In the words of infomercials worldwide, “But wait, there’s more!”, and indeed there is. Some network cameras such as the Panasonic BL-C131 that we tried include motion and sensor detection. With this the minute movement is trigger the camera can email or upload files to a location of your choice. This way you’re in the know when it comes to the state of your home.

Installation of the Panasonic BL-C131 was extremely easy, simply plug it into your network where (for us anyway) it grabbed an address of 192.168.1.253 where there’s a web interface to set things up. Security (and at the end of the day your privacy since this *is* a camera into your life) is important and after heading into the web interface for the first time you’re asked to set up a login name and password. Nice one Panasonic.

Click on the ’single’ tab at the top and be wowed as you see what the camera is pointing to. Controls on the left let you alter the refresh rate, image format and quality, white balance, brightness and, what must be one of the best features, pan and tilt! Yes sir, you’ve got full control and can move the camera left/right and up/down. I can’t even begin to explain how cool this is, just like in the spy movies hehe.

It seems that some companies (yes that’s you Panasonic) are still designing some features exclusively for Internet Explorer and 1 way audio from the camera is just that. Open up the administration interface in IE and you’ll be prompted to install an ActiveX control after which you’ll be able to listen in on what’s going on. Poor form on Panasonic for not managing to do this without an ActiveX control though.

The camera is quite configurable and you’re able to setup 5 different triggers. These can include motion, sensor and timer with activation output being email (including attaching one image per email), http post and ftp. We’ve been running it for over a month now with image upload via FTP for sensor and motion detection and notifications (sans attachments) being emailed through. Stability seems to be no issue with the camera and it’s not locked up once.

Files get uploaded with a prefix of your choosing as well as having the date and time added onto it. The timer option lets you perform whatever action you like (ftp, email, http etc) at a frequency of either 1 second, 1 minute or 1 hour. We’d have liked to have seen a few more options here (perhaps say every 15 minutes) or letting the user decide on the frequency.

Video streaming via RTSP and RTP are available but we’ve not yet been able to get it to work. Probably just requires a bit more fiddling but once it’s done you’ll be able to view a live video stream right from your mobile phone.

The BL-C131 can also operate in wireless mode where it advertises itself with it’s own SSID so comes across as a different network that you can connect to. We’ve stuck to Ethernet connectivity since the router was right where we wanted the camera placed.

Now onto the price, we purchased this in the UK for £186 but were considering cheaper ones. As the saying goes you get what you pay for and this is certainly no exception. The last thing you want to worry about are instability of the device (i.e requiring constant rebooting) and false positives on the detection routines. The Panasonic BL-C131 performed flawlessly and we’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking to keep an eye on their home/office. We do wish Panasonic would update the web-based GUI (we’re not in 1999 anymore) as it feels a bit dated but then it’s no worse than the Netgear systems that still use frames *sigh*.

Luna is finished to a very high quality and is extremely sturdy with looks to match. This clock radio looks perfect in the lounge or the bedroom and has a bright clear display with awesome sound pumping through the speakers. Although the device looks like it was designed by Apple the minute you begin the setup you realise that this does not contain the intuitive menu we’re all used to on the iPods. While the silver dials are twirled back and forth just like the iPod wheel they’re not as precise and do sometimes go the opposite way than you intended. But you’re not fiddling with those all the time and once you’re spent a few minutes setting the alarms and radio presets you’re done.

One of the great features of Luna is having two built in alarms. Great for when your other half has to get up earlier than you do. Another great touch is a ‘rampup’ setting for the music whereby the volume slowly increases over a preset time so you’re not blasted awake the second the alarm goes off. You’re also able to wake up to either AM/FM radio, iPod music, buzzer or an aux input.

Radio reception was more than adequate once you grab the external antenna cable, but tuning was another story. Luna lacks auto tune so you’re left twirling the dials moving slowly up the radio spectrum trying to locate your station. But as mentioned it’s not something that you need to do that often.

The supplied remote control lets you control all aspects of the device and is great for having next to your bed for hitting snooze. Although depending on your personality the ease of hitting snooze could be a bad thing! Otherwise you’ve got all the usuals and can control volume and flick back and forth between tracks and playlists.

Luna also has a battery backup in case of power failure, with two AA batteries included. But just in case, even the backup has a backup. A built-in feature will retain clock and alarm settings for up to five minutes without power, even if the batteries are dead or not properly installed. Now that’s smart.

Tech Gift Guide (TGG) tested Luna with the 2nd generation iPod Nano, iPod Touch and Apple iPhone all with excellent results. There is a bit of interference when using the iPhone at times but since it’s not designed for this we’re more than happy.

It’s all the small little extras that make Tech Gift Guide (TGG) recommend this. From stylish design to brightness control, volume ramping and excellent alarm choices – this will make the perfect dock for your iPod.

The best prices we’ve found for the Luna iPod Alarm Clock are at Amazon. Click to buy Luna iPod Clock Radio UK / Luna iPod Clock Radio US