EZVIZ EP8 Ultra Dual Cam Video Doorbell with Chime - When Seeing Double Is a Good Thing

I've come to expect a lot from my doorbell.

At the very least, I want to be able to hear it ring all over my house.

Ideally, it would let me know if someone's there, even if I'm not.

In a perfect world, it would tell me exactly who's there, and if they've left a package for me.

Oh. and it goes without saying I want all that stuff without having to pay an ongoing subscription.

That's not too much to ask, is it?

Much like the dual-cam EZVIZ camera I reviewed last week, there's a lot to love about the EP8 Ultra video doorbell before you even power it up.

Firstly, as you will have gleaned from the title, this is another example of EZVIZ giving you two cameras in one; the main, 6MP upper camera boasts a 162° diagonal field of view, while there's also a smaller 2MP sensor with an 88° diagonal FOV, angled towards the ground.

Obviously, this second camera is not there to provide detailed information on your visitors' footwear choice. Rather, it'll give you a nice clear view of any packages left on your doorstep.

The second pleasing find included in the box is the compact plug-in chime - a pre-paired wireless device you can set up somewhere in the house where you might not otherwise hear the doorbell ring. The majority of my living areas are upstairs, so this is essential for me.

And finally, there are two 9,600mAh rechargeable lithium battery packs - one for the camera and one to charge and swap out when you need to, meaning no downtime just because the battery needs charging. Short of a solar-powered device, like last week's EZVIZ camera, having two batteries to interchange is a great idea. In the past with other similar devices, I've had to buy the extra battery. Not with the EP8 Ultra though.

In fact, if you're replacing a wired doorbell, you won't even need those batteries, as there's a mains-wire kit in the box too, so you can just splice the EP8 Ultra straight in.

There's one more piece of included hardware worth mentioning; an "inclined" or angled mounting bracket that's perfect for my installation situation - but I'll get to that shortly.

Meanwhile, setup is merely a matter of charging up the batteries, connecting the doorbell to your Wi-Fi and naming it via the EZVIZ app, then screwing in the main bracket to hold the EP8 Ultra in place. (Don't be intimidated by this wee bit of DIY - it's literally just a couple of screws)

Once powered up, you'll discover another very important feature; the full-colour, AI interactive display. When the doorbell senses someone approaching, a loveable smart character - your choice of Pandie Panda, Ray Raccoon or Harry Husky - appears on screen, pretty much guaranteeing a smiling face on camera when you check to see who's there.

There's another, more practical outcome from having a loveable husky or portly panda welcoming your guests; it draws their attention to where the doorbell actually is. I know that sounds like a weird thing to say, but I've always mounted my doorbell on the wall next to the front door, not on the front door itself. The main reason? It's easier to screw something into wood than steel.

That's where the extra inclined mounting bracket comes in; angling the doorbell more towards the entry path for a better view of anyone approaching.

This is doubly important as just like the HB90 camera from last week, the EZVIZ EP8 Ultra is always recording, so you can wind back footage to the seconds leading up to when motion was detected - crucial if you're trying to identify someone who thinks they can get away with dashing up and grabbing your package before setting off the camera. The joke's on them.

And you're pretty much guaranteed a crisp, clear shot, day or night. WDR (wide dynamic range) means both bright spots and dark shadows are evened out for more precise detail, while Lens Distortion Correction or LDR fixes that "wall-eye" effect some wide-angled cameras are prone to.

What's more, there's built-in lighting for both cameras to ensure crystal clear, colour footage, even after sundown.

Ironically, my main criticism of the EP8 Ultra is at the top end; while that lower camera is giving me a pretty good view of any packages left on my doorstep, the main camera tends to cut taller visitors off at the neck if they're standing too close. I wonder if EZVIZ will ever decide a third, up-firing camera might be useful too? 

Back to that screen though. Apart from housing cute AI huskies, it also means you can chat with your visitors via two-way video, not just audio - and not just when you're home either. You can answer the door from anywhere, using the EZVIZ app, as long as you're connected to Wi-Fi or mobile data.

