Road test: iBaby monitor

NERVOUS first-time parents can relax as they keep an eye on their sleeping baby from a restaurant across town.

WHAT is it?

It's either a useful tool for early parenting or an Orwellian nightmare, depending on how you look at it.

What do you mean?
Most baby monitors simply relay a crackly audio from your baby's bedroom. The iBaby streams live video as well as sound to PCs or iOS devices (up to four devices can connect to it at once), and enables you to remotely swivel the camera to track movement, and even take photos. You can talk back to your little one through the monitor, too.

Of course. Because there's nothing more soothing to an upset baby than its mother's voice materialising from a weird robotic eye at the end of the cot.
Well, it quietened our one down. Come to think of it, he might have been frozen with fear.

Surely the video function only works in daytime?
The iBaby is equipped with infra-red night vision technology. Seriously.

Anything else?
You have to be pretty computer literate to set it up (online forums indicate many people have problems with this).

What to say:
"It's a godsend for nervous first-time parents."

Don't say:
"Aww, sweet, he's giving us the thumbs up. Waiter! We'll have another bottle of the chardonnay."

Price: $249.95, iworldonline.com.au