August halts sales of flawed View doorbell, promises fixed version 'in the near future'

Posted:
in iPhone
August on Friday announced a surprise halt to sales of its iPhone-connected, battery-powered View doorbell, saying it will return sometime "in the near future" after connectivity problems are solved.

August View


CEO Jason Johnson acknowledged "performance challenges in specific user environments," and promised August would analyze both feedback and internal testing. Customers can return a View for a full refund, or through May 3, optionally keep the doorbell and still get a refund by agreeing to help with testing.

Owners and reviewers alike have complained about streaming issues or long app connection delays. CNET, for example, said it typically encountered a 15-second wait. That may only be an annoyance when dealing with guests and delivery people, but potentially serious when trying to catch thieves and vandals.

Unaffected are August's prior Doorbell Cam and Doorbell Cam Pro. Those products are no longer on sale however, and rely on a home's own wiring for power -- the View is easier to install, even if it has to be recharged.

During March's SXSW festival August said it doesn't expect to bring HomeKit to its doorbells anytime soon, even if it remains a "possibility" and the company is continuing to "explore integration opportunities" with Apple. The problem is that the Home app doesn't offer seamless doorbell/lock integration, August said, and HomeKit is simply harder to develop for than platforms like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    22july201322july2013 Posts: 3,735member
    The problem is that the Home app doesn't offer seamless doorbell/lock integration, August said
    Well HomeKit also doesn't support wireless cameras but Arlo introduced a wired hub that allows them to implement wireless cameras. Could this approach help August?
    cornchiptyler82watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 12
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,613member
    HomeKit is "harder to develop for" because of all that security/privacy nonsense compared to Amazon and Google ...
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 12
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,440member
    August is a one pony show.  They haven't shown they can engineer good products on a consistent basis.  They 
    led with a door lock and then utterly failed with their first and now second doorbell camera.   It's clear they don't 
    have the proper expertise in working with camera systems nor have they employed proper guidance.   

    Yale locks is kicking their @$$ 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 12
    LordeHawkLordeHawk Posts: 168member
    The primary reason is that the Home app doesn’t offer doorbell/lock integration....

    First off, the Home app is for managing and controlling your HomeKit environment.  If someone presses your doorbell you wouldn’t open the app, just look at the video notification and then tell Siri to unlock the door.  Apple could add this in the future, but you should probably lock yourself out of the market, good business decision...

    Idiots!

    Its harder to develop for HomeKit?  You can’t even get it to work correctly without HomeKit, just leave this to companies that care about Apple users and handle coding basics.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 12
    sirozhasirozha Posts: 801member
    The problem is that the Home app doesn't offer seamless doorbell/lock integration, August said
    Well HomeKit also doesn't support wireless cameras but Arlo introduced a wired hub that allows them to implement wireless cameras. Could this approach help August?
    Where did you see that HomeKit doesn't support wireless cameras. I've heard that many times, but I've also heard that it's simply not the case. 
  • Reply 6 of 12
    seanismorrisseanismorris Posts: 1,624member
    Maybe I’m old fashioned...

    Someone rings the doorbell, you get off your ass and see who it is.

    IoT trash...

    But, thanks all you beta testers... I mean early adopters.
    tyler82
  • Reply 7 of 12
    tyler82tyler82 Posts: 1,112member
    Internet of shit
  • Reply 8 of 12
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,763member
    chasm said:
    HomeKit is "harder to develop for" because of all that security/privacy nonsense compared to Amazon and Google ...
    I don't disagree but I do fear that we are nearly at the VHS-vs-Betamax point with HomeKit. HomeKit may be technically superior but it is missing some key components and the wider breadth of suppliers that it needs to gain much wider adoption. Personally, I've kind of given up on HomeKit an only use Siri for music/maps/weather queries. I actually don't have a concern with doing this because it provides separate layers capability for different services and each one has different implementations. All of these capabilities are dominated by software and software, unlike hardware, has no notion of n-modal redundancy where having multiple instances of the same capability provides a degree of fault tolerance because each instance is unlikely to fail at the same time. In software you want n-version redundancy where each instance of a needed capability is developed by a different team without cross collaboration. This makes it less likely that the different teams will inject the same coding errors. In other words, if your entire system is built on HomeKit, from sensors to cameras, to annunciators, locks, gates, etc., and there is a fault in a common area developed by one team, say security authentication, your entire system is compromised. We saw this with Intel and its branch prediction logic.

    I still have issues with WiFi where security and performance are a concern. I vastly prefer to use PoE based devices. But that's not always practical because you have to run wires and possibly conduit. A better implementation would be a better mesh based WiFi, which you kind of already have that with Zigbee and Z-wave (and various industrial wireless networks), but that dumps you into the ugly swamp of technology based product fragmentation, bridges, gateways, etc. I'd like to see a new and robust mesh based WiFi that consolidates all of the existing standards into a new IEEE/IEC standard and overcomes the limitations of straight IP-based WiFi.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    flydogflydog Posts: 1,141member
    chasm said:
    HomeKit is "harder to develop for" because of all that security/privacy nonsense compared to Amazon and Google ...
    Most people don’t agree that security and privacy are “nonsense,” especially when it concerns one’s home. 
  • Reply 10 of 12
    williamhwilliamh Posts: 1,047member
    flydog said:
    chasm said:
    HomeKit is "harder to develop for" because of all that security/privacy nonsense compared to Amazon and Google ...
    Most people don’t agree that security and privacy are “nonsense,” especially when it concerns one’s home. 
    Is it really necessary to use sarcasm tags when it’s obvious?   Btw, that’s a rhetorical question. 
    tokyojimuJanNLwatto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 12
    stanhopestanhope Posts: 160member
    Maybe I’m old fashioned...

    Someone rings the doorbell, you get off your ass and see who it is.

    IoT trash...

    But, thanks all you beta testers... I mean early adopters.

  • Reply 12 of 12
    stanhopestanhope Posts: 160member
    for those who are popular and wish to screen visitors, the video doorbell is wonderful...for those who get 2 visitors a year ,the easter bunny and santa claus, i could see why it might not make sense for you.
    glynhwatto_cobra
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