“Xiaomi’s MIUI is one of the most popular and liked ROMs outside of stock android. A new version, MIUI 8, was announced in May, with a stable version pushing out to devices in August.
The major complaint with respect to the OS is the presence of ads baked into the system. Testers of MIUI 8 have complained that the new version still has ads in most of the default system applications such as the file explorer. While the advertising isn’t bad, it’s annoying when an advert pops up when doing serious work. Although, you can just manually close the ads, there is no place within the system where you can turn off ads completely.”
This now explains all the Chinese notifications I was getting with the Xiaomi Mi Max. Totally unacceptable to have ads appearing everyday and probably explains why Xiaomi can sell it for a lower price, as the cost is subsidised with adverts!
Welcome to my review of the Netatmo Welcome Indoor Camera.
The Netatmo Welcome Indoor camera unique selling point is its ability to recognise faces and then send you notifications to your phone.
See video from Netatmo below showing this in action.
The Key Specifications
– Dimensions – 45x45x155mm
– In the Box – 1 x Welcome camera, 1 x USB cable, 1 x power adapter, 1 x 8GB micro SD card
– Build – Single piece of durable aluminium shell, Matte black plastic piece infrared transparent.
– Hardware Requirements – High-speed Internet connection needed, Public hotspots not supported.
– Connectivity Specifications – Ethernet RJ-45 port: 10/100 Mbits, Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4G)
– Camera – Video sensor: 4MP, Resolution: Up to 1920×1080
– Minimum iOS 8 for iPhone / iPad, Android 4.3 minimum
– Browser Support – Webapp available for the two latest versions of: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer
– Monthly Costs – Nil, Free to Use, App available on the App Store / Google Play.Free access to your camera online.
– Data Storage – MicroSD card up to 32GB (8GB class 10 MicroSD card included)
– Faces – Max 16 faces
The Hardware
The Netatmo Welcome camera is a lovely piece of hardware and doesn’t look like a typical camera. This means it gets blended into your environment without people gets paranoid they are being “watched”. In fact, you forget its actually there. On the rear there is an ethernet port, micro SD card slot and micro USB port. The front is minimalistic.
Background Notes for Review
Notes – I originally reviewed this after 3 weeks. Further down is my update after 4 months following a significant firmware update that added lots of new features which are documented along with a tip if you have dogs.
I have been using the Netatmo Welcome for 3 weeks now and overall have been pleased with its operation and results and intend to keep this indefinitely as my home connected security indoor camera. I also have several IP Cameras which were a total nightmare to setup and configure as remote access involved changing my home router configuration. I have now retired these. In terms of other connected devices, I have a Netatmo Urban Weather station which is coming up to 2 years old and a range of lights that are controlled from my iPhone and or Apple Watch. Due to protecting my own privacy, screen shots of the app in operation have been edited to remove views of my home.
The Initial Setup
Netatmo have made the first setup as simply as possible. I setup my Netatmo Welcome camera using my iPhone 6S Plus. I downloaded the Netatmo Welcome app from the Apple App Store and then followed the on screen setup instructions provided by the app. The app asks permissions to share Wi-Fi setup from your iPhone to the Welcome camera and literally within 5 minutes the camera is connected. Points to note. The Welcome camera only operates at 2.4G . Over the next 24 hours a new firmware arrived and got installed on the camera and the app showed me faces and asked me to identify who the respective people were. For each member of your house, a face profile gets created.
The Operation
The concept of the Netatmo Welcome camera is simple. It learns all the faces of people who live in your home/flat and then notifies you when somebody comes home and tells you who they are and also if somebody arrives who is not recognised. When movement is detected, it records a clip onto the micro SD card which can be streamed back on to your phone and or downloaded remotely to your phone as well. When at home you can also play back the recorded video clips.
Other options include a range of privacy and advanced security options. For example if your Netatmo password gets changed, or someone logs into your account you can receive an email. Netatmo will also block your account if there are too many failed attempts occur. In terms of learning faces, you can go into the app settings and speed up the learning process. You can also tell the system when the house is empty and adjust other settings as shown below.
