The Ring Video Doorbell

https://ring.com/#

by tempestn • 11 years ago

41 41 11 years ago

ring.com

IshKebab• 11 years ago

There's at least one other of these but it doesn't have great reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/Doorbot-Wi-Fi-Enabled-Smart-Doorbell/d...

mikkom3• 11 years ago

It's the same company.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/29/doorbot-ring-home-security-...

konradb4• 11 years ago

The same company that made Ring came out with this first. It was crowdfunded and the people that stuck out the very long wait were very underwhelmed I hear. The doorbot facebook page was a lot of very angry people. I guess they abandoned the doorbot brand and moved to 'Ring' when they felt they had ironed out the kinks? Hope to try this out.

jsiminoff7• 11 years ago

Did not abandon. Still support it. Was a Gen 1 product for sure. Ring is our V2 and so far has been very well received, great reviews and very happy customers.

We did do a $99 upgrade for everyone that had bought a Doorbot .

ck22• 11 years ago

Not quite the same thing but everyone should invest in one of those $200-$300 720p security systems with 4 cameras and recorder.

You won't believe the nonsense that goes on around your home when you aren't around. Trespassing, package delivery theft, lost/stray animals, etc. and of course burglary.

lubos• 11 years ago

That's awful. Why would I want to watch that in 720p?

andreiv• 11 years ago

How else would you identify burglars, CSI style?

ck22• 11 years ago

The cheap systems that are not 720p cannot see things like face details and license plates which make them useless when showing police.

berkes• 11 years ago

and of course burglary.

I'm pretty sure you would be aware of package delivery theft and burglary without a $300 security system. And the other two categories are uninteresting at least.

I'd turn that around: if you live somewhere where there's a high chance of theft and burglary, invest in a security system.

But it is weird to advice peple to buy a system just to find out if their house was broken into.

huhtenberg2• 11 years ago

The design is really odd. Just as if they didn't bother at all to step back and check whether it looks good in the context. It doesn't appear to be compatible with any architectural style whatsoever. It won't work for classic houses, it won't work for the modern ones too. It may perhaps work for some futuristic builds similar to that Japanese capsule hotel, but otherwise it's just some randomly styled gadget that wants to stand out on its own.

jsiminoff7• 11 years ago

Appreciate your opinion (really do). The design was driven not just by what we wanted it to look like but also the physical constraints around some of the features the product has. The main drivers:

1. Battery that lasts for one year (5,250mah) 2. Infrared night vision with a IR cut filter 3. Advanced, programmable motion detection that can detect people up to 30 feet out at 180 degrees from the device. 4. Powerful WiFi antenna

Each one of these drives a certain amount of the design. I say this not as a excuse but just to give some background that the design did have some physical drivers behind it.

I am very happy with how the device looks and also the feedback from the customers.

huhtenberg2• 11 years ago

To each his own as they say.

I fully understand that this is your baby, but to me, as someone with a strong liking for good industrial design, the product looks like it wasn't pushed all the way through. This is, basically, not a Nest- or Lacie-level design. It lacks polish. This is Home Depot, it merely doesn't look ugly.

To be concrete with the nitpicks [1] -

* Multiple grooves in the top/black part that add nothing to the design and only fracture the overall look. They would've been a bit less intrusive if the camera lens had a bit of vertical padding around it, but that too is missing. The whole top part looks like something that was driven entirely by the engineering constraints. It just completely neglects rudimentary visual balance.

* Rounded vertical edges. Very large radius has no chance of stylistically matching anything on or near a typical door. It would've been less of an issue if the horizontal edges too were rounded, but they aren't, so the design is not even self-consistent. You have an exaggerated smoothness on the sides and blade-sharp edges at the top and bottom.

* Rounded edges wrap behind the device. This implicitly detaches the gadget from the surface it sits on and makes it stick out that much more. This is probably my biggest gripe with how the whole thing looks when mounted.

* Thin black ledge at the bottom that doesn't stretch the full width. It's also missing on other images, meaning probably that some of them are renderings.

* The logo. How would you like to have a branded door or even a door handle? Same here. If you feel like doing some cross-promotion, put the logo on the top side of the device. Those who are interested in learning what the device is will find it.

