We are a nation of pet lovers! Over 45% of us in the UK have a pet with 18% having a cat, according research by statista. Combine this with our growing love of tech you can easily understand why the smart pet market is booming.

When it comes to cat ownership one big concern is knowing where you cat is. As funny as it may sound cats are very independent animals and come and go as they please. Keeping them inside or monitoring them is notoriously difficult, causing stress and undue concern for owners.

Sure Petcares Smart Cat Flap hopes to change that!

What does it do?

SureFlap Microchip Connect cat flap has all the standard features of a cat flap:

• Keeps your pets in
• Keeps your pets out
• Lock both ways

As it is a microchip cat flap it also restricts access to your registered pets, keeping out unwanted visitors or the neighbourhood bully.

The smart part comes into play with their app, here where you can see a report of exactly when your cat has came in and out. As well as set a curfew mode to limit times your cat can come in and out.
You can also manually update the cats location, if for example he went out via the open back door and not the flap.

The cat flap is the same size as most standard cat flaps:

• Hole size – 165 mm (W) x 171 mm (H)
• Flap opening – 142 mm (W) x 120 mm (H)

This makes it easy to upgrade your existing cat flap without creating additional holes or mess!

No subscription is required, the only on going cost is batteries and these should last 6 months.

How easy is it to setup?

Setup was very straightforward. The first challenge was getting the cat through the cat flap before installing. However this is standard with any chip reading cat flap.

A few dreamies, every cats favourite treat, later and our cat Ronnie was registered.Once the cat is registered you can setup the cutest hub you have seen, yes it does have ears!
One potential issue for some users will be the hub needs to ideally be within line of sight of the flap. This was no issue for us as we have multiple Google WiFi nodes through out the house. If your cat flap and router are not nearby one cheap and easy solution is to plugin the hub into a power-line adaptor.

Once the hub and flap are setup the next step is to install the app and setup a household. This is a great idea as allows you to easily add people to your household, as well as multiple pets.

The hub and flap all easily connected to the app without any issues. The hub does have lights but these can be adjusted inside the app – great touch if you have to have the hub in your bedroom.

Once setup the app alerts you to pets found on the flap. If it is an indoor cat you have the option of immediately selecting as an indoor only cat to prevent them making an escape.

You can then setup your pets profile including name photo as well as breed and weight. Now you have the option of setting a curfew or controlling the flap.

What’s does the SureFlap Microchip Cat Flap Connect cost?

The flap has an RRP of £109.99, the hub is sold separately for £49.99. They also offer a bundle pack for £149.99 – saving £10. The hub work with SureFlaps other connected products.

SureFlap Microchip Cat Flap Connect

What’s the connectivity?

At present the flap does not connect to the rest of your smart home. However we did ask ourselves is this really needed…probably not!

What’s it like living with it?

Our cat loves coming and going as he pleases, often at night. This allows us to easily see when he has came and gone, keeping a record. This is also great to spot sudden changes in behaviour. For example if he suddenly decided not to go out for 24 hours.

The notifications are very cute and highlight how much care has been taken in this products development.
Being able to add users to the household with custom levels of access again shows the attention to detail.If for example you had a pet sitter then can view what your cat has been doing but can’t change any settings.

What are our final thoughts?

The SureFlap Microchip Cat Flap Connect from Sure Petcare provides amazing peace of mind. No more worrying if your cat has come or gone unnoticed.

A lot of care has been taken in the design of the cat flap, hub and app.  It’s clear to us this was made by animal lovers and experts who know tech, not tech lovers trying to make a pet product.

We are awarding this our top Smart Pet Product!

• Monitor your pets activity and easily spot changes in behaviour
• Receive notifications when your pet enters or leaves
• Remotely lock the door
• Schedule locking and unlocking
• Share access with friends

This is clever tech as it allows you to easily monitor your pet. Giving you peace of mind as well as giving your pet the freedom they need.

• Improved server communication
• Updated dashboard allowing quicker and easier access to data
• Improved household view – supporting multiple pets

When will the smart cat flap be released?

The post SureFlap tease Smart Cat Flap appeared first on Smart Home Geeks.

MIA a fully automated robot that plays with your Cat or dog – as well as dispensing treats!

(Before you ask no we have no idea what MIA stands for, however we wonder if the inventors knew about the unfortunate military use of the acronym!?)

Kolony claim MIA will reduced anxiety levels of your pet as rather than just waiting your return it can be playing with MIA.

MIA is equipped with multiple sensors to detect walls and obstacles as well as an app that allows you to customise play time and how often it treats.

