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The Internet of Things Just Found Your Lost Wallet
Nerval's Lobster writes Ever forgotten your wallet in a coffee shop or restaurant? Now there's a way to ensure it'll never happen again: Woolet, which its creators bill as a "smart wallet." It features a rechargeable battery, Bluetooth support, and the ability to synchronize with a smartphone app; if you walk 20-85 feet away from your wallet, the app will make a sound and guide you back to it. The platform's being financed on Kickstarter, and attracted attention from TechCrunch and some other places, but it begs the question: is this yet another example of connected devices run amok—shiny and interesting as a concept but not nearly useful enough for the population at large? What would it take for a connected device, whether a wallet or a smoke detector, to gain mass appeal?
probably doesn't even have a wallet
keys, credit card, id, etc.: there's an app for that
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
... this is where this idea always falls apart.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Internet of Things and a Kickstarter Slashvertisement combined. For the nitpicky, we can even debate the proper use of "begs the question". All it really needs is something about 3D printing and some angle about getting more women into technology, and it would be perfect. Something for everyone!
Also... wait, did they just describe this as a "platform"? People are going to write apps for this or something?
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
The big problem I see with IoT devices is focusing on the sizzle... and there is little, to any effort focused on security. With how inexpensive 3G boards are, it is easy to get a device online with its own Internet connection... but why should it be connected even in the first place?
What is wrong with having devices in a house communicate to a central server that has a hardened Internet connection, and that communicates out/in? This way, it lowers the attack surface from being able to nail the device from anywhere on the Internet to having to be in radio range of the item.
Even with that, there is really no point for most of the uses of Internet connected items in the first place, and because budgets usually place security dead last, they are just disasters waiting to happen, especially when the only way to fix the security exploits would likely be to replace the entire device.
I suspect it's more that the app on your phone is a deadman switch. It goes off when it stops detecting the wallet. Which means that when the batteries in the wallet go dead, your phone makes annoying noise.
I can't help but wonder if they're smart enough to have a way to simply turn the app off and leave it off when you're away from the charger. (I cannot, of course, be bothered to read the article to find out.)
OR how about just get a chain for your wallet? Sometimes low tech is the best tech. Don't lose your shit in the first place.
I already can't leave the house without charging my Bluetooth headset, my Fitbit, my iPhone, my iPad, my Kindle, my iPod, my MacBook, and my iWatch. Now I'll need to charge my wallet.
There's a cheaper solution. I believe it's called a "trucker's chain." Even if your wallet falls out of your pocket, it just dangles a foot or two below your belt loops.
It never runs out of batteries, doesn't require installing an app, doesn't require a smartphone, and doesn't let the whole world know you forgot your wallet by blaring sound effects.
What I really have to laugh at is the fact that now you have to carry both your wallet and your smartphone with you all the time for this concept to work. I don't mind carrying my wallet all the time, but being forced to carry the smartphone just to keep the wallet quiet seems kind of asinine to me.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I work in marketing & my current task is finding the Interested Demographic of the Internet Of Things.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Apart from being wallet-specifc, seems similar to lapa-app.com (the latter offers tiny devices that you can attach to things you might lose so you can be alerted if you're in the process of losing said things.. bung one in a wallet, job done)