Bambino Wireless Internet Baby Monitor w/iPhone, Android, and Web Viewing (Windows PC required)
Bambino Wireless Internet Baby Monitor w/iPhone, Android, and Web Viewing (Windows PC required)
- Connects wirelessly to a computer through USB dongle – no cable to keep the camera tethered to a PC
- Included Seedonk software lets you securely check in on your baby while you’re away, and share your camera with family and friends
- View from the same computer or any other PC with Seedonk software, or from your iPhone and Google Phone w/Seedonk App
- Video Resolution: 640×480, Built-in microphone, Night vision: 9 IR LED’s, Wireless range (line of sight): 60m (~196ft), Power: 6V DC or AAA Battery x 4, Battery life (night vision on): 3hr (alkaline AAA battery x 4)
- System Requirements: CPU Pentium 4 1.4GHz or above; Windows XP & Vista ONLY; USB 2.0 port; 256MB RAM and 100MB hard disk space; NOT Compatible with Mac OS
With the Bambino there is no USB cable to keep the camera tethered to your PC. Simply plug in the USB dongle to your computer and place the camera in a convenient location.
Use the bundled Seedonk software to securely transmit the video over the Internet. With the camera added to Seedonk, you can view your baby from the next room or anywhere online. Seedonk lets you remotely log on to view, manage, and share the Bambino from anywhere on the Internet. Furthermore, the Seedonk iPhone and Android App provides mobile access to the Bambino while you are on the move, and the Bambino can also be safely and easily shared with close friends and family through Facebook.
Bambino helps you stay in touch with your child when life pulls you away.
NOT
Rating: 
(out of 9 reviews)
List Price: $ 149.00
Price: {price-updating}
Related Online Baby Monitor Products
Review by K. Bright for Bambino Wireless Internet Baby Monitor w/iPhone, Android, and Web Viewing (Windows PC required)
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UPDATE:
BELOW IS MY PRIOR REVIEW FROM WHEN I FIRST BOUGHT THIS PRODUCT. AT FIRST IT SEEMED GREAT BUT THEN I REALIZED A FATAL FLAW. THE CAMERA COMES WITH A USB DONGLE THAT YOU PLUG INTO YOUR COMPUTER TO GET THE VIDEO STREAM. THERE IS ALSO AN OPTION FOR REMOTE VIEWING WHERE YOU ARE VIEWING THE VIDEO FROM A COMPUTER OTHER THAN THE COMPUTER TO WHICH THE USB DONGLE IS ATTACHED. FOR EXAMPLE, I HAVE A DESKTOP COMPUTER UPSTAIRS AND PLUGGED THE USB DONGLE INTO THAT COMPUTER. THEN, NO MY LAPTOP I LOGGED INTO THE SOFTWARE THEY GIVE YOU (CALLED “SEEDONK”) TO VIEW THE VIDEO DOWNSTAIRS. THAT’S WHERE THE ISSUE COMES FROM.
APPARENTLY, THE SEEDONK SOFTWARE (BELIEVE IT OR NOT) IS SET TO TIME OUT EVERY FIVE TO TEN MINUTES IN ORDER TO PREVENT PEOPLE FROM LEAVING THEIR CAMERAS ON AND USING UP ALL OF THE BANDWIDTH OF THE SEEDONK SERVERS. THAT’S RIGHT; THE SOFTWARE WILL TERMINATE THE CONNECTION EVERY FIVE TO TEN MINUTES UNLESS YOU CLICK ON THE SCREEN TO STOP IT FROM TIMING OUT. SO IF YOU WANT A BABY MONITOR THAT WILL TURN ITSELF OFF EVER FIVE TO TEN MINUTES UNLESS YOU PUSH A BUTTON, HAVE AT IT. OTHERWISE, I WOULD RECOMMEND LOOKING ELSEWHERE.
I HAD GIVEN THIS PRODUCT A 5 OUT OF 5 RATING BUT I’VE REVISED IT TO A 1 OUT OF FIVE. I’D ACTUALLY LIKE TO GIVE IT 0 OUT 5 SINCE THE SOFTWARE TIMEOUT ISSUE RENDERS THE DEVICE COMPLETELY USELESS BUT 1 STAR IS THE LOWEST RATING I CAN GIVE.
