The Internet of Things has made it easy—and fairly affordable—for homeowners to keep an eye on their property from just about anywhere—we've moved way past the odd nanny-cam. Smart security systems are customizable, and you can buy them as do-it-yourself kits or full-blown setups with professional installation and monitoring.

A chart by Statista shows us that U.S. consumers lead the adoption of home security systems with Norway in second and Australia in last place.

"Even if you're not ready to commit to a dedicated security system, you can find plenty of individual devices that that let you monitor your home via your phone or tablet: indoor and outdoor security cameras, video doorbells, motion sensors, and smart locks, among others."

The timing of the PCMag report comes one day after Apple was granted a patent for a "wireless security camera system." Our cover graphic is from Apple's granted patent.

While the patent is crystal clear that the iPhone would be the main device to work with this security system, the patent also notes that "It will be obvious to one skilled in the art that the method of the present invention can be applied to many other types of electronic devices as well, including other types of security system components, thermostats, remote controls, appliances, and digital printers and scanners."

I would think that Apple TV could be another device that the security cam could be used with. As Apple TV is adopted by more cable and wireless mobile companies like Charter Spectrum for standard TV and specialty channels like the one Apple is now developing, it's possible that cable truck operators could offer a security camera set-up service. Making it easy to adopt Apple's security cam hardware and software could be a killer app.