Here's Nest's first new product in a year — a 4K wireless camera (GOOG, GOOGL)

pulse

May 31, 2017 8:21 AM

The Nest Cam IQ has facial recognition and a 12x digital zoom.

The Nest Cam IQ.

Nest is emerging from hibernation.

The company unveiled a new wireless video camera on Wednesday, its first new product in roughly a year.

The Nest Cam IQ is a new, pricier model of the company's existing Wi-Fi camera rather than the brand-new product many people have been waiting for.

Still, it's an important proof of life from the smart-home appliance pioneer, which has struggled to find its footing as a subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet.

The new Nest home-security camera packs improved hardware (including a 4K image sensor and a better mic and speaker) and is armed with facial-recognition software to tell you who enters your home.

You can preorder one for $299 or get a two-pack for $498. It is set to ship later in June.

Here are some other things the new Nest Cam can do, according to Nest:

since acquiring Dropcam in 2014

Why it matters

While the Nest Cam IQ is technically a new product, it's not the new category some have been hoping for from the company. Since Google bought Nest for $3.2 billion in 2014, the company has stuck with its small portfolio of smart smoke alarms, thermostats, and connected cameras.

Over the past year, there has been talk that Nest wanted to break into other categories like a "hub" for controlling your smart appliances and other security products, but many of those projects have been stalled or killed, sources previously told Business Insider.

Still, the buzz at the Google I/O conference two weeks ago was that after a bumpy 2016, when Nest lost its cofounder and CEO Tony Fadell, sales were growing amid product launches in new countries and other channels in the US.

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