BACKGROUND:
About a year ago my wife dragged me to Babies r Us to get a baby shower gift for some friends of ours who were having their first baby. On the registry I noticed some ridiculously overpriced “HD” video baby monitor for I think about $300.00. Several months later we visited those same friends and I got a chance to see this $300.00 “HD” video baby monitor in action. Needless to say, I was very unimpressed. The screen was about 2″ across and the resolution was so awful you almost couldn’t tell what you were looking at. It then occurred to me that you could probably use a wireless webcam to accomplish a much better result for a lot less money.
A couple months later, my wife and I got pregnant and I began looking for a wireless webcam to use as a baby monitor. During my search I realized two things: (1) wireless webcams are more expensive than I first thought; and (2) the process of configuring that arrangement is probably beyond my technical know-how. During my search I came across the Bambino Wireless Internet Baby Monitor. It appeared to be exactly what I was looking for and although it was a little more money that I wanted to spend, it still ended up a lot cheaper than a standard video monitor.
MY REVIEW:
I ordered this product on Monday and it arrived on Thursday. Apparently they ship from California and I’m on the east coast so that’s pretty impressive. The box contains five things: (1) the camera itself; (2) a USB dongle (with a small antenna); (3) an A/C adapter; (4) a CD containing the software; and (5) the instructions.
I unpacked everything and read the instructions. The camera itself can run on 4 AAA batteries or with the included A/C adapter. I plugged the camera in, installed the software on my computer (which I downloaded from their website rather than using the included CD) and plugged the USB dongle into my laptop’s USB drive. From there, I started the software and it found the webcam and wirelessly connected it to my laptop. It was all very easy. I will say however, that the software is designed for remote viewing (where you view the webcam over the internet from a computer not directly connected to the USB dongle), which I have not attempted to use yet. For my purposes, I plan on just attaching the USB dongle to my laptop whenever I need to use it.
Overall, I’m pretty impressed so far. It was easy to operate, easy to set up, and easy to use. Also the camera has some soft orange lights on the side that can be used, I suppose, as a nightlight. I thought that was a neat feature.
PROS:
- Easy to set up and use.
- Relatively inexpensive (at $130.00) although that’s supposed to be an introductory price. The full price is supposed to be $170.00, which isn’t such a good deal in my opinion.
- Attractive design.
- Operates on AAA’s or A/C adaptor.
- The microphone is very sensitive and pickups sound well.
- Built-in night vision.
CONS:
- Video resolution is pretty lousy.
- The “full price” is a bit too high since most stand-alone video baby monitors are about that price or even less.
- There is some mention the box about a “premium service,” which is apparently included for 1 year. After that, it’s $29.95 per year. I’m not sure what you get but I do remember seeing something about better resolution and the ability to post the webcam feed on facebook and view on an Iphone with an app. Personally, I think this stuff should be included in the price, especially if you’re paying $170.00.
Review by H. Yau for Bambino Wireless Internet Baby Monitor w/iPhone, Android, and Web Viewing (Windows PC required)
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We’ve had this monitor for a few months now and it has been performing well. We actually bought this product as a way to share our adoption experience with our family when we went to meet our daughter in China. It was really fun for us as well as for the grandparents to be able to “meet” and see her in those first few days for us as a family. Since we had to travel to a few different cities and stay at different hotels, it was really convenient to be able to just plug the usb dongle into my laptop and uses the laptop’s internet connection to share out the video with our folks. Here were a couple of reason that closed the deal for us initially for our trip: (instead of just using the built-in notebook webcam)
1. Convenience – it’s wireless and can operate on 4 AA batteries, which made it much more convenient to place than the laptop.
2. Availability – we could leave the computer/software running for the grandparents to log in at anytime. (mainly during the night to watch her sleep)
Now we’ve been home and used it more as a traditional monitor. I feel like I have a good perspective of what it does well and what it doesn’t.
The Good
- Internet capable and remote access: this is really the biggest reason for buying this device. The bundled Seedonk software provides good video quality and audio sensitivity. It’s really nice to be able to access the monitor over 3G on my iPhone, and the Facebook app is fun and makes it really easy for our close friends and family to view the camera. (though in actuality, we found that we didn’t use the Facebook app that much after the initial phase)
- Easy to install and use. I’ve researched other similar products where it was quite a pain to get remote-access working, so I was definitely happy with how easy the setup and user experience was.
