After shelling out $230 for the Nest Hello smart doorbell or $399 for the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor, you could be forgiven for baulking at the $60 per year “Nest Aware” subscription fee on top. This is especially true when Ring’s “Protect” subscription plan starts at just $30 per year. So are you able to … Read more
While I was waiting for my Ring Indoor Cam to be shipped (a whole 24 hours!), I was Googling around to get some answers to questions I had about it. Whilst some questions were answered, others weren’t – plus I also ended up with more questions! So now that I have the device, I wanted … Read more
The “Communicate” tab on the Alexa app shows various options, including ‘Call’ and ‘Message’. This allows you to contact your Echo devices, but also people in your contact list. So are these calls and messages free, or do they cost money? The communication options within Alexa and Echo (including calls and messaging) are completely free, … Read more
The Ring Indoor Cam was released towards the end of 2019, and whilst it’s been out for a little while now, there’s still quite a few questions being asked about it. So I wanted to write this ‘frequently asked question’ guide to answer some of the 10 most commonly asked questions about it. Read on … Read more
When someone presses your Ring Doorbell, an external ‘ringing’ sound is played. One time – not long after installing my own Ring Doorbell Pro – someone pressed the doorbell (without knowing what it was) and then they visibly jumped a bit as it abruptly played a sound back to them! This does seem like a … Read more
Even though I’m only 31, I always feel old when I start a sentence with “Back in my day, things were so much better”. However you can’t blame me for thinking this when Ring used to only charge $10/month for Professional Monitoring, right? Actually, let’s back up a bit. Ring released their smart alarm system … Read more
When you find out that you’re going to be a parent, thinking about smart technology around you home probably isn’t top of your priority list. However smart devices can be really helpful, so I wanted to cover my favorite 8 features that I’ve found useful since becoming a dad. Feel free to jump to specific … Read more
The basic Ring Protect plan costs $40 per year (per device) and it appears to offer a bunch of nice features over and above not having a Ring subscription. But after shelling out hundreds of dollars on Ring devices, you might be forgiven for wondering whether you can skip paying the extra Protect fees too. … Read more
Google’s range of smart speakers – the Google Home range – are great: they provide a large number of benefits and features for free, and you can also play loads of music through Spotify, YouTube music and more. But I seem to remember that Google sells an item that improves WiFi coverage throughout the house … Read more
You can use your Echo (and Fire TV) devices as a doorbell for your Ring devices. There are currently 26 different doorbell sounds you can play via Alexa when someone presses your Ring doorbell. Some are standard doorbell sounds, whilst others are seasonal ones: The timestamps for each Alexa doorbell sound are: 0:52 – Default … Read more