Tiny device to track your bag. Never lose luggage again.

by pablosanchez • 13 years ago

25 45 13 years ago

bluetidepro5• 13 years ago

This seems like a good idea, however the website needs more information. It's not to clear what your $40 is getting you or how it works. Maybe look at adding a demo video or something?

Slightly off topic: What if you already own both an iPad (assuming it's a 3g model and not just wifi) and an iPhone, couldn't you just leave your iPad in the bag then use the "Find Your iPhone" app to locate the bag for free?

EDIT: I guess my overall point is why would anyone pay $39.99 for a simple tracking device when you can do this free (with an iPad/iPhone) or buy a GPS tracker yourself, for cheaper than ~$40? Maybe this leads back to my first statement that the landing page needs much more info to convince the user this is worth the money.

codegeek• 13 years ago

"couldn't you just leave your iPad "

What if you don't. You could get lucky if you leave your iPad in the bag. But the point is when you don't.

bluetidepro5• 13 years ago

I guess my overall point is why would anyone pay $39.99 for a simple tracking device when you can do this free (with an iPad/iPhone) or buy a GPS tracker yourself, for cheaper than ~$40?

Maybe this leads back to my first statement that the landing page needs much more info to convince the user this is worth the money.

jeremymcanally2• 13 years ago

This is assuming someone doesn't jack your iPad from your bag as they did mine at SFO. :)

pablosanchez3• 13 years ago

That happens a lot outside the U.S. too, so I guess is better to have something worth less than 40 bucks to do the tracking.

pc86• 13 years ago

I think the biggest risk to that is battery life.

Also, am I the only person who gets seriously bothered by profession-looking websites or applications that list the dollar sign after a price?

robmcm• 13 years ago

Google thinks the page is italian, if I let it translate it, the $ sign goes to the start... odd!

bluetidepro5• 13 years ago

See my reply to mdanger about battery life not being an issue at all.

DanBC• 13 years ago

> Also, am I the only person who gets seriously bothered by profession-looking websites or applications that list the dollar sign after a price?

It's common practice in some other countries to place the currency sign after the amount.

(http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/22574/where-to-place-c...)

mdanger• 13 years ago

Wouldn't you have to leave it powered on for the entire flight? Seems like it would drain the battery before you got there.

bluetidepro5• 13 years ago

An iPad (fully charged) with no use in a bag could easily stay powered for the length of any flight. I don't use my iPad often, and when it's 'locked' it can last for a few days on that battery charged. I don't think battery life would be an issue at all.

nicholassmith• 13 years ago

Possibly it's more geared towards suitcases than hand luggage. I'd personally never leave my iPad or iPhone (or similar) in a suitcase and I can't imagine I'm the only one.

egypturnash2• 13 years ago

It gets pretty expensive to do that if you have more than one bag. Plus a dedicated tracking device can be smart enough to detect plane takeoff and landing, and shut down during that like the FCC wants everything to do. Plus much better battery life.

Plus if you live in the US and are trusting your pricey, covetable electronics to your checked bags and the underpaid TSA inspectors, you are much more trusting than I am.

For a similar product with an actual presentation, see http://www.indiegogo.com/blutracker/

jeremymcanally2• 13 years ago

I have to e-mail someone to pre-order? That seems...odd. Just setup a Wufoo or Google Form?

I don't know what I'm even supposed to put in that e-mail; am I going to e-mail you my CC details (PROTIP: No.)?

tl;dr: SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY.

easy_rider• 13 years ago

This, simple form please? My Thunderbird opens, but I don't even use mail clients. This is when you should not use mailto. How do I give you money?

pablosanchez3• 13 years ago

I saw the presentation of this startup at @AngelHack, they are pretty focused on building the product. I guess a better website is coming next on their roadmap.

RossM• 13 years ago

Web apps can now register handlers for protocols like mailto: in recent browsers (Gmail does in Chrome for ex.).

egypturnash2• 13 years ago

Maybe you want one of these instead: http://www.indiegogo.com/blutracker/

It's from the same people behind this: http://sticknfind.com/product/

I would have linked to the Indiegogo for the latter but it just ended. I've got a few of the latter on the way!

halviti• 13 years ago

Easily the worst homepage I've seen in some time.

Zero information, literally no explanation of what the product is.

None of the links go anywhere but the single page.. why even have links?

The website is literally void of information, which should be the only reason to have a website in the first place.

