Spy on pets, beat burglars and get concrete evidence of poltergeist activity, and recycle that battered old iPhone at the same time
Sometimes the urge to acquire new gadgets can leave old ones sitting and gathering dust, but the creators of an app called Manything – a portmanteau of 'monitor' and 'anything' – have come up with a creative solution for any such abandoned phones or tablets.
Manything claims to turn older devices into home security cameras to give you peace of mind while out and about. By installing the app and setting up the device, you can use it to keep an eye on your pets, or watch over your place of business, or anything else you can think of. That could save you having to buy your own indoor security camera.
(If security and safety is on your mind, you might also want to take a look at our separate list of the best dash cams for your car.)
The company behind the app has recently updated it with a few new features, chief among which is 720p recording straight to the cloud. There’s also pinch-and-zoom functionality for zooming into live and recorded video to get a closer look at what’s going on, and a Date Picker feature that lets you zoom straight to your footage from a particular date in history.
A two-way talk feature is also available, allowing users to remotely issue commands to pets if they need to. There are also smart motion alerts, which send alerts to your device when the camera detects movement, and these can be set to different parameters and levels of sensitivity.
The app can also be set to record if triggered by motion or sound, shooting stills and even creating time lapses, although one thing the marketing spiel doesn’t mention is battery. The promo pictures all show devices unplugged and recording, but presumably they wouldn’t stay that way for long without a power source – especially if they’re older devices, whose batteries may not perform as once did.
You can get hold of the Manything app now on iOS or Google Play. The app itself free, although there are paid subscription plans that give you a little more functionality. Head to Manything’s website to get a closer look at what’s on offer.
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Jon spent years at IPC Media writing features, news, reviews and other photography content for publications such as Amateur Photographer and What Digital Camera in both print and digital form. With his additional experience for outlets like Photomonitor, this makes Jon one of our go-to specialists when it comes to all aspects of photography, from cameras and action cameras to lenses and memory cards, flash diffusers and triggers, batteries and memory cards, selfie sticks and gimbals, and much more besides.
An NCTJ-qualified journalist, he has also contributed to Shortlist, The Skinny, ThreeWeeks Edinburgh, The Guardian, Trusted Reviews, CreativeBLOQ, and probably quite a few others I’ve forgotten.
