Reolink’s new Altas series of consumer-oriented surveillance cameras can continuously record video to a local SD card 24 hours a day for up to seven days off of battery — or almost two years when recording based on motion.

The company’s cameras can also be connected to Reolink’s new Home Hub to store video footage in a central location on your home network — not in the cloud — so no subscription fees are required. Reolink cameras connected to the Home Hub will also continue to record footage, even when the internet goes down.

The endurance of Reolink’s Altas cameras can be attributed to their very large (for a camera) 20,000mAh battery paired with a new ultra-low power chipset. It’s also believable based on my own experience with Reolink’s Argus 4 Pro camera (review coming). Runtime for Reolink’s Altas cameras can even be extended indefinitely when connected to Reolink’s 6W or 12W compact solar chargers.

Image: Reolink

The Altas series consists of three cameras capable of 24/7 continuous recording: the Altas Go PT with a 360-degree blindspot-free view and 4G connectivity, the bullet-style 2K Altas with Wi-Fi connectivity, and — confusingly — a new version of the 4K Altas PT Ultra that already launched in September, only now with a more power-friendly chipset.

Each camera is fitted with a mic and speaker for two-way audio and a 1/1.8-inch image sensor that can record color footage even at night thanks to a large F1.0 aperture. The cams also capture a 10-second prerecording of events to make sure you don’t miss anything when operating in longer-lasting motion-triggered modes. Video can be recorded locally to an SD card up to 512GB or sent to one of Reolink’s hub solutions.

Image: Reolink

The new Reolink Home Hub is billed as a beginner-friendly solution (compared to the Home Hub Pro) for homeowners to manage video footage, create security routines, and receive detailed security reports. It supports up to eight of Reolink’s Wi-Fi cameras with up to 1TB (two 512GB SD cards) of locally encrypted storage for recordings — it ships with a single 64GB SD card. The Home Hub also supports RTSP and NAS storage and is compatible with Home Assistant, Google Assistant, and Amazon Alexa. The hub connects to your Wi-Fi router and communicates with Reolink’s cameras over 868MHz in Europe and 915MHz in the US.

The Altas cameras with 24/7 continuous recording are set to launch in Q3 for unknown prices, while the Home Hub is available now for $99.

• I wasn't prepared for how lonely motherhood can be.
• I started using "pebbling" to stay connected throughout the day with other moms.
• We send each other reels or TikTok videos, and I forget that I'm alone at home.

If there's one aspect of parenthood I don't think I ever saw coming, it's the loneliness. After all, wasn't I embarking on a journey millions of people had traversed before me? If anything, shouldn't I be overwhelmed by others walking the same path and experiencing the same experiences?

But instead of being surrounded by like-minded people overcoming similar challenges, the long road of parenthood often felt shockingly deserted. The promised "village" failed to appear when I needed it most, and living away from all of my relatives meant even family support was limited.

Even when I made other "mom friends," finding time to connect and support each other became increasingly difficult amid the tall task of simply making it through the day.

Then, one simple thing changed how I felt during those lonely days.

I started 'pebbling' with other moms

It's an unfortunate truth that isolation and loneliness seem to have become hallmarks of modern parenthood. While our ancestors boasted the benefits of the community that it apparently requires to raise a child, parents today too often find themselves struggling in a vacuum, unsure if it's just them but nearly certain they're probably doing it wrong.

As a result, most of us can agree that this isn't the parenthood nature intended. So, it should come as no surprise that a simple solution can be borrowed from the natural world: pebbling.

If you haven't heard of it, "pebbling" is a term in psychology that describes the act of sharing small tokens of affection with someone to build a connection. Inspired by the mating behaviors of birds like penguins, who bestow their love interests with small items like rocks and other trinkets. As for the actual "pebble," a tangible gift is in no way required, and most modern examples are usually digital, such as short-form videos, online quotes, and other social media memes.

