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The police can’t just come and take your Ring security videos without a warrant, but they can ask for your captured video clips, all thanks for a feature in Ring’s Neighbors app.  That feature is called Community Requests, and it allows law enforcement officials to request Ring camera footage they believe might help them in their investigations.   For its part, Ring calls Community Requests a “completely voluntary” tool for “empowering our communities to play a role in public safety,” as well as an “important aspect” of its “mission of making communities safer.”   But the functionality has drawn fierce criticism from privacy advocates, who argue that the program (a newer and reworked incarnation of Ring’s earlier Request for Assistance effort) represents Ring’s “most invasive feature.”  Just this week, Community Requests have come under renewed scrutiny following word of Ring’s partnership with Flock, a network of AI-powered security cameras that (among other things) can scan vehicle license plates while also allowing police to search camera footage via natural-language queries, according to TechCrunch.  How Ring’s Community Requests feature works  When police send requests through the program, the details will appear in the public feed of Ring’s Neighbors app, and you’ll get a notification if your Ring camera was in the vicinity of a given incident.  If—and only if—you choose to help, you can select and upload individual Ring videos to investigators. Just be aware that if you do, your home address and email will be shared along with the video clips, and submitted videos can’t be retracted.   On the flip side, Ring promises that “no information is shared” about who viewed or ignored a Community Request, and that your camera footage is “not automatically shared with law enforcement.”  How to opt out of Community Requests  If you want to opt out of Community Requests entirely, there’s an easy way to do so.  Ben Patterson/Foundry Open Ring’s Neighbor’s app, open the main menu (just tap the three-line “hamburger” button in the top-left corner of the screen), then tap Neighborhood Settings > Feed Settings.  Uncheck the box next to Community Requests.  Tap the Apply button. Once that’s done, you won’t see Community Requests from law enforcement in your Neighbors feed anymore.  This article is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best security cameras. Read...

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At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Pans 360 degrees and tilts 180 degrees Smooth, accurate motion tracking Clear 2K video, with a spotlight for color night vision Cons Must stay plugged in—there’s no battery option Many smart features require a paid subscription No local video storage (it’s not compatible with Arlo’s SmartHubs) Our Verdict The Arlo Essential Pan Tilt Security Camera offers wide, intelligent coverage and strong everyday performance at a budget price, making it a great fit for users who don’t need a fully wireless setup. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Arlo Essential Pan Tilt Security Camera (model VMC3083-100NAS) Retailer Price $39.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices Arlo’s Essential line has always been about giving users the features that matter most without charging premium-camera prices. The new Essential Pan Tilt Security Camera adds movement to the mix. It can spin a full 360 degrees and tilt 180, giving you wall-to-wall visibility in a single device. Like the rest of Arlo’s new generation, it runs on Arlo Intelligence and ties into the Arlo Secure app for AI-powered alerts, privacy controls, and quick access to live video. Available with HD ($49.99) or (2K) resolutions ($59.99 and reviewed here), the camera targets budget-conscious buyers who still want broad coverage and real-time control. Design and features The Essential Pan Tilt Security Camera is compact, light, and cleanly styled. It plugs into power rather than running on a battery, which keeps the body small enough to be discreet when mounted to a wall, fence, or eaves (it can be installed indoors or out). Michael Ansaldo/Foundry The camera is mounted to a pan/tilt motor that can cover entire yard from one position. Once it detects motion, it automatically tracks the moving person or object. You get two-way audio with noise cancellation for back-and-forth talk, night vision for after-dark monitoring, and a built-in siren you can trigger manually or automatically. When you want privacy, a quick tap in the app disables both video and audio recording. The Arlo Pan Tilt security cam delivers smooth, nearly silent movement and quick response to motion. The camera has a dual-band Wi-Fi adapter that automatically locks onto the stronger of your 2.4- or 5GHz network signals for smoother streaming. Because it’s continuously powered through the included 16-foot cable and adapter, you need never worry about downtime for charging a battery. The camera works with Arlo Secure and Arlo Intelligence to deliver AI-powered alerts for people, vehicles, animals, and packages, animated preview notifications, and event captions that make alerts easier to interpret. On the downside, you won’t get any of that if you don’t sign up for a subscription. Arlo’s Plus plan runs $7.99 a month when billed annually for a single camera, or $17.99 for unlimited cameras; month-to-month pricing bumps that to $9.99 and $19.99. The Premium tier, about $24.99 a month when billed annually, adds 24/7 professional monitoring and emergency response; plus, cellular and battery backup when used with compatible Arlo hardware. This plan would really be of interest only if you also have a complete Arlo home security system. Arlo includes a 30-day free trial of Arlo Secure with the purchase of the camera. Setup and performance To set up the camera, just plug it in, add the device in the Arlo Secure app, and follow the on-screen prompts. The app handles Wi-Fi onboarding, firmware updates, and even evaluates your wireless signal strength automatically. The last step will be important when determining where to mount the camera. The necessary hardware is provided and the app includes a helpful installation guide. The Essential Pan Tilt Security Camera comes with hardware to