Phone, keys, wallet. Discovering that you are missing any of those three items could easily trigger a panic attack, yet they’re all really easy to misplace. What number of times have you ever spent twenty minutes seeking keys that were buried between the couch cushions? The Cobra Tag might actually help you win that losing battle. Acting as a Bluetooth device that attaches on your key ring and connects on your phone, it offers you the chance find the missing item if it’s lower than 30 feet away. It may also send notifications when both devices are out of range from one another. The idea sounds convenient, but how does it work in practice? Let’s discover.
Hardware and software
The idea of the Cobra Tag is easy. Hook it onto your key ring (or another valuable you misplace often), download the app to your Android (2.1 or higher) or BlackBerry smartphone — sorry folks, Windows Phone, iOS and Symbian devices aren’t included, which can be because of the limitations at the OS side — and make allowance both devices to locate one another. For the reason that Tag uses Bluetooth to attach, you’ll naturally intend to make sure the radio is on. Once both devices are attached, you should use certainly one of them to discover the opposite so long as they’re within a 30-foot radius. If one goes out of range, you’ll be notified in a whole lot of ways: an email, text message or maybe social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook.
Are you in search of your phone? Press and hold the Cobra Tag button down and the telephone (provided it’s powered on, needless to say) will begin playing a song of your choosing. What about your keys? You’re able to go into the app and tell it to begin ringing the Tag, and then an incredibly annoying high-pitched signal will begin emanating from it. In the event you lose your keys often, all the dogs in the community will love you. How about if both your keys and phone are gone? Tough luck, soldier — Cobra Tag unfortunately can’t do much for you in that situation.
There is not much to the Cobra Tag’s hardware. It’s meant to be small and lightweight enough to simply attach it in your key ring and never crush your pocket or purse, and only contains a single button, LED indicator light that could flash red or blue, and a microUSB charging port. That one button does everything you would like: a one-second click will turn it on, an extended press while connected will ring the telephone, and a 10-second long press will power the Tag off.
The app itself has an easy interface on both smartphone platforms. After you first enter this system, you will be prompted to attach the Cobra Tag to the telephone; after this, you may be allowed to transport on and customize your settings. You’ll find how much charge remains for your Tag and the way close this is in your position (this turns out to be useful when searching across the house, because it will inform you whether you’re getting toward or farther faraway from the device). To boot, you are able to favor to lock your phone when it’s out of range, you’ll be able to change your notification options, or even disable your reference to the Cobra Tag in case you know you are going to be greater than 30 feet far from it inside the near future. Fortunately, the app runs quietly within the background so it doesn’t get within the way of alternative tasks.
Notifications and locks
As mentioned earlier, the Cobra Tag has the power that will help you find your lost items whether they’re stuck somewhere in the home or hanging out within the lost and located at your local Denny’s. But how? It uses a customizable system as a way to send you (and others) alerts whenever you’re greater than 30 feet clear of either device. In the event you leave your phone behind, the Tag will beep to tell you you’ve moved too distant from the telephone. The app can even automatically send an email showing your device’s current GPS coordinates, altitude, and other stats that will help you retrace your steps; this email may be sent to any email address, and multiple points of contact will also be added in order for you your loved ones or friends to be looking out in addition. Lastly, you are able to prefer to have Cobra deliver a text message and send a tweet or Facebook status update to everyone you recognize. Just don’t tell it to SMS your personal phone — that’s likely the very item you’ve lost, so it wouldn’t do you much good.
When you have sensitive information in your device, Cobra has tossed in an technique to password-protect your phone once you’re out of range. Choose a password, the length of time you would like this system to attend before it locks your handset (which stretches from immediately as much as a whole day), or even leave a customised message to let others understand how to achieve you in the event that they find your phone.
Wrap-up
The Cobra Tag worked well throughout the process our testing and, when left at the entire time, lasted seven days on a single charge. It is a simple enough idea that there really isn’t much to how the device manages and functions. All of us hope that nothing will happen to our valuables, but horrible things occur constantly. Using a tool just like the Cobra Tag is a preventative measure to take just in case our phone or keys wander away, and might definitely help us find them much faster and easier.
Granted, the premise of the Cobra Tag have been done before. Such a lot of phones land up missing each day that dozens of services, reminiscent of GPS tracking and remote device wipe, exist solely to assist protect them. However, the Tag is decided besides the group by adding a two-way communication system between it and your handset — in essence, it acts like an invisible leash. It merits a consideration accordingly alone. As difficult because it could seem to justify spending your hard-earned George Washingtons on something of this nature, ultimately your smartphone costs way more than that. It’s true that you’ve got learned to outlive this long without the Cobra Tag, but when peace of mind (and time saved) is worth greater than the price of the product, that’s the complete reason you will want to get it — provided you have got an Android or BlackBerry, in fact.
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