Ring is bringing generative AI to its family of home security cameras and video doorbells with a new feature called Video Descriptions. Once this feature is enabled, the motion alerts triggered by Ring cameras will be accompanied by an AI-generated analysis of the motion that triggered the camera to record. In a blog post earlier today, Ring founder Jamie Siminoff described how the push notifications Ring users receive on their smartphones when motion is detected will be enhanced with text descriptions of what that motion was. "This new generative AI feature," Siminoff said, "helps you quickly distinguish between urgent and everyday activity with a quick glance at your phone." Ring will use genereative AI to deliver descriptions of the events its security cameras and video doorbells capture on video.

After making the surprise announcement that several Ring security cameras need only firmware updates to deliver 2K video resolution, Ring has unveiled a new indoor/outdoor model that delivers that capacity on day one. The familiar-looking Ring Outdoor Cam Plus ( 99.99) is available for pre-order now and is expected to ship to customers on March 26. The Ring Outdoor Cam Plus's signature feature is its 2K resolution (which Ring defines as 2560 x 1440 pixels), but it arrives with a few other new specifications as well. This camera is not in the Ring Spotlight Cam family, so it doesn't have an onboard light source. Instead, a new feature that Ring calls Low-Light Sight technology uses image-processing techniques to deliver color night vision even in near-dark conditions.

The Ring Battery Doorbell would be a much better option for the budget-minded if it wasn't so tied to a subscription plan. On the other hand, it's a great choice for those who are already in the Ring home security ecosystem and paying for a sub, and are looking to add an inexpensive doorbell--especially for secondary doors. Ring offers one of the best smart home security ecosystems on the market, encompassing everything from security cameras and video doorbells to indoor and outdoor lighting, sensors, and professionally monitored home security systems. The flexible Ring Battery Doorbell, introduced late last year, makes for a great introduction to that ecosystem. But that recommendation comes with a caveat: You'll need to sign up for a Ring Home subscription if you want to unlock all this product's features--and that includes the ability to record video.

The pace of smart home innovation hasn't slowed a whit in 2024, with new products such as the Amazon Echo Show 21 being unveiled just this week. The better news is that the smart home is no longer a niche market appealing only to enthusiasts willing to tolerate steep learning curves. We are, however, still living in a world of smart home silos; namely, Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Home. The increasingly important Matter standard will unify those ecosystems one day, but that won't happen until Matter incorporates every smart home category. Considering that, we've picked more than one product in several categories, based primarily on which silo your smart home is in.

Ring has announced a refresh of its popular Battery Doorbell Plus outdoor camera. The Battery Doorbell Pro is an upgrade in nearly every way, as is usually the case when companies slap "Pro" at the end of a name. Ring says this new model is its "most advanced battery powered doorbell" ever and that it's packed with features that exceed even its wired doorbells. It boasts radar-powered 3D motion detection, which was also included with the company's Stick Up Cam Pro. Otherwise called "Bird's Eye View", this technology tracks an object's path through the camera's field of view so you can monitor where visitors are going and the route they took to get there.

If you've been keeping up with CES 2022, you've likely added a slew of gadgets to your wishlist already. There's a lot that won't be ready until the second half of this year--some might never see the light of day--but don't fret! We've rounded up our favorite CES devices that are already available for purchase or preorder. Here's what you can add to your cart right now. Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-year subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off).

Over the course of an hour on Tuesday, September 28, Amazon rolled out a raft of new smart home products, including an Alexa-powered robot, a wall-mountable Echo smart display, an interactive video phone for kids, the first video doorbell from its Blink division, new home-security products from its Ring subsidiary, and more. Artificial intelligence--Amazon calls it "ambient" intelligence--was a common thread running through all these new products. The company says this will enable its disparate products to work together seamlessly to deliver an experience that's more than the sum of its parts. But with a nod to consumers' growing privacy concerns, each presenter emphasized the ways in which Amazon's development teams had focused on reducing their products' reliance on cloud computing, pushing more processing power to the device itself to keep information local and within the users' control. Here's a quick recap of the most significant new product announcements, along with links to our deeper dives.

Ring Alarm has been our favorite home-security-focused smart home system since its launch, and the second-generation system is even better. That said, Ring hasn't yet delivered on its implied promise to make the Ring Alarm the unifying core of a complete smart home system. Fulfilling that promise--which Ring Solutions president Mike Harris spoke of in 2018--would have bumped up our bottom-line score by a half point. I'll assume, however, that your primary interest in reading this review is to learn about Ring Alarm as a home security system. So, I'll focus on that aspect first and summarize its shortcomings as a smart home system later. This is an in-depth review of a complex system, written after living with the product for a couple of months with the professional monitoring option enabled.

Ring, a name now synonymous with video doorbells, is making a product to help folks who already have peepholes in their doors. The Ring Door View Cam is a smaller piece of kit that can sit over your door's existing viewer / spy hole. Sandwiched between the button and the camera lens is a piece of glass that'll let you peer through the hole at your visitors, old-school style. Door View Cam comes with all of the usual features you'd expect from a Ring product, including HD video, privacy zones and smart alerts. In addition, however, it packs an impact sensor to alert you when a moron knocks on your door instead of, you know, pushing the clearly obvious bell.

Your message has been sent. There was an error emailing this page. It's not printed in big letters on the box, but many of the latest smart home gadgets require a monthly subscription to unlock all their features. It might only be a few dollars a month, but over the life of a product it can easily double the purchase price. I can be particularly onerous if you're paying subscription fees for more than device.