You can even use AI assisted search functionality within the app to ask things like, "Did a courier drop something off this morning?" And if you're sensitive about someone hearing your voice when you answer the door, you can use AI to disguise it. The EZVIZ AI assistant will also summarise the day's detections for you, saving you reviewing all your notifications for anything significant.

Best of all - every one of these features is subscription-free. Your video footage is even stored locally on the EP8 Ultra's built-in 32GB eMMC storage and can be downloaded to your phone any time.

If you prefer the added security of cloud storage, EZVIZ CloudPlay offers several options for a monthly or annual fee.

As with the other EZVIZ device from last week, Familiar Face detection still seems to be a work in progress. I've only received one notification advising me the doorbell has spotted someone who matches the faces I've stored in the app to train it. Yet, weirdly, when I ask the AI assistant for a list of videos with one of those people in them, usefully, that list appears in quite short time.

There's also a promise of "Festival greetings" and "Decorative designs" to come in a future update to the on-screen options, which for now is restricted to the animated animals mentioned earlier.

So many options and features in just one doorbell - and I haven't even covered them all. Did I mention the rich notification thumbnails that appear on my Apple Watch? There's no doubt, this is the most high-functioning door-cam I've ever trialled. The notifications are accurate and timely, I can pair the EP8 with my other smart speakers around the house so I never miss a visitor and the built-in storage has capacity for up to six months of videos and alerts.

And the best thing about EZVIZ? No compulsory subscriptions! You know I love that.

Click here for more information and pricing on the EZVIZ EP8 Ultra.

Apple Watch Ultra 4 - Why It's Still the Best

From its very first iteration, the Apple Watch Ultra quickly became my favourite smartwatch.

The base model Apple Watch had already impressed me with its seamless integration with the wider Apple ecosystem.

Although it's a little frustrating to have a watch that will only pair with an iPhone, at least that means everything dovetails together flawlessly. There are very few smartwatches out there that let you read and reply to emails, texts and other DMs, including opening pictures and other attachments on the watch screen itself. Likewise, other apps like contactless payments and customer loyalty cards work so reliably that I find it quite frustrating when I'm reviewing other devices that don't work so well.

I was excited by the add-on abilities the Watch Ultra brought to the table; a more durable design, better GPS tracking and vastly superior battery life to name a few.

And while both the Ultra 2 and 3 further refined the original design, I've found it hard to recommend an upgrade for those who were already enjoying the benefits of the first model. It's rare to get a product so very-nearly perfect, first time out - and then it's hard to improve on that.

Until now.

You could be forgiven if you're thinking this is just the same Watch Ultra as last time and the time before that. From the front, it's true; very little has changed.

In fact, the Watch Ultra 4 doesn't even come in a new range of colours. The choice is still Black or Natural titanium. Yes, there are several new bands to choose from and the Translucent range of Ocean Bands are particularly unique. I was sent a Burgundy Trail Loop to pair with my review Watch Ultra 4. The Trail Loop is a very comfortable, lightweight nylon band that stretches a bit, so you can keep it nice and stuck for more accurate health and fitness tracking.

Overall, this year's colour range on the new bands tends towards more muted, natural tones - the browns, oranges and greys reminiscent of a late 1970s Anchorman-style news show set. As usual, if that's not your vibe, there are plenty of third-party options out there.

The Always-On squircle-shaped Retina display is still one of the biggest around, protected by incredibly tough sapphire crystal. It can achieve peak brightness of 3,000 nits, so it stays super clear, even on bright white snow days, or during midsummer surf sessions. It can also dim right down to just 1 nit, so you can avoid lighting up the whole bedroom when checking the time in the middle of the night.

And unlike the "ordinary" Apple Watch, the Ultra 4 still has a large, orange Action button on the left side you can customise to perform a shortcut of your choice - perhaps launch your favourite workout or open the Translate app.

Fantastic. This is all great. But none of it is new.

However, turn the Watch Ultra 4 over and you'll begin to see just how much has really changed with this device.

Just physically, you'll see there are now 8 LED sensors where there were just four previously, while the number of electrodes has skyrocketed from two to 32. There are also four photodiodes in a ring - making this the most accurate watch Apple has ever produced - and perhaps the most accurate health and fitness tracker on the market.

