Aqara has launched the G400 wired doorbell camera in Australia, with the $199 device one of the few to support Apple HomeKit Secure Video locally.
Devices that work with Apple’s secure smart home platform can save encrypted recordings to recent Apple TVs or HomePods, and upload them to iCloud. Apple Home users can also access further integration, including facial recognition of people saved in the Photos app.
Outside of the Apple ecosystem, the Aqara G400 — shown at IFA last year — also works with Amazon, Samsung, and Google smart home platforms. It may not quite have the Matter support of its Aqara G350 camera hub sibling, but it still works with a decent range of ecosystems.
From a hardware perspective, the video doorbell captures 2K footage with a 165-degree field of view. As a wired device, it needs either a power over Ethernet (PoE) or an 8-24V doorbell connection. As such, it runs 24/7 without the need for recharging, while supplying a Wi-Fi 6 wireless connection to other smart devices.
Included with the G400 are various standard smart home features, ranging from local processing of motion and person detection to customisable detection zones. There’s also two-way communication when someone presses the doorbell button, letting you respond via your phone.
More advanced features, like package and vehicle detection, plus AI summaries of footage, require a paid HomeGuardian subscription, which starts at $4.99 per month in Australia. Storage doesn’t necessarily require an ongoing fee, with microSD card support and automatic backing up of footage to a NAS server.
Aussies can get the Aqara G400 with a $50 launch discount until 25 May, bringing the price down to $149 via Aqara’s online store.
Have you ever sat in a doctor’s surgery and the doctor said, “Why don’t we check your blood pressure?” I know at this point my anxiety peaks, and the doctor ends up taking it a few times, followed by that’s interesting”. The interesting bit is that the doc cannot seem to get a consistent reading. Back to the anxiety, where my worries about the result actually affect the result.
Health guidelines recommend getting your blood pressure checked every two years if you are healthy and under 45 years of age. Over 45s should get checked annually, and if you are a smoker or have a family history of heart disease, every six months.
If your doctor is concerned, or if you cannot obtain an accurate reading in their office, you should take readings twice daily at home for a week. If you do have a blood pressure issue, you should monitor it once or twice a week ongoing.
The measurement of blood pressure is a barometer of your heart’s workload and the condition of your blood vessels. The results are measured with two numbers. The first, or top, number is the pressure your heart pumps to push blood through your veins. The second or lower number is the pressure between heartbeats when the pressure subsides.
A normal result is less than both 120 over 80. An elevated result is 120-129 over 80, and a bad result is 130 over 80 or higher.
Measuring your blood pressure at home
Back to the false readings at the doctor. The recommendation is to take some home readings over a week and go back and see your doctor. Unfortunately, the best way to do this is to buy a blood pressure monitor or borrow one from a friend. The good news is you can buy a monitor at a chemist or your local Harvey Norman or JB Hi-Fi. Prices start around $50, so hiring is not really worth it.
I have been testing the Beurer Blood Pressure Monitor BM 64, a Bluetooth monitor that syncs with your smartphone and stores your results in the cloud. The BM 64 retails for around $150.
Image: Beurer.
A cheaper model will let you record your pressure, but I really like having a Bluetooth-connected monitor that syncs with both Apple Health and Google Fit to give you a long-term health record. This record is something your doctor will be very happy to read, as it spares them the need to guess on a single result in the surgery.
Just a quick note, I like that Beurer has been around for more than 100 years, developing products in the well-being and healthcare space, and not just pumping out a product because it is the latest trend.
If the smartphone connection is beyond you, the BM 64 will record the last 120 results, so you could always take it along to your doctor.
Is the Beurer BM 64 easy to use?
Although not completely idiot-proof, you will get feedback on the display if you have an issue with an individual reading. This could be caused by not relaxing during a reading or incorrect fitment of the sleeve.
To operate, place the cuff firmly on your arm above your elbow with the Velcro strap, then press the centre button to activate, and press it again to start the measurement. After about a minute, a reading appears, is automatically uploaded to your smartphone, and is displayed on the screen. Don’t worry if you don’t understand what the numbers mean, as a multicoloured chart on the side indicates your pressure health. Green through yellow to orange, with red being bad.
Cuff on arm. Image: Angus Jones.
Beyond measuring your blood pressure, the monitor will also measure your pulse and any arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms), with this information also stored and sent to the cloud.