Using the app on your phone is really easy. It shows a live view snapshot when you open the app. You can then hit the play icon to stream live video. Turning your phone landscape provides full screen playback and streaming. Scrolling the screen reveals details of who is at home and or when they were last seen. Scrolling the screen the other way reveals a list of when movement was detected. Tap on one notifications and you can watch or download the recorded movement. Now if your home is broken into and someone steals your camera, you will get a notification that Welcome was switched off. The person cannot access your data and videos without your Netatmo account details. However, this also means if the camera is never recovered, you cannot view the videos stored on the camera either. However, if you sign into My Netatmo on the web you will be able to see a screen shot of each video before it started the recording of the motion.
The video quality is excellent and the camera switches to night mode which provides clear images and video as well.
As I have mentioned I have had the Netatmo Welcome indoor camera for 3 weeks now. In that time, the camera has come offline about 4 times for no apparent reasons and then reconnected a few hours later. I don’t know if its my broadband dropping although that wouldn’t surprise me as the connection does vanish occasionally. I have only had to pull the power cord out and replug back in to restart the camera just once when it became unresponsive. In terms of recognising faces this is now 90% accurate. I have relocated the camera several times to get a better position. To be honest, positioning is crucial. If the camera is recording motion to the micro SD card, it is not possible to see a live view until this has finished.
UPDATE – 4 months later, Netatmo released a major firmware update. This improved its performance and reliability but also added Dropbox support and tags. With Dropbox you can now upload video clips to the cloud instead of using the micro SD card.
Tags are waterproof sensors for doors and windows. Photo above is one of my tags. The Netatmo tags are superb as they detect the motion before the intrusion occurs. That is because they detect vibrations. The Tags’ have an integrated open/closed state sensor, so you can choose to be alerted if you have accidentally left a window or the garage door open. And then you can check directly on your smartphone if all windows are closed.
Tips – I have 3 labradors and the Welcome camera was recognising my dogs faces. So instead of telling the Welcome camera they were not faces, I did the opposite. So now it recognises my 3 labradors and that means I don’t get any false notifications about an unknown face.
The Special Stuff
The Netatmo Welcome camera supports third apps and that extends to IFTTT. This opens up a whole world of different sequences that can be achieved. See screen shot below.
You can also add Welcome tags to the system, sensors for doors and windows. The other aspect I like about the Netatmo Welcome Indoor camera is once bought, there are no other costs. Its free and it has no monthly charges either.
As I mentioned already, Netatmo allow you to sign into to your camera via a web browser which uses their web app. Using a web browser, if you have other Netatmo products, you can access all the different connected devices in one go.
Conclusion
The Netatmo Welcome Indoor camera recommended retail price is £199, although if you click the link below it is available for a lot less. It provides piece of mind with its face recognition and notifications with zero ongoing costs once purchased. Add to the fact it supports third party app integration and it becomes a decent investment. It also doesn’t look like a typical camera so blends into the home environment.
And now after using it for over 4 months the added new features of tags and Dropbox integration really add to its value.
“Apple’s first emoji sticker packs for Messages in iOS 10.
Apple has rolled out its first emoji sticker packs for iMessages in iOS 10. Available only to those testing its first beta release, the packs include the Smileys, Hearts, and Hands stickers found on Apple Watch — plus a Classic Mac collection.”
If you are running iOS 10 beta, you can now enjoy a sticker pack for iMessage. Sticker packs on one of the new features for iMessage in iOS 10. The stickers will certainly add a bit of fun to your messages, but really for Apple to kill the competition like Whatsapp they need to at least make iMessage available on android!
“Samsung S Health added integration with Runkeeper, Strava, Fitbit, Jawbone, Misfit, and Microsoft Health.
Samsung’s S Health app can connect to multiple apps and services to pull and push data through them. Notable examples are Nike’s running app, Qardio for blood pressure monitoring, and more. But S Health has always lacked support and integration with plenty of known activity tracking services. Not anymore!”
One of my gripes with Samsung S Health was the lack of integration with key fitness names. This has now changed. Not only that but the S Health app had a huge update about a month ago to include a more social aspect so you could connect with friends.
With the solid fitness devices sold by Samsung, these software changes make it a formidable option now .
London police consider using drones to pursue motorbike thieves.
