Vista, Calif. –
has added home-control features to its Viper SmartStart smartphone apps, which
let consumers remotely control their car systems and track the car in real time
via cellular.
Version 2.2 of the company’s apps for the BlackBerry,
iPhone, and Android smartphones let owners monitor, arm, and disarm their
home’s Alarm.com
security system. A flip of the wrist toggles between car-control and home-control
screens, the company said.
The app connects the smartphone via cellular to an
Alarm.com server, which itself connects via cellular to a cellular transceiver
in the control panel of the home’s alarm system.
For controlling and tracking vehicles, the apps
connect via cellular networks to embedded cellular modems in the $199-suggested
VSM200 Viper SmartStart module and $299 VSM250 Viper SmartStart GPS module.
Depending on the compatible car-security or remote-start system from Directed, the
SmartStart app will remotely start the
car’s engine, lock and unlock doors, pop the trunk, activate the car’s horn or
security-system siren for use as a panic alert or car finder, and receive pushed
security alerts. The SmartStart GPS module adds the ability to track a moving
vehicle, whose location would appear on a map on the smartphone screen.
Viper SmartStart requires a $49.99 annual service
plan, or a $99.98 three-year plan. SmartStart GPS requires a service plan
starting at $5 a month.
Said Directed
VP Mike Simmons, “With control of the things customers access on a daily basis
in one convenient app, we are one step closer to replacing the keychain with
the smartphone thanks to Viper SmartStart.”
