Home Security and Your iPhone or iPod Touch

Home automation is still evolving through software and apps on your iPhone. A lot of apps can be downloaded for free, but software and service fees can become extreme. Getting the entire system to work requires knowledge of home electrical wiring as well as computer networking. There are a few products on the market that are available such as Domus, Alarm.com, Control4 and Mobiscope, plus more like ROSIE mobile by Savant Systems are still in the works.

Eventually you’ll not only be able to access security cameras and detectors in and around your home via your iPhone, but you’ll be able to control things like the lighting, air temperature, and even your sprinkler system. All of this will soon change the way we interact with our homes, as well as our smart phones.In fact, it's happening now!

Products Available

Right now there are a few applications that work on your iPhone; Here’s a brief description of each:

Domus Home Security is an iPhone application that uses CCTV systems set up in your home. It costs $5.13 per month for service, but you receive free emails containing pictures of movements detected on the cameras. You can access these cameras in real-time and drive the camera by your mobile phone. Other features include remotely activating or disabling motion detectors and viewing and managing several cameras at once. Domus works with broadband routers and it works exclusively with IP Axis cameras.

Mobiscope offers unlimited access to the service for a one-time fee of $29.50, plus its great for the iPhone as well as Android device and Blackberry clients. All you need to get started is a webcam or network camera to record or watch in real-time. There’s no purchasing of extra equipment and it works well with most camera makes/models. You can hook the system up to motion detectors and alerts are sent to you via email.

ROSIE Mobile by Savant Systems is an application by iPhone that will hopefully be available soon. It will not only allow you to control your home security needs, but other things around your home as well such as lighting and air temperatures. Prices rumors are quoting this application just under $200.

Control4 by Control IU is another great app for your iPhone that also allows you to control other features in and outside of your home such as lighting, security systems, temperatures and more. You have to contact Control IU for more info, including prices.

Alarm.com is an app available in iPhone's app store. It offers you complete control of your home security system right from your phone. Plus, it offers real time alerts and monitoring, and there's no internet or IP address needed for connection. The best part about this is the app is free!

Warning: Pushing iPhone Home Button Is a Security Risk in Itself

When you press the iPhone’s home button it shrinks and disappears.The problem is that the iPhone is taking a snapshot of the screen contents to create that effect. The snapshot includes everything like emails, sms, notes, contacts or websites. Most users think once they close the app the snapshots are deleted, but according to security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski, deleted snapshots are available for recovery and show him exactly what a user was doing at a given time. But this isn’t where the privacy risk stops. Everything that gets at least temporarily stored on the iPhone can be recovered too. This includes keyboard and Safari cache, deleted emails and pictures. Now, someone does need physical access to the iPhone to be able to recover the data, but it is possible and you should be aware.