The beefier, yet more efficient S11 chip collates all the information this impressive raft of new sensors detects into metrics that are more detailed and useful than ever.

Because heart rate is being monitored fifty times more frequently, Heart Rate Variation (HRV) is picked up right away - not just at night while you're asleep. This can be a great indicator of either improving fitness or an advanced warning of deteriorating health.

Even the pedometer - that most fundamental of any tracker's abilities - is more accurate, and can now log your steps correctly if you're walking while keeping your hands in one position - for example, holding a drink bottle or perhaps pushing a pram or stroller.

A more efficient chip means better battery life - and that's an upgrade on something the Watch Ultra was already leading the way on. Yes, there are plenty of trackers (and even a few genuine smartwatches) that will last for days or even weeks between charges - but not with this level of functionality. Apple suggests you'll get up to 50 hours of "normal" use on a full charge and that certainly matches up with my testing.

What's more, the Watch Ultra 4 charges faster than before too - using the charger included in the box. Just 15 minutes of charging can result in an 18 hour boost. That means I hardly take it off. A quick top-up while I read a few chapters of my book before bed is really all it takes to keep my Ultra 4 running all through the night and the following day. 

That's more important than ever, because not only does Watch OS now feature a far more detailed Vitals app, bringing all your metrics together in one easy-to-follow interface, including sleep data, workouts and stats like HRV, skin temp and blood oxygen levels - Apple takes it all one step further with a daily Readiness score. A quick glance reveals your mark from 1-10 and a brief explanation on why you scored what you did.

I'm sitting on 8 today, thanks to plenty of activity over the weekend and a decent night's kip last night.

And the best is yet to come. Quite literally.

Apple has been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to evolve Siri into a digital assistant with genuine artificial intelligence. The idea is your questions and requests are not only responded to as quickly as possible, but in a more natural, conversational way.

Again, on the Watch Ultra 4, the S11 chip's neural processing abilities come into play here and already I've been impressed with the notable jump in reaction time when it comes to using my watch to control IoT devices like my garage door and bedside lamp.

But in the coming months, even smarter features are coming to Apple Watch. Live Rewind will transcribe the last 15 seconds of conversation as picked up by the Ultra 4's microphone array, in case you missed the bartender explaining tonight's cocktail special, or your vet giving you instructions on which pill to give your dog when.

Actually, for something as important as that, another pending feature, Siri Recap, is probably more appropriate, listening and summarising all the important events of your day, from lectures or meetings to that list of jobs that need doing around the house.

Of course, there's also the new Siri Modular watch-face to give you instant access to some of these new apps and functions.

Ultimately, although the Watch Ultra 4 doesn't look a whole lot different, I'd argue this is the biggest upgrade since the original launched in 2022. Between the new sensors, more accurate tracking, extended battery life and the beefed-up chip, if you do decide to trade up, you'll definitely notice the improvements.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Apple Watch Ultra 4.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra - King of Tablets Still Reigns

I've never made any secret of the fact I don't fully understand the Android tablet market.

But then, I've always had a laptop, a phone and a TV.

What's the connection?

Well, as far as I'm concerned, my ideal tablet would be a combination of all those things. A kind of all-devices-in-one concept that offers all the portability of a handset but all the productivity of a PC.

It seems to me, the main limitation of of tablets up to this point is generally, their manufacturers have treated them more like giant phones than stripped-down laptops. By that, I mean their software and chip architecture has tended to be based on smartphone-style user interfaces as opposed to more powerful, computer-like operating systems.

But lately, the paradigm has shifted. To the point we're even seeing computers running on chips from manufacturers more traditionally associated with making phones work.

So by that logic, the world's best Android tablet might now be one of the most useful gadgets to have in your hand.

Not that it's super easy to hold the Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra in one hand. This thing is massive. Its 14.6-inch AMOLED 2X display has got to be about as big as you can go with this form-factor - and yet the whole thing is a mere 5.1mm thin.

Despite that, this feels like a sturdy, strong, durable machine. There's no flex, even when you do hold it by just one edge.

