The OWL Cam - developed by engineers from Apple, Drop Cam and Microsoft

What if something happens to the car before the temperature drops below 120ºF? You get zilch footage.
What if the temperature never drops below 120ºF until the owner gets to the car? Does he/she need to turn the A/C on and wait until the camera is operational? What if the car doesn't have A/C? What if he/she needs to drive straight away?
I'm not sure where you found that attached quote, but the website currently ups the numbers. It's also the only dash cam I'm aware of with active cooling fans.
"Q: Will high temperatures affect the Owl Car Cam?
A: When the Owl Car Cam’s electronics reach 200 ̊F, the device will go into standby and automatically recover when it cools down. Owl’s active-cooling fan helps keep its electronics cool. On very hot days of 100 ̊F outside or higher, the temperature inside a parked car in the direct sun can reach upwards of 160 ̊F. We recommend parking in the shade on hot days."
 
So far it's made it through a Chicago summer and below zero weather that's been going on for a few days now. Not counting today which is in the high thirties. During the summer I open the windows a bit because I once had a cheap phone holder melt a little, when left on the dashboard. This is being parked outdoors in a lot. But february has just begun so it's not over yet.
 
Well, I have the owlcam and loved it. Now it's gone and they are out of business and the cam doesn't work FOR ANYONE! See here below!

www.owlcam.com
 
too bad, but maybe someone will snag up the IP and run with it
 
OwlCam became a member here on DCT, primarily so they could watch this thread. They liked one of my posts to this thread but apparently never posted and they didn't stick around too long.

When I saw they had joined DCT I thought perhaps they would join the conversation, answer questions and be receptive to comments and suggestions but that never happened. Perhaps that speaks in some way to what eventually happened to the company?


owlcam_member.jpg
 
Hehe imaging what you could do with money like that,,,,,, and make dashcams too
 
28M in funding didn't last long
Those Apple engineers they hired were not used to working with tiny budgets like that!
 
Holy crap that's funny. Crazy how that kind of money was spent. I will say it's a top notch quality item, very very nice unit - that no longer works.
 
I know some people really liked the Owl cam, but as I commented long ago in this thread I feel that OwlCam failed to grasp the fundamental reasons most people purchase dash cams. The primary reason is to capture high quality evidentiary driving footage with date, time and perhaps GPS speed and location data. The OwlCam seems to have taken another path and prioritized parking surveillance and security far more than recording the driving experience.

Among other vital features, they failed to understand the importance of removable microSD memory storage. There are many reasons someone might need to grab their memory card without having to disconnect the camera and take it with them. As far as I know they also never added a date and time stamp on the recorded video. And it is still not clear to me what resolution video the camera could capture or what video format it used. They also failed to grasp that anyone outside an urban environment may have limited access to full time cell phone coverage. For someone like me who lives in a mountainous area where cell coverage can be spotty depending upon which valley or hollow you're driving or parked in, a camera like the Owl would be out of the question. For many, transferring video to a cell phone or full time cloud coverage is entirely impractical, especially if it's more than one or two clips. I could go on; there were many things about standard dash cams we've all come to expect that the Owl Cam couldn't do. And I'm also confident that most any of us with long term dash cam experience would not be interested in a dashboard mounted camera with a flashing light on it. Much preferable to have a more discreet camera mounted as high on the windshield glass as possible.

I was hoping that Owl cam would eventually add the required features and capabilities that would bring the Owl more into the dash cam mainstream while still offering their unique technological innovations but in the end it was essentially a kind of very expensive baby monitor for your car. As such I can see how they failed to generate enough sales to keep the product going in the long run.

One way or another, it's weird that they would pack up and disappear like that in the dead of night. That can't be good for any future business ventures these guys persue. Considering how they disappeared I wonder how much money they owed and who didn't get paid?
 
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I was hoping that Owl cam would eventually add the required features and capabilities that would bring the Owl more into the dash cam mainstream while still offering their unique technological innovations but in the end it was essentially a kind of very expensive baby monitor for your car. As such I can see how they failed to generate enough sales to keep the product going in the long run.
a couple of their features in a regular dashcam would likely be a better fit for most rather than something with a ton of features but lacking in the basic expectations of a dashcam
 
a couple of their features in a regular dashcam would likely be a better fit for most rather than something with a ton of features but lacking in the basic expectations of a dashcam

Yes, I absolutely agree.

Also, it is interesting to consider that when the Owl Cam was introduced parking mode was still a dash cam wish list item but now it has arrived and it is slowly working the bugs out. While it doesn't offer the notifications or cloud storage of the Owl Cam, the fact that a workable parking mode is now available makes the Owl seem even less compelling, especially when one considers price.
 
Yep, it looks like Owl has shut down. too bad - it was a good idea and a good design.
 
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