Naturally, August is hoping you'll pay for a Premium Video Recording subscription ($5 per month or $50 per year) if you want more than a day's worth of archival clips.

There's no question that this is a competitive move. Amazon just acquired Ring, whose smart doorbells require $3 per month if you want to save any video in the cloud (albeit for a longer 60-day window). August is betting that it can fight its newly strengthened rival by giving you a freebie that might lead to a subscription down the road. Not that there's too much reason to complain -- this gives you at least some kind of buffer even if you can't justify a recurring fee.