It’s good to know that more gadgets are available to help with our everyday health and diagnosis.
Looking super cute while brimming with advanced features, the dual-lens Aqara G350 camera hub keeps a watchful eye on your home.
There was a time when home security cameras were primarily focused on catching uninvited guests, but these days they’re more about checking in on family and pets left home alone.
Don’t be fooled by the cute bunny ears, the $269 Aqara G350 looks like a basic baby monitor but is actually much more. It can look around, track objects and zoom in, all while supporting the latest smart home standards.
The Aqara G350 camera hub is extremely cute, although not everyone will appreciate its style. Thankfully, the bunny ears are removable if you’re after something a bit more conservative.
The Aqara G350’s bunny ears are easily removed. Image: Adam Turner.
Even then, the camera looks like it’s designed to live on a bedside table. To make the most of it, it belongs in an open living area with a clear view of its surroundings.
The camera stands around 14 cm tall, with a 7 cm circular base, making it roughly the size of a 375 ml can of soft drink. It’s designed to sit on a flat surface and would tuck away nicely on a shelf, although you do have the advantage of a 1/4-inch mounting threaded on the bottom (but no mounting bracket in the box).
While it might not look like much, the Aqara G350 packs an impressive set of features considering its price tag.
For starters, it’s a pan-tilt camera allowing the whole body to rotate 180 degrees left or right. Its movement is completely silent, so as not to draw attention to itself.
This means you get a full 360-degree horizontal view, with a slight fisheye on the wide-angle lens.
While a 360-degree view is great, keep in mind the camera still needs access to AC power, perhaps making it tricky to set up in the middle of a room. It comes with a two-metre USB-C to USB-C cable but no AC adapter, which is frustrating if you don’t have a spare USB-C AC plug lying around.
Meanwhile, the camera can tilt up/down around 45 degrees each way, leaving slight blind spots above and below – falling short of the more flexible Tapo C206 security camera.
Affordable pan-tilt cameras are becoming more common, but what really helps the Aqara G350 stand out is the inclusion of both 4K wide-angle and 2.5K telephoto lenses. With sharp resolutions, they ensure that you get a very clear picture of what’s happening.
Closer inspection reveals the Aqara G350 has two lenses. Image: Adam Turner.
The camera also has a built-in microphone and speaker, plus there’s a function button on the front. It’s for managing connectivity rather than muting the camera/microphone, which will disappoint those who sometimes want their privacy.
The camera does feature a privacy mode, but perhaps not what you’d expect. From the Aqara app, you can roll the little device’s eyes back into its head, revealing two cute closed eyes with the microSD slot for a mouth.
This privacy mode can be scheduled, but it can only be controlled remotely and not by people in the room with the camera, unlike the physical privacy shield on the Ring Pan-Tilt Indoor Camera.
The function button also features a status light, which assists with troubleshooting connectivity and also turns orange to reveal when someone is remotely watching the live feed.
The Aqara G350 camera hub is easy to set up using the Aqara app and QR codes, with extra QR codes for connection to Matter and Apple Home. Be prepared for it to ask for access to a lot of features, such as location, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, notifications, Apple Home and the ability to find other devices.
Part of the reason the camera requests so much access is that it’s also a connectivity hub. It’s billed as the world’s first Matter-certified camera, which is a low-powered, wireless connectivity standard designed to enable interoperability across smart home ecosystems.
As a hub, Aqara G350 supports the low-powered Zigbee and Thread mesh wireless protocols, acting as a bridge for Aqara devices and other smart home gear.
The camera is also platform-agnostic, working with Apple (including HomeKit Secure Video), Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings and IFTTT.
This level of interoperability is still quite rare, making the Aqara G350 a sensible choice if you’re reluctant to lock yourself into one smart home ecosystem. That said, it’s early days for Matter camera support, so your mileage may vary.
By default, the camera sends you a smartphone notification via the Aqara app when something comes into view, with the ability to distinguish people and pets from general movement. You also get the option to snooze notifications for 30, 60 or 120 minutes.
You can click on a smartphone notification to see the live feed or, if you’re too late, an instant replay. When viewing the live feed, the camera interface offers easy access to the plan, tilt and zoom features, including the ability to simply tap on something to get a better view.
Privacy mode rolls the lenses back into the head to reveal a cute face with closed eyes. Image: Adam Turner.
