If you have a phone of Tablet that you no longer use you could couple it with this App from Manything to let you know what is happening when you are not there, it allows your phone or tablet camera to keep you updated on who eat the last sandwich, left the milk out of the fridge or even wrecked the lounge was it Brutus or just maybe it was innocent little Simon.
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click image to enlargeSome will say this is spying, others will say if it’s your home then it’s your rules but you need to make that choice yourself.
Manything offer a range of offerings with the basic one of ‘Liveview’ being FREE.
Place your old mobile in the position most likely to confirm your suspicions and assuming it’s your home then you are probably entitled to see what is happening when you are away.
Liveview will drain the battery of your phone or tablet and you get regular emails telling you of its battery state if you are leaving it running all day then consider plugging it in to be charged. When an event triggers it you get an email but unless you are paying for it all you see is a single frame.
The other services offered have a fee and either a two day or a 30 day cloud storage option, you can even have more cameras linked but it is not really a security camera but it will enable you to keep an eye.
There is an option that can be linked to security cameras which then can be used outside the home but I have not tested this.
Using the free App shows you a still of what started the alert but often what is captured does not show what caused the clip to start, if you have a subscription then you can view the whole clip.
Apart from the email you also notification of the battery state of the camera if it is not running on mains power. You also get an email once the camera has been ‘offline’ for 15 minutes which might prevent older and wiser children disconnecting it ‘by mistake or course’.
An alternative to mains power would be to have it plugged into a power brick but sometimes the drain might to quicker than the charge input. In my tests with a camera on Live view showing 85% after half an hour of connection to an external battery charger the battery state shown on top of the streamed image showed 89%
In Live view you also get audio – if required – and the quality of it is good as even quiet conversation can be captured.
One thing you will need is a frame or something to lean the phone or Tablet against, as I had nothing suitable I got a portion of a piece of packaging weighted down as this stuff is very light and otherwise would not support the weight of the phone.
I found that the time lag between the Live view being captured and you seeing it remotely was around 10-12 seconds.
I have been promised a test account so I am able to test all the capabilities naturally the ‘free’ account gives you only a small proportion of the packages abilities, however if you have a spare phone and want to keep an eye of things when not there something like this might fulfil the requirements.
Full details including videos at www.manything.com
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