mount it to a wall, fence or eave, but it needs access to a power outlet (it comes with a 16-foot power cable).Michael Ansaldo/Foundry Once it’s up and running, the Pan Tilt delivers smooth, nearly silent movement and quick response to motion. When someone moves through its field view, the camera tracks them smoothly, without stuttering or swinging past the action. In manual mode, the camera responds almost instantly to swipe commands in the Arlo app, with little lag between your input and its movement. I found the custom positions feature especially useful for high-traffic areas like the driveway and back gate. You just steer the camera using the on-screen joystick, then save that angle as a waypoint. From there, jumping between views takes a single tap—much faster than panning manually each time. The 2K stream is crisp, colors look natural, and detail holds up even when zoomed in. With the spotlight enabled, color night vision motion-activates in low light to capture details like the color of car paint or clothing. The camera defaults to black-and-white IR night vision in complete darkness. Dual-band Wi-Fi also helps here, keeping the video feed stable even when the network is busy. The Arlo Secure app provides intuitive controls for arming the camera and managing its security features. Michael Ansaldo/Foundry The AI reliably distinguishes between people, pets, and passing cars. In my testing, alerts came through within seconds of motion, and the system did a good job filtering out harmless movement like wind fluttering the pop-up canopy in my yard. Each alert includes an AI-generated event caption that spells out what the camera saw, such as “Person detected at home.” These make scanning alerts much faster, even if the captions themselves are fairly plain. The camera does not have any facial recognition features, however, so you won’t be alerted beyond the generic “person detected.” Recorded events are easy to review in the Feed tab, which lays everything out in a clean, scrollable timeline. You can tap a clip to watch, scrub through motion events, or view animated previews if you’re on a Secure plan. Arlo keeps its security controls refreshingly straightforward. You can choose Arm Away, Arm Home, or Standby depending on how much coverage you want, or use automations to schedule these automatically—arming when you leave, and disarming at bedtime, for example. Once you’ve dialed in your routine, the camera quietly does its job without constant tinkering. Should you buy the Arlo Essential Pan Tilt Security Camera? At $59.99 for the 2K model, the Arlo Essential Pan Tilt Security Camera is a good value. Few budget cameras can provide broad coverage, track movement automatically, and plug into a mature ecosystem like Arlo Secure. It’s a solid pick for anyone who wants reliable, around-the-clock protection without paying Pro-series prices. There are obviously tradeoffs, however. The plug-in design limits where you can mount it, there’s no facial recognition features, and most of its smarter detection and emergency-response features sit behind pricey subscription tiers. Even so, for homeowners or renters who just want a simple, capable camera to watch over a porch, garage, or side yard, this one fits the bill. This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best home security cameras. Read...

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I like Windows 11 a lot less than I liked Windows 10—and that was before it started advertising to me incessantly and filling up every nook and cranny of the experience with “AI” I neither wanted nor asked for. But one of the oldest annoyances is that it still demands I use Microsoft’s Edge browser and Bing search for everything, including the searches made in the otherwise very handy Start menu search. I’ve previously tried various remedies for this thorn in the side of my PC experience, but Microsoft has patched and updated Windows often enough that they’ve all stopped working. I eventually gave up and resolved to leave the Start menu hobbled by Microsoft’s over-eager branding, even though I’d much rather use the tools I chose for myself (Vivaldi as my browser and DuckDuckGo as my search engine). Such things are sent to try us. By Microsoft, specifically. Which shouldn’t be poking its nose into how individual users want to use the operating systems we’ve paid for. I’m not bitter, no, why do you ask? But a recent Windows laptop purchase—this one, in fact, yes, sometimes we jump on our own deal posts, too!—brought these annoyances front and center once more. I stared at the Windows 11 setup process for 40 minutes, prodded at each step to pay Microsoft more money for 365 or Copilot or OneDrive, so I decided it was once again time to see if I could wrestle the Start menu away from Redmond’s panopticonic clutches. A little Googling DuckDuckGoing led me to MSEdgeRedirect, which does what it says on the tin. This little tool redirects web searches from the Windows 11 Start search bar to any browser you want, using all the major search engines. You know, the way it should’ve worked from the start. This is a neat little package, requiring only a standard installation, without any constantly-running-in-the-background programs. In addition to redirecting the web portion of the search to your true default browser, it can also handle most of the widgets that appear in the taskbar. Weather, news, images—if you use any of them, you can redirect them to your preferred browser and an alternative service (such as Accuweather). get windows 11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro MSEdgeRedirect still works as of October 2025, on my home-built desktop PC and my Snapdragon laptop. I can’t guarantee that it’ll stay working for any given amount of time. It’s a freebie on GitHub, and Microsoft has updated Windows to bork these kinds of tools before, which I consider to be a self-serving betrayal of customers like me. Customers that Microsoft might want to be a little less cavalier about pissing off these days. But for the moment, it works. I hope it makes Windows 11 a little less annoying for you, too, especially if you’ve recently been forced to hop onto a new machine or operating system. Further reading: I finally decided to reset my Windows PC. Here are 6 signs you should, too Read...