From this menu, you can also enable AI-powered Person, Animal and Close-up tracking, which automatically returns to its default position 30 seconds after losing sight of the object. There’s also a configurable Cruise mode that regularly scans the room.
The app doesn’t support creating activity zones to limit notifications, but that’s no great loss considering that activity zones typically don’t adjust when the camera moves.
The camera can even support gesture recognition. You can make the okay sign, with one or two hands, to trigger specific events across the Aqara ecosystem, which includes cameras, doorbells, sensors, controllers, switches and smart locks.
Plus, there’s a creepy-sounding ‘smile detection’, which is seemingly designed to capture happy family moments.
Along with video, the camera also supports two-way audio, which includes the AI-powered ability to detect alarms, crying babies, barking dogs, coughing, snoring and general loud noises.
The camera also supports AI Video Search via keyword, along with AI-written summaries. It’s worth noting that a lot of the AI detection features are labelled ‘Lab’, meaning they are still a work in progress.
To take advantage of all these advanced features, the Aqara G350 comes with a three-month free Home Guardian plan, after which it is priced $4.99 p/m ($49.99 p/a) for one camera or $9.99 p/m ($99.99 p/a) for unlimited cameras.
AI-powered people, pets, faces, lens obstruction, motion and sound detection are available without a subscription. The Home Guardian plan unlocks vehicle and package detection, AI summary and search, and 90 days of cloud video storage.
Quality
The Aqara G350 camera hub does a decent job of tracking movement around the room, issuing alarms for people and pets. Close-up tracking is a bit hit-and-miss, but the gesture control works well.
Manual control of the telephoto lens is certainly helpful for getting a good view of someone’s face on the other side of the room, although it doesn’t cope as well with bright backlights as the wide-angle lens.
At a range of seven metres, the telephoto lens (1x, 3x and 9x) makes it much easier to see people’s faces clearly. Image: Adam Turner.
The two-way audio quality is also pretty good for speaking to people on the other side of the room.
Sadly, the AI audio detection is less impressive, failing to detect alarms, crying babies, coughing or barking dogs (the last two of which are in Labs). My dogs actually did a much better job of alerting me to all of those sounds.
Who is the Aqara G350 camera hub for?
The combination of pan/tilt controls and wide/telephoto lenses makes the Aqara G350 camera hub an extremely versatile camera – assuming you have a good central spot to install it, with easy access to power.
The AI video detection works well, but the AI audio features seem to be much more of a work in progress. Digging through the menus reveals a wide range of ‘Lab’ features, so it will be interesting to see how the camera’s capabilities improve over time.
The icing on the cake is impressive smart home interoperability, particularly Matter support as both a camera and a hub. This keeps your options open when it comes to committing to a smart home ecosystem, keeping in mind that interoperability isn’t always smooth sailing.
Aqara G350 camera hub
Packed with features and future-proof, the Aqara G350 camera hub fits into any smart home.
Features
9.5
Value for money
9
Performance
8.5
Ease of use
8.5
Design
8.5
Positives
Pan/tilt controls
Dual wide and telephoto lens with 4K / 2.5K resolution
Not everyone is seemingly a fan of the current Mac operating system’s design, which is something Apple will address in the upcoming macOS 27 update.
As reported by Bloomberg’s Mark Guerman, some design tweaks set for macOS 27 will address readability, without overhauling the aesthetic entirely. Last year, Apple introduced a new software design called “Liquid Glass”, a uniform style that came with its suite of operating system updates, including iOS 26 and macOS 26.
Liquid Glass introduced a range of translucent effects to the user interface, letting users see through some menu items to the content behind. Early impressions were divided, with Apple tweaking the design before the major operating system updates arrived in September.
According to Gurman, Liquid Glass hasn’t quite taken off as Apple would’ve liked across its Mac range. Some of the menu items aren’t as easy to read on a Mac’s display as on an iPhone or iPad.
In response, Apple is reportedly tweaking the macOS 27 design to “make Liquid Glass look the way Apple’s design team intended it to from the start”. The see-through look of the software won’t go away. Instead, it is meant to be easier to parse and fit more cohesively within the Mac user experience.
Apple’s planned visual changes are expected to join various other software improvements. Battery life is one of them, helping Mac users squeeze in a bit of extra time before needing to charge.
