Google Nests in New Zealand

Google sister company Nest has introduced its home security products in the New Zealand market

Google sister company Nest has introduced its home security products in the New Zealand market four months after their launch in Australia.

Nest director of product marketing, Maxine Veron, announced the move in a blog post saying that, despite being officially sold in only seven countries at the start of 2017, Nest products were installed in more than 130.

“We've been on a mission to make our products available to even more homes. So we've expanded into 11 more countries since January. And starting today, we're adding New Zealand to the mix.”

Nest is offering three security cameras, and a smoke/carbon monoxide alarm. They are available online or in store from JB Hifi, PB Technologies and Meridian Energy.

The three cameras are: the Nest Cam IQ Indoor ($549) that is able to “tell a person from something else and even recognises faces with Nest Aware,” according to Nest; the Nest outdoor camera at $359 and the Nest Indoor camera, also $359.

The Nest NZ web site does not have pricing for the smoke alarm. It sells for $A189 in Australia.

All Nest cameras are mains powered only. Veron said at the launch of Nest products in Australia that the company did not offer a battery powered camera because these could take so long to wake up from standby and start transmitting that they could miss vital imagery. By way of demonstration he showed a video of someone’s ute being stolen from their driveway, but all the battery camera caught was the tail end of the ute disappearing.

The smoke alarm also detects carbon monoxide, which according to Veron kills over 300 people every year in Australia. Nest fire alarms are networked using the Thread wireless mesh technology so that if one detects smoke all the others in the home will issue a verbal alert.

The alarm will also send an alert to the smartphone app if it detects smoke and can be silenced from the smartphone app.

The alarm is also fitted with a humidity sensor to enable it to differentiate between smoke and steam, which normal photoelectric smoke alarms like Nest’s are unable to do. Smoke alarms that use a radioactive isotope are able to make this distinction.

The light ring on the alarm also lights up at night if it detects motion, illuminating the path through the house.

One thing Nest does not offer is a central hub or platform to control its devices. All are equipped with WiFi and, via the home’s WiFi and internet connection, communicate to the Nest cloud and to the smartphone app.

Veron said at the Australian launch: “We don’t believe customers shop for a platform. We believe they shop to solve a pain point one product at a time. However our ‘Works with Nest’ cloud API platform has 30,000 developers and over 130 product integrations. Through the cloud you can bridge with other ecosystems and other platforms such as Amazon Alexa, Google Home, control4. All integrate with Nest.”

Read more: ​Google Daydream View VR full, in-depth review

 

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