South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Smart home devices to protect deliveries
As deliveries begin to roll in during the holiday season, it’s prime time for porch pirates to swipe unprotected packages off of doorsteps. This year, 64% of people say they plan to do all or most of their holiday shopping online, according to a recent survey. The same survey found that 26% of Americans have had a package stolen from their doorstep. Many of these thefts are not reported to law enforcement, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Fortunately, there are several smart home devices on that market that allow you to monitor deliveries from your phone. We’re showing off three of them here, but for more options, check out the full list at cnet.co/3U1wedf.
GREAT SMART VIDEO DOORBELLS: ARLO VIDEO DOORBELL
Connected buzzers work in much the same way as traditional security cameras. The hardwired Arlo Video Doorbell has high-definition resolution, a live video feed, motion alerts and more — for a super reasonable price.
Subscribe to the Arlo Smart cloud service for access to advanced motion alerts that differentiate between people, animals, cars and packages. You can also look back at your video footage with Arlo Smart to help neighbors and law enforcement (if necessary) identify who snagged your holiday deliveries.
The Arlo Video Doorbell is our current top pick in the category.
LIGHT AND SECURITY CAMERA HYBRIDS: RING SPOTLIGHT CAM
Integrated porch light-security cameras are an emerging smart home security category.
The Ring Spotlight Cam, the Netatmo Outdoor Security Camera and the Ring Floodlight Cam all combine smart lighting with smart video monitoring.
With each of these devices, you can watch a live video feed, receive motion alerts and talk to people via two-way audio intercoms.
But you can also program the lights to turn on and off at set times.
The Spotlight Cam even has a 110-decibel siren, so you can scare someone away when needed.
SMART PADLOCKS AND PACKAGE STORAGE: BOXLOCK
In addition to outdoor cameras and in-home delivery services, select companies offer smart locks and storage options for your packages. One such company is BoxLock. Its product, also called BoxLock, is a smart padlock that works with a related BoxLock app.
Here’s how it’s supposed to work: A BoxLock delivery partner uses the lock to scan the package bar code. The lock unlocks and they secure your delivery inside a storage container (sold separately) until you can get home and retrieve your package.
UPS, FedEx, Amazon Prime and USPS are BoxLock partners.