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Comment by bluetidepro | Hacker News Reader

This seems like a good idea, however the website needs more information. It's not to clear what your $40 is getting you or how it works. Maybe look at adding a demo video or something?

Slightly off topic: What if you already own both an iPad (assuming it's a 3g model and not just wifi) and an iPhone, couldn't you just leave your iPad in the bag then use the "Find Your iPhone" app to locate the bag for free?

EDIT: I guess my overall point is why would anyone pay $39.99 for a simple tracking device when you can do this free (with an iPad/iPhone) or buy a GPS tracker yourself, for cheaper than ~$40? Maybe this leads back to my first statement that the landing page needs much more info to convince the user this is worth the money.

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This is assuming someone doesn't jack your iPad from your bag as they did mine at SFO. :)

That happens a lot outside the U.S. too, so I guess is better to have something worth less than 40 bucks to do the tracking.

It gets pretty expensive to do that if you have more than one bag. Plus a dedicated tracking device can be smart enough to detect plane takeoff and landing, and shut down during that like the FCC wants everything to do. Plus much better battery life.

Plus if you live in the US and are trusting your pricey, covetable electronics to your checked bags and the underpaid TSA inspectors, you are much more trusting than I am.

For a similar product with an actual presentation, see http://www.indiegogo.com/blutracker/

Possibly it's more geared towards suitcases than hand luggage. I'd personally never leave my iPad or iPhone (or similar) in a suitcase and I can't imagine I'm the only one.

I think the biggest risk to that is battery life.

Also, am I the only person who gets seriously bothered by profession-looking websites or applications that list the dollar sign after a price?

Google thinks the page is italian, if I let it translate it, the $ sign goes to the start... odd!

The currency sign is a suffix in many locales, e.g. parts of Europe. Makes sense for a translator to fix it. Although I'd consider it feature of the currency involved as opposed to the document language.

I've noticed an increasing trend for Americans to write, for example, '10$'. As an odd reflection to that, I've also noticed a lot of people writing percentages with the percent sign in front: '%50'. I can't help but wonder if the latter is just confused web developers.

See my reply to mdanger about battery life not being an issue at all.

> Also, am I the only person who gets seriously bothered by profession-looking websites or applications that list the dollar sign after a price?

It's common practice in some other countries to place the currency sign after the amount.

(http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/22574/where-to-place-c...)

"couldn't you just leave your iPad "

What if you don't. You could get lucky if you leave your iPad in the bag. But the point is when you don't.

I guess my overall point is why would anyone pay $39.99 for a simple tracking device when you can do this free (with an iPad/iPhone) or buy a GPS tracker yourself, for cheaper than ~$40?

Maybe this leads back to my first statement that the landing page needs much more info to convince the user this is worth the money.

You can do it for free if a) you already have 2 devices, b) don't want to use both of them on the flight and c) dont' worry about the person stealing your bag and simply turning your iDevice off.

BTW, genuine question - which GPS tracker are you thinking of that is less than $40 and will transmit its location to you remotely? I'd be extremely interested in one of those, but I've never seen one for that kind of price.

It may not be as fancy as what this site is offering (not sure since they don't show the product), but you can use an old burner cell phone that has GPS on it to hookup to sites online to track positions of the phone. They also have very long battery lives on them. There is quite a few tutorials online that explain how to to do it for your car, which is the same idea.

old burner cell phone that has GPS on it to hookup to sites online to track positions of the phone.

If by "sites online" you mean "send a text" sure. But that kind of data & gps usage will kill a normal dumbphone battery within a few hours.

These devices use a battery 1/4 to 1/3rd the life of a smartphone's and they use GPS chips or SOCs with integrated GPS that suck power much more quickly that the high-end SOCs you find in iPhones and decent Android devices. They do not have long battery life. Try it. I have.

There is quite a few tutorials online that explain how to to do it for your car

And these tutorials almost always hook the phone up to 12V power. Relying on a dumbphone battery just isn't worth it.

Anecdotally up to 14 hours: http://mologogo.wikispaces.com/message/view/home/485693

Supported devices: http://mologogo.wikispaces.com/Phone+List

Altertnate (commercial) service supported devices: http://support.accutracking.com/kb/article/00003

More info, eHow style: http://www.maps-gps-info.com/free-gps-cell-phone-tracking.ht...

Wouldn't you have to leave it powered on for the entire flight? Seems like it would drain the battery before you got there.

An iPad (fully charged) with no use in a bag could easily stay powered for the length of any flight. I don't use my iPad often, and when it's 'locked' it can last for a few days on that battery charged. I don't think battery life would be an issue at all.

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