That screen is sublime, of course. There's a reason why other brands use Samsung panels on their devices too, Samsung is very good at this and it's been doing it a long time. If you're gaming with the Tab S12 Ultra - and why wouldn't you? - you're dealing with a 120Hz refresh rate and all the popping colours and crystal clarity we've come to know, love and yes, even expect.

Of course, the one drawback of a nice, shiny AMOLED display like this is it is so shiny - reflection can be an issue in bright environments or if you have a window or other light source behind you. I note Samsung sells an anti-reflecting screen protector to help with this, but I'd like to see the same anti-glare technology used on recent Samsung TVs applied to the next Tab Ultra please.

The wonderful screen also makes for a marvelous streaming device - especially when you take into account the supreme connectivity of Wi-Fi 7 - or even 5G with a SIM installed. Team that up with the quad-speaker sound system and you'll be amazed how authentic the home theatre experience is from such a portable device.

As I type this, I'm listening to a "Lossless" stream of soprano sax guru, Wayne Shorter, live in concert. It's a masterful example of recording production, reproduced on the Tab S12 Ultra's Spatial Audio speaker array precisely - almost as though the four built-in speakers are spaced out on each corner of my desk. Really quite remarkable for a tablet.

And yes, you read that correctly; I'm typing this on the Tab S12 Ultra itself, because that's how far the Galaxy Tab has come. Not only can I pair a mouse, keyboard, game controller or anything else via Bluetooth 6.0, I can instantly enter DeX mode with a click, converting the phone-like layout of the home screen to a more desktop-ish arrangement that allows me to open multiple apps in multiple windows, moving them arround and resizing them as I wish.

The photos and video you see in this review have been uploaded not from local storage on the tablet, but from a cloud directory - in just the same way I would with a "real" computer. We've broken a real barrier here; no longer am I "doing the best I can" then jumping onto my desktop machine to finish the more complicated bits. In the past, formatting posts like these would have been far too hit and miss to confidently achieve want I wanted from an Android gadget. But those gadgets weren't this gadget.

At its heart, the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 - a truly flagship, 3nm CPU that was built to aggregate the best AI has to offer into one place. You'll see me perform a very rough demonstration of some of the photo editing tricks on hand in the video below, but it goes a lot deeper than that.

Even compared to last year's Tab S11 Ultra, this chip is significantly faster in every way - especially when it comes to the neural processing AI features rely upon - there's been an incredible 61% increase in speed.

The camera setup is far from flagship quality, however. A 13MP main rear shooter is teamed with a lowly 8MP ultra-wide. Still, that's better than no ultra-wide - which is where most other tablets sit.

Conversely, the 12MP selfie cam is very capable - as is the mic quality. See if you can spot where I swap from my desk-mounted external mic to the built-in mic of the Tab S12 Ultra in the video below. I bet you can't.

Samsung also deserves credit for including the S Pen stylus in the box. Again, Samsung has been doing the S Pen for a long time, so you know this is a fine tool for all you note-takers, sketchers and colour-inners out there. Seriously though, if you're looking to this tablet as a graphic artist, an animator or a 3D image creator - those are exactly the kind of thing this thing was born for.

It's all too easy to compare the performance of a tablet to that of other types of devices - phones, TVs, laptops etc. - and that's a bit unfair given a tablet isn't any of those things. Except this one.

That's why if you're going to go there, go all the way and make the investment in a device that can actually hold its own against many other specialist gadgets. Can you watch TV on it? Yep. Looks amazing. Sounds pretty good too. Take notes? Draw? Highlight? Of course, all you need is an S Pen, one of the finest styluses you can buy - that you don't have to buy, because it's included in the box.

How does the Tab S12 Ultra stack up as gaming machine? We've established the great display performance, and the impressive speaker array. Add the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chip and this is effectively a mobile gaming console.

Then we come to perhaps the most unfair comparison of all; can you use the Tab S12 Ultra as a laptop? Well, I paired a mouse and a keyboard with it, plonked it in a stand and well... I think the video below says the rest.

You'll certainly pay a premium for this tablet, but when it excels at being at least four different devices in one, it has to be one of the most premium choices on the market.

Click here for more information on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra.

