The advance of new technology is always exciting for me. Seeing the latest breakthroughs finally used in new and interesting ways to give us new useful products really does put a smile on my face. Unfortunately, many of the most exciting products fail to make it to retail for general use for one reason or another.
Two years ago, when we rescued a dog, I purchased a locator device for him. It had limited range but it was small, inexpensive and worked perfectly well on 2 occasions when it was needed. This winter I bought a much-updated version of that device that has reasonable range, replaceable batteries and a few new features that I hope I won’t need but are there if and when I need them. The current device is called a Tile Pro. The range on this device while much greater than the original is still limited, but for finding a lost dog or wandering or confused senior citizen it really is quite adequate.
I have seen advertisements for a few competing products of late that have the ability to post an actual set of GPS coordinates back to the searching folks that promise to provide far greater flexibility than the Tile products, but they are still in development and will carry a monthly subscription fee to make that ability possible. If one or more of these make it to actual retail exposure, I am sure they will be a sought after product for many folks who have a desire to track and locate family members, devices, etc.
For those who don’t want to wait, you can look at the various offerings from existing location device providers including a cell phone. Remember that modern cell phones are much more than just a telephone. A careful choice of a phone for grandma or an appropriately aged child can give you excellent tracking ability or emergency locating ability in an emergency or simply add to your peace of mind on a daily basis. And, yes, I do keep a locator in my wife’s purse also.