Arlo VMB4540-100NAS Arlo Pro SmartHub - Arlo Certi (Open Box)

OK, so the purposes of this hub are twofold: one, to act as a wifi hub so the cameras aren't on your "regular" wifi, and two, to record motion events locally so you're not dependent on the Arlo cloud service. Well, it does the first one fine. The second, however, has been rendered ineffective by Arlo in their latest app update. The current app is actually TWO apps rolled into one. If you have any newer Arlo hardware, it forces you to "upgrade" to the new app because the old app isn't compatible. The new app is apparently incompatible with a few of the very oldest Arlo cameras, but that's not unexpected. The new app has a a screen called the "feed". This is where all the latest events show up, such a motion detection by your cameras, home/away mode changes, etc. The problem with the Arlo hub is, it USED TO have motion events show up there, but Arlo changed the app so they only show video motion events that are in *cloud storage with Arlo*. Cloud storage costs $7 per camera per month. Oh, you can *access* the hub stored videos, if you're the account owner only, if you go three levels into the hub settings screen, and you know which video you want by time stamp because there's no thumbnails, and you're willing to download the video file to your phone and watch it on your phone's video player. Alternately, you can pull the USB thumb drive out of the hub and insert it into a computer and view the files that way. The practical upshot is, Arlo nerfed the main functionality of the app with the hub because they want you to be paying a monthly fee. The fact that this renders the hub little more than a cheap wifi hub with local video backup rather than a useful part of the video surveillance system apparently does not concern Arlo. In fact, they are so unconcerned that they continue to sell this $100 box that DOESN'T WORK WITH THEIR APP ECOSYSTEM, because I guess they had a lot of them manufactured and can only get rid of them by pretending they still work with their new app mode? The worst part is, whether the app starts up in the "old" mode or the "new" mode is stored in your user account configuration on Arlo's servers, so once you upgrade to this newer app mode, there is no way to go back. Even downloading an old version of the app that doesn't HAVE the new version rolled into it doesn't work, because it simply won't let you log in. If you're using the old version now and don't upgrade, this hub will probably work fine for you. At least it'll work fine FOR NOW. At some point you know Arlo will force people into the new app ecosystem in order to push their monthly cloud service, and at that point, the hub will be pointless.