems wrong. They work fine through the Arlo app or Samsung Smarthings ECO if you prefer, not tried to use them on my Iphone 16P.

Same for my Phillips hue, robot vacuums, oven, microwave and TV's all work fine via Smarthings

You may have something to beef about with Arlo and thats fine but like your comment on USB charging some points are wrong.

 

[raythompsontn]

your comment on USB charging some points are wrong.

No, they are not. It was my experience with Arlo. It was not a configuration issue as the issues were confirmed with Arlo support. This was about 3 years ago. Things may have changed. Regrdless, it left a bad impression of Arlo. I will never recommend Arlo.

 

[Marli]

After making the mistake of buying Arlo rubish, I have had to put up with it for the past few years. It will be a great day when i can throw it in the bin and buy a complete other brand.. that works..

 

[AstroChris88]

I love my Unifi Protect setup, although it has no HomeKit compatibility (as far as I know), but I couldn’t care less.

I’ve got a very nice rack system made by Ubiquiti (UniFi). Highly recommended.

I’ve had Arlo and they were good until they started forcing subscriptions on you. Three those in the trash.

 

[tiptopp]

If you’re UK based something tells me the sun won’t be causing it to overheat like the other guys 😂

Very funny... Guessing your Kirkland isn't one of the original ones in Scotland, then?

For your information, it's sunny right now here in Norwich! Might only be 62F, but...

 

[Dr McKay]

Very funny... Guessing your Kirkland isn't one of the original ones in Scotland, then?

For your information, it's sunny right now here in Norwich! Might only be 62F, but...

Would you believe me if I said that it’s part of a long running joke with a real life friend on here based on Costcos own Kirkland brand, added before I realised it was a real place and that I actually reside near Newcastle?

Or if I really wanted to confuse the Americans, I could say I live near Washington, just north of Cleveland.

 

[tiptopp]

Would you believe me if I said that it’s part of a long running joke with a real life friend on here based on Costcos own Kirkland brand, added before I realised it was a real place and that I actually reside near Newcastle?

Or if I really wanted to confuse the Americans, I could say I live near Washington, just north of Cleveland.

Yep - there are so many. Lots from where I live in Norfolk - including Norfolk, Norwich,Langley, Boston, Wells, Yarmouth, Attleboro(ugh), etc. Seems we gave quite a few place names to America when we colonised. I guess we were homesick...

I just read that Norfolk and Norwich are the two most-borrowed place names in USA (but that is on a Norfolk-centric website...).

And, by the way, the guys working on my house today are complaining about the heat. It's gone all the way up to 69F