Beaten to the Punch - Again!

With Cate and Emma tucked into their cribs and nodding off to sleep, I crept out of the bedroom using my iPhone as a flashlight.  I thought to myself, wouldn't it be so convenient if my iPhone could also work as my baby monitor.  And then it happened - again.  Someone beat me to it.  Charlie was reading the WSJ on the sofa.  I looked over, and the front-page article of the Personal Section featured new gadgets for 2011, including a camera that turns your iPhone into a baby monitor, aptly named the Smart BabyMonitor.  The camera clips to the crib.  If you've balanced a baby monitor on pillows or the edge of the crib, or tried to find a place for the camera that is safe from reaching toddler arms yet captures your little one, a clip-on camera sounds great.  Of course, it's more than a camera.  It measures temperature, humidity, and, best of all, besides the typical microphone, it has speakers so, as the WSJ puts it, "parents can sing the baby back to sleep with a remote lullaby."  Or, if remote lullabies aren't your little one's taste, I'm sure it could also be used to remind your toddler to lay down, stop throwing everything out of the crib, or keep her clothes on.  Sound familiar anyone?   One last plug for the item - distance is not an issue.  For me, this sounds great since my monitor sometimes doesn't pick up Cate's room from our kitchen, which, for those who haven't visited, is not far.  This is the point where the technology starts to creep me out a bit because now your baby monitor works down the street, wherever that may be -  your friend's house, your office, a shop, the grocery store, a restaurant, or, better yet, a bar.   Okay, I still love the product, so long as one doesn't get carried away with it!