Turn old cell phones into home video monitors for free

Friday, July 24, 2015
If you are looking for a home video monitoring camera and don't want to spend big bucks on it, there's a few free apps that may do just the trick.

Apps including Manything, AtHome, Presence, and the Surveillance App are just a few of the free apps available to turn devices like cameras, iPods, or tablets into surveillance cameras.
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Office or home security, monitoring pets while away, or even keeping an eye on the kids from the other room are just a few uses of these apps.

Most of these apps work in the same way. The old device gets the app that turns it into a Wi-Fi video streamer through the device camera. The streamer is encrypted and password-protected and linked to the cell phone app as the monitor.

Some other features of these apps include two-way communication, motion alerts via text or email, and scheduled recording.

Some apps provide a few hours of streaming cloud storage for users to review. An upgrade can be purchased to access more video storage from previous dates.

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