[1] http://i.imgur.com/42pd44j.png

cocoflunchy• 11 years ago

Other products in that space (but focused on what's going on inside your home): http://www2.withings.com/us/en/products/home and https://www.netatmo.com/en-US/product/camera

mikkom3• 11 years ago

Why did they invest in a domain like that? That can't be cheap..

jsiminoff7• 11 years ago

The domain was definitely not cheap. So far I think it was the right decision to buy it and I believe we have seen enough benefit from it to make it worthwhile. However we will not know if it was really worth it for at least another year or two.

mikkom3• 11 years ago

You are the owner? Yes the domain is good (really good) but I'm curious, how do you think you can measure if the domain was worth it?

drzaiusapelord• 11 years ago

They crowdfunded $250,000 in 2014 when they were named Doorbot and delivered a fairly underwhelming product prior. No idea how the current product stacks up. I wonder how much of that money went towards the domain instead of engineering, software, QA, etc.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/29/doorbot-ring-home-security-...

This is one of the many reasons I'm wary of kickstarter-like activities. I think my money is going to go to delivering a product, but it may just end up used for marketing/branding I don't agree with, which may or may not detract from the actual product because $slick_marketing_firm knows make a geeky firm do their bidding. "Of course you need our gold star domain and SEO package!"

Frankly, it seems excessive. I'm pretty much the target demographic and am salivating at replacing my existing video doorbell with this (non-wifi). If it was still named Doorbot I would be just as excited. If anything, I'm wary of generic domains as they often seem associated with shady or uninteresting companies.

bemmu• 11 years ago

Well it's an asset at least. If the product fails, they can hopefully still sell the domain.

BillinghamJ• 11 years ago

Seems like an obvious addition to build the doorbell/video camera into the existing smart locking systems. So for example you could allow the delivery guy to leave your parcel inside your home. Or let a friend in when you're away.

jsiminoff7• 11 years ago

Should be announcing some things on that shortly

elixx• 11 years ago

I really hoped/thought this was going to be a doorbell that somehow incorporated the creepy video from "The Ring"

jsiminoff7• 11 years ago

JoshTriplett2• 11 years ago

That could be the door-to-door salesperson autoresponder.

konradb4• 11 years ago

To jsiminoff: do you guys still have the lockitron integration that you had planned for Doorbot? I can see that there's quite a few alternatives now like those by Schlage - any plans to offer the unified UI that you had planned or are you keeping things more split up this time around?

jsiminoff7• 11 years ago

Have some plans. Will be announcing soon.

konradb4• 11 years ago

Thanks, looking forward to them.

mpdehaan2• 11 years ago

Looks very interesting in concept, as I see a lot of folks using dropcams for similar functions, this could be a clever upgrade -- though Amazon reviews are bad, that's probably going to keep me away.

Web site feedback -- there's a bit of a trend in startup/product websites to not share enough detail. Here's a few questions I had, since I see company folks replying, I'll just share here.

On the website, I'd consider addressing do doorbell notifications happen without the application open (i.e. can it send text messages?), I assume video is uploaded into s3, how can video be browsed and how is it retained, and how do replacement batteries work? What is the average cloud recording cost for a year? Is there a notification the battery needs tobe replaced?. I'd also be interested in what happens if ring goes out of business or if it depends on any cloud services - does the device still work, etc. With cars frequently driving in front of the camera, do those get recorded as new events (or worse, send events, or still worse, text alerts?), or can the "zone" be configured in the camera? Also, how is the device mounted? What does it do in the event WiFi blinks out (will it reconnect)? Can it do WPA?

EDIT: see some install instructions here: https://ring.com/installation

JoshTriplett2• 11 years ago

The Ring Doorbell attaches to its mounting plate using a proprietary screw for security.

That does not give me high hopes for their handling of security in general. Does it also use proprietary crypto and protocols for security?

dwightgunning• 11 years ago

That's quite a leap. Do you worry about the safety of your car because the drink holder is made out of low grade plastic?

knurdle• 11 years ago

I had the original doorbot. It never really worked. They made all these promises about features coming up and never delivered. The mobile apps were a disaster and never updated. I finally returned it after trying it for a year which was the only really good experience with the company. Letting me return the product after a year.

I felt like it was a bait and switch. They got all these people to crowdfund the 1st product, delivered something that was mediocre at best and never iterated on it. Then they changed the name and are selling a similar product. Feels a little shady to me.

I would be really weary of backing them at this point.

djrogers2• 11 years ago

Same boat, but I liked the promise of the thing so much I bought ring too. Works better - still not reliable though.

Push notifications are way more consistent, but I get a black screen instead of video way too often.

Papa6660• 11 years ago

Any chance to jailbreak the Ring to be used with my IP video surveillance system? I have had the Ring for a couple of weeks now and it works as advertised but I was very disappointed to find that I can't record or even view the video on my home network.

The Ring Video Doorbell

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