Aussies eager to play the latest Nintendo games will soon have to pay more for the privilege, after the Japanese company announced a price increase for the Switch 2.
When Nintendo first announced the Switch 2 last year, the price was the biggest talking point. Nintendo’s hardware typically sells for less than its main console competitors from Sony and Microsoft. While that was still technically the case, its $699.95 launch price tag in Australia was a big leap from the original Switch’s $469 cost.
As of 1 September 2026, Nintendo will increase the Australian price of the Switch 2 to $769.95, a $70 bump. Nintendo’s official reasoning was that it was “in response to various changes in market conditions, which are expected to extend over the medium to long term”.
“We understand that pricing changes can be challenging for customers and deeply appreciate the continued enthusiasm of our fans for Nintendo products and experiences,” said a news update on Nintendo’s website.
However, Nintendo is expecting slower sales in the coming financial year: 16.50 million. Higher component prices, and therefore increased costs for consumers, are a big reason why.
Microsoft Flight Simulator has just released World Update 21: Australia, its first update to Australia for the sim since 2021. I sat down at the launch event at the RFS Hangar in Bankstown to listen to the Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, Jorg Neumann, talk about what’s new.
He introduced some of the 40 new areas included in the update from all Australian states and territories, six new airports and 36 points of interest, including some big landmarks such as the Big Orange, Big Lobster, Big Mango, Big Golden Guitar and Neumann’s favourite, The Giant Koala.
“We learned a lot about big things.” — Jorg Neumann. Image: Naomi Jackson.
To celebrate the launch of the update, Neumann was joined by the NSW Rural Fire Service to collaboratively showcase a new firefighting mission that was created with help from their recommendations. This mission is also available in the new update and challenges players to water-bomb a blaze near Coffs Harbour.
Image: Naomi Jackson.
The challenge is then scored, and the best scores are showcased on a world leaderboard. I had a great time trying it out and marvelled at how great the game’s planes look as they dip into water, but after a couple of nosedives into the ground, I don’t think I’ll be world-ranking any time soon.
Image: Naomi Jackson.
The developers have also created two Australian ‘local legend’ planes for the game to coincide with the update. “When we go to a country, we try and create a plane that means something to that country,” Neumann explained.
The first local legend, the CAC Boomerang, is the only fighter aircraft designed and manufactured in its entirety in Australia. It is available now via the in-game marketplace for US$14.99.
CAC Boomerang (left) and the Fokker F.VII (right). Images: Xbox.
The second local legend, the Fokker F.VII, was the model of plane Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew used in the first ever transpacific flight from the US to Australia. It is available for free for a limited time from 6 May until 13 May.
The update is available now, and you can get it for free if you own Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 or 2020.
When Google acquired Fitbit in 2021, it rolled most of the latter’s health-tracking technology into the Pixel Watch range, without much in the way of Fitbit-specific hardware. Today, the fitness brand is making a comeback of sorts, with Google announcing the Fitbit Air, a wristband designed for wearing 24 hours a day.
It’s Fitbit’s smallest tracker, in no small part due to its screenless design, akin to a Whoop device. Instead of a display as seen on past Pixel Watches and Fitbits, the Air contains a “tiny, discreet pebble” that monitors the wearer’s health.
Inside this small tracker are sensors capable of tracking heart rate, sleep stages, and various other health metrics. Google claims that the Fitbit Air lasts up to a week between charges. That’s partly due to the lack of screen taxing the battery, but there’s also no built-in GPS technology.
Designed to automatically detect different types of workouts and activities, the new band pairs with the Google Health app. The device’s launch coincides with the launch of Google Health Coach in Australia. Using Gemini AI technology, it provides feedback and workout plans based on your data saved in Google Health.
Image: Google.
Google Health Coach officially launches on 20 May, when it will be available for Pixel Watch and Fitbit wearers. It comes included as part of a Google Health Premium subscription, priced at $14.99 per month, while Google AI Pro ($32.99/month) and Ultra ($409.99/month) subscribers gain access at no extra cost.
In Australia, the Fitbit Air costs $199 and comes in four colours: Obsidian, Lavender, Berry, and Fog. By default, the wearable comes with a Performance Loop Band, made from a breathable material. There’s also the option of the sweatproof silicone Active Band or the polyurethane Elevated Modern Band as extra purchases.