We share videos and memes

A fellow mother and close friend of mine and I started pebbling each other with reels and TikToks encapsulating some of the more maddening aspects of life and motherhood, firing off a handful of links throughout the day designed to make each other laugh or simply feel validated that it wasn't just us.

Within just a few weeks, I noticed a decisive shift in my feelings throughout the day. When I experienced a particularly challenging day with my kids, all it would take was a ping from my phone and a link from my friend to instantly lift my mood and provide some much-needed perspective on whatever I was dealing with.

It didn't minimize or distract from what I was going through, and it didn't force any toxic positivity — it just reminded me that despite literally being in my house with no one to witness my struggles, I was not alone.

It's quick but thoughtful

Pebbling works for a number of reasons. For one, it's quick. Instead of struggling to find a matching gap in our schedules and then making plans for our families so we can escape for an hour over a meal out we probably shouldn't be spending money on right now, connections can happen in a matter of seconds with zero planning or cost ― while we simultaneously wrangle a fussy baby, fold a mountain of laundry, or get dinner on the table.

Despite its quickness, though, the thought behind pebbling is anything but shallow. Whenever we send a link, it says, "I saw this and thought of you." Or, "This seemed like something you would like, and I like making you happy." Or, "This reminded me of that thing you mentioned that one time that I remember because I care about the things you say." Or, "I'm struggling with this and sharing it with you makes it feel a little less heavy."

This leads to another benefit of pebbling: it can help you open up about something you're not sure how to talk about yet. It can be a quiet cry for help or crack the door on a vulnerable topic you don't know how to discuss but need to share with someone. (Also known as sending a TikTok with the caption, "LOL so me right now.")

But, of course, pebbles aren't always about the heavy stuff. Sometimes, it's a funny animal or baby video, a clever time-saving cleaning hack, or Kelly Clarkson crushing her latest cover song. Sometimes, the point of the pebble is simply to share a moment of joy with someone who likes the same things you do.

It doesn't solve the actual problem

The thing about pebbling is that it doesn't solve the problem. We are still drowning under waves of invisible labor, still struggling to connect with our partners over issues unique to our personal trauma and experience, and still feeling overwhelmed with the state of the world and our place in it.

The difference is that now, instead of facing these issues alone, someone is making eye contact with us and letting us know we're not alone in it.

My friends and I might not always be able to make time for in-person connections, but pebbling allows us to send out tiny lifelines throughout the day, reminding each other that she is seen and appreciated by someone who really gets it.

Not bad for a little pebble.

• Instagram has shut down a program that paid creators for ads placed on their profiles.
• Meta began testing the program in 2022.
• Instagram has launched several creator monetization tests since 2020 — and some haven't survived.

Instagram has ended a program that allowed creators to earn money from ads placed between content on their profiles, the company confirmed to Business Insider.

The Meta-owned platform began testing the program with US creators in 2022 and expanded it to eligible profiles in Canada, South Korea, Japan, and Australia in 2024.

Meta will continue to place ads in between content on non-teen, public Instagram profiles. Businesses will still be able to prevent their ads from running on specific profiles on Instagram.

According to court documents filed in 2024, Instagram has generated billions in ad revenue for Meta. In 2022, when the platform began testing the ads-in-profile program, it generated $16.5 billion, according to the same court filing.

This isn't the first creator monetization program that Meta has tested and shuttered.

Other programs you may remember include:

• IGTV (Instagram's now-defunct YouTube competitor) shared ad revenue with creators from 2020 to 2022.
• Instagram briefly had a native affiliate program between 2021 and 2022 that allowed creators to earn revenue from shopping tags on their posts.
• The Instagram Reels Bonus, which paid creators a sum of money based on how their reels performed, was paused in 2023. It was reintroduced in 2024 as a series of limited-time bonuses.

• Meta ends US fact-checking partnerships and shifts to crowdsourced moderation tools.
• IFCN convenes emergency meeting in response, highlighting global implications.
• Meta's decision impacts the financial sustainability of fact-checking organizations.