EZVIZ HB90 Dual 3K Kit - Double the Video for Less

I've made my feelings about home security cameras pretty clear in the past; it's all very well having a camera with all the latest features but if most of them are hidden behind a premium subscription, you could end up paying more than you budgeted for.

At the very least, I don't think it's too much to ask for your camera - the one you paid good money for - to be able to store what it records somewhere you can easily access. Surely that should be the minimum expectation from any home security camera and yet many make you pay a monthly fee to do just that.

So it's hardly surprising other common features like pre-roll footage and package, person or vehicle detection are often subscription-only too.

I hate it.

In fact, I hate it so much, I've gone so far to suggest I'd pay more for a camera up front in order to get some of that stuff for free.

Before we even get into what the EZVIZ HB90 does and doesn't do with or without a subscription, we need to cover off some pretty cool things about this camera I haven't seen before.

Firstly, this isn't one camera, it's two. The top, wide-angle lens offers a 96° horizontal view, with the ability to tilt at 10° and pan through 220°. Meanwhile, the lower cam tilts up and down through 90° and can basically rotate all the way around, panning through 324°.

So to be clear, both cameras can pan and tilt completely independently from each other. That gives you the ability to monitor two areas at once. For example, if you mount the HB90 at the corner of your house, you could potentially set one to point down the side of the property while the other keeps an eye on what's happening out front.

Alternatively, there's another way to use them; in concert. And this is so clever, it's exactly what I'm doing at my place.

Once you've set up the HB90 using the EZVIZ app, you can set each camera to monitor specific zones by default, then, when the wide angle lens spots a vehicle or a person, the other camera swings into action - literally - utilising its superior manoeuvrability to track the moving subject, resulting in a far more useful video of the event.

The other crucial part of the HB90 equation is the 8W solar panel, included in the kit.

This is a monocrystalline solar cell - if you haven't come across one before, they don't have a smooth, glassy finish as you might imagine a solar panel to have, which is good for you as that kind of surface can quickly become dirty, clouded and less effective. Instead, the HB90's panel (approx. 27cm x 19cm)  has a stippled, matte surface that I've found to be much harder wearing out in the weather.

There's a very versatile mounting arm included in the box and the 3-metre USB-C cable is long enough to give you a fair amount of flexibility when it comes to mounting both your camera and the panel.

The mounting bracket for the camera itself is simple, yet effective, with a choice of screw holes so you have the option to wall mount, ceiling mount, or even post/pole mount. Remember, because it runs on solar, you're not restricted by access to a power point or somewhere you can easily reach, to regularly swap out batteries. (Think up a tree, or perhaps high, under the eaves of the front wall of your house)

As long as it's within Wi-Fi range, there's essentially nowhere you can't put it.

What worked out well for me is the possie I selected out front is under a small overhang that meant I could just lie the solar panel on the roof, directly above the camera, pretty much concealing the power cable so everything stays nice and tidy.

There are plenty of screws etc in the box for all the mounts, with the HB90 unit sliding securely into place.

There's also a 16GB microSD card included in the kit, which is significant because this goes to the first thing I hate about subscription-based cameras; paying for storage. You still can - EZVIZ offers a range of CloudPlay storage plans from as little as NZ$89.99 a year. And to be fair, keeping your footage in the cloud is the most secure option.

However, not only am I cheap, I'm also reasonably confident the majority of would-be, opportunistic porch-pirates who might be considering targeting my front doorstep are unlikely to be resourceful enough to consider tampering with the camera itself, in order to snatch the microSD card any incriminating video is being saved to. That's assuming the sight of the camera itself isn't enough of a deterrent to keep them away in the first place. In keeping with that idea, you can even set the HB90 to flash red/blue lights and sound a loud siren if the bad guys get too close.

The included card is a long-life model with super fast read/write speed - making it ideal for use in cameras like these. Just a wee note; I opted to install a larger card so I could store more video and I found it quite finicky formatting it using the EZVIZ app. It wasn't until I turned the camera off and back on completely that it was prepared to recognise my bigger microSD as a correctly formatted device.

However, once I'd dispatched with that small hurdle, the rest of the setup proved pretty straightforward. The EZVIZ app gives you access to a lot of settings and customisations - perhaps a few too many. Given you're effectively initialising two cameras at once, it's easy to get bogged down in one menu when the the setting you're trying to change is somewhere else. I wonder if the interface could be streamlined and simplified a little.