In its bid to curb the rise of drive-by snatches on the streets of London, the Metropolitan Police may turn to drones to track motorbike-riding suspects. At a recent meeting of the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee, Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey said that UAVs could be a safer alternative to officers pursuing so-called moped gangs across the capital. The Evening Standard reports that police are struggling to come to terms with an increase in motorbike raids, specifically in Camden and Islington. In the past 12 months, more than 3,000 phone thefts were recorded, many of them linked to drive-by crooks on two wheels.
3,000 phone thefts . Seems like a lawless area to have such a high number of thefts.
The next iPhone, the iPhone 7 will remove the 3.5mm headphone jack. Instead it will rely on either bluetooth audio or routing the sound out via the lightning connector. Any headphone utilising the lightning connector will need a DAC (Digital to Analogue Convertor) to convert the digital sound outputted via the lightning connection.
So what is Apple asking manufacturers behind the scenes? What ground rules are Apple requesting or expecting? And what are the pros and cons?
In a thread on Head-Fi, the founder of Fiio audio products created a thread to let everyone know that the company finally after many years of applying for Apple’s MFI Certification got approved. This then revealed some interesting extra bits of information:-
– Each and every potential product has to have the manufacturing and technical information sent across to Apple, thereby revealing any company secrets as to how they made a product sound so good. Chord Audio decided not to get their awarding winning DAC, the Chord Mojo MFI approved for this reason.
– Apple have not even decided what type of product Fiio can manufacture yet.
– Apple are courting headphone manufacturers to make headphones with a lightning connector. Apple are not asking these manufacturers to make an external DAC to connect traditional headphones with a 3.5mm jack.
– Whilst DACS sold by Fiio are at the budget pricing end of the market. Fiio have confirmed that going forward their pricing will increase as they will be forced to purchase lightning connectors and related chips from Apple.
– Fiio are hoping the can work with Apple creating a Lightning DAC as per photo above. This is a slimline DAC with a 3.5mm headphone jack.
– Apple are stipulating the type of product they would like to see. Apple have now asked that all MFi products must includes a LAM ( lightning audio module ) , remote control keys and microphone if the product has headphone out jack. This means that there will not be similar products like the SONY PHA-1/2/3 in the future. This is sad news.
What is frustrating here is Apple have only approved Fiio once they needed them due to the removal of the headphone jack in the next iPhone. Then there are stipulation the type of DAC that is allowed to be manufactured. Next is the higher costs created due to Apple’s MFI program.
So whilst the sound quality should sound better via the lightning port, I am not sure people will be too impressed if the costs of a lightning audio adapter or module becomes at a too higher a price point.
But as they say, better to be in the team than relegated to the side lines.
Just when you think OnePlus has grown up and stopped carrying out cheap and controversial marketing stunts, they stoop to a new low.
Legendary YouTuber @Supersaf was dismayed when he realised that OnePlus had stolen his work. Even worse OnePlus did this without his permission and worse still didn’t even credit his work . OnePlus took Supersaf’s video and converted it into a GIF and used it for their advertising and marketing but without asking or even crediting Supersaf.
In my opinion this is disgraceful, disrespectful and dishonest behaviour from OnePlus.
Updated – OnePlus clearly feeling the heat did the honourable thing and tweeted an apology a short while ago. But they only did this to save their public image and still haven’t reached out to Supersaf himself.
We unfortunately forgot to mention the source of our latest gif, @SuperSaf. Watch his latest video on the OnePlus 3 https://t.co/2IHMnYF3Vf
Now for something in Virtual Reality , 360 degrees. So you have 2 options with the photo below snapped in 360 degrees.
For both options you will need to click on the photo, and view it via a web browser in desktop mode. You cannot view this via the Flickr app.
To view via your Virtual Reality headset, you probably will need to download it on your device first.
To view without a headset, once you have clicked on the photo, Flickr recognises it as a 360 degree photo and it will start rotating around automatically.
Below is a 360 degree view of the famous church that is used in all my phone reviews. It is the Church of St Michael & All Angels, Princetown, Dartmoor. It is a historic church built in the 1800’s by the French Prisoners of War.
Gavin's Gadgets & Photography 