MIA is the first part of a smart pet ecosystem Kolony Robotic will be releasing. This comprises of:

MIA CAM – This is a pet camera that allows you to watch your pet play with MIA.

WOOF BOX – This clever little box detects barking. When it hears barking MIA is activated to play with your dog and stop the barking.

Tech details are limited at this stage but so far we know:

• Size: 10” x 10” x 10”
• Power: Rechargeable battery
• Treat capacity: 400 ML
• Construction: Strong polymer
• Control: Automated & App

As pet lovers at Smart Home Geeks this sounds pretty awesome and we can’t wait to get our paws, we mean hands, on one to give it try!

MIA will be coming to Kickstarter soon. In the meantime for details visit: http://www.kolonyrobotic.com/

The post Your pet has a robotic friend – MIA! appeared first on Smart Home Geeks.

This review is for your furry friend in your Smart Home! Petcube Bites.

What does Petcube Bites do?!

Petcube Bites is a HD 1080P camera with one big difference, it can throw treats!

It also features:

• Two way audio
• Wide-angle view
• Night vision
• 3x digital zoom
• Recording ability and cloud video storage.

It includes a limited free cloud storage of 4 hours, for longer periods you need to subscribe.  A feature they call Petcube Care.

One very innovative feature is Facebook live – you can stream your interaction with your pet. This is pretty awesome, especially as at present Facebook gives a notification to all your friends that you are live. Just don’t tell your pet or they won’t want to perform under the pressure!

The app is great fun, the treats are thrown in a similar style to Angry Birds allowing you to choose how far you throw it. It can throw treats to nearly 2 meters!

This is done by dragging up the bone, below, and releasing the white circle.
It also gives you notifications when your pet moves near it, or if you use it it records it as an interaction.

When we spoke to Petcubes they told us new features are always being thought of and can be released via free software updates.

They are well established in the smart pet space with over 100,000 Petcube owners world wide. As well as winning multiple innovation and design awards.

How easy is it to setup?

Setup was easy, you basically plug in the unit and create the account. The box contains everything you could possibly need even raw plugs if you wanted to wall mount it.

When creating your account you create a profile, this includes adding your pets.

We were pretty impressed how extensive the list of breeds was even our Japanese Chin was listed.

One of the biggest challenges for setup was finding the right type of treat.

How much does Petcube Bites cost?

£199 from Amazon.co.uk

Alternatively their website is:

What’s the connectivity?

Petcube Bites connects directly with Facebook – you can even live stream directly from the app.

It also has an Alexa App allowing you to throw treats with your voice!

What’s it like living with it?

We tested it for quite a few weeks with our cat and dog.

The first tricky part was finding treats that worked well in the UK. Due to the mechanism the treats it throws have a maximum and minimum size.

We tried quite a few different treats only to find they jam or come out in bulk. We eventually found something suitable in our local pet shop. Sorry it was unbranded and sold loose otherwise we would tell you what exactly we found worked for other UK readers.

One frustration was the recommended treats were not available in the UK. Likewise the Amazon Dash subscription option in the app was all setup for USA and not UK. As it has only recently been released in the UK we assume this will be updated in a later app update.

If this worked it would be cool as it can automatically re-order treats when low via Amazon!

Petcube Bites Wi-Fi Pet Camera With Treat Dispenser

Once we had the correct treats we needed to find the puurrrrrfect, sorry couldn’t resist, place for the unit. First we tried on a table and then kitchen worktop, finally finding it is best on the floor. This way our pet can see it and understand it a bit better.

Our cat seemed to get the grip much quicker, coming over for treats almost instantly after being called via the 2-way audio.

Our dog took a little training to understand what it was. The first few time we called her she ran to the front door looking for us. To overcome this we trained her by one person being with her when another calls via the app. The person ‘at home’ then showed her where the voice was coming from and reassured her it was ok.

The limited free cloud storage is good however not being able to download videos without a subscription is slightly frustrating. The subscription, Petcube Care, is aligned with the market leader Nests charges.

Petcube Care prices:

• 3 days – $4.99 / month
• 10 days – $9.99 / month
• 30 days – $24.99 / month

Nest charges:

• £8 / month for 10 days
• £24 / month for 30 days

What are our final thoughts?

Petcubes bites is great!

Once your pet gets used to it, it is a fun way of interacting with your pet while you’re at work or just not in. Playing with your pet is not only great fun but stress relief, we found it was great little break from work when feeling stressed and wanted to relax. It is also good for your pet as can help with separation anxiety and boredom. So its win win!

There is a lot they can do to upgrade this product and were pretty excited to see where it goes, for example IFTTT so if it detects motion lights can be turned on.

If you are a smart home and animal lover this is something for you.