I've found setting up the default detection zones to be particularly fiddly. As the camera (or cameras, plural) are facing out from the front of my house, they take in the street and two footpaths as well. I'd rather not be notified every time someone passes by - either on foot or in a car - but I still need to set up zones that will capture any vehicles or people coming onto my property as soon as possible.

Luckily, you can set the HB90 to Always-On Video mode, a low frame-rate, constant recording state that means you get a few seconds of lower-quality pre-roll footage before the detected event recording kicks in. Yet again, this is exactly the kind of feature you usually have to pay extra for. But not with EZVIZ.

Another such feature is Human and Vehicle detection. The HB90 can tell the difference and will notify you accordingly, without charging you more to make the distinction. There's also a "Beta" feature called Familiar Faces. The idea here is the app will notify you if someone you know has arrived at the house. Of course, you need to train the camera to do this using pictures of the the people who are likely to turn up, which I have. And it doesn't work. Not yet, anyway. Maybe it's just more Beta than I thought and it will improve in a future update.

As you would expect, picture quality is excellent and I'll demonstrate just that in the video below. If both cameras are pointed in the same direction, you'll unlock 4x zoom functionality - which should be more than enough to recognise faces or read number plates, even from quite a distance. And the HB90 works just as well at night - the two spotlights help provide full-colour after-dark footage, with another setting called Balanced Image Exposure ensuring you won't miss any important details, even in more shady areas.

Ultimately, what we have here is two cameras in one, that never need charging, that can physically track people who enter your property, even recording their movements before they're detected. And that footage will be stored locally, all requiring no further payment than the initial cost of the camera. A lot to love and none of my pet hates.

     

Click here for more information and pricing on the EZVIZ HB90 Dual 3K Kit.

Life360 Pet GPS - Keeping Track of Four-Legged Family Members

I am a very lucky dog owner.

My little guy doesn't really dig and he's never really shown any inclination to try and escape our property.

Conversely, we have a friend whose cavoodle has made it her life's mission to break out and head for the hills... or the park... or the supermarket... or just anywhere, really.

So I've become pretty complacent, confident that 5 year-old Jerry will be waiting at the top of the stairs for me every day when I get home from work, manically hopping from foot to foot, desperate for his ritual behind-the-ear scritches and belly rubs.

But what if one day Jerry wasn't there? What if he'd been led astray by that bad influence cavoodle, decided the grass really did look greener on the other side of the fence and took off check it out first hand?

Nightmare.

Luckily, there's now literally nowhere in the world he can go where I can't find him.

It's thanks to the Life360 Pet GPS - a compact tracker that fits securely onto any furry friend's collar.

I'm pretty late onto the Life360 bandwagon, although I know people who rely on it religiously, to keep tabs on other family members - kids, partners, parents - so they always have peace of mind, secure in the knowledge their loved ones are where they're supposed to be - or at least on their way to where they're supposed to be.

What I'd missed completely though, was Life360's 2021 acquisition of Tile, one of the world's most trusted names in bluetooth tracking devices.

Now the Tile range includes not only car key fobs and stick-on trackers, but also super-slim credit-card-shaped trackers for your wallet too.

All these items can easily be added to the Life360 app on your phone, and although the trackers are not GPS capable themselves, by connecting to nearby phones via bluetooth, the location is established using those phones' GPS capabilities instead.

Some Tile trackers have built-in, non-replaceable batteries that last for a very long time - up to three years, in fact. Others have batteries that CAN be swapped out, although this results in a slightly larger form-factor - it's one of the reasons the Tile Pro is a lot longer than the basic Tile for example.

The Pet GPS is a different beast. So to speak.

As the name indicates, this tracker has its own GPS chip, so it's able to provide real time location information in even the most remote areas - regardless of any other phones being nearby. And unlike Life360's other Tile trackers, the Pet GPS is rechargeable. This is essential, because providing real-time location information via satellite takes a lot more power than a low-energy bluetooth connection - although the Pet GPS has that too, which means even once the rechargeable cell goes flat (you'll get around 14 days on a full charge) the device itself can still be located via the Tile network for another 6 months, thanks to Reserve Mode.

