Thoughts on this kind of tech?
 

Hi guys! Pretty new to the forum, but I'm fairly interested in gadgets.

Can't post links yet, but I came across this Kickstarter campaign called "Tail it", where they sell four different GPS Trackers including one for your bike.
I have seen similar designs to this tracker before, but the firmware / software seems unique. Anyone got experience with these kinds of trackers?

I read some of the creators comments, and found it reassuring that these are features that should be possible to add without sacrificing any battery time.

What are your thoughts on it?

waste of money.

we don't allow kickstarter links on bikeforums anyway.

Never quite understood kickstarter campaigns for an existing product. "Tail it" seems to claim that the product exists, so how does it qualify?

There are a lot of bike trackers out there. If I was really worried about a bike I probably would buy a Spot. There are some trackers where the communication is crowd sourced, but that depends on a large population of the devices. In the U.S., I don't think you could count on open wifi for tracking. And using cell service for tracking would be expensive. I have seen companies that resell cell service for their internet of things devices, but if you do it on your own, it's like having another phone.

Thinking of cell phones, Tracfone has a plan, 1 year for $100. If the device was pretty light with data and minutes usage, then it should work fine.

Costs still add up, but it might not be bad for a "bait bike".

It would seem like one could make a deal with cell phone companies to run devices mostly on standby for even less, but it would take the company going to the organizations and really pushing competitive pricing.

[MENTION=484997]bahartin[/MENTION], just was wondering... since three of your four posts have to do with this tracker, are you involved with it in any way?

[MENTION=29430]Siu Blue Wind[/MENTION] I can understand why you think that, but no I am not :) They have been in the news a bit here in Norway, as they are Norwegian and it caught my eye. Posted about it earlier, but didn't really get a response on what people thought about it, so I thought I´d try my own thread. Great to see the feed back though! I've already ordered one, so I'm curious to see how it works! :)

Ah understood. Be sure to leave a follow up in the manufactures/feedback section here. :)