August announces Siri-enabled smart locks and a doorbell camera

August, the San Francisco-based maker of

smart door locks that can be controlled from a mobile phone
, said today that information technology’s expanding its products to include an accessory keypad for its locks and a new doorbell that’south equipped with a video camera.




But going beyond simply hardware updates is a plan to offer a platform for managing all kinds of home maintenance and delivery services, from dry out cleaning drop-offs to pet sitters to basic shipping. It’south an ambitious goal for startup Baronial, which only launched its first hardware product a year agone, but one that puts information technology deeper into the software and services manufacture rather than just hardware.

First, the new hardware. The 2d-generation August smart lock, which is designed past industrial designer (and August co-founder) Yves Behar, doesn’t


look


much different from the previous version, with the exception of a metal ridge that indicates whether it’south in a locked or unlocked position.

Merely it has new internals: it’s now Apple HomeKit-enabled through a new Broadcom chip, so if yous’re an iOS user, you can command Siri to lock and unlock your door for you (we all are headed toward a WALL-E-like homo meatball being, don’t fifty-fifty bother to get upward and lock your door at night, resistance is futile). The Baronial lock does piece of work with Android devices, just every bit the first lock did, just there’s no vocalism command option yet if you’re using the August Android app.

The price of the lock has also dropped $20 from last year’s model to $229, due mostly to the fact that the lock is now assembled in Communist china.

I of the features that August frequently heard users wanted was a fashion to access the Bluetooth lock without having to download the August app (and without having to use a physical key). An example would exist if yous hire out your dwelling to visitors who don’t accept a smartphone, or who don’t have the Baronial app installed. So August is at present shipping a $79 accessory keypad that you can stick next to your external door knob, letting you transport SMS messages with unique keypad codes directly from the August app.

The 3rd new gadget from Baronial is a Wi-Fi-equipped doorbell photographic camera that wires to an existing doorbell plate and captures HD video clips of people approaching the door. It uses motion sensors to observe the movement — August says the photographic camera is supposed to know the divergence betwixt humans approaching the door and animals or other objects passing past — and so sends a notification to your smartphone. The $199 doorbell cam also comes with a triangle plate, to help you angle the photographic camera if your doorbell happens to be off to the side.

It’s not the first doorbell camera out there — products like Band and SkyBell offer similar feature sets — but part of August’s pitch is that it offers control of both the high-tech doorbell and the Bluetooth door lock in the same app. And so if someone drops a package off at your door while y’all’re out of the house, not only are you alerted to the activeness, but yous could theoretically open the door to allow them to drop the package inside. There

is

a small grab: Baronial plans to offer cloud playback for the doorbell video clips, but hasn’t specified how much this will cost yet.

Books your cleaning service and your pet sitter more directly through Baronial

Speaking of software services, that’s peradventure the virtually interesting area that August is getting into, through something called Baronial Admission. Co-founder and CEO Jason Johnson described this every bit a “third-party access direction system,” which basically ways that August is aggregating a bunch of partner apps into its ain app to requite yous one-terminate shopping for home services. Services like Postmates, Shyp, Handy, Envoy, Pillow, Rinse, and even Sears (which visits more than than 14 million abode each year for home installations and repairs) will tap into August’south API, making it possible to schedule appointments direct from the August app and unlock the door for people arriving at your home.

Provided that people actually employ it and aren’t creeped out by the thought of remotely letting strangers into their homes, it may be a smart movement for Baronial. Non only does information technology consolidate a agglomeration of apps into the same place, simply it’s also an opportunity to generate revenue through partnerships. Johnson likewise hinted that August could get deeper into tracking package shipments, to aid mitigate misplaced packages or at least avoid that abrasive “You lot weren’t habitation” tag on the door.

August hasn’t said how many locks information technology has sold since it began aircraft the product a year ago, just Johnson did say that it sees over 5 million “lock operations” per month, which refers to how many times its users are locking and unlocking doors through the August app. This app appointment is more important than unit sales, the visitor claims, because of the partnerships it is trying to build.

The new August lock is available for preorder today, along with the keypad accessory and video doorbell. They’ll begin shipping in four to viii weeks, the company says.

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