Kangaroo rounds out its simple security system at CES 2019
The startup has expanded beyond motion sensors to keep better watch over your home.
Kangaroo still wants to keep smart home security simple, but maybe not quite as simple as before. It launched last year with a motion sensor. At CES 2019, it's expanded its lineup to include a climate sensor, a door sensor, a keypad siren, a doorbell cam and an indoor cam. All will launch later this year and maintain the company's goal of being affordable and easy to setup.
The open/close sensor simply adds a magnet to the motion sensor so it knows if your door is open while still sensing motion. The climate sensor gauges temp and humidity. You can also put it on the floor and it'll watch for leaks. Both of these new additions will cost $30 like the original motion sensor and they all connect directly to your Wi-Fi router. The sensors are battery powered and last between 8 months and a year before you'll need to swap in new AAs.
The keypad siren will cost $60 and comes with two RFID tags to arm and disarm the system. It can also act as a Bluetooth hub for your other sensors and extend their battery life since Bluetooth signals take less power to send than Wi-Fi.
All of these will launch this spring. Kangaroo showed off a doorbell cam and an indoor cam too, but didn't offer any details, as they won't launch until later in the summer.
The original sensors cost $1 a month for basic app functionality, but Kangaroo will no longer charge for push notifications. You can also customize the hours during which sensors will send notifications and they're supposedly smart enough to ignore pets.
Professional monitoring is still nicely affordable at $60 a year or $9 a month. Since each piece supposedly only takes a moment to sync to your Wi-Fi, Kangaroo could be a good option for simple security, and the new pieces will help the system watch what you want.
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