droolicious : tether

ABC Expo 2008: Little Life Animal Pack Backpacks

Chris Ford — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 21:32:00 GMT

OK. So my picture isn't the greatest, but the Animal Pack backpacks from Little Life are seriously cool. Well, more like seriously cute and useful, which together I suppose adds up to cool. A small daypack for your little hiker, a rain hood for fun and a tether for mom and dad? Never mind, it's seriously cool.

The Animal Pack comes in four animals (ladybug, cow, bee and turtle) and the hood of each is designed for each animal. So the bee has antennae, the ladybug has eyes etc. It's also designed for those parents who want a tether for their child and a have a child doesn't want to be tethered. "See Billy, I'm not putting you on a leash, it's just a fun backpack that daddy can hold on to at the same time!" (The tether is not for me, but I can see how it would be useful hiking).

It's been available in the UK for a while now, but it's coming to the USA on November 15th and will cost $40 to $42. It will be distributed by Rock Gear Distribution, but you can check out the product pages at LittleLife.co.uk.

CES 2008: Raytac Kid Finder

Chris Ford — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 18:43:00 GMT

The Kid FInder from Raytac is, much like the product I blogged about the other day, an RFID tagging system for your child. You put the beacon on your child, and the remote that the parent holds beeps when the child strays too far away. The difference between this one and the IFI Child Tether is that it has a direction indicator (which seems pretty useful) and a panic button on the child's unit. According to the rep, the Raytac Kid Finder should retail somewhere around $60.

CES 2008: IFI Child Tether

Chris Ford — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 23:56:00 GMT

One cool thing about CES is you get to see a lot of products by companies you've never heard of. One of them is IFI Systems (short for "I Found It") which makes this electronic "child tether." It's a basic idea - put an RFID electronic tag on your child and if they go beyond the specified range, your unit will beep.

The tether is set up to beep at 70 feet, and gives off a different panic alarm when the tag goes 120 feet away. The pager works with up to four tags and has rechargeable batteries. IFI Systems said that you could use it for pets, the elderly or even stuff like laptops and luggage, but it's obvious they're focusing on the parent / children market (as evidenced by the Dora button). It will retail for $49.99, but you may want to wait, because the guy said the next generation will be ready in six to nine months and have controllable range and and a direction finder.

You can check out the product now at their web site, ifisystems.com.