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Tech News and Commentary
Dave and Chris discuss Reddit testing an Ai feature to convert text posts into audio and video, Apple’s new $2000 “iPhone Duo” (foldable) reportedly launched with long lines; purchase capped at two per person; preorders backlogged to end of January, Android alternatives to the Duo, and more.
“News Pick of the Week” with Ralph Bond
With this weekend being Halloween our science and technology news reporter Ralph Bond wanted to highlight some of the latest ghost hunting technologies.
Read more here.
Wanda in Clearwater, Florida asked: “What do you think is the best security system for homes? I know there is a lot out there. I was just wondering what you guys think is the best system, especially if you have a lot of activity in your home with kids and animals and a lot of deliveries. Thank you.”
Wanda, as it’s often the case with these questions the best option will depend on your budget and your needs.
For example, ADT is very highly reviewed, they’ve been around for a million years and they’ve more than caught up to modern times and have all of the regular features you’d expect from modern security systems (cameras that can be viewed remotely, smart doorbells, etc).
However, if you’re looking for a security system that may get new features, you may be better off looking at something more tech-centric like a Ring system. They’re good for deliveries and know how to detect animals and kids, and they are generally less expensive than options like ADT and Vivint, but unlike with those two, you’re probably looking at doing your own installation.
Don’t let that scare you too much, self-installed options like Ring and SimplySafe are largely wireless, so the installation is little more than screwing or gluing things to walls.
As you’re choosing the security system, keep in mind that there are privacy implications, and that may be an even bigger factor for you since you mentioned children.
For example, Ring has very famously shared vast amounts of recordings with law enforcement. You may think ‘well, it’s for law enforcement purposes’ but the catch is that they never explicitly asked for permission to share the recordings with anyone at all, they assigned themselves that right deep in the terms of service.
That means that they could also choose to sell your doorbell video to BestBuy so they can see if the delivery people coming to your door are delivering a TV, or if they’re wearing a Walmart uniform, or to an ad agency to see how old the members of your household are, or how many there are, or the price range of the cars parked in the driveway. And that’s just the outside of the house.
If you’re concerned about things like that, don’t skip the terms of service or use a service that is fully offline.
Services like ADT, SimplySafe, and Ring all work with home automation systems, so you should be able to automate some actions if that appeals to you (for example, turn on the alarm if your phone is more than a certain radius away from the house), but again that will likely take some setup on your end with most vendors.
There really isn’t a clear ‘best’ option, but there may be a best one of your needs that aligns more closely with your budget, privacy concerns, and installation and technology needs. If you could tell us more about those aspects, we’d be happy to give you more detailed recommendations with more of an expected budget or things to look out for.
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