To get full functionality from your Pet GPS, you will need a Silver Life360 membership plan. The good news is, a year's worth of Silver Life360 is included with your purchase. Now that's what I call a trial period.

I'm not usually a fan of compulsory subscriptions to make a device work, but a 12-month Silver sub is quite generous and at least you'll know for sure if it's worth another $89.99 for the following year.

There are Gold and Platinum subscriptions too and I was blown away to discover the extra features you're entitled to at those higher levels. For example, a Gold subscription means you can use a Pet GPS tracker on up to five different animals and you even get ID Theft Protection on the email account associated with your membership.

At both Gold and Platinum levels, you're entitled to roadside assistance - including towing - and even hundreds of dollars towards a new phone if yours is stolen.

And if you go Platinum, you can call for medical advice over the phone and even travel assistance when things go wrong on holiday!

There's certainly a lot more to Life360 than just a tracker on your dog's collar.

Which brings us back to the device we're actually reviewing here. The Pet GPS comes in Black, Navy Blaze (blue and orange) or Pink Punch. There's a charging cable, collar mount and an Adventure Sleeve included in the box.

The design is simple, yet robust. The mount has a rubbery loop that hooks over your pet's collar to keep it firmly in place. The Pet GPS itself charges via a USB-C port on the back, then simply clips onto the collar mount or unclips just by squeezing both sides of the device.

The tracker seems pretty tough and it's water resistant, with an IP68 rating. The Adventure Sleeve provides even more protection, sliding over both the core unit and the mount - but I think only the most manic diggers, rollers and zoomers would require this extra level of protection.

Speaking of zooming, nothing is likely to crack a dog owner up more than watching that faithful best friend hit turbo and start running and jumping around like crazy for no apparent reason. That's why you can actually set the Life360 app to give you a "Zoomies Alert" - so you won't miss out, even if you're not around.

Obviously, that's not the only alert you can activate. You can be notified the moment your pet leaves your property - or arrives back. And because it's a live GPS signal, you can literally track your pet's movements on a map, and retrace them - even days later.

There's also a bright light on the front of the Pet GPS. For a safer night walk, you can turn this on with a single push of the pairing button at the top of the device. Or, if you've lost sight of your pet somewhere dark, you can trigger the light from the app to help retrieve them from under the deck or out of the middle of that woodpile.

Should the worst happen and your escape artist answers the call of the wild without you knowing, you can immediately send out an alert to the world's largest pet finder network and all the other Life360 users in your area will be notified your precious is on the lam and they'll see a picture so they'll know who to look out for.

And that doesn't just mean pets wearing the Pet GPS either. No sooner had I signed up for my Life360 subscription and filled out my profile than I received an urgent notification about a neighbour's missing budgie. I don't know if they found it but I know I certainly had my eyes peeled for the next few days.

It's this kind of community-powered, technology-assisted network that is now at my disposal, all through my dog's new Pet GPS and the Life360 app. I had no idea of the extent of what Life360 had to offer, nor the peace of mind I now have, knowing where Jerry is, every second of the day. You just can't buy that.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Life360 Pet GPS.

Philips Hue Essential A60 - Still Not Quite Smart Enough

This is going to be a review of two halves.

And it's mostly because I've painted myself into an IoT corner.

When I first started testing smart home devices, most of them were very locked into their respective "ecosystems."

Apple TV and Apple HomePods used Siri to control other devices designed specifically to be Apple-friendly, with companion apps tailor-made for iOS.

If you wanted to control an Echo speaker or a Ring doorbell, that was a job for Alexa.

Nest cameras and doorbells only talked to Google Assistant.

And don't get me started on Samsung and SmartThings.

But all that's over now, right? Thanks to protocols like Matter and Thread, these days every smart device now integrates seamlessly with every other one, regardless of what brand, what type and what kind of virtual assistant you're controlling them with. Right?

If only. 

To be fair to Philips, the Hue range of smart lighting products have always been a bit more platform-agnostic than most, so I was pretty confident the new Essential A60 E27 bulbs would slot into my twisted web of random IoT gadgets pretty seamlessly.

