What you need to know

• Ring Always Home Cam is a $249 drone that can fly around your home and record 1080p video.
• The camera only records when it's in-flight, as the base station blocks both the camera and microphones when charging.
• The drone can only fly to specific locations that you set up in the app, and is loud enough to hear when flying.

Ring pulled a real surprise out of its proverbial hat with its latest camera, the Ring Always Home Cam. Instead of the usual spec boost of wider-angle lenses or some fancy new mount design, Ring actually gave its new camera the ability to fly, with enclosed propellers and a privacy-guard dock. The Ring Always Home Cam can be called up to check out specific locations in your home, set up via the Ring app, and will undock itself and fly automatically through your home to that location. The enclosed propeller design ensures that it won't injure anyone or cause damage is regular drone propellers might, and it's loud enough to be able to hear while flying around.

The Ring Always Home Cam is only able to record while in flight because the cameras and microphones are located underneath the propellers. When docked, the Ring Always Home Cam's cameras and microphones are completely enclosed in the charging base and are physically blocked, completely preventing their use. It'll even integrate with Ring Alarm, and while Amazon didn't go into details of this integrated functionality, it's not hard to imagine the camera undocking and flying to the location where Ring Alarm might suspect a break-in.

Ring Always Home Cam is an indoor-only camera that records 1080p video and details for $249. Amazon didn't announce a specific release date at this time but you can sign up to be notified of its release on the Ring blog post. There's no doubt that the Ring Always Home Cam will be used to enhance Amazon's new Guard Plus home security system, which can utilize all the Echo and Ring devices in your home to keep it safe from intruders.