Finding a way to keep track of your keys, wallet or phone is one of those frustrating tasks of life for which there’s no dearth of as-seen-of-TV solutions.
Here’s another product but one that’s embraces the Web 2.0 era.
Tech company Phone Halo debuted a hardware dongle that promises to help you keep track of your stuff through Google maps on your phone.
A $70 “eraser-sized device” Phone Halo has Bluetooth and GPS capability and supports Blackberry, Android and the iPhone. The company showed the device at the ongoing DEMO Spring conference.
The Halo charges via USB and has a battery life of about a week, says the company.
But here’s the problem. The device has a range of only 30 feet or 10 meters so it’s best for use across a room or two. It won’t be handy if you forgot your phone outdoors or have already left the location. There’s an option to lock the phone remotely but with most major phone makers including Motorola with Moto Blur and Apple with Mobile Me offering locator services for your phone, Halo is not particularly useful.
Phone Halo says users can specify a radius so that if the object and the attached Halo hardware moves beyond it, the Halo dongle will beep to alert you. Or you can all the hardware by pressing a button so it beeps. Users can also open up the Halo phone app and see the last location of the object.
And since everything has to have a social component these days, the Phone Halo lets you post a Google map of where you Halo’d object last was seen on Facebook or Twitter.
It’s all rather gimmicky and pedestrian. There are plenty of key locator services out there starting at $30 and almost provide the same service. Except for the ability to post to twitter, there’s little that sets Phone Halo apart. But isn’t tweeting a big deal these days?
Check out the demo video to see Phone Halo at work
Photo: Phone Halo
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