2 ways to geolocate your dog
At a pre-CES event last night, I looked at two little GPS gizmos that are designed to attach to your dog's collar, so if Spot goes running off you can find him again. Both devices use GPS to locate themselves and cellular networks to transmit their location to a central service, allowing subscribers to view the locations on Web maps.
The Zoombak GPS unit is not quite as tiny as it appears here, since the guy who was holding this device has monster hands.
(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CNET)First up: the Zoombak Advanced GPS Dog Locator costs $199 plus $15 a month for service. It's got a five-day battery and lets you spot Spot on a full-sized Web map, should you need to find him. Of course, if your dog is missing and you locate him on the Web from your PC at home, he's not likely to still be where the Web said he was when you get there. So Zoombak also has a voice-based service that will direct you to the GPS receiver's location when you need it.
I posited that you could use Zoombak with people, too, but the exec I was talking to looked at me in horror, imagining, I think, me locking a location collar around my wife or child. Silly man. I was just thinking about putting the device in a kid's backpack or something.
Zoombak also makes a car version that taps into the car's power and can be hidden somewhere. You can use the Zoombak site to see where the car is at any time, or you can "geofence" the car, alerting you if it leaves town, for example. Or telling you when the child you've lent it to finally gets home. Or doesn't.
The sealed Pocketfinder unit, resting on its inductive charging cradle.
(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CNET)The Zoombak's big advantage is that it's shipping now, but an upcoming competitor looks like a better deal. The Pocketfinder is a touch smaller, charges by induction (is sealed and waterproof), and will cost less: $129 and "less than" $15 a month when it ships in March. The company claims a seven-day battery life.
The Pocketfinder spokespeople imagine the device being put on the keychains of kids and senior citizens, and maybe even in luggage. I love that last idea. There is no car version yet.
Pocketfinder will have a mobile Web site instead of a voice service for geolocating registered devices when you're on the run.
The monthly fees on these products need to come down, but the concept of a location tag that you can attach to your most precious assets is pretty cool. It's also terrifying from a privacy perspective. I don't need to spell out why.
Rafe Needleman writes about start-ups, new technologies, and Web 2.0 products, as editor of CNET's Webware. E-mail Rafe. View complete CES 2008 coverage from CNET.
Zoombak the people whose motto is protect what matters to you most! Care for those you love! Promote themselves as a family oriented company, caring, offers peace of mind to parents, allows children security, protection from all that?s nasty in the world, well let workers for justice inform you good public exactly what these people at Zoombak are! Workers For Justice has learnt that the nice caring people at Zoombak do not exactly live up to their motto! WFJ have just learnt that Zoombak are currently being sued in High Court (UK) by a former high ranking employee for totally destroying his life! Zoombak are being sued for Personal Injury, Unfair Employment Practices, and malicious damages, this former employee suffered a crippling stroke whilst placed under undue stress at this company, bullied by the CEO of the company and left alone to work crippling 18 hour days with no support from the mothership! he was off work for just 2 weeks when the caring guys at Zoombak opened up talks with his devastated wife about redundancy and loss of position, This guy was still in the stroke unit being spoon fed!
Zoombak bullied the former employees wife by holding this guys disability insurance to ransom as blackmail until the family accepted a pitiful (by anyone?s standards not just high ranking execs) redundancy payment, they also waived his medical insurance over his head also, this is shameful! this guy was too ill to make a proper long term decision (partly because he couldn?t talk!) so his familt said NO also these Zoombak guys owed this guy 10 times the redundancy in just holiday and bonus payments for a brand well built so of course anyone would say NO.
Once the former employees family said no, the nice people at Zoombak carried out their threats and cancelled everything, didn?t pay him a penny and when contacted by representatives of the sick man their attitude was "SUE US" but then they can because Zoombak are owned by Liberty Media ? a muliti billion dollar corporation! now let me inform all you moral, kind, decent people who have families of your own, this guy who had the stroke has lost his house, lost his health, lost his dignity, lost his pride, will never work again, cannot pay his bills, cannot afford to live and due to the pressure of the last 12 months and the injustice he has faced he suffered yet another debilitating stroke a month ago, his kids have seen their father hospitalized, in pain and reduced to nothing! Zoombak do not care about people, they do not care about families, they cannot, Zoombak have destroyed what mattered most to this guy!
To all skeptics, this mail is genuine, look out for the press releases from the courts in Feb. Join Workers For Justice in showing your disgust at a company who destroys lives, destroys families!
Zoombak - Beware! Workers for justice will make you do the right thing!
Matt Smith - Workers For Justice.