Bluetooth trackers are a dime a dozen these days, and like fitness trackers, companies are increasingly exploring various styles and designs of their established products.
Wistiki is one such company that just successfully funded its Indiegogo campaign by 178 percent — hitting a total of $183,784. The company classifies these waterproof trackers as “connected jewels,” and there are three different shapes that you can get, though each offers the same features.
The rounded Wistiki ahā! is intended to hang from your pet’s collar; the Wistiki voilá! resembles a USB stick and is meant for your keychain; and the Wistiki hopla! is like a credit card and will sit in your wallet. If you’re prone to losing things, Wistiki’s devices will help you track them via the app and the Bluetooth Low Energy chip, which has a 100-meter range and a battery life of three years. The app essentially pings to see the most recent GPS coordinates of the device and checks the last time you were close to the tracker.
Ringing the trackers to find them is apparently incredibly loud and features a catchy ringtone to ensure you can hear it. The devices also have a button on them you can press to have your smartphone ring, should you lose it instead.
So what makes the French company’s products different from other trackers such as TrackR, or Tile’s Bluetooth trackers? Feature-wise, nothing really. Design-wise — well, it was handled by the man who designed Steve Jobs’ yacht, Philippe Starck. That’s really what makes Wistiki’s trackers stand out, and explains why they’re called “connected jewels.” The devices are available in yellow, blue, orange, and pink.
If your tracker goes beyond the 100-meter range of your smartphone, don’t fret too much as they’ll try to use a crowd GPS feature. This means that anyone who has the Wistiki app installed will anonymously update the GPS data of the lost trackers — sort of a crowd-sourcing method to find your lost item or pet.
You can also set the app to notify you if a Wistiki begins to move away from your smartphone, or as the company calls it — a virtual leash.
The Wistiki ahā!, Wistiki voilá!, and the Wistiki hopla! will cost $50 each. The voilá! will be shipping in March, and the other two in December.
