Remember Ring's partnership with 1300 local police departments?

https://www.wired.com/story/ces-2020-amazon-defends-ring-pol...

Remember Ring's Android app being full of 3rd party trackers?

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/01/ring-doorbell-app-pack...

Remember Ring's implementation of E2EE?

Neither do I.

While I don't really care from the perspective of 'I don't do anything illegal', I don't own any ring / Alexa / Nest / Home automation. Mostly because I don't like the trend towards optimal laziness personally, and it doesn't provide much in the way of value. The video shows this, the guys house is already broken into, is a drone going to stop a burglar from taking your laptop off that kitchen table? I have a better deterent, a dog which is much more effective according to felons (https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/crime/we-asked-86-burglars...)

This is just too creepy to me.

edit:formatting

> Mostly because I don't like the trend towards optimal laziness personally

It's easy to characterize home automation this way, and certainly "optimal laziness" is part of the appeal for some people, but it's genuinely useful in so many other ways. For instance, hallway lights that automatically turn on and off in response to motion _and_ at a dimmer setting at night, so you don't trip over a dog toy or blind yourself in the middle of the night. That's very hard to replicate in other ways (nightlights waste energy and are still bright enough to keep me awake).

Still a first-world frill to be sure, and maybe not worth it for everyone. But not without value, apart from "laziness".

Definitely don't need that connected to the internet.

Would love to hear some useful features.

Initial reaction to headline: Do not want a police state in my home.

After reading the article: Huh, that could be pretty handy.

It's intended for use when you're away (eg. did I leave the stove on?), the docking station blocks the camera, and it's noisy enough that people would hear it coming.

Of course I'd be a lot more comfortable if the video (and mapping) didn't go through these two companies. If their employee came to your door with a videocamera and said "hi, I want to film intimate interiors of your home" I'm pretty sure you'd tell them to creep off.

Think of the benefits! Combined with product recognition amazon could automatically help you from stocking out of your favorite supplies and even suggest things you don’t already have but may be interested in and better suggest media based on what you watch on other services! /s

>Of course I'd be a lot more comfortable if the video (and mapping) didn't go through these two companies

The obvious concern is the video itself, but there are many data streams adjacent to the core product, like behavioral data.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/01/ring-doorbell-app-pack...

God, imagine how fat we will become when we don't even have a reason to get up off of the couch. Just consume and consume.

That Disney robot animated documentary was spot on

"Ring says the drone makes an audible noise when flying so it is obvious when footage is being recorded."

Oh, I bet it does.

Drone technology seemed much cooler to me before I heard them fly. No wonder drone videos always have sound replaced by music.

Great way to tell burglars you are away!

I want one just to try and hack it and make it do cool things. Also remove any connection back to its overlords

Can’t wait until Amazon and Google and Twitter drones regularly patrol the neighborhood.

Why twitter, probably would be fb first!

While I can understand why companies need something more than hardware(* see below ) to have better margins, I really hate the trend towards companies gathering more and more data about me to essentially show me ads - so this is a no go for me personally. If the software is hackable and the device customised so that I don't have to associate with my Amazon/Google accounts, this gets really interesting.

Electronic components tend to become commodities which means there's usually a race to the bottom for prices of finished goods - so hardware companies hope to hold on to the data so that a) you don't switch b) they get more revenue out of you by selling your data or selling you ads. In this case though, Amazon might be selling below cost so that they can suck you deeper into the eco-system :) . Interesting times indeed!

Ugh I agree I wish companies were into making cool stuff like this that I actually owned and only dumped data on to my servers, skipping the whole “you and your data are the product” bullshit the entire tech industry seems to be mired in.

And give Amazon a method to map the interior of my house? Yeah, no. Heck no.

Sorry but the police want the blueprint of your home in case they need to perform a no knock raid. Please provide it or you will be fined $100 per day.

Don't you have to register your architectural plans in most all cities anyhow?

I was just going to say this. You can get the blueprints for any home in any city just by requesting it from the local city hall records department.

You typically have to pay for it, but it is not particularly expensive. It's part of the process if you plan on buying a property, in order to ensure everything is up to code, property lines are where you expect them to be, etc.

Unexpected easements can be a real bitch if you buy a property only to find out part of it isn't actually yours, or that it is technically infeasible to update or rebuild a portion because of an undocumented/illegal code variance.

Idea is pretty cool, in reality I’m not sure how useful it would be. My house doesn’t get burgled that often to be honest.

This is a definitely an original idea but flying a drone indoors makes me nervous. I might hit an object or knock something over. The drone itself could get stuck somewhere too.

It's hard to tell how much is this a toy and how much is it home security

I had never really considered anything by ring but this just looks super cool from a techy POV and would potentially make me look into their ecosystem.

I would stay away from Rings ecosystem. Especially since police have been given direct access to Ring footage, and that seems like a no-fly with this.

This is the most 2020 thing I could have ever thought of. It's useful, horrific, and hilarious all at the same time.

Maybe they could sell it to North Korea if it turns out not being popular in american homes

This is so cute and creepy at the same time (≧∇≦)