As some Digital Trends staffers will tell you, Portlanders don’t carry umbrellas, because they’d be toting them around every single day from October to May. It’s a similar situation in Seattle. But for the rest of the country, umbrellas are a necessary accessory we somehow often leave behind. You forget them in the restaurant’s umbrella stand or rush out of the house without checking the forecast. That could become a thing of the past with the Davek Alert, a Bluetooth-enabled umbrella.
Embedded in the handle of this slick accessory, which comes in black or blue, is a proximity chip. After downloading the compatible, free app at the Apple App store or Google Play, hold Davek near your smart device for a minute to set up and instantly connect. The bumbershoot activates into wake-mode once you lift it and returns to sleep-mode when unused. If you travel roughly 30 feet away, Davek pings your smart device, invisibly tethering you to it. On sunny days, you can silence this feature for 24 hours or turn it off completely.
Unsure if cloudy skies will bring showers? A weather module details the forecast, so you know before you go — though we’re not sure if people would open the Davek app over the weather widget that’s already front-and-center on many phones’ home screens.
The company has been making its high-quality umbrellas since 2005. It knows something about lost umbrellas, too: It currently offers a 50-percent-off discount on a new one, should you have the missing one’s serial number.
Davek is made from water-repellent, microweave fabric. What’s a little wind to its aircraft-grade aluminum, steel, and fiberglass frame? According to its creator, the umbrella is almost as unbreakable as Kimmy Schmidt. It operates off of an ordinary coin cell battery, which should last between one to two years, depending on usage.
With over $37,000 crowdfunded through Kickstarter toward a $50,000 goal, this rainy-day essential can be yours for an early-bird price of $79 ($125 retail value), with anticipated delivery this September. Pretty pricey, but it might be worth it for an umbrella that won’t hang you out to dry.
