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Mac Dashboard Going away !

edited July 2019 in SecuritySpy
Like most people I never used the Dashboard. But, then I discovered I could put all 6 of my cameras on the dashboard and access them with a Hot Corner, instantly without screwing with a browser link. Love it !! I downloaded the Security Spy Widget, and added 6 widgets, one for each camera. Very Cool!

https://www.macrumors.com/2019/06/13/goodbye-dashboard/

To that brings me to "Catalina"... to quote Steve Jobs, "It's a bag full of hurt"!!! It only runs 64-bit Apps, all you're 32-bit Apps go bye-bye. And now this. Waaaaa ! I won't be upgrading anytime soon.

Ben, any work arounds for widgets when Catalina rolls out?

Comments

  • I agree, it's sad that the Dashboard is going away, it's a useful feature and many SecuritySpy users use our Dashboard widget for quickly viewing cameras. I don't know that there is going to be any kind of like-for-like replacement, but perhaps a third party developer will come in and fill this space.

    One easy way for quickly viewing live video from another Mac would be to use another copy of SecuritySpy (you don't have to buy another license - it's free for the purposes of viewing-only). You can read more about this here: SecuritySpy as remote viewing software.
  • Whoa! I never snapped to having Security Spy Clients, that is cool. Thanks for the tip!

    All you need after set up is the "Window" menu to view cameras. Now if you could add a "group of cameras window" to a hot corner, voila! I wish you could set up the client to always open a certain camera view upon launching. (It'd be all cameras for me since I only have 6)

    So, according to your instruction page, no registration required if using in view only (web client) mode. Correct? In preferences, I noticed motion capture was still ON for all the cameras (not sure what this means for the client); I assume you turn off all the motion triggers and motion capture that is checked... I wouldn't want the the client to use disk space saving stuff that's already on the server, that's redundant.
  • jayjay
    edited August 2019
    Hi Ben-

    The LICENSE for free viewing on another Mac, needs to include "Actions"... That's the power of having a computer-based system as opposed to a NVR.

    About 9 months ago I got a dedicated Mac Mini to run my surveillance, I hate not having "Actions" on my office computer (which used to run the surveillance). When someone comes to my door (for example), on any computer in my house (LAN) I need "Actions" to bring that camera to: "Come to the front and open this camera's video window"

    As long as it's within the same LAN and the same IP cameras... Your licensing revenue model isn't at risk… But you're certainly enhancing the use of the product... I really think that within the same LAN, all functions should be available... Some people may want to split the burden of processing across other computers, for example.. It's the same cameras.

    Nice job on 5.0… I like AI. Does the algorithm use the whole frame...or just the masked area.

    thanks!

    Jay
  • Hi Jay,

    Glad you like the new AI features. Only the unmasked (non-green) area is used for the initial motion detection, but then the position/size of the moving object is calculated based on the movement in the entire frame, and the image is then cropped to this area of motion and sent to the AI. This allows correct classification of moving objects, even if part of the object is in the masked area.

    As for your licensing suggestion: I am sympathetic to what you are saying, but it's not obvious to me that we should allow users to run multiple full versions of the software with just one license. We aim to produce great software that is good value to our customers and I think we have struck a good balance here with what we are charging and what we are offering. As you know, we already allow users free use of the software for viewing-only purposes, and this allows you to run multiple instances of SecuritySpy for free on as many Macs as you like to view live video from your cameras over your LAN or remotely over the Internet. But we have decided that for any further features (recording, actions etc.) we require users to purchase additional licenses for these additional features. We feel that this is a fair place to draw the line.
  • ( hmm, remote actions... MQTT handlers on the remote machines )
  • Is there any chance in getting Notification Center Widgets?
  • Hi @MacGarage, thanks for the suggestion, Notification Centre Widgets may be a good substitute for the Dashboard widgets. I'll have a look at this.
  • I use the SSpy screensaver for this. Just set to display all of the feeds via the web server and link to a hot corner. No need for widgets or Dashboard and it's really quick.
  • edited August 2019
    It looks like the screensaver is no longer supported:

    [PLEASE NOTE: the screensaver has been discontinued - it should work, but if not, we cannot provide support.]

    I tried it but with a password required to exit a screensaver at work, it not that handy, not even using the Apple Watch to unlock it.
  • Hi Ben! I didn't know about using a second copy for viewing only. This has a possibility for me except that the copy running on my laptop going back to the server is constantly pulling feeds from the server even when the cameras are not being displayed. Is there something in the preferences that I need to set to disable this? I am going to miss the dashboard a lot.
  • Hi @ss4life - SecuritySpy always pulls in the feeds while it is open, and there is no setting to change this behaviour. This is so that video is immediately available when it is required for any reason (recording, web delivery, email etc.) to reduce the chance of important footage being missed.

    It sounds like the solution in your case is to simply quit SecuritySpy on your laptop when you don't need to view the feeds - would this work for you?
  • Not the same as the Dashboard for speed to startup, etc. The Notification Center widget might be the best here.
  • Just thinking about this. Since you can use it as just a viewer for another SS server maybe have a checkbox that disables the feeds from being pulled? As you have explained your licensing doesn't allow the second one to perform actions.
  • I'm wary of "feature creep" - that is, minor additions designed for infrequent use cases that clutter the UI, and I think what you are suggesting comes under this category I'm afraid. Another option is to use a web browser - you can bookmark the live video page for easy access, or save a shortcut to it (view the live video in a web browser, then select the URL, and drag it to the Finder - a web shortcut file will be created - open this file from the Finder or from the Dock for quick viewing of your live cameras).
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