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.

JBL Live 780NC - Approaching Premium

As I've commented many times before, no other audio brand floods the market with as many different headphone and earbud options as JBL.

Not only does there always seem to be a model to suit most budgets, JBL often "out-choices" its competitors when it comes to colour and style alternatives too.

The problem with this approach is, they're all pretty damn good. That's not a problem for us as customers but for JBL, it must make it harder to sell its top-of-the-line products when the more mid-range offerings come so close to that level of performance.

The Live 780NC is one such example.

When comparing the bare-bone specs with the "more premium" JBL Tour One M3 - minus its physical added extras - it's quite a challenge to separate the two headsets.

They both feature 40mm drivers, both use the same True Adaptive Noise Cancelling 2.0 algorithm and both charge quickly with exceptional battery life.

In fact, with the Live 780NC providing up to 80 hours playback on a single charge, you might even be outlasting the more expensive cans.

Admittedly, you don't get a nice, hard-shell case, or a charging cable and the headband is a little more narrow.

You still get a 1.2-metre AUX cable with a 3.5mm jack at one end and a USB-C at the other (the Live 780NC doesn't have a mini-jack input). You get a soft carry-pouch to fold the headset into (with an internal pocket for the AUX cable). And who doesn't already own about a hundred USB-C charging leads?

Although the headband may be thinner than on some other headsets, it's still nicely padded, as are the earpads. I've tried using the Live 780NC to monitor the three-hour breakfast show I panel for, and I've found the headset both comfy and secure. In fact, although I can't think of anything worse than wearing over-ear headphones while exercising, I know that's some people's preference and I'm pretty confident these ones will stay firmly in place, even when running.

In fact, I'm very impressed with the build quality here. It all feels sturdy and solid - no plasticky creaks when putting on or taking off. The arm extensions click reassuringly from one step to the next and the hinges that allow you to rotate and fold the headset flat seem totally reliable.

The onboard controls are a combination of physical buttons, rockers, slide-switches and capacitive taps - so a bit of a mishmash but at least they're easy to find when you're wearing the headset and there's no chance of accidentally pausing the track when you meant to turn up the volume or take a call.

There's an element of customisation with the controls too. This is accessed via the JBL Headphones app where there are so many tweaks and settings available, they're actually divided into three different sections.

As you'd expect, you can personalise the EQ and also the way the Active Noise Cancelling works, adjusting how much of the outside world you let in, or letting it automatically ramp up or down depending on the environment. Personally, I like my ANC wound all the way up and everything else completely silenced. The Live 780NC does as good a job of this as any other set of headphones I've tried.

And that's despite having a couple less mics than its significantly more expensive sibling, the Tour One M3.

Call quality is first rate too - and using the app you can specifically boost both your and your caller's voice, as you'll see (or hear) me demonstrate in the video below.

These headphones are Auracast compatible, so although they don't come with a pre-paired Smart TX transmitter in the box, they will still work with the one JBL sells separately, or indeed with any other of the growing number of Auracast devices now available. If you're not familiar, Auracast is simply another form of wireless connection that allows multiple devices from different brands to all "listen" to the same source simultaneously.

In fact, there's quite the variety of wireless connection protocols to choose from; plain old Bluetooth 6.0, the more energy-efficient and super-stable LE Audio and if you toggle on LDAC you'll be treated to high resolution, spatial or 360° audio from compatible sources and apps.

I've been testing a selection of lossless tracks re-mixed for spatial audio on Apple Music, and I haven't been disappointed.

"Whatever You Like" by Dove Cameron is a pretty boring, formulaic pop song but the Live 780NC headphones make it sound more interesting. Suddenly, the contrast between the thin, "radio" EQ effect on her voice at the beginning of the track and the less toppy vocals later on is more stark. And while the riffs and instrumentation are kind of repetitive, the other, added-in effects in the background are given plenty of space to add colour to an otherwise dull sonic palette.

Alessi Rose gives us a lot more to work with on "Dependent." Dynamically, the song is much more of a rollercoaster, ranging from vocals over acoustic guitar, right through to a genuine "drop the beat" moment. Whether acoustic or electronic, quiet or loud, high or bassy, each element pushes through in its own place, somewhere in the spatial aural chamber the Live 780NC creates inside my head.

If I really wanted to, I could get super picky about JBL's overemphasis on bass response with the Live 780NC, but that seems churlish, given most people (me included) prefer to pump up the bass when they can. If the bass dominates the EQ too much, it does mean some of the busier tracks can sound a little muddy, although it's easy enough to fine-tune such trivialities away using the JBL Headphones app.

Make no mistake, this is a quality headset and I think it punches above its price-range in terms of features, build-quality and battery life.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the JBL Live 780NC.