App turns your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch into a baby monitor

The Evoz baby monitor app turns your Apple device into a baby monitor. It launched last week and after testing it out for a few days, I have to say: This thing is awesome!

Among the biggest advantages of the Evoz is its portability and the fact that it works with devices you might already own—you don't need to buy a single-purpose, baby monitor. The Evoz lets you use one Apple device—say an iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone—as a monitor that stays in the baby's room and a second device as the receiver. Once both devices have the Evoz app, you can take your receiving device and listen in on one or more children (or spouses) from wherever you are—around the world even!

(Safety notes: The monitoring device placed in the child's room must be kept well out of reach so there is no strangulation risk from the cord if the device is plugged into its charger. Also, if you're concerned about the potential risk of exposure to radiation, don't place the device too close to the child. Keep in mind that phones may occasionally drop calls, especially if you're in areas with weak signals. If you're using an iPhone 4, we strongly recommend you get a bumper for the phone.)

Let me be clear, I don't leave my baby alone in the house during nap time and I don't condone leaving a child unsupervised. But this did come in handy a few days ago when I wanted to run to the post office and my husband wanted to do some chores around the house. Knowing that my husband would have his iPhone in his pocket, I set Evoz to text us both if the baby woke up and cried for 2 minutes. Then I logged into the app on my phone and set off for the post office. I could hear my little one snoozing away during my errand!

This works over your phone's cellular connection so you don't have to be on the same Wi-Fi network to log in. The monitoring device doesn't have to be on Wi-Fi either, unless it does not have a 3G connection like an iPod Touch does not. The receiving device can pick up your designated monitors from anywhere in the world as long as there is a connection. So in theory, I could travel to Mozambique and still listen in on my house. I did not test that.

The app works with a log-in system. You create an account and sign in from both devices. Once you are signed in, you tell the app whether the device in question is a monitor or a receiver. If it is a monitor, it starts listening in on wherever you set it. If it is a receiver, you set your preferences. Your receiver can listen to as many monitors as you want to set up. Of course, you'd have to have several Apple devices and most of us don't have extra iPads around the house. But if you did, you could set one in each child's room and listen in through your receiving device. You can set profiles for each child with their name, age, and gender, with an option to add a photo to each child's profile.

You can choose how long you want your child to cry, between 30 seconds and 8 minutes, before your app notifies you. I opted for 2 minutes because a 30-second cry could just be a whimper or nightmare that he will not completely wake up from. Of course I would hear the cry if I were listening in on the receiver but I like the extra alert just in case I am in the shower or running the blender.

To get an alert, you can opt for an e-mail or a text message. There was also a call option but it did not work for me for some reason. You can also add multiple people to your alert system. I added my husband's phone for text message alerts so that we would both be notified simultaneously. The person you are choosing to alert has to verify their phone by responding to a text message so you can't add random people to your alert list without their permission.

Your Evoz app will keep track of your baby's sleep schedule with detailed charts and graphs for each child based on when you put them down and when they woke up. This can be really useful if you're sleep training.

You currently need two Apple devices to use Evoz, but that will change soon. An Evoz monitor will go on sale for $120 in the fall. If you buy that, you need only one Apple device to act as your receiver. Eventually, you won't even need that because a Web option will launch soon, allowing you to listen in on your monitor from a browser.

Evoz will run in the background so you will be able to hear your monitor even if the app isn't up on your screen. It does put a strain on the battery of your device and when I drove to the post office, I did have a little bit of buffering lag but it wasn't bad.

Evoz is in beta. You can test it for free for 15 days, after which you will be asked to pay a monthly fee for the service. If you don't want to pay, you can still use the Basic function for free. This allows you to listen in on your monitor for 30 minutes per day. No alerts or charts will be available. A Standard subscription costs $39.99 per year and allows you unlimited listening time for your monitor and the ability to have multiple guardians using the app. This package does not include alerts or charts either. The Premium subscription costs $69.99 per year and gives you unlimited listening time, multiple guardian access, the alert system, and all the sleep data you can handle.

I'm not sure I would pay for something like this if I hadn't already gotten addicted to the free trial. My trial expires in about 7 days and I don't think I want to be without this now.

Evoz baby monitor app [Apple iTunes]

—Natali Morris