Nest Launches A Camera: Meet The Nest Cam

Remember when Nest bought Dropcam? That first fruits of that purchase are finally dropping today: Nest has just announced the Nest Cam, an oh-so-Dropcam like security solution.

At first glance, the Nest Cam looks like the Dropcam that we all already know. At second glance… it… still looks like a Dropcam. It’s a bit more slim and its curves are a bit curvier — but the base idea is the same: an ultra simple, plug-and-play WiFi security camera.

But what’s inside?

Here’s what we know so far:

• 1080p video (The last Dropcam was 720p)
• It has a built-in tripod mount
• Its base is magnetic, allowing it to be mounted to your fridge
• 8 built-in infrared LEDs for night vision.
• Like the Dropcam, the Nest Cam uses a cloud-based DVR to store video. Alas, also like the Dropcam, it sounds (so far) that that’s the only option for recording video— meaning if you want to record and store video (rather than just stream it) you’re looking at paying $100-$300 a year on top of the cost of the device. 10-days of video archiving will cost $10 a month; 30-days of archiving will cost $30 a month
• You can mix Nests Cams and older Dropcams in your home, if you so choose. They’ll both appear in the newly designed Nest app for iOS and Android.

The Nest Cam will ship next week, and cost $199.