Yeah, she’s cute isn’t she? She’s about 5 months old in that picture. During the early weeks/months of crate training she would whine when we left her but when we came home she would be sleeping like a little angle. So we were wondering how long she was whining when we left.
A couple of our friends had a similar situation with their dog crying and destroying things while they were at work. They ended up installing a web cam so they could check on him during the day. I was intrigued and was looking for a weekend project, so I decided to look into “puppy cams”.
I did some googling and ended up on a bunch of hybrid technology + pet lovers message boards (yeah, the internet has everything). Most of the suggestions involved dropping some $$ at Best Buy and calling Comcast to get a static IP address — neither of these things sounded like fun. But eventually (buried on some message board somewhere) I came across iCam by SKJM.
This was perfect! No hardware to buy (built in iSight camera on my MacBook Pro), Android & iPhone apps to stream the feed, and web browser viewer so we could check from work.
Installing and setting up the Mac software was super easy. Something like 3 clicks, typing a un/pwd (no need to create an account), checking a checkbox and it was all set up. (Good getting started documentation in their FAQs)
On the Mac
- Download and Install and Run the iCam software on your computer
- Enter an iCam Login and Password (Don’t need to create an account)
- Click the Start button.
Next came the Android app on my HTC Incredible. It was super easy to get the thing running after I downloaded and installed the app ($3.99).
On the Android
- Download the iCam app from the Android marketplace ($3.99)
- Enter the same iCam Login and Password from above and tap Done.
- Tap a video thumbnail to zoom in.
I was impressed at the good quality video streaming over my cell phone network. The audio was a little crackily but not surprising since I was using the built in mic on a computer halfway across the room.
All in all, iCam is inexpensive, easy to use, and met all my puppy-cam needs. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone in a similar situation.
[rating:4.5]Other reviews:
Nice! Let’s see some puppycam screenshots from your phone.