I can only imagine this is being upvoted by spam/shill accounts.

pablosanchez3• 13 years ago

This was presented yesterday at AngelHack, I guess the team built the website as quick as they could. The presentation was quite good. Will have to look into the AngelHack videos to see if they post it.

jchung• 13 years ago

Actually, it's a rather reasonable homepage for value proposition testing with just two exceptions. I too was irritated by the links-to-nowhere, so that would have to change. And the email CTA is dangerous in that it deters actual signups. Otherwise, this page gets straight to the value proposition and the price, and almost nothing else. It's a reasonable way of quickly testing traction for your idea, especially considering that it was (apparently) a hackathon project.

OafTobark• 13 years ago

The value proposition is weak if the consumer wants to know how this works before commuting. It skews data.

lukasko• 13 years ago

This seems to be just a landing page to validate the idea. However it's quite a good idea.

jtagen• 13 years ago

How is this different from the stick-n-find or tod devices recently launched through Kickstarter?

shoeless2• 13 years ago

This was announced at CES 2013:

http://www.trakdot.com/

The site in the OP looks to be testing the idea.

exhilaration• 13 years ago

Thanks for the link, it seems to have all the info about this product (assuming it's the same thing).

shoeless2• 13 years ago

No, a different product. However, it looks like TracDot will be available for purchase in April.

racbart• 13 years ago

It's awesome that it can make my bag to talk to me, but I'd love to know what language will she talk.

There's zero information about how the device works. Will it talk to me online while my bag is miles away after someone steal it and drive away (I doubt)? Or is it simply low energy Bluetooth 4? Will it only tell me “your bag is within 200 meters” or will it exactly show me direction?

First make your website talk to me, then promise me talking bags.

adam-f• 13 years ago

I thought planes generally want you to "turn off all electronic devices" at take-off and landing. Pardon the pun, but how is this idea going to fly?

Also, Q. Why is the dollar sign on the wrong side?

A. "This page is in Italian! Would you like to translate it?" >_<

mjallday• 13 years ago

I've seen similar devices. They usually require you to pay an ongoing subscription for a mobile phone connection that makes the price unattractive in the long term.

Is there anyway to broadcast a signal from these devices without me having to make a telco rich?

deeesstoronto• 13 years ago

There is no information on the site....This belongs on theuselessweb.com

sph130• 13 years ago

I usually just read and don't comment. A couple things.. Better information on the website. Even just a picture of the device. Preorder is just a mailto: - put a form on there at least, it adds to the legitimacy of the company even if it just forwards an email in the end.

And a third point - whats the status of the product? Expected Ship Date? Are you just putting this out there to see if there is interest in the product? Be honest with the consumer.

So you had the hook - there are people that clicked on the link because they want to track their bags.. but you need more.

Where is the move down button on Hacker News? I know you can give points to comments but there should be a way to quickly drop posts that seem a little sketchy.

Tekker• 13 years ago

Lugga.me is registered to Matteo Lai and Empatica S.r.l. ("a young startup focused on real-time emotion tracking through bio-signals") in Italy but he seems to be based in the Bay area... http://www.meetup.com/qsmilan/members/30004242/

reiichiroh• 13 years ago

Are all these luggage tracker devices approved to be continually while the airplane is in-flight?

gadders• 13 years ago

I tell you what I would be useful (as a tangentially similar idea).

At my daughter's school you quite often find that the girls' have grabbed another girl's coat, hat, P.E kit etc (they have to wear a school uniform).

The current solution is to sew name tags into the clothes, which is helpful at finding the wrong clothes after the fact.

What I thought would be cool would be is if you could sew an RFID name tag into your child's clothes, and then wave a "wand" over them as you collect them, and it beeps if they have someone else's coat (for example) on.

This may well be a bit of an over-engineered solution :-)

waterside81• 13 years ago

There's lot of these out there now and I guess at first glance, it seems like it makes sense. But as someone whose had his luggage "lost" (delayed etc.) about 6 times now, and every time, eventually reunited with it, I'm not sure what this app would do that the usual tracking provided by the airline's baggage service can't do for you. OK, so you can track your luggage and see it's still in JFK and it didn't make your connection to London - so what? The airline knows this too, and they're the ones fetching it for you and making sure it gets to you. This app doesn't reduce the time this process takes or in any way remove the middle man.

Maybe it's buying you a little piece of mind?

scott_s• 13 years ago

Cue the starter pistol hack: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/09/expensive_came...

steelcm• 13 years ago

I guess this is an early design prototype (as all the social links are referring to dribble.com). Not sure what this is doing on HN.

nathan_long• 13 years ago

If the airline wants you to turn off your harmless e-reader, they're not going to be keen on having your luggage emit radio frequencies.

Tiny device to track your bag. Never lose luggage again.

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