Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
The thing about notifications is that they can bring you bad news.
Do you want bad news? Worse, do you want to watch bad news happening, especially if it's happening right inside your home?
In Danny Wheeler's case, he wanted to know. As the New York Post reports, he used a security system and app called Canary. It tells you when nefarious beings are roaming inside your house.
So it was that at lunchtime on Tuesday he received an alert telling him there were intruders at his apartment on Second Avenue and East 81st Street in Manhattan.
Not only that, the Canary system also transmitted images of the action. Wheeler told the Post he immediately dialed 911. He said: "I was making my way [home] watching the entire video like a madman in the cab."
He posted the video to YouTube. It shows a man in a Yankees hat coming in and then letting another man in through a window.
They didn't stay long, however. A neighbor noticed the intruders on the fire escape and asked them what on earth they thought they were doing. In a New York manner, I imagine.
Wheeler says that the film stars got away with around $500 worth of jewelry. The NYPD wasn't immediately available for comment, but Wheeler believes that the Canary system helped the police. Indeed, he said that an officer recognized one of the men.
He blamed his own apartment for the break-in, though. He told Gothamist: I pay stupid amounts of money to rent this apartment and a shoddy window is the reason [I'm] here right now."
In his review, CNET's Ry Crist thought that the $250 Canary system has excellent camera quality, but its motion sensor is so sensitive that it is "borderline unusable."
Wheeler, though, said he's glad he at least saw what had happened, rather than arrive home to find things missing and a mess.
At the time of writing, the two intruders are still somewhere out there.
