Morning my lovely people, hope you’re well. You may remember, some time back, I decided to setup a CCTV system with an old smartphone. Since then we’ve looked at the BT Smart Home Cam and the Pan and tilt camera from SwannCloud. They’re better than a smartphone alone, but if you’ve got (for example) a busted-up iPhone and not much cash you could perhaps a free monitoring camera with Manything.
Manything, apart from having a slightly strange name, will let you use an old iPhone or iPad as a security device, recording clips to the cloud, detecting movement and showing you the results online, accessible from any internet connection.
A lady called Mia from Arizona did exactly this, and propped her old cracked iPhone up so that she could keep an eye on her beloved dogs while she was at work. After the dogs began barking (setting off the sound sensor on Manything) she looked at the live stream and, well.. this happened..
That, my friends, is 22 year-old intruder Aaron White. Fetching gloves huh? After this he fed treats to the dogs to keep them quiet and tried to steal an X-Box. Mia, after seeing everything happening, called the local cops who came to her house with guns drawn to arrest the gent and chuck him in jail.
A couple of local news channels picked up the story (Fox 10 and ABC 15), so if you want to protect yourself and turn an old iPhone into a security system, give it a try.