Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Emerging Tech
  3. Outdoors
  4. News

Pikaka wallet’s new anti-degaussing feature protects your magnetized cards

By
Add as a preferred source on Google

Update: Added news that a new version of the Pitaka wallet will have an anti-degaussing feature to keep magnetized credit cards safe. 

Most slim wallets are just variations on the same design and the same material. But if you’re looking to stand out and make a statement with what’s in your pocket, the Pitaka may be the wallet for you.

Recommended Videos

Made of carbon fiber, the Pitaka wallet may be among the most minimalist and lightest wallets out there. It boasts a modular design, which means that you can decide just how thick you really need your wallet to be. The Pitaka wallet depends upon a number of layers that you can customize according to your needs. The layers are held together using powerful magnets, and when you need to access something, you fan the layers out, rather unfolding as you would a traditional wallet.

The top and bottom layers of any Pitaka wallet each have a recess capable of holding one card. The middle layers have two recesses (one per side) capable of holding two cards. And then there are additional layers that can be used to store other things that you might not be able to put in a traditional wallet, like keys, a bottle opener, and more. There’s even an optional tool card layer you can include in your wallet.

Once you master the art of sliding this wallet open, you ought to be able to do it with just your thumb, making it convenient (and pretty snazzy to watch, too). And because the wallet is made of carbon fiber, it’s not only lighter and more durable, but also features natural RFID blocking so no one is surreptitiously stealing your information.

There was, however, an obvious drawback to the original Pitaka. Because earlier iterations of the wallet depended heavily upon magnets, the magnetized strip of your credit cards could fall victim to the design. However, the new version of the Pitaka is different — thanks to its anti-degaussing feature, all your strip cards will be protected from the powerful magnets. Additionally, as we turn increasingly to chip technology, magnetized cards could soon be obviated altogether. 

The newest version of Pitaka Carbon Fiber Wallet will be coming soon to Kickstarter, and we’ll update you on availability.

Lulu Chang
Lulu Chang
Former Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Topics
A new startup wants to fix the military’s working-dog shortage with cloning and gene editing
Promising pitch, plenty of unanswered questions about the dogs.
a new startup wants to fix the militarys working dog shortage with cloning and gene editing warhound featured image

Military working dogs charge into places the rest of us would flee. So, I understand why anyone would want to breed tougher, healthier dogs for the job.

Warhound, a new startup from Colossal Biosciences co-founder Ben Lamm and Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, has stepped out of stealth with $200 million to clone and gene-edit working dogs for American troops, police departments, and emergency services (via TechCrunch).

Read more
AI can describe a picture, but it still struggles to understand blind users
A University of Maryland study finds that Be My AI often buries useful answers in lengthy descriptions, leaving blind users to work harder to get the information they need.
Blind Man using walking stick

AI can describe a picture, identify objects, and answer questions about what a camera sees. But when a blind user needs a quick answer, getting an entire spoken essay about the scene isn't exactly helpful. Researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have found that AI-powered visual assistance can leave blind users doing too much work to get the information they actually need.

The study, titled Say It My Way: Exploring Control in Conversational Visual Question Answering with Blind Users, examined how people interact with Be My AI, an AI-powered feature of the Be My Eyes app. The researchers found that users often received lengthy descriptions that didn't adequately address their immediate goals, forcing them to ask follow-up questions or find ways to steer the AI towards a more useful answer.

Read more
Etsy cracks down on AI slop listings. Everyone else needs to take note.
Now every platform must decide what counts as handmade.
Etsy featured image

Platforms tend to shrug off AI clutter until it threatens what they sell. For Etsy, that thing is trust in the maker.

To protect that, Etsy has banned AI-generated how-to guides and listings made entirely by bots. Most sellers must show at least one unretouched photo of the item (via Etsy Seller Handbook).

Read more