- Battery option. It made it very convenient for temporary placement. It had pretty decent battery life, we had it running for about 4-5 hours on 4AA batteries. (Note that there are no batteries included and it’s not rechargeable, we bought a few packs of batteries in China because of this.)
The Bad
- The image quality and resolution could be better. A caveat here is this depends on what you compare it with. It’s great if you compare it with a baby monitor’s image quality (which is what we figured), but poor if you compare it with standard webcams.
- Video only on the iPhone. (though on their support forum, they say that a new release with audio is schedule for the end of April)
- I need to leave my PC running for remote viewing. (This set up was convenient when we were traveling, but at home it’s a bit of a hassle)
- Potential interference w/ wifi. We do not have this issue in our home, but I have seen it happen once when we were traveling. If you search most of the popular video monitors on Amazon that run on 2.4GHz frequency you will see this complaint, so I think it has to do with devices that use this frequency. (People have suggested various workarounds that may or may not work for them) I think whether or not you will be affected has a lot to do with how much 2.4GHz wireless interference you have in your home. If there are a lot, you may have problems.
My conclusion is that this product will not replace a traditional monitor, so if you are looking to this to replace the features of a traditional video baby monitor, you better look somewhere else. (or you will be sorely disappointed) We use it in conjunction with a traditional audio monitor (Philips Avent Basic Baby Monitor w/ DECT Technology) and it works for us. Personally, being able to see my daughter from my iPhone from where ever I am is the main reason I continue to use this product and overall I can say I am quite happy with it. (The grandparents are also happy with it)
Review by Bambino Brian for Bambino Wireless Internet Baby Monitor w/iPhone, Android, and Web Viewing (Windows PC required)
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My wife and I are expecting our first child in April…a little girl. We were out registering for baby shower gifts at Babies-R-Us when we came to the baby monitor aisle. After hours and hours of looking at breast pumps, humidifiers, bottles, furniture, strollers, etc. I thought to myself, “HOW MUCH MORE STUFF DO WE NEED? AHHHHHHH”. I looked at my iPhone to see how long we had been shopping…and it came to me. Why do I need a baby monitor, I have an iPhone…there has got to be an app for that! The thought of preventing another piece of electronics from entering the house was awesome (we have a gadget filled home). I pulled up the app store and found all of these apps that would call “a number of my choice once my iPhone detected sound” in the nursery (which was stupid because my phone would have to call itself and then it would wake up the baby – duh?). I couldn’t find what I was looking for and thought that I had just invented the coolest thing since sliced bread. When I got home and did a little more research, I stumbled across Imogen Studio’s Bambino Wireless Internet Baby Monitor which works hand in hand with Seedonk. I saw that Seedonk was in Beta testing mode and was a little leary at first. I sent both Imogen Studios and Seedonk a few emails asking a few questions…and after prompt and courteous responses, decided to give the Bambino a shot. The box arrived and it was SOOOOO simple to set up. Download the software, turn on the camera, plug in the USB stick, and poof…we were staring at our soon to be nursery on our living room computer (which is our TV). One extra step to download the free Seedonk app and we were staring at our soon to be nursery on our iPhones! Also, not only do my wife and I have access to view our soon to be daughter on our computer and iPhones, but our family and friends can also sneak a peek on their iPhones and facebook as well. This product is awesome!! I am a happy customer!
Review by Jaejean Kang for Bambino Wireless Internet Baby Monitor w/iPhone, Android, and Web Viewing (Windows PC required)
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This product is simply amazing. We purchased it for friends who just had their 2nd. They RAVED about it, saying that this product has given them 2 extra hours in their day. Their little ones can hang out in the bath or in their crib/toddler bed and the parents can do get some errands done in the kitchen/office simultaneously. I witnessed the product at work. We’re pregnant and definitely gonna get one (maybe two) ourselves.
Review by Just for Bambino Wireless Internet Baby Monitor w/iPhone, Android, and Web Viewing (Windows PC required)
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I got this for my friend who was blessed with a lil girl in March. Seeing that this is their 1st child mom doesn’t have to sprint from the kitchen or living room when lil Shelia is crying (but she does anyways). And the fact that it can be accessed from multiple computers pushes it way ahead of the standard camera and single viewer.
Actually, my friend was able to use the I-phone app and get streams of lil Shelia at work and shows them off to us on an almost daily basis. It’s funny watching a grown man smurk as he stares at his I-Phone in his cube.