Lately I've been looking at security cameras for homes and small businesses. Among the different options, Blink makes a very compelling proposal. Forget about wires and always-on connectivity, forget about monthly plans and limited server storage, the system works wire-free, hassle-free, and well, completely free after the hardware purchase. You just need to put in 2 AA batteries and they'll last up to 2 years, getting triggered only when motion is detected and uploading 5-10sec clips to the cloud.

The one problem with Blink though? Until today, it didn't integrate with any other smart home product. That summarizes most of the complaints on its online reviews: users say that you have to manually arm/disarm each camera separately in the app. And even if it recently added the option to schedule the cameras to arm/disarm at a set time, that isn't practical if you don't have a hard-set daily routine.

So it's really nice to see Blink finally opening up to work with other products. The first partner? Amazon Alexa. You can tell your Echo or Echo Dot or Tap to arm/disarm Blink, but you can also ask it what the current system status is, or to tell you the time and location of the last recorded event clip.

This isn't exactly smart automation, but it's definitely easier than opening the app and manually arming or disarming the system, and it lets you adapt it to your comings and goings instead of setting one schedule.

The Blink skill should be available now, or soon at least, to add in Alexa, so make sure you check it out if you have the cameras and an Echo speaker.

Source: Blink

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