Perch is a new way to use your old iOS device. Got an iPod Touch or unused iPhone/iPad laying around the house with nothing to do? Perch is an app which turns it into an always-on portal, letting you just walk up to it and show things to other Perch users in your network.
The idea is to keep this on a wall at home and treat it as a window on your family.
The app uses the iDevice’s camera, along with motion-detection and other jiggery-pokery to become an asynchronous communicator.
Thus, you can walk up to the camera and it’ll switch on. Leave a video message or do a show-and-tell and your family members (or whoever else you share with) will get a push notification telling them there’s something new to see.
It’s like pinning a note on the refrigerator door, only nobody needs to visit the fridge to read it.
I like the idea quite a lot, and it’s a great way to make use of an otherwise defunct device. Of course, because it is always on, you;ll need to keep it plugged in, and you might also get a bit creeped out by the camera always watching you.
And for the motion detection to work, you’ll need to make sure all the non-geeks in the house don’t switch away from the Perch app, rendering the service useless.
Other than that, why not sign up for yet another social network?
Source: Perch
Charlie Sorrel writes reviews and how-tos. Follow Charlie on Twitter at @mistercharlie, and at micro.blog on @mistercharlie