And to be fair to everyone else, between Matter, Thread, Zigbee, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 7 and every other damn thing that makes these doodads work, I have started to see some slow-but-steady improvement when it comes to interoperability.

In fact, according the the Hue Essentials A60 web page, they now work with Alexa, Google Home, Apple Home, IFTTT, Matter, Samsung SmartThings, Sonos and something called Klikaanklikuit, which I've never even heard of but I'm certainly going to look up after I finish writing this review.

But at the very least, although they're pitched as being a bit more entry level than the more expensive Hue White and Color bulbs, I'd have thought setting them up with the native Hue app would be the best way to go.

The Hue app has evolved quite nicely over the years and has now incorporated the Hue Sync app which used to be required to control the HDMI Sync boxes I've reviewed previously. This means you can see all your Hues in one place, designating them to specific rooms or groups, creating automations and schedules or just manually controlling various effects and other features from your phone.

I was sent three Essential A60 bulbs - which is slightly strange given they seem to come in packs of either two or four - and as expected, I had no issues whatsoever setting up the first bulb, in my dining room where I already have a trio of White and Colour Hues installed.

However, the second bulb wouldn't complete its setup process, even after several re-tries. So I resorted to installing it via the Amazon Alexa app instead. After all, I was intending to control these lights using Alexa anyway. (I also talk to Google and Siri in my house but let's not get distracted... Yet.)

Then the third light proved even more stubborn. I tried multiple times with Hue. I tried with Alexa. I tried with Apple Home. But it wasn't until I tried with Google Home that I had any success.

At this point, I assumed all would be well. Everything talks to everything else now, remember? Because Google Assistant now knew I had a new light in the dining room, surely Alexa and Siri would too.

Apparently not. Grrrrrr.

To cut a long story slightly shorter, I eventually managed to link my recalcitrant bulbs to the Hue app by going into another room and screwing them into a bedside lamp instead. Why this made any difference, I have absolutely no idea.

All my Hue devices are paired with a Hue Bridge Pro, which although tucked away in my entertainment cabinet under my TV in the living room, has never had any issue talking to its companions wherever I've installed them around the house - even outside. So it's all a bit of a frustrating mystery.

The good news is, once I screwed all the bulbs back in to where I wanted them, they performed perfectly, as if nothing had ever happened - and they continue to, many days later.

There's a reasonably short list of fairly specialised missing features that make the new Essential bulbs more affordable - they don't have the exact colour-matching ability of their more premium stablemates, their peak brightness isn't quite as peak and they only dim down to 2% - as opposed to 0.2%. Why you need lights that dim to 0.2%, I'm not exactly sure. And as you'll see from my video below, I think you'd need a pretty discerning eye to be able to detect the difference between the different shades of different colours.

The important thing is, you can still set these to whatever colour and brightness you like and you can still control and automate them with all those different virtual assistants I mentioned earlier. The long list of preset colour scenes keeps getting longer in the Hue app and obviously you can create and save your own scenes too.

And excitingly, when Essential A60s are paired with the Bridge Pro like mine are, you can then activate Motion Aware. If you have a minimum of three Hue devices in the same space, Motion Aware basically turns them into motion sensors - so the lights can now turn themselves on when you walk in the room. Or, alternatively, you can use them to fire off other automations instead.

Unlike my initial setup struggles, calibrating Motion Aware using the Hue app was effortless and I now want my whole house to work that way.

So in a nutshell, the Essential A60 smart bulbs are pretty great. So great, I personally would struggle to choose the more expensive alternatives from this point on. Especially given my only major criticism of previous Hue products was always how expensive they are compared to competing devices.

I'm sure my setup ordeals were more due to my jumbled conglomeration of various IoT bits and pieces all connected via different apps to different hubs and controlled by different virtual assistants. One of these days I'm going to sit down and try and figure out why Alexa thinks I have two different devices called Dining Room Light 1 - and when you click on either of them the same bulb turns on or off.

Eventually, devices like these will make my life easier instead of more complicated, like they're supposed to. Today wasn't that day, but I have high hopes for tomorrow.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Philips Hue Essential A60.