The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) has convened an emergency meeting of its members following Meta's announcement on Tuesday that it will end its third-party fact-checking partnerships in the US and replace them with a crowdsourced moderation tool similar to X's Community Notes.

In an exclusive interview with Business Insider, IFCN Director Angie Holan confirmed that the meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, was organized in direct response to Meta's decision.

"We hold these meetings monthly, but we called this one specifically because of today's news," she said.

The meeting is expected to draw between 80 to 100 attendees from IFCN's network of fact-checkers, which spans 170 organizations worldwide. Not all of the attendees are Meta fact-checking partners, although many of them have a stake in the program's future and its global implications.

The IFCN has long played a crucial role in Meta's fact-checking ecosystem by accrediting organizations for Meta's third-party program, which began in 2016 after the U.S. presidential election.

IFCN certification signaled that a fact-checking organization met rigorous editorial and transparency standards. Meta's partnerships with these certified organizations became a cornerstone of its efforts to combat misinformation, focusing on flagging false claims, contextualizing misinformation, and curbing its spread.

"People Are Upset"

Holan described the mood among fact-checkers as somber and frustrated.

"This program has been a major part of the global fact-checking community's work for years," she said. "People are upset because they saw themselves as partners in good standing with Meta, doing important work to make the platform more accurate and reliable."

She noted that fact-checkers were not responsible for removing posts, only for labeling misleading content and limiting its virality. Holan also highlighted the program's limitations: political candidates and elected officials were exempt from fact-checking, a policy that frustrated many partners.

"It was never about censorship but about adding context to prevent false claims from going viral," Holan said.

A Last-Minute Heads-Up

An employee at PolitiFact, one of the first news organizations that partnered with Meta for its Third Party Fact-Checking program in December 2016, and who asked not to be named, said that the company received virtually no warning from Meta before killing the program.

"The PolitiFact team found out this morning at the same time as everyone else," the employee told BI.

An IFCN employee who wished to remain anonymous told BI that the organization itself only got a heads-up via email that something was coming "late yesterday" asking for a 6 a.m. call — about an hour before Meta's blog post written by its new Republican policy head Joel Kaplan went live.

"I had a feeling it was bad news," this employee said.

Business Insider has reached out to Meta for comment.

Financial Fallout for Fact-Checkers

Meta's decision could have serious financial consequences for fact-checking organizations, especially those that relied heavily on funding from the platform.

According to a 2023 report published by the IFCN, income from Meta's third Party Fact-Checking Program and grants remain fact checkers' predominant revenue streams.

"Fact-checking isn't going away, and many robust organizations existed before Meta's program and will continue after it," Holan said. "But some fact-checking initiatives were created because of Meta's support, and those will be vulnerable."

She also underscored the broader challenges facing the industry, saying that fact-checking organizations share the same financial pressures as newsrooms. "This is bad news for the financial sustainability of fact-checking journalism," she said.

Skepticism Toward Community Notes

Meta plans to replace its partnerships with Community Notes, a crowd-based system modeled after X's approach.

Holan however, expressed doubt that this model could serve as an effective substitute for expert-led fact-checking.

"Community Notes on X have only worked in cases where there's bipartisan agreement — and how often does that happen?" she asked. "When two political sides disagree, there's no independent way to flag something as false."

It's not clear so far how Meta's implementation of Community Notes will work.

"We'll Be Here After Meta"

Despite the uncertainty, Holan remains steadfast in IFCN's mission.

"The IFCN was here before Meta's program, and we'll be here after it," she said. "We may look different in size and scope, but we'll continue promoting the highest standards in fact-checking and connecting organizations that want to collaborate worldwide."

Holan emphasized that Wednesday's meeting will focus on supporting IFCN members as they navigate this transition.

"We're here to help them figure out the best way forward," she said.

Dangerous conditions left thousands stranded and many more without power as Winter Storm Blair dropped record-breaking snowfall over parts of the US. Hard freezes are expected to reach as far south as Florida.

South Park Commons is raising $40 million for its India-specific fund over six months after announcing its outpost in Bengaluru.

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